What happened this day in history: December 26
1717 - The first Christmas pantomime was performed in London. '˜Harlequin Executed' was staged at the Lincoln's Inn Theatre.
1860 - The first ever inter-club English Association Football match took place between Hallam and Sheffield football clubs in Sheffield.
1862 - Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover were the first female nurses on a US Navy hospital ship.
1871 - Gilbert and Sullivan collaborated for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. The two did not collaborate again for four years.
1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.
1941 - Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress when he told them about the progress of the war in Europe.
1973 - The Exorcist was released in cinemas.
2004 - More than 200,000 people in 13 countries were killed when a tsunami was triggered by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean.
2009 - China opened the world’s longest high-speed rail route, linking Beijing and Guangzhou.