December 26 in History: Columbus goes off course, Lincoln orders America’s largest mass execution, Karenga founds Kwanzaa, more

Check out This Day in History for Dec. 26, in MainStream’s daily look at significant progressive, intersectional historical events.

1492: La Navidad — which becomes the first Spanish settlement in Christopher Columbus’ New World — is founded in Haiti after Columbus’ ship the Santa Maria is run aground by a young, inexperienced sailor. Columbus left behind 39 soldiers at the settlement, which also inspires the Nativity Scene, and found them all killed by Native residents when he returned almost a year later.

Clockwise from top left: scientist Marie Curie, Kwanzaa founder Maulana Karenga, TIME Magazine’s 1982 cover and the computer, and the hanging of the Dakota 38.

1862: The largest mass execution in American history happens when 39 Dakota men are hanged by order of President Abraham Lincoln. Later in history, this incident would be recognized as the unfair murder of soldiers engaged in the Dakota War of 1862 and representing their own country. At the time, Lincoln reversed the initial condemnation of 270 Dakota men but retained orders to kill what would become known as the Dakota 38, memorialized through ceremonies more than a century later. 

1898: French scientist Marie Curie and her husband discover radium, then work to extract it. Marie, whose husband Pierre would die in a horse carriage accident, went on to advocate for radium’s use in medical X-rays and to kill off diseased cells. Curie would die in 1934 of leukemia likely related to radioactive poisoning.

1966: Dr. Maulana Karenga founds the annual Kwanzaa holiday, inspired by the Watts Rebellions the previous year, when the Frye family clashed with police in Los Angeles, triggering six days of rioting and protests that killed 34 and injured more than 1,000. Karenga, a California State University professor, said he created Kwanzaa to honor “a necessary minimum set of principles by which Black people must live in order to begin to rescue and reconstruct our history and lives.”

1982: Choosing a non-human for its honor for the first time in history. TIME Magazine names the computer “Man of the Year.” The decision marked a cultural shift at a time when computer sales were doubling annually.

2004: A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates the Indian Ocean tsunami that eventually kills 230,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives, and other coastal regions of the Indian Ocean. The tsunami’s waves reached as tall as 100 feet and changed the earth’s rotation. 

2023: Simone Biles is named the Associated Press’s Female Athlete of the Year for the third time, solidifying her spot in history as the most decorated female gymnast in history. Biles also earned the honor in 2016 and 2019,  and has won eight U.S. national championships and 11 Olympic medals, seven of which are gold.

Photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons.