On this day in History - Dec. 24

• 0427 - Archbishop Sisinnius I of Constantinople dies.
• 0563 - The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is inaugurated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.
• 0640 - John IV becomes Pope.
• 0820 - Leo V is assassinated (b. 0775). Byzantine Emperor.
• 1069 - Godfried II, with the Beard, Duke of Neder-Lutherans, dies.
• 1166 - John I was born (d. 1216). King of England.
• 1257 - John I, Count of Hainaut dies (b. 1218).
• 1294 - Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII, replacing St. Celestine V, who had abdicated.
• 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.
• 1524 - Vasco da Gama dies (b. c. 1469). Portuguese explorer.
• 1588 - Constance of Austria was born (d. 1631). Queen of Poland.
• 1603 - Se funda la Comuna de Nacimiento (Chile).
• 1635 - Mariana of Austria was born (d. 1696). Second wife of king Philip IV of Spain.
• 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.
• 1745 - Benjamin Rush was born (d. 1813). Founding Father of the United States.
• 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 County, Kentucky (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).
• 1843 - Lydia Koidula was born (d. 1886). Estonian poet.
• 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.
• 1872 - William John Macquorn Rankine dies (b. 1820). British physician and engineer.
• 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.
• 1879 - Queen Alexandrine of Denmark was born (d. 1952). Queen Consort to Christian X.
• 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.
• 1888 - Vincent Van Gogh cuts off his ear during some sort of seizure.
• 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).
• 1891 - Elmano Cardim was born (d. 19 Feb 1979). Brazilian journalist, member of Academia Brasileira de Letras.
• 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). American 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.
• 1904 - Joseph Moses Juran was born. American industrial engineer and philanthropist.
• 1905 - Howard Hughes was born (d. 1976). American film producer and pioneer aviator.
• 1906 - Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmitted the first radio broadcast. The first program, consisted of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
• 1906 - Franz Waxman was born (d. 1967). German film composer.
• 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 - Ralph Marterie was born (d. 1978). American trumpet player and big band leader.
• 1914 - John Muir dies (b. 1838). Scottish-born American naturalist
• 1917 - Kim Jong-suk was born (d. 1949). Wife of Kim Il-sung, mother of Kim Jung-Il, "The Heroine of the Anti-Japanese Revolution".
• 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 was born (d. 31 Jul 1980). Indian actor and playback singer.
• 1924 - Albania becomes a republic.
• 1924 - Lee Dorsey was born (d. 1986). American singer.
• 1924 - Grigory Kriss was born. Russian Olympic champion fencer
• 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.
• 1931 - La zapatera prodigiosa, comedia de Federico Garcia Lorca [1898-19 Aug 1936] , se estrena en Madrid.
• 1931 - Alves Barbosa was born in Fontela, Figueira da Foz. Portuguese cyclist.
  
• 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.
• 1932 - On Kawara was born. Japanese conceptual artist
• 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 - Bobby Henrich was born. American baseball player.
• 1938 - Valentim Loureiro was born. Portuguese politician, and former football chairman of Boavista F.C. and Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional.
  
• 1938 - Assis Brasil [Joaquim Franciscoo de Assis Brasil] dies in Granja de Pedras Altas, Pinheiro Machado (b. 29 Jul 1857). Brazilian politician.
• 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.
• 1944 - Oswald Gracias was born. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bombay.
• 1944 - Barry Chuckle was born. British comedian.
• 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.
• 1946 - Jeff Sessions was born. American politician.
• 1947 - Kevin Sheedy was born. Coach of Australian Football League club Essendon FC.
• 1948 - Frank Oliver was born. New Zealand rugby player.
• 1949 - Randy Neugebauer was born. American politician.
• 1949 - Warwick Brown was born. Australian racing driver.
• 1950 - António Thadeu Wojciechowski was born in Curitiba, Paraná. Brazilian poet.
  
