December 24 - Definition and Overview

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
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Births

• 1166 - John, King of England (d. 1216)
• 1491 - Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit order) (d. 1556)
• 1754 - George Crabbe, English poet and naturalist (d. 1832)
• 1809 - Kit Carson, American frontiersman (d. 1868)
• 1812 - Karl Eduard Zachariae, German expert on civil law (d. 1894)
• 1818 - James Prescott Joule, British physicist (d. 1889)
• 1822 - Matthew Arnold, English poet (d. 1888)
• 1837 - Elisabeth of Bavaria, later Austrian empress (Sisi) (d. 1898)
• 1859 - Samuel Fischer, publisher
• 1881 - Juan Ramón Jiménez, poet (d. 1958)
• 1886 - Michael Curtiz, director (d. 1962)
• 1895 - E. Roland Harriman, financier (d. 1978)
• 1898 - Baby Dodds, jazz musician (d. 1959)
• 1905 - Howard Hughes, 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 Bollywood legend & playback singer.(d. 31 July1980)
• 1929 - Mary Higgins Clark, author
• 1931 - Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
• 1943 - Tarja Halonen, President of Finland
• 1945 - Lemmy Kilmister, British bass player
• 1945 - Nicholas Meyer, author
• 1949 - Randy Neugebauer, American politician
• 1950 - Dana Gioia, American poet and chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
• 1957 - Hamid Karzai, politician of Afghanistan
• 1971 - Ricky Martin, singer
• 1973 - Eddie Pope, MetroStars defender
• 1974 - Ryan Seacrest, television host, American Idol
• 1974 - Marcelo Salas, Chilean football player
• 1976 - Jason Macy, test driver, writer, Formula One photographer
• 1983 - Irina Krush, American chess player

Deaths

• 1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer (b. 1469?)
• 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, 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)
• 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.

December 23 - December 25 - November 24 - January 24 -- listing of all days