1914 - Late on Christmas Eve, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard German troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches.

1972 - Sixteen plane crash survivors were rescued after being stranded in the Andes for seventy days. Although 33 of the 45 onboard survived the crash, injuries and severe weather conditions killed many more. Survivors had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.

2010 - The Abbey Road zebra crossing in north London, made famous after appearing on a Beatles album cover was given Grade II listed status. The crossing, was being recognised for its “cultural and historical importance” following advice from English Heritage.

2020 - The death (aged 103) of RAF ‘Spitfire woman’ Eleanor Wadsworth. She was the last surviving of about 165 women to have taken on the task of transporting aircraft to the frontlines during World War II. The women operated out of White Waltham in Berkshire and flew without instruments, flying instructions or radios.

1928 - Harry Ramsden started his fish and chip restaurant in a hut at White Cross in Guiseley, near Bradford in West Yorkshire. It soon became the most famous fish and chip restaurant in the world.

1843 - English author Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol, which became one of the outstanding Christmas stories of modern literature. This popular novella sold out by Christmas Eve, selling 6,000 copies. Since then, “A Christmas Carol” has never gone out of print.

2018 - A meteor that entered the Earth's atmosphere at 32 kilometers per second, explodes in a huge fireball over the Bering Sea with 10 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

2004 - The opening of ‘The Sage in Gateshead’, a concert venue and centre for musical education, located on the south bank of the River Tyne.

1995 - The name “Euro” was officially adopted for European Currency in Madrid. Belgian Esperantist Germain Pirlot, a former teacher of French and history, is credited with naming the new currency.