December 26 - What happened today?

Home What happened today in history? Blamepro's Almanac for December 26
In the headlines today:

2006	Former US president Gerald Ford dies at age 93 at his Rancho Mirage, California, home. (photo credit: NARA)
2004	A massive 8.9 earthquake rocks southeast Asia, triggering a deadly tsuanmi that kills thousands.
2004	NFL football player Reggie White (Philadelphia Eagles, Green Bay Packers) dies of respiratory arrest at age 43.
1999	R&B artist Curtis Mayfield dies in an Atlanta hospital at age 57. Mayfield, famous for the Superfly soundtrack, had been paralyzed since 1990 during an onstage accident.
1996	Six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's Boulder, CO, home. The killing remains unsolved.
1994	French commandos storm a hijacked Air France jet on the ground in Marseille, freeing 170 hostages and killing the Algerian hijackers.
1989	A provisional government takes control of Romania, following the secret trial and execution of President Nicolae Ceausescu.
1986	The CBS-TV daytime drama, Search for Tomorrow, ends its 35-year run.
1975	Russia begins the world's first supersonic air transport service with its Tupolev-144 run from Moscow to Alma-Ata.
1974	Television and radio comedian Jack Benny dies in Los Angeles, at age 80.
1972	Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the US, dies in Kansas City, MO.
1963	Capitol Records releases the first single by The Beatles for the US market: I Want to Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There.
1954	Author-magician Walter B. Gibson's popular radio mystery program, The Shadow, ends its 24-year run.
1944	The US 101st Airborne Division is relieved by the Fourth Armored Division in the WWII Battle of the Bulge.
1941	Winston Churchill becomes the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress.
1776	British troops suffer a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolution>.