Today is Friday, Dec. 26, the 360th day of 2025. There are five days left in the year.
Birthdays: “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh is 80. Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk is 78. Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith is 71. Humorist David Sedaris is 69. Rock musician Lars Ulrich is 62. Actor-musician Jared Leto is 54. Rock singer Chris Daughtry is 46. Actor Beth Behrs is 40. Actor Kit Harington is 39.
In 1908, Jack Johnson became the first Black boxer to win the world heavyweight championship as he defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.
In 1941, during World War II, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, just two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that plunged the US into the war.
In 1966, Kwanzaa was first celebrated, a seven-day holiday to help African Americans reconnect with their African heritage.
In 1990, Nancy Cruzan, a young woman in an irreversible vegetative state whose case led to a US Supreme Court decision on the right to die, died at a Missouri hospital.
In 1991, the USSR was formally dissolved through a declaration by the Supreme Soviet.
In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami with waves up to 100 feet high that killed about 230,000 people across a dozen countries as far as East Africa. The worst-affected countries were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.
In 2006, former President Ford died in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 93.
In 2021, South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu died at 90; the retired archbishop had been an uncompromising foe of apartheid and a modern-day activist for racial justice and LGBTQ rights.