6 Dey 1383 | Sunday 26 December 2004

This day in four calendars

1806 (220 years ago) Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.
1943 (83 years ago) World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.
1948 (78 years ago) The last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea.
2003 (23 years ago) The 6.6 Mw Bam earthquake shakes southeastern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving more than 26,000 dead and 30,000 injured.
2004 (22 years ago) The 9.1–9.3 Mw Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). One of the largest observed tsunamis, it affected coastal and partially mainland areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia; death toll is estimated at 227,898.
2006 (20 years ago) Two earthquakes in Hengchun, Taiwan measuring 7.0 and 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale kill two and disrupt telecommunications across Asia.
2012 (14 years ago) China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.
2025 (a year ago) Israel recognises Somaliland as an independent state, becoming the first country to do so.

1194 (832 years ago) Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1250)
1791 (235 years ago) Charles Babbage, English mathematician and engineer, invented the Difference engine (died 1871)
1891 (135 years ago) Henry Miller, American author and painter (died 1980)
1893 (133 years ago) Mao Zedong, Chinese politician, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (died 1976)
1949 (77 years ago) José Ramos-Horta, East Timorese lawyer and politician, 2nd President of East Timor, Nobel Prize laureate
1953 (73 years ago) Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Swedish-Estonian journalist and politician, 4th President of Estonia
1971 (55 years ago) Jared Leto, American actor and musician
1986 (40 years ago) Hugo Lloris, French footballer

268 (1758 years ago) Dionysius, pope of the Catholic Church
418 (1608 years ago) Zosimus, pope of the Catholic Church
1530 (496 years ago) Babur, Mughal emperor (born 1483)
1771 (255 years ago) Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher and activist (born 1715)
1972 (54 years ago) Harry S. Truman, American colonel and politician, 33rd President of the United States (born 1884)
2006 (20 years ago) Gerald Ford, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 38th President of the United States (born 1913)
2021 (5 years ago) Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican bishop, theologian and anti-apartheid and human rights activist (born 1931)
2024 (2 years ago) Manmohan Singh, Indian economist and politician, 13th Prime Minister of India (born 1932)