December 26th, 1908: The Hawaiian Sugar King Claus Spreckles dies at the age of 80. Spreckles, of course, gave his name to Sprecklesville, an area on Maui’s northshore that Claus called home for two decades. He battled with the other sugar cane family, the Baldwins,  all through his life here, with rare success. He built the Kahului railroad system to haul his cane to port, and lost it to the Baldwins. He built ditches to bring water to his cane fields, which he eventually ended up selling to the Baldwins.

He also bought and ran the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, which became the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper. His conservative, pro-monarchy stance made him very unpopular with business, which of course saw the islands as a great place to pilage for their own ends without local interference, and Claus ended up selling the paper as well.

On the other hand, he was ruthless in business, and fought local farmers and planters on Maui. After 20 years of his virtual dictatorship of the sugar industry, several planters broke free and formed a consortium business – what is today known as Hawaii Cane & Sugar (HCS), which, surprise surprise, is owned by the Baldwin company.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY – December 26th

• 1492: The first Spanish settlement in the New World is founded (by Columbus) 
• 1825: The Erie Canal first opens 
• 1831: The opera “Norma” is produced (Milan) 
• 1848: The first gold seekers arrive in Panama, en route to San Francisco 
• 1862: 38 Sioux Native Americans are executed by hanging in Mankato, MN
• 1862: The first U.S. navy hospital ship enters service 
• 1973: Two Skylab 3 astronauts walk in space for a record 7 hours 
• 1973: Soyuz 13 returns to Earth 
• 1996: Boulder Colorado police respond to a 9-1-1 call from Patsy Ramsey

BORN ON THIS DAY – December 26th

• 1716: Thomas Gray, English poet
• 1792: Charles Babbage, inventor
• 1837: Adm George Dewey, American naval hero
• 1891: Henry Miller, author
• 1893: Mao Tse-tung,  PM of China P.R.
• 1927: Alan King, comedian/actor
• 1936: Mary Tyler Moore,  actress
• 1939: Phil Spector, record producer
• 1950: Michael Jones, rocker
• 1954: Peter Woods, rocker
• 1954: Susan Butcher, dog sled driver 
• 1967: J, rock musician
• 1969: Peter Klett, rock musician
• 1970: James Mercer, rock singer
• 1971: Jared Leto, actor