December 24 

December 24 is the 357th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 9 days remaining, 9 in leap years.

Events:

• 640 - John IV becomes Pope
• 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
• 1924 - Albania becomes a republic
• 1943 - US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the supreme Allied commander
• 1946 - France's Fourth Republic[?] founded
• 1951 - Libya becomes independent from Italy
• 1953 - NBC's Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program
• 1954 - Laos becomes independent
• 1968 - The crew of the USS Pueblo[?] was released by North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of spying.
• 1979 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government

Births:

• 1166 - John, king of England
• 1491 - Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit order)
• 1809 - Kit Carson, American frontiersman (died 1868)
• 1812 - Karl Eduard Zachariae, German expert on civil law
• 1818 - James Prescott Joule, British physicist
• 1837 - Elisabeth of Austria, Austrian empress (Sisi)
• 1859 - Samuel Fischer[?], publisher
• 1881 - Juan Ramón Jiménez[?], poet (died 1958)
• 1886 - Michael Curtiz, director (died 1962)
• 1905 - Howard Hughes, film producer, inventor, recluse (died 1976)
• 1906 - Joseph Höffner[?], cardinal and archbishop of Cologne
• 1907 - Cab Calloway, musician
• 1910 - Fritz Leiber, American science fiction writer (died 1992)
• 1914 - Herbert Reinecker[?], screenplay writer
• 1922 - Ava Gardner, American actress (died 1990)
• 1927 - Mary Higgins Clark[?], author
• 1931 - Mauricio Kagel, Argentine[?] composer
• 1945 - Lemmy Kilmister, British bass player
• 1945 - Nicholas Meyer[?], author
• 1971 - Ricky Martin, singer
• 1983 - Irina Krush, American chess player

Deaths:

• 1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer
• 1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray, writer
• 1935 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer
• 1942 - Jean-François Darlan[?], vice-president of Vichy France
• 1957 - Norma Talmadge[?], actress
• 1975 - Bernard Herrmann, composer
• 1984 - Peter Lawford[?], actor
• 1986 - Gardner Fox, American writer
• 1993 - Norman Vincent Peale[?], writer
• 1997 - Toshirô Mifune, actor

Holidays and Observances:

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

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

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