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496. Clovis I, the king of the Franks, one of the tribes of Gaul (as France was then called) was baptized on Christmas Day along with three thousand of his followers.
This was a key step in the unification of the French nation because with this massive conversion, the combined influence of the church and the state was great enough to forge a nation from the scattered and disorganized tribes who lived in the area.
1214 English barons and high-ranking church prelates presented a list of demands to King John Lack-land on Christmas Day 1214. After a period of hostility and confrontation, the king was forced to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymeade the following June. This “Great Charter” guaranteed the rights of the nobility against the king and became the foundation of all English constitutional law. In time, its guarantees of civil liberty became applicable to both nobility and commoner alike.
1492 On Christmas Eve, the Santa Maria ran aground on the island of Hispaniola (today’s Haiti…
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