December 24
is the 358th day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar (359th in
leap years). There are 7 days remaining in the year. In the
Northern Hemisphere on
, it is the first day of the winter season, but in the
Southern Hemisphere, the first day of the summer season.
*
640 -
John IV becomes
Pope.
*
1294 -
Pope Boniface VIII is elected
Pope, replacing
St. Celestine V, who had
abdicated.
*
1515 -
Thomas Wolsey is named the English
Lord Chancellor.
*
1715 -
Swedish troops occupy
Norway.
*
1777 -
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, was discovered by
James Cook.
*
1800 - Assassination attempt on
Napoleon Bonaparte's life.
*
1814 - The
Treaty of Ghent was signed which ended the
War of 1812.
*
1818 - "
Silent Night" composed by
Franz Xaver Gruber.
*
1851 -
Library of Congress burns.
*
1865 - Several US Civil War
Confederate veterans form the
Ku Klux Klan.
*
1906 - The first
radio program, consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, is broadcast.
*
1914 -
World War I: The "
Christmas truce" begins.
*
1924 -
Albania becomes a republic.
*
1929 - Assassination attempt of Argentine President
Hipólito Yrigoyen.
*
1941 -
Hong Kong falls to the
Japanese Imperial Army.
* 1941 -
Wake Island is conquered by Japanese forces.
*
1942 - French monarchist,
Ferdinand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates French
Vichy admiral
Darlan in
Algiers *
1943 - US General
Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander.
*
1946 -
France's
Fourth Republic founded.
*
1951 -
Libya becomes independent from
Italy.
Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya.
*
1953 -
Tangiwai disaster: A railway bridge collapse at
Tangiwai,
New Zealand sends a fully loaded passenger train into the
Whangaehu River, killing 153 people.
* 1953 -
NBC's
Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored
television program.
*
1954 -
Laos becomes independent.
*
1966 - A
Canadair CL44 chartered by the
United States military crashes into a small village in
South Vietnam, killing 129.
*
1968 - The crew of the
USS Pueblo is released by
North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of
spying.
* 1968 - The crew of
Apollo 8 enter into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so.
*
1969 -
Curt Flood writes to
Bowie K. Kuhn, the
Commissioner of Baseball, asking to be declared a
free agent .
*
1974 -
Cyclone Tracy devastates
Darwin, Australia.
*
1979 - The
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government.
* 1979 - The first European
Ariane rocket is launched.
*
1985 - A black bull blocks the
Cross Harbour Tunnel in
Hong Kong for three hours.
*
1987 -
Japanese legendary
rock band BOØWY declares their breakup at the
Shibuya Kokaido.
*
1997 - The
Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in
Algeria kills 50-100 people.
* 1997 - The
Dominican Republic becomes a member of the
Berne Convention copyright treaty.
*
2000 - The
Texas 7 holds up a sports store in
Irving, Texas. Police officer
Aubrey Hawkins is shot during the robbery.
*
2002 - The
New Delhi Metro opens.
*
2003 - The
Spanish police thwarts an attempt by
ETA to detonate 50 kg of
explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside
Madrid's busy
Chamartín Station.
*
2004 - The
2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm delivers an extremely unusual
snowfall to the southern
United States.
*
1166 - King
John of England (d.
1216)
*
1389 -
John VI, Duke of Brittany (d.
1442)
*
1475 -
Thomas Murner, German writer (d.c.
1537)
*
1491 -
Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish founder of the Jesuit order (d.
1556)
*
1508 -
Pietro Carnesecchi, Italian humanist (d.
1567)
*
1609 -
Philip Warwick, English writer and politician (d.
1683)
*
1698 -
William Warburton, English Bishop of Gloucester (d.
1779)
*
1724 -
Johann Conrad Ammann, Swiss physician and naturalist (d.
1811)
*
1754 -
George Crabbe, English poet and naturalist (d.
1832)
*
1761 -
Jean-Louis Pons, French astronomer (d.
1831)
*
1798 -
Adam Mickiewicz, Polish poet (d.
1855)
*
1809 -
Kit Carson, American frontiersman (d.
1868)
*
1812 -
Karl Eduard Zachariae, German jurist (d.
1894)
*
1818 -
James Prescott Joule, British physicist (d.
1889)
*
1822 -
Matthew Arnold, English poet (d.
1888)
*
1837 -
Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria (d.
1898)
*
1845 - King
George I of Greece (d.
1913)
*
1867 -
Kantaro Suzuki, 42nd
Prime Minister of Japan (d.
1948)
*
1868 -
Emanuel Lasker, German chess player (d.
1941)
*
1880 -
Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist, children's book writer and creator of
Raggedy Ann (d.
1939)
*
1881 -
Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1958)
*
1886 -
Michael Curtiz, Hungarian-born director (d.
1962)
*
1895 -
E. Roland Harriman, American financier (d.
1978)
*
1898 -
Héctor Scarone, Uruguayan footballer (d.
1967)
* 1898 -
Baby Dodds, American jazz drummer (d.
1959)
*
1905 -
Howard Hughes, American film producer and inventor (d.
1976)
*
1910 -
Fritz Leiber, American writer (d.
1992)
*
1914 -
Herbert Reinecker, German writer
*
1920 -
Evgeniya Rudneva, Russian World War II heroine (d.
