December 25

Franz Rosenzweig, philosopher and co-translator of the Hebrew Bible with Martin Buber, was born in Kassel.

Emmanuel Levinas, philosopher known for his ethics of the encounter with the other and his Talmudic readings, died in Paris.

Madan Mohan Malaviya, an educational reformer and founder of Banaras Hindu University, was born in Allahabad.

Ling Rinpoche, the senior tutor of the 14th Dalai Lama, died on this day in 1983.

Johann Palitzsch sighted the comet whose return Edmond Halley had forecast decades earlier, the first confirmed prediction of a comet's return and a striking vindication of Newtonian gravitation.