Saudi Arabia urges Iran to accept peace
1987 - King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz opened the eighth GCC summit in Riyadh, cautioning Iran against prolonging its war with Iraq and warning that the seven-year-old conflict might be broadened to involve other powers. “Force will not solve the problem because every power will have to defend itself and, what would be worse, some countries might seek help from other powers,” King Fahd told the opening session of the summit. King Fahd referred to both Iran and Iraq as “sister countries, neighbouring Islamic states,” stressing that their war will one day inevitably come to an end. All the UN resolutions had called for ending the war, he said, and Iraq had accepted them. But Iran “regrettably has certain conditions” which were “not logical or possible”.
December 26
1805 - Peace of Pressburg is signed between France and Austria.
1901 - The Uganda Railway from Mombasa to Lake Victoria is completed.
1908 - Jack Johnson becomes the first black heavyweight boxing champion after he knocks out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.
1917 - The entire US railway system is nationalised and taken over by the United States Railroad Administration.
1932 - Earthquake kills 70,000 in Kansu, China.
1933 - American inventor Edwin H. Armstrong is granted a patent for the FM Radio.
1938 - Pan American Conference approves Declaration of Peru against all foreign intervention.
1941 - Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the US Congress.
1962 - Eight East Germans escape to West Berlin by crashing a bus through barriers at border checkpoint.
1978 - Turkish government imposes martial law in Ankara, Istanbul and 11 southeastern cities.
1991 - Algeria holds its first multiparty parliamentary elections since independence from France in 1962.
1992 - Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic concedes defeat in Serbian presidential elections.
1994 - French anti-terrorist police storm a hijacked airliner at Marseille, killing all four hijackers and saving the lives of some 170 passengers and crew.
1999 - At least 62 people are killed across northern Europe as record-breaking winds of up to 213 km/h raged through the region.
2003 - A 6.3 magnitude earthquake hits Bam, Iran, killing more than 20,000 people
2004 - The world’s most powerful undersea earthquake off Sumatra unleashes a tsunami that hits Asia and claims more than 216,000 lives.
2006 - Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the US, dies at 93.
2007 - A ruptured gasoline pipeline explodes in Lagos, Nigeria, killing 34 people.
2009 - China unveils the fastest rail link in the world. The new Guangzhou-Wuhan railway is officially operational.
2016 - British pop singer George Michael dies at the age of 53.
