For years, historians have been fascinated by Vincent van Gogh's ear, prompting them to devise a variety of ideas as to why the 19th century Dutch artist sliced off a portion of his own auditory organ. According to the most commonly recognised version, van Gogh hacked off his ear lobe in a fit of madness following a confrontation with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, and then presented it to a prostitute called Rachel as a sign of devotion.

Visva Bharati University, one of India's most prestigious universities, is marking its 100th anniversary of its founding. Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate who did not complete his official schooling, created it in 1921. The Visva Bharti University was legally created in 1921, however it was founded in 1863, when Tagore was only two years old. An Act of Parliament designated one of the country's oldest Central universities as a national institution in 1951.

Matthew Arnold, born on December 24, 1822, was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as a school inspector. He was the son of Rugby School's famed headmaster, Thomas Arnold, and the brother of literary scholar Tom Arnold and author and colonial administrator William Delafield Arnold. Matthew Arnold has been described as a wise writer, someone who chastises and advises the reader on current societal concerns. He was also a school inspector for 35 years, and he advocated the notion of state-regulated secondary education.

Edison had spotted the 16-year-old putting holes in telegraph tape. On December 25, 1871, at the age of 24, Edison married Mary Stilwell, a 16-year-old employee at one of his businesses, whom he had met two months previously. Edison returned to his laboratory after the ceremony on his wedding day to work on the stock ticker. Mary Edison died on August 9, 1884, at the age of 29, of unknown circumstances, either a brain tumour or a morphine overdose.

Mohammed Rafi was an Indian cinema playback vocalist who was born on December 24, 1924. He is regarded as one of the best and most influential Indian subcontinent vocalists. Rafi's variety and range of voice were outstanding; his songs ranged from quick peppy numbers to patriotic songs, melancholy numbers to extremely romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals, and bhajans to classical songs. He was noted for his ability to adapt his voice to the actor's attitude and style while lip-syncing the song on screen in the film.

Cassandra Jean Whitehead went on to work in television, where she had numerous minor roles, most notably on One Tree Hill, Mad Men, and Arrow. But it's in love that the former model really shines. She married Arrow actor Stephen Amell in a private wedding in the Caribbean on December 25, 2012. When the couple returned to the United States, Us Weekly stated that they married for the second time the following May in front of friends and family in New Orleans. That October, the couple had their first kid, and they've grown even more in love with each other since.

George Michael, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, was an English singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was a major pop performer in the 1980s and 1990s, winning a Grammy for best album of the year in 1987. He rose to prominence as a member of the music duet Wham!, which he created as a youngster, and had his first international success in 1984. He was discovered dead at his house in Goring-on-Thames on December 25, 2016. He was 53 at the time. Tests to ascertain the cause of his death indicated that he died of natural causes caused by heart and liver disorders.

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari was a distinguished Indian politician, freedom fighter, statesman, and lawyer. He was India's last Governor-General and the first Indian to hold the position. He created the Swatantra Party and was one of the first winners of the Bharat Ratna, the nation's highest civilian honour. A keen watcher of international affairs. Rajagopalachari was hospitalised to the Government Hospital in Madras on December 17, 1972, with dehydration, uraemia, and a urinary infection. He died on December 25, 1972, at the age of 94.

Howard Robard Hughes Jr., born December 24, 1905, was a commercial entrepreneur, investor, record-setting aviator, engineer, film director, and philanthropist who was considered as one of the world's most influential and financially successful people during his lifetime. He rose to prominence first as a film producer, then as a key figure in the aviation sector. Later in life, he became recognised for his unusual conduct and reclusive lifestyle, which were exacerbated by his developing obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic pain from a near-fatal plane crash, and increasing deafness.

Vasco da Gama is primarily remembered for becoming the first person to sail from Europe to India by circumnavigating Africa's Cape of Good Hope. Da Gama landed and traded at locations around the coast of southern Africa over the course of two trips, commencing in 1497 and 1502, before arriving in India on May 20, 1498. Vasco da Gama promptly used his high viceregent powers to impose a new order in Portuguese India, appointing all new officials in place of the old ones. However, Gama developed malaria soon after arriving and died on Christmas Eve in 1524, three months after his arrival, in the city of Cochin.

Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who has served as the country's 23rd and current prime minister since November 2015 and as the Liberal Party's leader since April 2013. Trudeau, the oldest son of Pierre Trudeau, is the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history, behind Joe Clark. He is also the first to be the child or other related of a former holder of the job.

Jerry Seinfeld, whose sitcom character had a phobia of commitment, married Jessica Sklar, 28, on Saturday in a private ceremony attended by close friends and family. Seinfeld was dressed in a black tuxedo with a bow tie. Ms Sklar wore an ivory slip dress with spaghetti straps that was empire-waisted. On December 25, 1999, the couple married. The wedding's best man was comedian George Wallace. After the wedding, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld paid US$32 million for Billy Joel's mansion in Amagansett, Long Island, after news of the couple's interest in the property became public in 2000.

Madan Mohan Malaviya, born 25 December 1861, was an Indian scholar, educational reformer, and politician best known for his participation in the Indian independence struggle as the three-time president of the Indian National Congress and the founder of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha. He was respectfully addressed as Pandit and Mahamana.

Neeraj Chopra VSM (born December 24, 1997) is a track and field athlete from India who competes in the javelin throw. World Athletics has him rated second in the world as of August 2021. Chopra, a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the Indian Army, is the first Indian track and field athlete to win an Olympic gold medal. He is also the first Indian track and field athlete to win in the IAAF World U20 Championships, where he established a world under-20 record throw of 86.48 m in 2016, becoming the first Indian athlete to do so. In 2021, he won the first ever Olympic Gold Medal for India in Track and Field...

Anil Kapoor (born December 24, 1956) is an Indian film producer and actor who has acted in over a hundred Hindi-language films as well as international films and television programmes. His acting career spans 40 years, and he has been a producer since 2005. Throughout his career, he has received various prizes, including two National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards.

Ravish Malhotra (born December 25, 1943 in Lahore, British India) is a retired Indian Air Force Air Commodore. He was an Air Force test pilot stationed at the Bangalore test centre. He was also the Air Officer Commanding Hindon Air Force Station, which was located near Delhi.

Charlie Chaplin, the film actor, director, and writer, was one of cinema's most creative inventors. His portrayal of "the tramp," a sympathetic comedy figure with ill-fitting clothing and a moustache, drew praise from audiences all over the world. After Queen Elizabeth II of England knighted him in 1975, he became Sir Charles Chaplin. Chaplin died in his sleep in Switzerland two years later, on December 25, 1977.

Sir Isaac Newton, born 25 December 1642, was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author (dubbed a "natural philosopher" at the time) who is largely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians, physicists, and most important scientists of all time. He was a pivotal player in the Enlightenment thought revolution. His 1687 work Philosophi Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) developed classical mechanics. Newton also made important discoveries to optics and is credited with establishing infinitesimal calculus alongside German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Between 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980, Chaudhary Charan Singh was India's 5th Prime Minister. Historians and ordinary people alike regard to him as the "champion of India's peasants." Charan Singh was born on December 23, 1902, in the hamlet of Noorpur, District Hapur (formerly District Meerut), Uttar Pradesh, to a rural peasant Jat family and Teotia clan.

On the set of their film Days of Thunder, Cruise met his second wife, actress Nicole Kidman. On December 24, 1990, the pair married. Isabella Jane and Connor Antony are their two adoptive children.

Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (June 28, 1921 – December 23, 2004) was an Indian lawyer and politician who served as India's ninth Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996. His election as Prime Minister was politically noteworthy since he was just the second person from a non-Hindi-speaking region to hold the position, and the first from South India. Rao had a heart attack on December 9, 2004, and was sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where he died 14 days later at the age of 83.

James Joseph Brown was a well-known American musician who made significant contributions to the development of several musical genres, including soul music, funk music, and rap music. This highly influential artist redefined the way music was created in America over a six-decade career. On December 25, 2006, he died of congestive heart failure caused by pneumonia complications. He was 73 years old at the time.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, born December 25, 1924, was an Indian politician who served as Prime Minister of India three times, first for 13 days in 1996, then for 13 months from 1998 to 1999, and then for a full term from 1999 to 2004. Vajpayee was a co-founder of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a key leader of the party (BJP). He was a member of the Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was the first Indian prime minister who was not a member of the Indian National Congress to fulfil a complete term. He is also well-known as a poet and writer.