Notable Historical Events on December 24th
December 24th Historical Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
563 |
The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes. |
640 |
John IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope |
1046 |
Pope Clement II, [Suitger] elected |
1294 |
Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII |
1476 |
400 Burgundian soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy |
1515 |
Thomas Wolsey appointed English Lord Chancellor |
1565 |
Compromise of the Nobles in Habsburg Netherlands closes against inquisition |
1568 |
Uprising of Moriscos in Granada |
1593 |
Storm hits Texel: 40 ships hit, 500 killed |
1651 |
John van Riebeeck departs to Cape of Good Hope |
1715 |
Swedish troops occupy Norway |
1777 |
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook |
1798 |
Russia & Britain sign Second anti-French Coalition |
1799 |
Jacobin plot against Napoleon uncovered |
1814 |
Treaty of Ghent (end of US-Britain War of 1812) signed |
1818 |
"Silent Night" composed by Franz Joseph Gruber; 1st sung next day |
1832 |
1st US Negro hospital founded by whites chartered, Savannah, Georgia |
1832 |
HMS Beagle anchors in Wigwam Bay at Cape Receiver |
1851 |
Fire devastates US Library of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes |
1860 |
Joseph Jefferson's "Rip Van Winkle" premieres in NYC |
1864 |
Battle of Gordonsville, VA |
1865 |
Several Confederate veterans form Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tn |
1871 |
Giusseppi Verdi's "Aida" premieres in Cairo, at the opening of the Suez canal |
1874 |
Pope Pius IX proclaims a jubilee for 1875 |
1884 |
Austria-Hungary admits King Leopold II's Congo Free State |
1889 |
Daniel Stover & William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake |
1893 |
Henry Ford completes his 1st useful gas motor |
1894 |
Scheveningse fishing boats destroyed by storm |
1894 |
Soccer team Achilles '94 forms in Axes |
1898 |
Herman Heijermans' "Ghetto" premieres in Amsterdam |
1900 |
Herman Heijermans' "Hope of Blessing" premieres in Amsterdam |
1900 |
The French Chamber of Deputies and Senate pass a bill calling for an end to agitation or prosecutions against those involved in the Dreyfus affair, which has divided France since 1894 |
1900 |
Foreign powers present the Chinese Empress with their list of 'irrevocable conditions' before their nations will withdraw troops from China |
1904 |
German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children |
1906 |
Reginald A Fessenden became 1st to broadcast music over radio (Mass) |
1910 |
Luisa Tetrazzini sings to 250,000 people at Lotta's Fountain |
1912 |
Irving Fisher patents archiving system with index cards |
1914 |
German plane drops bombs on Dover England |
1920 |
Enrico Caruso gives his last public performance (NYC) |
1922 |
BBC broadcasts 1st British radio play "Truth about Father Christmas" |
1922 |
London Coloseum opens |
1924 |
1st radio transmission of NCRV in Netherlands |
1924 |
Albania becomes a republic (ex-premier Ahmed Zogoe's coup) |
1924 |
Richard Rodgers Theater (46th St Chanin's) opens at 226 W 46th NYC |
1924 |
School in Babb's Switch, Oklahoma catches fire, 36 die |
1927 |
Test Cricket debut of Walter Hammond, who scored 51 & took 5-36 v S Af |
1928 |
George Abbott Theater (Adelphi, 54 St) opens at 152 W 54th St NYC |
1930 |
Bandung, Java: ir Sukarno 4 years jail sentenced |
1930 |
F Garcia Lorca's "La Zapatera Prodigiosa" premieres in Madrid |
1932 |
Arturo Alessandri wins presidental election in Chile |
1933 |
Paris express train derails & kills 160, injures 300 (France) |
1934 |
Grimmett takes 9-180 for SA as Queensland make 430 |
1935 |
Bradman scores 233 in 191 mins, SA v Queensland, 28 fours 1 six |
1935 |
National Council of Negro Women forms |
1936 |
1st radioactive isotope medicine administered, Berkeley, Ca |
1937 |
Dutch government recognizes Italian king Emanuel III as emperor of Abyssinia |
1939 |
World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace. |
1941 |
1st ships of admiral Nagumo's Pearl Harbor fleet return to Japan |
1942 |
1st powered flight of V-1 'buzz bomb', Peenemunde, Germany |
1942 |
Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja & Morozowsk |
1943 |
FDR appoints Gen Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces |
1943 |
Terence Rattigan's "While the Sun Shines" premieres in London |
1946 |
4th French republic established |
1946 |
