| 145321 | December 26 | Event | 1871 – Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years. |
| 145322 | December 26 | Event | 1883 – The Harbour Grace Affray between Irish Catholics and Protestant Orangemen causes five deaths in Newfoundland. |
| 145323 | December 26 | Event | 1895 – New Empire Theatre, in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England was destroyed by fire |
| 145324 | December 26 | Event | 1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium. |
| 145325 | December 26 | Event | 1900 – A relief crew arrives at the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles of Scotland, UK, only to find the previous crew has disappeared without a trace. |
| 145326 | December 26 | Event | 1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee, allegedly establishing the Curse of the Bambino superstition. |
| 145327 | December 26 | Event | 1925 – Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar. |
| 145328 | December 26 | Event | 1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States. |
| 145329 | December 26 | Event | 1943 – World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces. |
| 145330 | December 26 | Event | 1944 – World War II: George S. Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium. |
| 145331 | December 26 | Event | 1948 – Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy. |
| 145332 | December 26 | Event | 1963 – The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level. |
| 145333 | December 26 | Event | 1966 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach. |
| 145334 | December 26 | Event | 1972 – Vietnam War: As part of Operation Linebacker II, 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history. |
| 145335 | December 26 | Event | 1976 – The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist) is founded. |
| 145336 | December 26 | Event | 1982 – Time's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer. |
| 145337 | December 26 | Event | 1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union. |
| 145338 | December 26 | Event | 1994 – Four Armed Islamic Group hijackers seize control of Air France Flight 8969. When the plane lands at Marseille, a French Gendarmerie assault team boards the aircraft and kills the hijackers. |
| 145339 | December 26 | Event | 1996 – Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. |
| 145340 | December 26 | Event | 1996 – Start of the largest strike in South Korean history. |
| 145341 | December 26 | Event | 1997 – The Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat explodes, creating a small tsunami offshore. |
| 145342 | December 26 | Event | 1998 – Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones. |
| 145343 | December 26 | Event | 1999 – The storm Lothar sweeps across Central Europe, killing 137 and causing US$1.3 billion in damage. |
| 145344 | December 26 | Event | 2003 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam. |
| 145345 | December 26 | Event | 2004 – A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000. |
| 145346 | December 26 | Event | 2004 – Orange Revolution: The final run-off election in Ukraine is held under heavy international scrutiny. |
| 145347 | December 26 | Event | 2006 – An oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria explodes, killing at least 260. |
| 145348 | December 26 | Event | 2009 – China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou. |
| 145349 | December 26 | Birth | 1194 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1250) |
| 145350 | December 26 | Birth | 1532 – Wilhelm Xylander, German scholar and academic (d. 1576) |