1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie launch radium isolation. They extracted the radium compound from uraninite and published the discovery at the French Academy of Sciences five days later. Radium was isolated in its metallic state by Marie Curie and André-Louis Debierne through the electrolysis of radium chloride in 1911.
1948 – Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and charged with treason and conspiracy. Mindszenty, for five decades personified the uncompromising opposition to fascism and communism in Hungary. After eight years in prison, he was released during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and granted political asylum by the United States Embassy in Budapest.
1963 – The Beatles release “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There”, marking the beginning of Beatlemania internationally. According to the list of the Rolling Stones, these two songs are ranked in the 500 most famous songs in the history of world music. At the same time, the number of their fans increased significantly in the world.
1972 – Harry S. Truman dies in Kansas at the age of 88. Truman, was the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt after serving as vice president. He implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe and established the Truman Doctrine and NATO.
1979 – Zef Mala passes away, he was a publicist, founder and chairman of the Shkodra Communist Group and the Albanian Communist Party. In 1944, Enver Hoxha ordered his shooting, but Mala managed to escape death. Called a confused anti-Marxist by Enveri. In December 1944, he was sent for eye treatment to Bari, Italy. In April 1945 he came to Albania. He was appointed head of section at the National Library and later its director. In 1946, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Reason for punishment: “For political positions against cooperation with the Yugoslav communist party”. He served 2 years of imprisonment and was released on January 19, 1949, through amnesty from the change of attitude and cooperation with Yugoslavia, as a victim of the Koçi Xoxes. In 1977, he was interned as a family, for 5 years in Labova e Zhapa, Gjirokastër. On July 15, 1978, from Labova e Zhapa, he wrote an emblematic Memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Shehu, after he had cut off all communication with Enver Hoxha years ago. He refused to vote in the 1978 elections. He was arrested and sent to Tirana, where he was again sentenced to 10 years in prison. He spent his sentence in the prison of Ballshi, where he became completely blind, walked with a stick and his fellow prisoners helped him with every need” – On December 26, 1979, seriously ill, blinded, he died in the Tirana prison hospital.
1989 – Born in St James, Yohan Blake. Blake, is a Jamaican sprinter of the 100- and 200-meter races. He won the 100m gold medal at the 2011 World Championships as the youngest champion in the world. Blake also won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics in the 100m and 200m for the Jamaican team.
1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Supreme Soviet officially dissolves and dissolves the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War. The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of internal dissolution of the USSR, which began in the second half of the 1980s with growing unrest in the national republics and ended on December 26, 1991.
1994 – Four armed Islamic terrorists take control of Air France Flight 8969. Terrorists kill three passengers and aim to blow up the plane over the Eiffel Tower in Paris. When the plane lands in Marseilles, a French Special Forces gendarmerie team, frees the plane and kills the hijackers.
2009 – China opens the world’s longest high-speed rail route, connecting Beijing and Guangzhou. With a total length of 968 km and the ability to accommodate trains traveling at 350 km per hour, the Wuguang PDL set a world record for the fastest commercial train service with an average travel speed of 312 km per hour.
