December 26 in History

The Battle of Pułtusk took place on 26 December 1806 during the War of the Fourth Coalition near Pultusk, Prussia. Despite their strong numerical superiority and artillery, the Russians under the lead of General of Cavalry Levin von Benningsen underwent heavy French attacks by Marshal Jean Lannes, before retiring the next day having suffered great losses like the French, disorganizing their army for the rest of the year.

Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property, and equality before the law. Different liberals espouse various and sometimes conflicting views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support liberal democracy, private property, market economies, individual rights, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.

Rules derby is a football derby played in Sheffield, England between Sheffield F.C. and Hallam F.C. It was first played on 26 December 1860 and is the oldest football fixture in the world. The name refers to the fact that the fixture was originally played under the Sheffield Rules.

The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, also called the Battle of Walnut Hills, fought December 26–29, 1862, was the opening engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign during the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton repulsed an advance by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman that was intended to lead to the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old, is an operatic extravaganza that was the first collaboration between dramatist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. No musical score of Thespis was ever published, and most of the music has been lost. Gilbert and Sullivan went on to become the most famous and successful artistic partnership in Victorian England, creating a string of enduring comic opera hits, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado.

George Herman "Babe" Ruth was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" members.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving US president and the only one to have served more than two terms. His first two terms were centered on combating the Great Depression, while his third and fourth focused on US involvement in World War II. A member of the Democratic Party, Roosevelt served in the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1913 and as the 44th governor of New York from 1929 to 1932.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

József Mindszenty was a Hungarian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Esztergom and leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, for five decades "he personified uncompromising opposition to fascism and communism in Hungary".

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band in popular music and were integral to the development of 1960s counterculture and the recognition of popular music as an art form. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock 'n' roll, their sound incorporated elements of classical music and traditional pop in innovative ways. They also explored styles ranging from folk and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As pioneers in recording, songwriting and artistic presentation, the Beatles revolutionised many aspects of the music industry and were often publicised as leaders of the era's youth and sociocultural movements.

The Communist Party of the Philippines is a far-left, Marxist–Leninist–Maoist revolutionary organization and communist party in the Philippines, formed by Jose Maria Sison on 26 December 1968.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

The Dakar Rally or simply "The Dakar", formerly known as the Paris–Dakar Rally, is an annual rally organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). It is a rally raid, an off-road endurance race, traversing terrains notably more demanding than prepared roads used in traditional stage rally competitions, and the vehicles used are purposefully built to perform off-road: cars, trucks, quads and motorcycles intentionally designed to endure cross‑country journeys on unpaved terrain. Most timed competitive segments, known as 'special stages', consist of crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks, and erg. Individual stages range in length from several dozen kilometres to as much as 800–900 kilometres (500–560 mi) per day. Hallmarks of the Dakar Rally are the physical and cognitive demands of prolonged driving, navigation and environmental stressors that the competitors are subjected to. Insufficient experience with desert navigation, mechanical troubleshooting or endurance racing techniques, combined with the fatigue and the rough terrain, often result in accidents and serious injuries.

United Express Flight 2415 was a regularly scheduled flight in the northwest United States from Seattle to Pasco, Washington, operated using a BAe Jetstream 31. Late on Tuesday, December 26, 1989, Flight 2415 crashed while attempting to land at Pasco's Tri-Cities Airport, killing both pilots and all four passengers aboard.

On 26 December 1993, Kuban Airlines Flight 5719, a scheduled international flight flying from Krasnodar International Airport, Russia, to Gyumri Shirak International Airport, Armenia, stalled and subsequently crashed whilst attempting a go-around on approach to the airport. Out of the 36 occupants on board, 35 were killed. The sole survivor was injured.

Ba'athist Iraq, officially the Iraqi Republic (1968–1992) and later the Republic of Iraq (1992–2003), was the Iraqi state between 1968 and 2003 under the one-party rule of the Iraqi regional branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. The regime emerged as a result of the 17 July Revolution which brought the Ba'athists to power, and lasted until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

An earthquake struck the Kerman province of southeastern Iran at 01:56 UTC on December 26, 2003. The Mw 6.6 strike-slip shock had a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The earthquake was particularly destructive in Bam and Baravat, with 34,000 fatalities and 200,000 injuries officially reported. It was the deadliest natural disaster globally since the 1999 Vargas tragedy. The effects of the earthquake were exacerbated by the use of mud brick as the standard construction medium; many of the area's structures did not comply with earthquake regulations set in 1989.

The 2006 Hengchun earthquakes occurred on December 26 at 20:26 and 20:34 local time off the southwest coast of Taiwan in the Luzon Strait, which connects the South China Sea with the Philippine Sea. The International Seismological Centre measured the shocks at 7.0 and 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale. The earthquakes not only caused casualties and building damage, but several submarine communications cables were cut, disrupting telecommunication services in various parts of Asia.

The JSC Yakovlev Corporation is a Russian aircraft manufacturer, headquartered in the Aeroport District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is the manufacturer of the Sukhoi Su-30 family of interceptor/ground-attack aircraft. The company was founded in 1932 in the Transbaykal region of the Soviet Union as the Irkutsk Aviation Plant (IAP). It was formerly known as Irkut Corporation.

On December 26, 2021, a mass shooting took place at a Texaco convenience store in Garland, Texas, United States. Three teenage boys were killed and another was seriously injured before the perpetrator, 14-year-old Abel Acosta, fled the scene. As of 2026, Acosta is wanted for the shooting and believed to be hiding in Mexico.