• 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 becomes independent from Italy. Idris I was proclaimed king of Libya.
• 1951 - John D'Acquisto was born. American 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.
• 1953 - François Loos was born. French politician.
• 1954 - Laos becomes independent.
• 1954 - José María Figueres was born. Costa Rican politician, President 1994-1998.
• 1955 - Grand L. Bush was born. Aerican 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).
• 1958 - Munetaka Higuchi was born. Japanese drummer.
• 1959 - Anil Kapoor was born. Indian actor.
• 1959 - Keith Deller was born. British darts player.
• 1960 - Carol Vorderman was born. British television presenter.
• 1960 - Glenn McQueen was born. American animator.
• 1961 - Ilham Aliyev was born. President of Azerbaiyán.
• 1963 - Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus.
• 1962 - Kate Spade was born. Designer.
• 1963 - Caroline Aherne was born. British comedienne, writer and actress.
• 1963 - Mary Ramsey was born. American singer (10,000 Maniacs).
• 1964 - Mark Valley was born. American actor.
• 1965 - Mafalda Veiga was born. Portuguese singer and songwriter.
• 1965 - William M. Branham dies (b. 1906). Christian minister.
• 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.
• 1967 - Mikhail Shchennikov was born. Russian race walker.
• 1968 - The crew of the USS Pueblo was released by North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of spying.
• 1968 - Apollo Program: The crew of Apollo 8 enter into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.
• 1968 - Doyle Bramhall II was born. American guitarist.
• 1969 - Mark Millar was born. Scottish comic book writer.
• 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.
• 1969 - Papagueno was born. Portuguese Bairro do Amor (blog) webmaster.
• 1970 - 9 Jews are convicted in Leningrad of hijacking a plane.
• 1970 - Walt Disney's "Aristocats" is released.
• 1970 - Amaury Nolasco was born. American actor
• 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.
• 1971 - Giorgos Alkaios was born. Greek singer.
• 1972 - Gisela Richter was born (d. 1882). English art historian.
• 1972 - Alvaro Mesen was born. Costa Rican football player.
• 1972 - Melville Ruick dies (b. 1898). American actor.
• 1973 - Eddie Pope was born. MetroStars defender.
• 1973 - Stephenie Meyer was born. American author.
• 1974 - Ryan Seacrest was born. American 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 becomes Prime-Minister of Japan.
• 1976 - Florencia Abbate was born in Buenos Aires. Argentinian writer.
• 1976 - Jason Macy was born. Test driver, writer, Formula One photographer.
• 1976 - Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza dies (b. 1907). Heir to the throne of Portugal.
• 1977 - Samael Aun Weor dies (b. 1917). Columbian writer.
• 1978 - Yıldıray Baştürk was born. Turkish footballer.
• 1979 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government.
• 1979 - The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
• 1979 - Chris Hero was born. American professional wrestler.
• 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 - Tomas Kalnoky was born. American musician (Streetlight Manifesto).
• 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.
• 1985 - David Ragan was born. American race car driver.
• 1985 - Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith dies (b. 1904). Last Lincoln descendant.
• 1986 - Gardner Fox dies (b. 1911). American writer.
• 1986 - Iran offensive against Iraqi islands of Shatt al-Arab.
• 1986 - Edward Southall was born. British composer.
• 1986 - Riyo Mori was born. Miss Universe 2007 from Japan.
• 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.
• 1987 - M. G. Ramachandran dies (b. 1917). Chief Minister of the Tamil Nadu.
• 1989 - O deposto líder panamenho, general Manuel Antonio Noriega, pede asilo político ao enviado do Papa no Panamá.
• 1990 - Thorbjørn Egner dies (b. 1922). Norwegian author.
• 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 - 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.
• 1997 - Toshirô Mifune dies (b. 1920). Japanese actor.
• 1997 - Pierre Péladeau dies (b. 1925). Quebec businessman, founder of Quebecor.
• 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.
• 1999 - Bill Bowerman dies. American track and field coach.
• 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 (b. 1935). American singer (The Four Seasons).
• 2002 - Kjell Aukrust dies. Norwegian author.
• 2002 - Laci Peterson dies (b. 1975). American murder victim.
• 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.
• 2006 - "Braguinha" dies (b. 1907). Brazilian songwriter.
• 2006 - Kenneth Sivertsen dies (b. 1961). Norwegian singer, poet and comedian.
• 2006 - Frank Stanton dies (b. 1908). American television executive.
• 2007 - Nicholas Pumfrey dies (b. 1951). British judge.
• 2007 - Akbar Radi dies (b. 1939). Iranian dramatist and playwright.
• 2008 - Harold Pinter dies (b. 1930). English playwright, director, actor and poet, Nobel Prize laureate.
• December 24 is celebrated as the day before Christmas, thus called Christmas Eve. In Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Dominican Republic, among others, this is the day that presents are exchanged and opened. In some of these countries, presents are delivered to children by Santa Claus, personified by an adult dressed up as Santa who comes knocking on the door.
• Portugal: Festa de São Benedito em Ourém.