On Christmas Day in history...

Some dates always feel important, no matter what year it is or what's happening. Many people feel this way about birthdays (their own or others'), or about anniversaries of important personal events—both the good and the awful ones. And for a lot of people, especially those who grew up in a Christian culture, another of those important days is Christmas.

Now, there is one specific historical event that Christmas is known for (even though we don't have any proof that it happened in December at all). But there have been a lot of other exciting historical events that have taken place on the 25th of December; in some cases because of the holiday, and in others entirely coincidentally. Here are a few that particularly stood out to me:

• 800: The Frankish king Charles I, better known as Charlemagne, is crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III
  This spontaneous coronation came as a complete and unwelcome surprise to Charlemagne, who had not looked for any such papal responsibility. Nevertheless, the Holy Roman Empire remained in the hands of Frankish and German kings until the 19th century.
• 1013: King Æthelred II, also known as Æthelred the Unready, is deposed by the English earls in favour of the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard
  Bands of Danish vikings had been harrying English settlements for decades by this point, despite the English paying tribute to them. In 1013, Sweyn Forkbeard decided that he was going to angle for the throne as well. He was successful, but not for long—he died the following year.
• 1066: William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey
  There was a lot of tension with the English noblility when William took over, so he made sure to have a strong Norman presence at his coronation. What William didn't expect was that the Anglo-Saxon nobles would affirm his kingship at great volume, which got the Normans inside the church trying to out-yell the English... Meanwhile, outside the church, the Norman soildiers thought something had gone horribly wrong and started setting fire to the town of Westminster.
• 1220(ish): St Francis of Assisi assembles the first nativity scene
  St Francis was the founder and namesake of the Franciscan order of monks, and was devoted to a life of poverty and pursuing peace. He was also known for his strong affinity with animals and the natural world. His nativity scene was recorded by biographers as being characteristically simple: a straw-filled manger set between an ox and a donkey.
• 1620: The French Huguenots declare independence at La Rochelle
  The Huguenots were French Protestants living under a very anti-Protestant Catholic rule, and they responded to their oppression by rebelling against the state of France. Following their Christmastime declaration of independence, King Louis XIII engaged the rebels in open war. The Crown and the Huguenots would continue with bouts of open hostilities until the sieges of La Rochelle, Privas, and Alès at the end of the decade, in which the King's forces, led by Cardinal Richelieu, completely crushed the Huguenot rebellions.
• 1711: The rebuild of St Paul's Cathedral is officially declared complete by Parliament
  There has been a cathedral in London on the site of St Paul's since the time of the Romans, though there have been a number of different buildings over time (which were frequently victim to fire). The current building, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was commissioned following the Great Fire in 1666, which completely gutted the previous cathedral building (and destroyed a large number of valuable manuscripts that had been taken there for safekeeping).
• 1962: The film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird is released in the United States
  Based on the novel of the same name, To Kill a Mockingbird is a powerful story about racism and justice in the American South during the Jim Crow era. Both the book and the film have been very widely awarded and acclaimed, particularly Gregory Peck's portrayal of the character Atticus Finch.

What other interesting events happened on December 25th that I haven't mentioned? Share some of your favourites in the comments. And if you're celebrating Christmas this year, have a very merry one!