The territory is administered from Canberra by the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport, which is also responsible for the administration of the territories of Christmas Island, Cocos ( Keeling ) Islands, the Coral Sea Islands, Jervis Bay and Norfolk Island.

After successful parachute deployment and less than fourteen minutes after reentry began, the Command Module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean southeast of Christmas Island 290 hours, 37 minutes, 6 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center.

# REDIRECT Christmas Island # History

Christmas Island

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# redirect Christmas Island # Transport

The Territory of the Cocos ( Keeling ) Islands, also called Cocos Islands and Keeling Islands, is a territory of Australia, located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Christmas Island and approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka.

* 2010 – A boat carrying 90 asylum seekers crashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing at least 30 passengers.

* 1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.

* 2012 – A boat carrying more than 200 refugees capsized in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 other missing,

Most of the Line Islands including Christmas Island, the Phoenix and even the Union ( Tokelau ) islands ( until 1925 ) were incorporated piecemeal into the Gilbert and Ellice Islands over the next 20 years.

Kiritimati or Christmas Island is a Pacific Ocean raised coral atoll in the northern Line Islands, and part of the Republic of Kiribati.

Christmas Island comprises over 70 % of the total land area of Kiribati, a country encompassing 33 Pacific atolls and islands.

Kiritimati Island ( Christmas ) is well known for its world class bone fishing.

Despite being east of the 180 meridian, a 1995 realignment of the International Dateline by the Republic of Kiribati " moved " Christmas Island to west of the dateline.

Nuclear tests were conducted in the region around Christmas Island by the United Kingdom in the late 1950s, and by the United States in 1962.

Location of Christmas Island

At Western discovery, Christmas Island was uninhabited.

From 1200 onwards Polynesian long-distance voyages became less frequent, and had there been human settlement on Christmas Island, it would have been abandoned in the early-mid second millennium AD.

Christmas Island was discovered by Captain James Cook on Christmas Eve ( 24 December ) 1777.

The fund's statewide quota this year is $8,250 to provide Christmas gifts for needy youngsters.

* Santa Claus also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and simply " Santa ", is a figure with legendary, mythical, historical and folkloric origins who, in many western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24.

Cider is the most popular beverage of the middle and lower economic classes at Christmas and New Year ( the upper classes proverbially preferring to celebrate with locally produced champagne, although real old-line " creole " aristocrats will still drink cider, which is much more traditional ).

From then on retail trade is only restricted on public holidays ( New Years Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Day of Prayer, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday, Whit Monday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day ) and on Constitution Day, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve ( on New Year's Eve from 3 pm only ).

Bock is historically associated with special occasions, often religious festivals such as Christmas, Easter or Lent.

In Austria, bockbier is traditionally brewed only around Christmas and Easter, when nearly every brewery brews its own bock.

Bock beer is produced in Mexico around Christmas season, under the Noche Buena label with 5. 9 % abv

Bethlehem's chief economic sector is tourism which peaks during the Christmas season when Christian pilgrims throng to the Church of the Nativity.

In a twist on Charles Dickens ' A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Blackadder is the " kindest and loveliest " man in England.

Boxing Day is traditionally the day following Christmas Day, when servants and tradespeople would receive gifts from their superiors or employers.

Today, Boxing Day is better known as a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws.

In the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Germany, Scandinavia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Catalonia, 26 December is celebrated as the Second Christmas Day.

This custom is linked to an older English tradition: Since they would have to wait on their masters on Christmas Day, the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families.

Boxing Day is a secular holiday that is traditionally celebrated on 26 December, the day after Christmas Day, which is also St. Stephen's Day, a religious holiday.

In the UK, where Boxing Day is a bank holiday, if Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, a substitute bank holiday is given on the following Monday, but if 26 December falls on a Sunday – which means that Christmas Day, another holiday, fell on a Saturday – then the Statutory Holiday for Christmas is moved to Monday 27 December and the Statutory Holiday for Boxing Day is moved to Tuesday 28 December.

* December – The world's first Christmas cards, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London from the artist John Callcott Horsley, are sent.

An annotated argument supporting Fessenden as the world's first radio broadcaster was offered in 2006 by Dr. John S. Belrose, Radioscientist Emeritus at the Communications Research Centre Canada, in his essay " Fessenden's 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast.

Christmas is home to the world's largest alligator-shaped building, measuring at just over.

These include the Gerbrandy Tower, a structure that could be considered the tallest tower in Western Europe and during Christmas time the world's largest Christmas tree.

The world's first commercially produced Christmas card, designed by John Callcott Horsley for Henry Cole

Partly by accident, this became the world's first Christmas stamp.

This festival has been named the world's best Christmas event four times, ( 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 ).

Hill's colleague Sir Henry Cole introduced the world's first commercial Christmas card in 1843.

It is generally believed that Spain's Sorteo Extraordinario de Navidad ( Spanish Christmas Lottery ) is the world's largest lottery and has the largest first prize jackpot.

Today the most famous features of Dresden Striezelmarkt are the world's largest usable Christmas arch with a breadth of 13. 5 metres and a height of more than 5 metres and the 14-metre high Erzgebirge Christmas pyramid.

Around 3000 pairs of Christmas Shearwaters, about 5 % of the world's total population, can be found on the island too.

The world's first Christmas card

As the war ended, the United States decided that Bikini Atoll would be suitable for nuclear detonation tests, and shortly before Christmas 1945 it was selected to be the site of the world's fourth and fifth atomic bomb detonations.

East of this interchange the road turns direct east again and passes through Christmas, a rural community containing various Christmas shops, trailer parks and the Jungle Adventures Nature Animal Park which boasts of having " Swampy " the world's largest alligator.

The country has earned the distinction of celebrating the world's longest Christmas season, with Christmas carols heard as early as September and lasting until Epiphany, the feast of the Black Nazarene on January 9 or the Feast of the Santo Niño de Cebú on the third Sunday of January.

In late December 2004, the ' STUDEBAKER ' tree planting, recognized as one of the world's largest living advertisements and on the National Register of Historic Places, was severely damaged in a Christmas week ice storm.

Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending greetings cards at Christmas time, introducing the world's first commercial Christmas card in 1843.

The world's first commercially produced Christmas card, made by Henry Cole 1843.