Historical Events that Happened on Christmas Day

Christmas Day Quiz

1. Hailed as a triumph of scientific reasoning because it was predicted, what appeared in the sky on Christmas night, 1758?
2. William the Conqueror was crowned at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. Who did he defeat at the Battle of Hastings?
3. Which legendary actor and film maker passed away on Christmas Day 1977?
4. George Washington guided 24,000 troops across which river on Christmas Day in 1776?








5. Who in 1991 resigned as leader of the Soviet Union?
6. Known as the 'Father of Europe', who was crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD?
7. Which ship steered by a cabin boy run aground on a sandbank near Haiti and sank on Christmas Day, 1492?
8. In which year did opposing German and British troops hold a Christmas Truce in no man's land?
9. Name the first Christian emperor under which the first recorded celebration of Christmas occured in Rome on 25 December 336 AD?
10. Which Apollo spacecraft was first to orbit the moon during the Christmas holiday period of 1968?

Answers

1. Halley's Comet (confirming Edmund Halley's prediction)
2. Harold II
3. Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin
4. The Delaware River
5. Mikhail Gorbachev
6. Charlemagne
7. Santa Maria (Christopher Columbus’ flagship)
8. 1914
9. Constantine I
10. Apollo 8