On this date in history…

Boxing Day is celebrated as a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about English culture and custom.]

(2006) American politician Gerald R. Ford—who was the 38th president of the United States (1974–77) and the country’s only chief executive who was not elected as either president or vice president—died in California. (2004) A large earthquake shook the Indian Ocean floor west of the island of Sumatra, triggering a devastating tsunami that swamped coastal areas from Thailand to Africa and killed more than 200,000 people.  (1985) The slain body of American zoologist Dian Fossey—the world’s leading authority on the mountain gorilla—was found in Rwanda; it was widely suspected that she was killed by poachers. (1973) The horror classic The Exorcist, an adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s book about a young girl possessed by the Devil, was released in the United States. The recipient of 10 Oscar nominations, including for director William Friedkin, it became one of the highest-grossing films of all time. (1963) The Beatles’ single I Want to Hold Your Hand, with I Saw Her Standing There on the B-side, was first released in the United States; hugely successful, it helped launch Beatlemania. (1943) The German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was sunk by the British battleship Duke of York during World War II. (1805) Napoleon enforced harsh penalties on Austria with the signing of the Treaty of Pressburg. (1791) English mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage, who is credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer, was born.