Important Events From This day in History – 25th December

Today in History

• 1989 Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu and wife Elena were executed

  After a revolution, the communist leader and his wife were deposed. Their trial lasted about an hour before the firing squad executed them.

• 1979 USSR invades Afghanistan

  The airlift of Soviet troops into Afghanistan kicked off a 9-year war. The US and other Western allies supported the anti-Soviet insurgents, known as mujahideen.

• 1926 Hirohito becomes the 124th emperor of Japan

  After the death of his father, Emperor Yoshihito, Michinomiya Hirohito, known as Emperor Shwa after his death, became the 124th Emperor of Japan. Hirohito reigned as Emperor of Japan for 62 years, making him the country’s longest-reigning Emperor.

• 1809 First abdominal surgery performed

  Ephraim McDowell, an American physician, became the first person in recorded history to remove an ovarian tumor successfully. He is widely regarded as the father of ovariotomy and abdominal surgery. The procedure took about 30 minutes and was carried out without anesthesia.

• 1643 Christmas Island Discovered

  Captain William Mynors of the East India Company ship Royal Mary did not stop at the Australian island named after the date of European discovery. The first Europeans did not arrive on the island for another 44 years. The Indian Ocean island is sparsely populated and rich in phosphate, mined from guano-bird droppings.