So this is christmas

It's the Twenty-fifth of December. Christmas was first celebrated on this day in 354 CE (common era). No, it's not Jesus's birthday.

It is Humphrey Bogart's birthday, though (1899, and note the great portrait by Yousuf Karsh on the Wiki page), as well as that of Rod Serling (1924), Carlos Castaneda (1925), and Jimmy Buffet (1946).

In 1776, Gen. George Washington led his troops across the Delaware River, to win an engagement against Hessian troops.

In 1868, Andrew Jackson granted unconditional pardons to all persons involved in the “southern rebellion.”

Richard Starkey got his first drum kit on this day in 1959.

In 1985, James McDonnel of NYC returned home after 15 years, having been believed dead for at least seven. His fugue started in 1971 after two car accidents: he complained of a headache, went for a walk, and did not return. He found himself in a Philadelphia street, knowing only that his name was James, and took the name 'Peters' off a nearby store sign. On Christmas Eve in 1985 he bumped his head, his memory returned, and he looked up his wife's name in the phone book. She, luckily, was still living in the same house.

In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union. The USSR would dissolve the next day.

I hope you enjoy your holiday.