Word of the day

Grace – smoothness and elegance of movement;   ease and suppleness of movement or bearing;  a charming or attractive trait or characteristic;  a pleasing appearance or effect; a controlled, polite, and pleasant way of behaving; courteous good will; bring honour or credit to (someone or something) by one’s attendance or participation; a special favour; disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency; a temporary exemption;  a title of address or reference for a duke, a duchess, or an archbishop; a short prayer at a meal asking a blessing or giving thanks; unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification;  a virtue coming from God;  a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace.

Te Harinui

Quote of the day

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus Christ whose 2,015th birthday is celebrated today.

(My father always argued that if shepherds were out tending sheep with lambs it wouldn’t have been in the middle of winter).

December 25 in history

0 (or 1 AD)ish  – Jesus was born.

33 – Roman Emperor Constantine the Great elevated his youngest sonConstans to the rank of Caesar.

350 – Vetranio met Constantius II at Naissus (Serbia) and was forced to abdicate his title (Caesar).

496 – Clovis I, king of the Franks, was baptized into the Catholic faith at Reims, by Saint Remigius.

597 – Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow-labourers baptised more than 10,000 Anglo-Saxons in Kent.

800 Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

1000 Hungary was established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.

1066  William the Conqueror was crowned as king of England, at Westminster Abbey.

1000 Baldwin of Boulogne was crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity.

1130  Count Roger II of Sicily was crowned as the first King of Sicily.

1223 St. Francis of Assisi assembled the first Nativity scene.

1642 – Sir Isaac Newton, English  physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian, was born (d. 1727).

1643  Christmas Island was founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary.

1771 – Dorothy Wordsworth, English author and poet (d. 1855)

1814 At Oihi Beach in the Bay of Islands, Samuel Marsden preached in English to a largely Maori gathering, launching the Christian missionary phase of New Zealand history. Marsden’s service was translated by the Nga Puhi leader Ruatara.

1818 The first performance of “Silent Night” took place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

1821  Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was born  (d. 1912).

1865 Evangeline Booth, the 4th General of The Salvation Army, was born (d. 1950).

1870 Helena Rubinstein, Polish-born American cosmetics industrialist, was born (d. 1965).

1887 Conrad Hilton, American hotelier, was born (d. 1979).

1889 Lila Bell Wallace, American magazine publisher (Reader’s Digest), was born (d. 1984).

1890  Robert Ripley, collector of odd facts, was born(d. 1949).

1899 Humphrey Bogart, American actor, was born (d. 1957).

1908 Quentin Crisp, English author, was born (d. 1999).

1913  Tony Martin, American singer and actor, was born  .

1914 Sir James Muir Cameron Fletcher, New Zealand industrialist, was born (d. 2007).

1916 Ahmed Ben Bella,  first President of Algeria, was born (d. 2012).

1918 Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, Nobel laureate, was born (d. 1981).

1932  A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China killed ~70,000 people.

1941 Battle of Hong Kong ended, beginning the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.

1944 Kenny Everett, British entertainer, was born (d. 1995).

1947 The Constitution of the Republic of China went into effect.

1949  Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan was born.

1949 Sissy Spacek, American actress, was born.

1950 The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, was taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students.

1950 Karl Rove, former American presidential advisor, was born.

1954 Annie Lennox, Scottish singer, was born.

1963 Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio began transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots were forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.

1968 Apollo 8 performed the  first successful Trans Earth Injection (TEI)manoeuvre, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.

1989  Nicolae Ceauşescu, former communist dictator of Romania and his wife Elena were condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges.

1990 The first successful trial run of the system which would become theWorld Wide Web.

1991  Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union.

1991 Ukraine‘s referendum was finalized and Ukraine officially left the Soviet Union.

2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express Spacecraft on December 19, disappeared shortly before its scheduled landing.

2004 – Cassini orbiter released Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn’s moon Titan on January 14, 2005.

2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab unsuccessfully attempts a terrorist attack against the US while on board a flight to Detroit Metro AirportNorthwest Airlines Flight 253.

2012 – An Antonov An-72 plane crashed close to the city of Shymkent, killing 27 people.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.