US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor nazis" amnesty |
1946 |
France's Fourth Republic is founded. |
1948 |
1st US house completely sun-heated is occupied (Dover, Mass) |
1948 |
Greek government disbands due to state of war, press censorship |
1950 |
Cleveland Browns win NFL championship, beat LA 30-28 |
1951 |
1st televised opera (Amahl & Night Visitor) |
1951 |
United Kingdom of Libya gains independence from Italy via UN |
1953 |
2 fast express trains crash head-on killing 103 (Czechoslovakia) |
1953 |
KHOL (now KHGI) TV channel 13 in Kearney, NB (ABC) begins broadcasting |
1953 |
KOA (now KCNC) TV channel 4 in Denver, CO (NBC) begins broadcasting |
1953 |
René Coty elected president of France |
1953 |
Wellington-Auckland (NZ) express train swept away in flood kills 166 |
1954 |
Council for the Children Protection forms in Netherlands |
1954 |
Laos gains its independence |
1956 |
"I Love Lucy" Christmas show airs, never put in syndication |
1956 |
Ferdinand de Lesseps statue blown up in Port Said Egypt |
1960 |
Dutch bishops question papacy values |
1961 |
Houston Oilers beat San Diego Chargers 10-3 in AFL championship game |
1962 |
USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR |
1963 |
Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus |
1964 |
Shooting begins on "The Cage" the pilot for Star Trek |
1966 |
"Joyful Noise" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 12 perfs |
1966 |
Luna 13 lands on Moon |
1966 |
USAF C144 military charter crashes near Binh Thai Vietnam kills 129 |
1967 |
China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC |
1967 |
Pirate Radio Pegasus starts broadcasting off New Zealand |
1968 |
Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis |
1968 |
WATU (now WAGT) TV channel 26 in Augusta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting |
1970 |
9 Jews are convicted in Leningrad of hijacking a plane |
1970 |
Walt Disney's "Aristocats" is released |
1971 |
Peruvian Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later |
1973 |
Ferryboat capsized off coast of Equador, drowning 200 |
1973 |
District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government. |
1974 |
Cardinals' Lou Brock is named Sportsman of the Year |
1977 |
"Ghost to the Post", Raiders tight end Dave Casper ("The Ghost") catches a 42-yard reception to set up the Raiders' tying field goal near the end of regulation (Raiders win in OT) |
1979 |
1st Ariane rocket launched |
1980 |
Americans remembered Iran hostages by shining lights for 417 seconds |
1981 |
USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR |
1982 |
Chaminade, with a student body of only 850 students, beats #1 ranked Virginia 77-72 in a Honolulu holiday basketball classic |
1984 |
Palace coup in Mauritania |
1986 |
French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released |
1986 |
Iran offensive against Iraqi islands of Shatt al-Arab |
1989 |
Charles Taylor enters Liberia to unseat President Samuel K Doe |
1989 |
Panama's dictator, Manual Noriega, seeks asylum at Vatican embassy |
1990 |
Expos trade Tim Raines to White Sox for Ivan Calderon & Barry Jones |
1990 |
Saddam Hussein says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target |
1992 |
US President Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger for Iran-contra affair |
1994 |
4 Moslem fundamentalists capture Air France pilot in Algiers |
1997 |
1st time a Channukah candle is officially lit in Vatican City |
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. |
2000 |
The Texas 7 hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot during the robbery. |
2003 |
Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station. |
2012 |
11 kindergarten children are killed after a minivan plunges into a roadside pond in Jiangxi, China |
2015 |
At least 25 killed in hospital fire in Jazan, Saudi Arabia |
2015 |
Former American hostages in Iran will receive compensation |
2015 |
NORAD's Santa Tracker started with a typo 60 years ago |
2016 |
Carrie Fisher Hospitalized After Medical Episode on Plane |
2016 |
White House defends decision to abstain in UN vote on settlements |
2016 |
Israeli minister says US has abandoned Israel after UN vote |
2017 |
Rescuers search for Philippine storm victims as toll rises to 200 |
2017 |
Fire in Philippine shopping mall kills 37 |
2017 |
Miss America CEO, other leaders resign after report of derogatory emails |
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