Template:Selected anniversaries/December 25
1642: Isaac Newton born. He will be widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time and a key figure in the scientific revolution.
1730: Physician and activist Filippo Mazzei born. He will act as an agent to purchase arms for Virginia during the American Revolutionary War.
1763: Inventor Claude Chappe born. He will invent and develop a practical semaphore system that will span all of France -- the first practical telecommunications system of the industrial age.
1932: Enrico Fermi computes probability set for path Santa Claus will travel.
1956: John Brunner uses scrying engine to extract cryptographic numen from Hellscreiber transmissions.
2016: Astronomer and academic Vera Rubin dies. She discovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galactic rotation curves.
2017: Swirl is voted Picture of the Day by the citizens of New Minneapolis, Canada.