The December 24 reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

December 24

December 24 is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (359th in leap years). There are 7 days remaining.

Nov - December - Jan
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31
2004 day arrangement All days

Table of contents

1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and Observances 5 See Also

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
• 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 becomes independent from Italy
• 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 CL-44 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.
• 1979 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government
• 2000 - The Texas 7 holds up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot in the incident.

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)
• 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
• 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
• 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 (b. 1469?)
• 1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray, writer (b. 1811)
• 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)
• 1984 - Peter Lawford, actor (b. 1923)
• 1986 - Gardner Fox, American writer (b. 1911)
• 1993 - Norman Vincent Peale, writer
• 1997 - Toshirô Mifune, actor (b. 1920)
• 2000 - Aubrey Hawkins, Irving, Texas police officer (b. 1971)

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 and children around the world are urged to go to bed early so they are not awake when he comes.

See Also

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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