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