4 Dey 1384 | Sunday 25 December 2005

This day in four calendars

350 (1676 years ago) Vetranio meets Constantius II at Naissus (Serbia) and is forced to abdicate his imperial title. Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen on a state pension.
1066 (960 years ago) William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
1492 (534 years ago) The carrack Santa María, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off Haiti due to an improper watch.
1553 (473 years ago) Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
1963 (63 years ago) Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
1968 (58 years ago) Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
2003 (23 years ago) UTA Flight 141, a Boeing 727-223, crashes at the Cotonou Airport in Benin, killing 141 people.
2019 (7 years ago) Twenty people are killed and thousands are left homeless by Typhoon Phanfone in the Philippines.

1642 (384 years ago) Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician (died 1727)
1717 (309 years ago) Pope Pius VI,
1876 (150 years ago) Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Indian-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 1st Governor-General of Pakistan (died 1948)
1899 (127 years ago) Humphrey Bogart, American actor (died 1957)
1916 (110 years ago) Ahmed Ben Bella, Algerian soldier and politician, 1st President of Algeria (died 2012)
1924 (102 years ago) Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Indian poet and politician, 10th Prime Minister of India (died 2018)
1949 (77 years ago) Nawaz Sharif, Pakistani politician, 12th Prime Minister of Pakistan
1971 (55 years ago) Justin Trudeau, Canadian educator and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Canada

1938 (88 years ago) Karel Čapek, Czech author and playwright (born 1890)
1963 (63 years ago) Tristan Tzara, Romanian-French poet, playwright, painter, and critic (born 1896)
1973 (53 years ago) İsmet İnönü, Turkish general and politician, 2nd President of Turkey (born 1884)
1977 (49 years ago) Charlie Chaplin, English actor and director (born 1889)
1983 (43 years ago) Joan Miró, Spanish painter and sculptor (born 1893)
1989 (37 years ago) Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romanian general and politician, 1st President of Romania (born 1918)
2006 (20 years ago) James Brown, American singer-songwriter (born 1933)
2016 (10 years ago) George Michael, British singer and songwriter (born 1963)