On this day in History - Dec. 24

• 0427 - Archbishop Sisinnius I of Constantinople dies.
• 0640 - John IV becomes Pope.
• 1069 - Godfried II, with the Beard, Duke of Neder-Lutherans, dies.
• 1166 - John I was born (d. 1216). King of England.
• 1294 - Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII.
• 1380 - John von Neumarkt dies. German Bishop / Chancellor Karel IV.
• 1389 - John VI, Duke of Brittany was born (d. 1442).
• 1453 - John Dunstable dies (b. c. 1390). English composer.
• 1475 - Thomas Murner was born (d.c. 1537). German writer
• 1491 - Ignatius of Loyola (Inigo de Onaz Y Loyola) was born in Spain (d. 1556). Founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit order).
• 1508 - Pietro Carnesecchi was born (d. 1567). Italian humanist.
• 1515 - Thomas Wolsey is named the English Lord Chancellor.
• 1603 - Se funda la Comuna de Nacimiento (Chile).
• 1609 - Philip Warwick was born (d. 1683). English writer and politician.
• 1660 - Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange dies (b. 1631)
• 1698 - William Warburton was born (d. 1779). English Bishop of Gloucester.
• 1707 - Noël Coypel dies (b. 1628). French painter.
• 1715 - Swedish troops occupy Norway.
• 1724 - Johann Conrad Ammann was born (d. 1811). Swiss physician and naturalist
• 1754 - George Crabbe was born (d. 1832). English poet and naturalist.
• 1761 - Jean-Louis Pons was born (d. 1831). French astronomer.
• 1764 - Alvará que autoriza João Baptista Locatelli a estabelecer uma fábrica de grude em Lisboa.
• 1768 - Funda-se a Imprensa Régia em Lisboa.
• 1777 - Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, was discovered by James Cook.
• 1779 - Lisbon Royal Academy of Sciences is founded by Queen Mary I of Portugal / A Academia Real das Ciências de Lisboa é criada em Portugal por D. Maria I
• 1798 - L'Angleterre et la Russie font alliance contre la France.
• 1798 - Adam Mickiewicz was born (d. 1855). Polish national poet (Pan Tadeusz).
• 1800 - Assassination attempt on Napoleon Bonaparte's life at Saint-Nicaise, Paris.
• 1809 - Kit Carson was born in Madison Co, Ky (d.1868). American frontiersman and guide.
• 1812 - Karl Eduard Zachariae was born (d. 1894). German expert on civil law.
• 1813 - Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan dies (b.1740)
• 1814 - The War of 1812 between America and Britain ended with the signing of The Treaty of Ghent
• 1818 - "Silent Night" was composed by Franz Joseph Gruber.
• 1818 - James Prescott Joule was born (d. 1889). British physicist who established that the various forms of energy - mechanical, electrical, and heat - are basically the same and can be changed, one into another. Thus he formed the basis of the law of conservation of energy, the first law of thermodynamics.
• 1822 - Matthew Arnold was born (d. 1888). English poet.
• 1824 - Peter Cornelius was born. Composer.
• 1837 - Elisabeth of Bavaria, later Austrian empress (Sisi) was born (d. 1898).
• 1845 - King George I of Greece was born (d. 1913)
• 1847 - Jaime Batalha Reis was born. Portuguese diplomat.
• 1851 - A fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes.
• 1859 - Samuel Fischer was born. Publisher.
• 1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray dies (b. 1811). English writer.
• 1865 - Several US Civil War Confederate veterans form the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee.
• 1865 - Sir Charles Lock Eastlake dies (b. 1793). English painter and writer.
• 1867 - Manuel de Oliveira Lima was born. Brazilian historian and diplomat.
• 1867 - Kantaro Suzuki was born (d. 1948). 42nd Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1868 - Emanuel Lasker was born (d. 1941). German chess player, world champion.
• 1868 - Adolphe d'Archiac dies (b. 1802). French paleontologist and geologist.
• 1871 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida premiered in Cairo, Egypt, at the opening of the Suez Canal.
• 1873 - Charles Gabriel Seligman was born [d. 1940]. He was a pioneer in British anthropology who conducted significant field research in Melanesia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and, most importantly, the Nilotic Sudan.
• 1873 - Johns Hopkins dies (b. 1795). Baltimore philanthropist and businessman.
• 1874 - Pope Pius IX proclaims a jubilee for 1875.
• 1879 - Émile Nelligan was born (d. 1941). Quebec poet.
• 1880 - Johnny Gruelle was born (d. 1939). American cartoonist, children's book writer and creator of Raggedy Ann
• 1881 - Juan Ramón Jiménez was born (d. 1958). Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1886 - Michael Curtiz was born (d.1962). Hungarian-born American film director (Captain Blood, Casablanca).
