December 24
December 24 is the 357th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 9 days remaining, 9 in leap years.
Events:
- 640 - John IV becomes Pope
- 1814 - The Treaty of Ghent was signed which ended the War of 1812
- 1818 - Silent Night composed by Franz Joseph Gruber
- 1851 - Library of Congress burns
- 1865 - Several US Civil War Confederate veterans form the Ku Klux Klan
- 1906 - The first radio program, a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, broadcasts
- 1924 - Albania becomes a republic
- 1943 - US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander
- 1946 - France's Fourth Republic founded
- 1951 - Libya becomes independent from Italy
- 1953 - NBC's Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program
- 1954 - Laos becomes independent
- 1968 - The crew of the USS Pueblo was released by North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of spying.
- 1979 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government
- 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Soviet Union
Births:
- 1166 - John, king of England
- 1491 - Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit order)
- 1809 - Kit Carson, American frontiersman (died 1868)
- 1812 - Karl Eduard Zachariae, German expert on civil law
- 1818 - James Prescott Joule, British physicist
- 1837 - Elisabeth of Austria, Austrian empress (Sisi)
- 1859 - Samuel Fischer, publisher
- 1881 - Juan Ramón Jiménez, poet (died 1958)
- 1886 - Michael Curtiz, director (died 1962)
- 1905 - Howard Hughes, film producer, inventor, recluse (died 1976)
- 1906 - Joseph Höffner, cardinal and archbishop of Cologne
- 1907 - Cab Calloway, musician
- 1910 - Fritz Leiber, American science fiction writer (died 1992)
- 1914 - Herbert Reinecker, screenplay writer
- 1922 - Ava Gardner, American actress (died 1990)
- 1927 - Mary Higgins Clark, author
- 1931 - Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
- 1945 - Lemmy Kilmister, British bass player
- 1945 - Nicholas Meyer, author
- 1971 - Ricky Martin, singer
- 1983 - Irina Krush, American chess player
Deaths:
- 1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer
- 1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray, writer
- 1935 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer
- 1942 - Jean-François Darlan, vice-president of Vichy France
- 1957 - Norma Talmadge, actress
- 1975 - Bernard Herrmann, composer
- 1984 - Peter Lawford, actor
- 1986 - Gardner Fox, American writer
- 1993 - Norman Vincent Peale, writer
- 1997 - Toshirô Mifune, actor
Holidays and Observances:
See Also:
December 23 - December 25 - November 24 - January 24 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December