24. The "Holy Year" 1900 inaugurated at Rome by the solemn
opening of the "holy door" at St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, and St.
Maria Maggiore, the Pope officiating at St. Peter's in great state.
— The steamship Ariosto, from Galveston to Hamburg, stranded on Orracoke Beaeh, North Carolina shore, and twenty-one persons out of thirty were drowned.
25. The whole of the 3rd Bengal (native) Cavalry voluntarily subscribed a day's pay to the Transvaal War Fund.
— The Queen sent Christmas greetings to the troops in South Africa.
26. The Queen, who had remained at Windsor for Christmas, gave a tea-party in St. George's Hall to the wives and children of non-commissioned officers and soldiers serving in South Africa, and belonging to regiments stationed at Windsor.
— The garrison at Mafeking made an unsuccessful attempt to storm the advance posts of the besieging force, notice of the intended sortie having been communicated by spies to the Boers.
27. The fifteenth Indian National Congress assembled at Lucknow, and was attended by nearly 1,000 delegates, of whom about one-half were Mahomedans. Mr. Romesh Clumder Dutt was elected president.
— Several cases of bubonic plague reported from Noumea and other places in New Caledonia.
— The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maharajah of Gwalior offered their troops, their purses, and their own swords to defend her Majesty's empire.
28. The Queen, accompanied by Princess Henry of Battenberg, left Windsor for Osborne.
— At Odessa the military chief of the recruiting district put on his trial for corruption, found guilty, and condemned to deprivation of his military rank and orders, of his personal civil rights and property, and exile to Tobolsk for one year.
29. A furious south-westerly gale prevailed round the British coasts, interrupting all communication with the continent. A large Hamburg-American liner, the Patria, went ashore off Dungeness, and became a complete wreck. The South Goodwin light-ship was also driven from her moorings, and was dreadfully damaged by the surf on the sand.
— H.M.S. Magicienne brought into Durban the German steamer Bundesrath, seized off Delagoa Bay with contraband of war, and German officers and men on board.
30. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ireland.
31. The German Emperor by decree decided that with the present year the nineteenth century was closed, so far as concerned Germany. The Bureau des Longitudes at Paris declared that for France the century would not close until the end of the following year. Great newspaper controversy took place on the subject in England, where the majority seemed disposed to take the French view.