• 1887 - Louis Jouvet was born (d. 1951). French actor and producer.
• 1889 - Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate dies (b. 1819). Dutch poet and clergyman.
• 1889 - Vladimir Sokoloff Moscow was born in Russia. Actor (Road to Morocco).
• 1893 - Henry Ford completes his 1st useful gas motor.
• 1893 - Harry Warren was born (d. 1981). American composer and lyricist (Chattanooga Choo Choo - I Only Have Eyes for You)
• 1894 - Georges Guynemer was born (d. 1917). French aviator.
• 1895 - E. Roland Harriman was born (d. 1978). Financier.
• 1898 - Eugeniusz Pankiewicz dies at 41. Composer.
• 1898 - Baby Dodds was born (d. 1959). Jazz musician.
• 1898 - Héctor Scarone was born (d. 1967). Uruguayan football player.
• 1898 - Sharbel Makhluf dies (b. 1828). Lebanese monk canonized in 1977 by Pope Paul VI
• 1900 - Joey Smallwood was born (d. 1991). Canadian politician, Premier of Newfoundland.
• 1900 - Luciano Baptista Cordeiro dies. Portuguese politician.
• 1904 - António Branquinho de Oliveira was born. Portuguese scientist.
• 1905 - Howard Hughes was born (d. 1976). American film producer and pioneer aviator.
• 1906 - The first radio program, a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, broadcasts.
• 1906 - Joseph Höffner was born. Cardinal and archbishop of Cologne.
• 1907 - Cab Calloway was born (d. 1994). Musician.
• 1907 - I. F. Stone was born (d. 18 Jun 1989). American journalist famous for his witty commentary in his newsletter, "I.F. Stone's Weekly".
• 1908 - Ópera de Paris decide lacrar em um de seus muros gravações de grandes músicos, que só deverão ser abertas 200 anos depois.
• 1910 - Fritz Leiber was born (d. 1992). American writer.
• 1910 - William Hayward Pickering, was born, Engineer and physicist, head of the team that developed Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite.
• 1914 - World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.
• 1914 - Herbert Reinecker was born. German writer .
• 1914 - John Muir dies (b. 1838). Scottish-born American naturalist
• 1918 - Anwar El Sadat Egypt was born. President of Egypt (1970-81).
• 1919 - O homem mais rico do mundo, John D. Rockefeller, faz uma doação de 100 milhões de dólares para educação e outras causas filantrópicas.
• 1920 - Enrico Caruso gave his last public performance, singing in Jacques Halevy’s "La Juive" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
• 1920 - Evgeniya Rudneva was born (d. 1944). Russian World War II heroine.
• 1922 - Ava Gardner was born in Grabtown NC (d. 1990); American actress (On the Beach, Night of the Iguana).
• 1923 - George Patton IV was born (d. 2004). American general.
• 1923 - Michael DiBiase was born (d. 1969). American wrestler.
• 1924 - Mohd. Rafi Bollywood was born (d. 31 Jul 1980). Legend & playback singer.
• 1924 - Albania becomes a republic.
• 1924 - Lee Dorsey was born (d. 1986). American singer.
• 1925 - Mohd. Rafi was born (d. 1980). Indian actor and playback singer.
• 1926 - Paul Buissonneau was born. French-born Quebec theatre director
• 1929 - Assassination attempt of Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen.
• 1929 - Mary Higgins Clark was born in Bronx NY. American writer (Cry in the Night, Stillwatch).
• 1929 - Noel Da Costa was born. Composer.
• 1930 - Hermes Fontes dies (b. 1930). Brazilian writer.
• 1931 - La zapatera prodigiosa, comedia de Federico Garcia Lorca [1898-19 Aug 1936] , se estrena en Madrid.
• 1931 - Mauricio Kagel was born. Argentine composer
• 1931 - Ray Bryant was born. American jazz pianist and composer
• 1932 - Arturo Alessandri wins presidental election in Chile.
• 1933 - Paris express train derails & kills 160, injures 300 (France).
• 1934 - É realizada no Brasil a primeira greve dos Correios e Telégrafos.
• 1935 - Alban Berg dies (b. 1885). Austrian composer.
• 1936 - 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered, Berkeley, Ca.
• 1937 - Dutch government recognizes Italian King Emanuel III as Emperor of Abyssinia.
• 1937 - Félix Miéli Venerando dies. Brazilian football player
• 1938 - Bruno Taut dies (b. 1880). German architect.
• 1939 - John Osborne dies at age 65. British playwright ("Look Back in Anger")
• 1939 - World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
• 1941 - Hong Kong falls to the Japanese Imperial Army.
• 1941 - World War II: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces.
