Today is Thursday, Dec. 26, the 361st day of 2024. There are five days left in the year.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean triggered a tsunami with waves up to 100 feet (30 meters) high, killing an estimated 230,000 people.

In 1908, Jack Johnson became the first Black boxer to win the world heavyweight championship as he defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia.

In 1966, Kwanzaa was first celebrated.

In 1990, Nancy Cruzan, a young woman in an irreversible vegetative state whose case led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the right to die, died at a Missouri hospital.

In 1991, the USSR was formally dissolved through a declaration by the Supreme Soviet.

In 2006, former President Gerald R. Ford died in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 93.

In 2021, South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu died at 90; the retired archbishop had been an uncompromising foe of apartheid and a modern-day activist for racial justice and LGBTQ rights.