Inventions, firsts, and turning points tied to today’s date — each one sourced and dated.
On Christmas Day 1991 the Soviet president resigned on live television, and the red flag came down over the Kremlin for the last time.
On the first Christmas of the First World War, British and German troops climbed out of their trenches to meet in no man's land.
On Christmas Day 800 a pope placed a crown on the Frankish king's head, reviving an imperial title vacant in the West for three centuries.