• 1941 - John Levene was born. British actor
• 1941 - Ana Maria Machado was born. Brazilian writer.
• 1941 - Siegfried Alkan dies (b. 1858). German composer.
• 1942 - Lançamento do primeiro míssil guiado por Wernher von Braun. Dará origem às bombas voadoras V-1 que bombardearão a Inglaterra a partir de Setembro de 1944.
• 1942 - World War II: French monarchist, Ferdinand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates French Vichy admiral Darlan in Algiers
• 1942 - Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja & Morozowsk.
• 1942 - François Darlan dies (b. 1881). Vice-premier of Vichy France .
• 1943 - President Roosevelt appointed General Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of supreme Allied forces as part of Operation "Overlord" .
• 1943 - Tarja Halonen was born. President of Finland
• 1944 - Daniel Johnson, Jr. was born. Quebec politician, Premier of Quebec
• 1944 - Mike Curb was born. American musician, record company executive and politician
• 1945 - Lemmy Kilmister was born. British bass player.
• 1945 - Nicholas Meyer was born. Director (Star Trek II Wrath of Khan).
• 1946 - France's Fourth Republic founded.
• 1946 - Brenda Howard was born (d. 2005). American bisexual activist.
• 1949 - Randy Neugebauer was born. American politician.
• 1950 - Dana Gioia was born. American poet and chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
• 1951 - Gian Carlo Menotti’s "Amahl and the Night Visitors," the first opera written specifically for television, was first broadcast by NBC TV.
• 1951 - British run Tripolitania and Cyrenaica join with French administered Fezzan to form the newly independent Libya.
• 1951 - Getulio Vargas aumenta o salário mínimo, congelado há oito anos, de Cr$ 380 para Cr$ 1.200 (Brasil).
• 1951 - Libya became independent from Italy. Idris I was proclaimed king of Libya.
• 1951 - John D'Acquisto was born. Baseball player
• 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 - 2 fast express trains crash head-on killing 103 (Czechoslovakia).
• 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.
• 1954 - José María Figueres was born. Costa Rican politician, President 1994-1998
• 1955 - Grand L. Bush was born. Actor
• 1955 - Clarence Gilyard was born. American actor
• 1956 - Stephanie Hodge was born. Actress
• 1957 - Hamid Karzai was born. President of Afghanistan
• 1957 - Diane Tell was born. Quebec singer
• 1957 - Ian Burden was born. Rock musician (The Human League)
• 1957 - Norma Talmadge dies (b. 1893). American actress (Sign on Bay).
• 1959 - Keith Deller was born. Darts player
• 1960 - Carol Vorderman was born. British television presenter.
• 1961 - Ilham Aliyev was born. President of Azerbaiyán.
• 1963 - Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus .
• 1962 - Kate Spade was born. Designer
• 1963 - Mary Ramsey was born. American singer (10,000 Maniacs)
• 1964 - Mark Valley was born. Actor
• 1965 - Mafalda Veiga was born. Portuguese singer and songwriter
• 1966 - A Canadair CL44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam killing 129 .
• 1966 - Luna 13 lands on Moon.
• 1966 - Diedrich Bader was born. American actor.
• 1968 - The crew of the USS Pueblo was released by North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of spying.
• 1968 - the Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve television broadcast.
• 1968 - Doyle Bramhall II was born. American guitarist.
• 1969 - Curt Flood writes to Bowie K. Kuhn, the Commissioner of Baseball, asking to be declared a free agent.
• 1969 - Mark Millar was born. Scottish comic book writer.
• 1970 - 9 Jews are convicted in Leningrad of hijacking a plane.
• 1970 - Walt Disney's "Aristocats" is released.
• 1970 - Will Oldham was born. American songwriter.
• 1971 - Peruvian Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later.
• 1971 - Ricky Martin (Enrique Jose Matin Morales) was born in Puerto Rico, singer latin pop .
• 1971 - Christopher Daniels was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1972 - Gisela Richter was born (d. 1882). English art historian.
• 1972 - Alvaro Mesen was born. Costa Rican football player.
• 1973 - Eddie Pope was born. MetroStars defender.
• 1974 - Ryan Seacrest was born. Television host, American Idol.
• 1974 - Marcelo Salas was born. Chilean football player.
• 1974 - Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.
• 1975 - Bernard Herrmann dies (b. 1911). American composer film.
• 1976 - Takeo Fukuda se torna o novo primeiro-ministro japonês.
• 1976 - Jason Macy was born. Test driver, writer, Formula One photographer.
• 1977 - Samael Aun Weor dies (b. 1917). Columbian writer.
• 1979 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government.
• 1979 - The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
• 1979 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government.
• 1980 - Ex-Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, CAR, is sentenced to death while in exile in France.
