A Blast From The Past

Today is Dec. 25.

The Christian festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated today. Actually, Jesus' exact birth date isn't known --- although it's been estimated he was born in about 3 B.C. in the town of Bethlehem --- and in fact, he may've been born in the spring, not winter.

Christmas as a Feast of the Nativity dates from the 4th century, when the Western church set Dec. 25 for the feast --- possibly as a substitute for the various pagan celebrations of the time, including the Roman Saturnalia and Druidic winter solstice rites.

Speaking of Christmas, it was on this date in 1818 that the first known Christmas carol was sung at Oberndorf, Austria. It was "Silent Night, Holy Night," and it was written by organist Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr, to be accompanied by guitar, because the church's pipe organ was broken.

William the Conqueror was crowned King William I of England on this date in 1066. William was the last person to invade the British Isles. He made French the language of the court and of the educated class, forever changing the way English is spoken.

On Christmas night 1989, a broadcast of a Christmas symphony on Romania's state-run television was interrupted by the news that toppled dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife and second-in-command, Elena, had been executed. Ceausescu had been ousted in a brutally fast uprising. Their deaths brought an end to the last hard-line regime in the Soviet bloc.

The United States moved quickly to officially recognize the new Romanian government.

It was on this date in 1990 that Mikhail Gorbachev was given direct control of the Soviet Cabinet and all government ministries in a major widening of his power. Exactly one year later, in 1991, Gorbachev resigned as the Soviet president. The next day, the Supreme Soviet voted to end the Soviet Union.

And it was on this date in 1997 that comedian Jerry Seinfeld announced that his popular NBC-TV sitcom "Seinfeld" would cease production at the end of the season. While the last new "Seinfeld" episode aired in May 1998, the show lives on in syndication.

We now return you to the present, already in progress.