1567-1635 - Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer and founder of Quebec City in 1608
1797-1868 - Linus Yale was the developer of cylinder lock, was an American inventor and manufacturer of locks
1879-1926 - Yoshihito was the 123rd Emperor of Japan (1912-26)
1880-1946 - W C Fields was a writer/comedian who died on Christmas Day
1905-1951 - Harry T Moore was a Florida NAACP official, founder of the first branch of the NAACP, killed by bomb at his home on Christmas night along with his wife, his wife died nine days later
1929-1954 - Johnny Ace was a Memphis rocker, was a star of American Rhythm and Blues, accidently shot himself in the head with a .22 pistol on Christmas Day playing around.
1873-1961 - Otto Loewi was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for medical therapy, the father of Neuroscience
1889-1977 - Charlie Chaplin was a famous actor and film director of Silent Films
1989 - Billy Martin was a NY Yankee manager, killed in a car accident on Christmas Day, won five World
Series Championships, four as a player on the NY Yankees and one as the Manager of the NY Yankees.
1904-1992 - Garrison H Davidson US Lt. General commandant (West Point), football coach and educator at West Point
1990-1996 - Jon Benet Ramsey was a Colorado child beauty queen, murdered at 6 on Christmas Day, the police thought Jon Benet Ramsey may have been murdered by her parents, but the case is still unsolved
1920-1997 - Denver Pyle, actor who played Uncle Jesse on the Dukes of Hazzard, died from lung cancer on Christmas Day
1933-2006 - James Brown was a very famous rhythm & blues, gospel, jazz, soul and funk singer or simply the Godfather of Soul, James Brown was called the hardest working man in show business, was known for both his singing and dancing, James Brown dies at 73 from heart failure on Christmas Day