What happened on 26 December?

7 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union Belavezha Accords (December 8) end the USSR; Gorbachev resigns on 25 December; the red flag is lowered over the Kremlin.
2. 1893 Born: Mao Zedong Founding leader of the People's Republic of China.
3. 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami Magnitude-9 quake off Sumatra triggers a tsunami that kills around 230,000.
4. 1825 Decembrist revolt Russian officers' failed uprising against Nicholas I.
5. 1791 Born: Charles Babbage English mathematician and inventor; designed the Difference and Analytical Engines, the mechanical forerunners of the computer.
6. 1950 Ridgway steadies the line Matthew Ridgway takes command of a beaten Eighth Army in mid-retreat — and within weeks restores its fighting spirit, halts the Chinese, and grinds them back to the 38th parallel b
7. 1647 Charles I's secret Engagement with the Scots A prisoner at Carisbrooke Castle, Charles I signs a secret treaty promising Presbyterianism in England for three years in exchange for a Scottish invasion on his behalf. When it co