• 1980 - Americans remembered the U.S. hostages in Iran by burning candles or shining lights for 417 seconds — one second for each day of captivity.
• 1980 - Karl Dönitz dies (b. 1891). President of Germany.
• 1980 - Siggie Nordstrom dies (b. 1893). American model, actress, entertainer, socialite and lead singer of The Nordstrom Sisters
• 1981 - Dima Bilan was born. Karachay-Russian pop artist.
• 1982 - Aiba Masaki was born. Japanese singer and actor
• 1982 - Louis Aragon dies (b. 1897). French writer.
• 1983 - Irina Krush was born. American chess player.
• 1984 - Peter Lawford dies (b. 1923) . American actor.
• 1985 - A black bull blocks the Cross Harbour Tunnel in Hong Kong for three hours.
• 1985 - Ferhat Abbas dies. Algerian independence leader.
• 1986 - Gardner Fox dies (b. 1911). American writer.
• 1986 - Iran offensive against Iraqi islands of Shatt al-Arab.
• 1987 - Japanese legendary rock band BOØWY declares their breakup at the Shibuya Kokaido.
• 1987 - Joop den Uyl dies (b. 1919). Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
• 1989 - O deposto líder panamenho, general Manuel Antonio Noriega, pede asilo político ao enviado do Papa no Panamá.
• 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev renuncia como líder da União Soviética.
• 1992 - President Bush pardoned former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
• 1992 - Peyo dies. Belgian comics artist, and creator of The Smurfs (Schtroumpfs)
• 1992 - Bobby LaKind dies (b. 1945). American musician and singer (The Doobie Brothers)
• 1993 - Norman Vincent Peale dies (b. 1898). American writer.
• 1994 - John Boswell dies. American historian.
• 1994 - Rossano Brazzi dies (b. 1916). Italian actor and singer.
• 1994 - John Osborne dies at 65. English playwright (Entertainer, Luther)
• 1994 - 4 Armed Islamic fundamentalists hijacked an Air France Airbus A-300 carrying 227 passengers at the Algiers airport; three passengers were killed during the siege before the hijackers were killed by French commandos in Marseille two days later.
• 1995 - Pela primeira vez na história da Turquia, o Partido Islâmico é eleito democraticamente, obtendo 21% do voto nacional.
• 1996 - Nguyen Huu Tho dies. President of Vietnam (1980-81).
• 1997 - The Dominican Republic becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
• 1997 - Toshirô Mifune dies (b. 1920). Japanese actor (Shogun).
• 1997 - Pela primeira vez na história, velas de Chanucá são acesas na Cidade do Vaticano.
• 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.
• 1998 - El presidente yugoslavo, Slobodan Milosevic, incumple su compromiso de alto el fuego e inicia un ataque contra las localidades de Glamnik, Obranca, Burince y Lapastica, considerados bastiones de la guerrilla independentista.
• 1999 - hijackers seized an Indian Airlines jet with 189 people aboard, forcing the aircraft on a journey across South Asia and into the Middle East. (The eight-day ordeal resulted in the death of one passenger and India’s release of three jailed pro-Kashmir militants in exchange for the rest of the hostages).
• 1999 - João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo dies (b. 1918). President of Brazil.
• 1999 - Maurice Couve de Murville dies (b. 1907). French politician, Prime minister of France.
• 2000 - The Texas 7 holds up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot in the incident.
• 2000 - Aubrey Hawkins dies (b. 1971). Irving, Texas police officer.
• 2000 - Nick Massi dies. American singer (The Four Seasons) (b. 1935)
  2002 - Kjell Aukrust dies. Norwegian author.
• 2002 - Os Estados Unidos divulgam que pelo menos treze pessoas morreram nas últimas 48 horas em conseqüência das tempestades de neve que atingem as zonas do centro e do sul do país. A maioria das mortes ocorreu em acidentes no trânsito devido às condições das estradas.
• 2002 - The New Delhi Metro opens.
• 2003 - A roadside bomb exploded north of Baghdad, killing three U.S. soldiers in the deadliest attack on Americans to that time following Saddam Hussein’s capture.
• 2003 - Air France canceled several flights to the United States after U.S. officials passed on what were termed "credible" security threats.
• 2003 - The Spanish police thwarts an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 PM inside Madrid's busy Chamartín.
• 2003 - Hugo Argüelles dies. Mexican dramatist.
• 2004 - The 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm delivers an extremely unusual snowfall to the southern United States.
• 2004 - Johnny Oates dies (b. 1946). Baseball player and manager.
• 2005 - Michael Vale dies (b. 1922). American commercial actor.
• December 24 is celebrated as the day before Christmas, thus called Christmas Eve.
• Portugal: Festa de São Benedito em Ourém