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December 24 is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (359th in leap years). There are 7 days remaining.
Events
- 640 - John IV becomes Pope
- 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.
- 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, a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, broadcasts
- 1914 - World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins
- 1924 - Albania becomes a republic
- 1941 - Hong Kong falls to the Japanese Imperial Army.
- 1941 - Wake Island conquered by Japanese forces.
- 1943 - US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander
- 1946 - France's Fourth Republic founded
- 1951 - Libya became independent from Italy. Idris I was proclaimed king of Libya.
- 1953 - 153 people die as a result of the Tangiwai disaster when the railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River
- 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 was 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 devastated Darwin, Australia.
- 1979 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government.
- 1979 - The launch of the first European Ariane rocket.
- 1985 - A black bull blocked Cross Harbour Tunnel of Hong Kong for three hours.
- 1987 - Japanese legendary rock band BOØWY declared breakup at Shibuya Kokaido.
- 1997 - Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria; 50-100 people killed.
- 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 in the incident.
- 2003 - The Spanish police thwarts an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 PM inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
- 2004 - The 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm delivers an extremely unusual snowfall to the southern United States.
Births
- 1166 - King John of England (d. 1216)
- 1491 - Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish founder of the Jesuit order (d. 1556)
- 1698 - William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester (d. 1779)
- 1754 - George Crabbe, English poet and naturalist (d. 1832)
- 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)
- 1859 - Samuel Fischer, publisher
- 1868 - Emanuel Lasker, German chess player (d. 1941)
- 1881 - Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet (d. 1958)
- 1886 - Michael Curtiz, director (d. 1962)
- 1895 - E. Roland Harriman, financier (d. 1978)
- 1896 - Jens Oliver Lisberg, one of the creators of the Faroese flag (d. 1920)
- 1898 - Baby Dodds, jazz musician (d. 1959)
- 1905 - Howard Hughes, American film producer, inventor, recluse (d. 1976)
- 1906 - Joseph Höffner, cardinal and Archbishop of Cologne
- 1907 - Cab Calloway, musician (d. 1994)
- 1910 - Fritz Leiber,American science fiction writer (d. 1992)
- 1914 - Herbert Reinecker, screenplay writer
- 1920 - Evgeniya Rudneva, World War II heroine (d. 1944)
- 1922 - Ava Gardner, American actress (d. 1990)
- 1924 - Mohd. Rafi Indian actor and playback singer (d. 1980)
- 1929 - Mary Higgins Clark, author
- 1931 - Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
- 1941 - John Levene, British actor
- 1943 - Tarja Halonen, President of Finland
- 1945 - Lemmy Kilmister, British musician
- 1945 - Nicholas Meyer, author
- 1949 - Randy Neugebauer, American politician
- 1950 - Dana Gioia, American poet and chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
- 1955 - Clarence Gilyard, American actor
- 1957 - Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan
- 1966 - Diedrich Bader, actor
- 1969 - Mark Millar, Scottish comic-book writer
- 1971 - Ricky Martin, singer
- 1973 - Eddie Pope, MetroStars defender
- 1974 - Ryan Seacrest, television host
- 1974 - Marcelo Salas, Chilean football player
- 1976 - Jason Macy, race car driver, writer, and photographer
- 1983 - Irina Krush, American chess player
Deaths
- 820 - Leo V, Byzantine Emperor (assassinated) (b. 775)
- 1257 - John I, Count of Hainaut (b. 1218)
- 1453 - John Dunstable, English composer
- 1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer
- 1660 - Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b. 1631)
- 1707 - Noël Coypel, French painter (b. 1628)
- 1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray, writer (b. 1811)
- 1865 - Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, English painter and writer (b. 1793)
- 1889 - Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate, Dutch poet and clergyman (b. 1819)
- 1914 - John Muir, naturalist (b. 1838)
- 1935 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer (b. 1885)
- 1942 - François Darlan, vice-premier of Vichy France (b. 1881)
- 1957 - Norma Talmadge, actress
- 1972 - Gisela Richter, art historian (b. 1882)
- 1975 - Bernard Herrmann, American film composer (b. 1911)
- 1980 - Karl Dönitz, President of Germany (b. 1891)
- 1982 - Louis Aragon, French writer (b. 1897)
- 1984 - Peter Lawford, 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, writer
- 1994 - John Boswell, historian
- 1997 - Toshirô Mifune, actor (b. 1920)
- 2000 - Aubrey Hawkins, Irving, Texas police officer (b. 1971)
- 2002 - Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author
- 2004 - Johnny Oates, baseball player and manager (b. 1946)
Holidays and observances
- December 24 is celebrated as the day before Christmas, thus called Christmas Eve.
- It is the day when food is 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 comes.
- In Finland, Sweden and Iceland, most children are visited by Santa Claus this day.
External links
Fictional Events
- 2005: Pluto's Kiss strikes the world's internet system. From the .hack anime.
- 2011: The Awakening occurs. From Shadowrun RPG.
December 23 - December 25 - November 24 - January 24 -- listing of all days
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