Catholic Christmas
On December 25, Western Christians – Catholic, Protestant denominations and Orthodox of several countries – celebrate one of the most important Christian holidays — Christmas.
This holiday is a state holiday in more than 100 countries of the world.
Christmas is preceded by a 40-day fast, the strictest day of which is the last. The day before Christmas Eve, on Christmas Eve, it is customary to refuse food until the first star appears in the sky. The meal usually begins with sochiva – wheat and barley grains boiled with honey. On the eve of the holiday, Old Testament prophecies and events related to Christmas of the Savior. Christmas services are performed three times: at midnight, at dawn and during the day, which symbolizes the Nativity of Christ in the bosom of God the Father, in the womb of the Mother of God and in the soul of every Christian.
The first production of solid mercury
In 1759, on this day, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, physicist Joseph Adam Brown received solid mercury for the first time. In December 1759 frosts in St. Petersburg reached -37 °C. Who lived then in In Russia, Joseph Adam Brown conducted experiments on mercury. With the help of special cooling mixtures, he managed to lower its temperature to -56 ° C and achieve solidification. The resulting solid mercury could be sawed, chopped and forged.
Brown told about his discovery a few days later at a public meeting of the Academy of Sciences. This caused a real sensation in the scientific world. But the exact freezing point of mercury — minus 39 — was established by St. Petersburg academicians only after several decades.
The beginning of the war in Afghanistan
On December 25, 1979, a military conflict began on the territory of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. In the perception of Soviet and post-Soviet society, it was called the “Afghan War” and represents the period of the presence of Soviet troops in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and participation in hostilities against armed opposition formations from 1979 to 1989.
In fact, the internal political crisis in Afghanistan began in 1973, and since 1978 it has moved into an acute phase. Some Western journalists called the “Afghan War” the “Vietnam War of the Soviet Union” and a “Bear Trap”.
Mikhail Gorbachev’s resignation and the formation of the Russian Federation
On this day in 1991, the first and last President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev officially announced his resignation and signed a decree on the transfer of control of strategic nuclear weapons to Boris Yeltsin. This announcement was very formal, because in the last year of his reign Gorbachev was gradually losing real power.
On the same day, a new country officially appeared in the world — the Russian Federation.
The new official name of the republic was approved on December 25 by the corresponding resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. At 19:45 Moscow time over The tricolor was raised by the Kremlin.
Charlie Chaplin
44 years ago, the famous actor, screenwriter, composer and director Charlie Chaplin passed away. He died in Switzerland at the age of 88. His life was full of extraordinary stories, rumors and gossip, he managed to get national recognition.
In the seventies, a survey was conducted in America, “Name the most popular person in history,” according to which Charlie Chaplin took second place, second only to Jesus Christ.
Charlie Chaplin created one of the most famous images in the history of world cinema — the image of the tramp Charlie. He became the only person on the planet who received an Oscar “for his invaluable contribution to the fact that cinema has become an art in this century.”