📜 This Day in History
December 26
1606The first known performance of King Lear, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare and based on the legend of Leir of Britain, took place before King James I.- 1800Philip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales, ordered the formation of the Governor's Body Guard of Light Horse, described as the first full-time military unit raised in Australia.
- 1871Thespis, the first comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, premiered at the Gaiety Theatre in London.
- 1943Second World War: The German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk at the Battle of the North Cape during an attempt to attack Arctic convoys.
- 2004A major earthquake and tsunami devastated communities around the Indian Ocean, killing an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries.
- 2025Israel recognises Somaliland as an independent state, becoming the first country to do so.