1944)
*
1922 -
Ava Gardner, American actress (d.
1990)
*
1923 -
George Patton IV, American general (d.
2004)
* 1923 -
Michael DiBiase, wrestler (d.
1969)
*
1924 -
Mohd. Rafi, Indian actor and playback singer (d.
1980)
*
1929 -
Mary Higgins Clark, American author
*
1931 -
Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
*
1937 -
Felix Miéli Venerando, Brazilian football player
*
1941 -
John Levene, British actor
*
1943 -
Tarja Halonen,
President of Finland*
1945 -
Lemmy Kilmister, British singer, bassist (
Motörhead)
* 1945 -
Nicholas Meyer, American author
*
1946 -
Brenda Howard, American bisexual activist (d.
2005)
*
1949 -
Randy Neugebauer, American politician
*
1950 -
Dana Gioia, American poet
*
1951 -
John D'Acquisto, baseball player
*
1955 -
Clarence Gilyard, American actor
*
1957 -
Hamid Karzai,
President of Afghanistan*
1960 -
Carol Vorderman, British television presenter
*
1963 -
Mary Ramsey, American singer (
10,000 Maniacs)
*
1966 -
Diedrich Bader, American actor
*
1968 -
Doyle Bramhall II, American guitarist
*
1969 -
Mark Millar, Scottish comic book writer
*
1970 -
Will Oldham, American songwriter
*
1971 -
Ricky Martin, Puerto Rican singer
*
1972 -
Alvaro Mesen, Costa Rican footballer
*
1973 -
Eddie Pope, American soccer player
*
1974 -
Marcelo Salas, Chilean footballer
* 1974 -
Ryan Seacrest, American television host
*
1982 -
Aiba Masaki, Japanese singer and actor
*
427 -
Sisinnius,
Patriarch of Constantinople*
820 -
Leo V,
Byzantine Emperor (assassinated) (b.
775)
*
1257 -
John I, Count of Hainaut (b.
1218)
*
1453 -
John Dunstable, English composer (bc.
1390)
*
1524 -
Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer (bc.
1469)
*
1660 -
Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b.
1631)
*
1707 -
Noël Coypel, French painter (b.
1628)
*
1813 -
Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan, (b.
1740)
*
1863 -
William Makepeace Thackeray, English writer (b.
1811)
*
1865 - Sir
Charles Lock Eastlake, English painter and writer (b.
1793)
*
1868 -
Adolphe d'Archiac, French paleontologist and geologist (b.
1802)
*
1873 -
Johns Hopkins, Baltimore philanthropist and businessman (b.
1795)
*
1889 -
Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate, Dutch poet and clergyman (b.
1819)
*
1898 -
Sharbel Makhluf, Lebanese monk canonized in 1977 by Pope Paul VI (b.
1828)
*
1914 -
John Muir, Scottish-born naturalist (b.
1838)
*
1935 -
Alban Berg, Austrian composer (b.
1885)
*
1938 -
Bruno Taut, German architect (b.
1880)
*
1941 -
Siegfried Alkan, German composer (b.
1858)
*
1942 -
François Darlan, vice-premier of Vichy France (b.
1881)
*
1957 -
Norma Talmadge, American actress (b.
1893)
*
1972 -
Gisela Richter, English art historian (b.
1882)
*
1975 -
Bernard Herrmann, American film composer (b.
1911)
*
1977 -
Samael Aun Weor, Columbian writer (b.
1917)
*
1980 -
Karl Dönitz,
President of Germany (b.
1891)
*1980 -
Siggie Nordstrom, model, actress, entertainer, socialite and lead singer of The
Nordstrom Sisters (b.
1893)
*
1982 -
Louis Aragon, French writer (b.
1897)
*
1984 -
Peter Lawford, English actor (b.
1923)
*
1986 -
Gardner Fox, American writer (b.
1911)
*
1987 -
Joop den Uyl,
Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b.
1919)
*
1993 -
Norman Vincent Peale, American writer (b.
1898)
*
1994 -
John Boswell, American historian (b.
1947)
*
1997 -
Toshirô Mifune, Japanese actor (b.
1920)
*
1999 -
João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo,
President of Brazil (b.
1918)
*
2002 -
Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author (b.
1920)
*
2004 -
Johnny Oates, baseball player and manager (b.
1946)
*
2005 -
Michael Vale,
American commercial actor (b.
1922)
*December 24 is celebrated as the day before
Christmas, thus called
Christmas Eve.
*It is the day when food is traditionally set out for
Santa Claus and his
reindeer. Children around the world are urged to go to bed early so they are not awake when he arrives.
*In
Hungary,
Finland,
Denmark,
Sweden,
Iceland,
Norway,
Poland, the
Czech Republic and
Slovakia among others, this is the day that presents are exchanged and opened.
*The
Declaration of Christmas Peace takes place in the Old Great Square of
Turku,
Finland's official
Christmas City, according to old traditions dating back to the
Middle Ages.
*
Santa`s Lapland and Christmas Club*
BBC: On This Day*
2005:
Pluto's Kiss, a
computer virus, cripples the
Internet and all computer networks. From the
.hack franchise.
*
2011: The Awakening occurs. From
Shadowrun RPG.
December 23 -
December 25 -
November 24 -
January 24 --
listing of all days
