Famous Historical Events on Christmas Crossword Puzzle

QUESTIONS LIST:

• treaty of ghent : on december 24, 1814, the united states and great britain signed the famous peace agreement ending the war of 1812.
• william : known as the conqueror, in 1066 on christmas day, he was crowned king of england at westminster abbey in london. he invaded the british isles and was victorious over harold ii at the battle of hastings.
• apollo : _ 8 spent the night before christmas orbiting the moon. the 3 astronauts aboard broadcast from space when they entered the moon’s orbit on christmas eve. as viewers were shown pictures of the lunar orbit, astronauts frank borman, jim lovell, and william anders read the opening lines from genesis in the bible. the broadcast famously ended with, “merry christmas, and god bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.”
• isaac newton : born on christmas day 1642, an enlightenment scientist, he developed the theory of relativity after an apple fell on his head.
• saint nicholas : santa claus can be traced back to this turkish-born monk from the third century who wandered the countryside helping the poor and sick. dutch immigrants to new york brought sinter klaas to american, where writers like washington irving anglicized santa claus.
• andrew johnson : at the tail end of his term as president, this man gave former confederates a famous christmas present by issuing amnesty to “all and every person” who had fought in the united states during the civil war.
• gorbachev : on christmas day 1991, president mikhail _ announced he was resigning his position as president of the soviet union.
• george washington : on christmas day, he led 2,400 troops on a daring nighttime crossing of the icy delaware river.
• charlemagne : on christmas day in 800, pope leo iii crowned him holy roman emperor. his legal and educational reforms sparked a cultural revival and unified much of europe for the first time since the fall of the roman empire
• world war i : during this war on christmas eve 1914, scores of german, british, and french troops in belgium laid down their arms and initiated a spontaneous holiday ceasefire. though the truce was not sanctioned by the officers on either side, the “christmas truce” would stand as a remarkable example of shared humanity on the battlefield.
• poinsettia : mexican christmas flower named for the first u.s. minister to mexico, joel r. poinsett, who brought back the red-and-gree plants from a visit to mexico in 1828.