24th
December, on this day
0640 John
IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1166 John
of England born
1294 Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope
Boniface VIII
1476 400 Burgundy soldiers freeze to death during siege
of Nancy
1515 Thomas
Wolsey appointed English Lord Chancellor
1565 Compromise of the Nobles closes against inquisition
1568 Uprising of Morisco's
in Granada
1593 Storm hits Texel,
Netherlands: 40 ships hit, 500 killed
1650 Edinburgh
Castle in Scotland surrenders to troops commanded by Oliver
Cromwell
1651 John
van Riebeeck departs to Cape of Good Hope
1715 Swedish troops occupy Norway
1724 Benjamin
Franklin arrives in London
1798 Russia and England sign Second anti-French Coalition
1799 Jakobijns plot against Napoleon uncovered
1800 A plot to assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte is discovered in Paris.
The ringleaders are arrested and deported to Guiana
1814 America and Britain sign the Treaty
of Ghent officially ending the War of 1812
1818 "Silent
Night" composed by Franz
Joseph Gruber; sung for 1st time the next day
1832 1st US Negro hospital founded by whites chartered, Savannah GA
1832 HMS Beagle anchors in Wigwam Bay at Cape Receiver
1851 Fire devastates Library
of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes
1860
Joseph Jefferson's "Rip
Van Winkle" premieres in New York NY
1864 Battle of Gordonsville, VA
1865 Several Confederate veterans form the Ku
Klux Klan in Pulaski TN
1870 Giuseppe
Verdi's "Aida" premieres at Cairo
Opera, one year after the opening of the Suez Canal, for which
it was commissioned
1874 Pope
Pius IX proclaims a jubilee for 1875
1884 Austria-Hungary admits King
Leopold II's Congo Free State
1889 Daniel Stover and William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal
brake
1893 Henry
Ford completes his 1st useful gas motor
1904 The official opening of the London
Coliseum in St Martin's Lane
1904 German SW
Africa abolishes slavery of young children
1906 Reginald
A Fessenden became 1st to broadcast music over radio (Massachusetts)
1910 Luisa
Tetrazzini sings to 250,000 people at Lotta's Fountain
1912 Irving Fisher
patents archiving system with index cards
1914 World War I: The first German air raid on Britain - a single
bomb lands in the grounds of a church in Dover
1920 Enrico
Caruso gives his last public performance (New York NY)
1922 BBC sends 1st British radio play "Truth about Father Christmas"
1924
Albania becomes a republic (ex-premier Ahmed Zogoe's coup)
1924 School
in Babb's Switch, OK catches fire, 36 die
1924 Air crash in Croydon
air field - 8 dead.
1928 George
Abbott Theater (Adelphi, 54 St) opens at 152 W 54th St NYC
1930 Federico
García Lorca's "La Zapatera Prodigiosa" premieres
in Madrid
1932 Arturo
Alessandri wins presidental election in Chile
1933 Paris express train derails and kills 160, injures 300 (France)
1936 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered, Berkeley, CA
1941 American forces retreat into the peninsula of Bataan.
1941 Japanese bomb Rangoon
1941 1st ships of Admiral
Nagumo's Pearl Harbor-fleet return to Japan
1942 1st powered flight of V-1
buzz bomb, Peenemünde,
Germany
1942 Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja and Morozowsk
1942 The French administrator of North Africa, Admiral Jean
Darlan, is assassinated in Algiers
1943 FDR appoints General
Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
1943 Terence
Rattigan's "While the Sun Shines" premieres in London
1944 The American counter-attack at the "Bulge" begins.
1946 4th
French republic established
1946 US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor nazis" amnesty
1948 Greek government disbands due to state of war, press censorship
1951 1st televised opera (Amahl
and the Night Visitor)
1951 United Kingdom of Libya
gains independence from Italy via the UN
1953 2 fast express trains crash head-on, killing 103 (Czechoslovakia)
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 René
Coty elected President of France
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
1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1963 Greek and Turks riot in Cyprus
1964 Flying
Tiger Line Flight 282, a Lockheed Constellation, crashes near
San Bruno, California after an unexplained course deviation. The crew
of 3 people was killed.
1964 Shooting begins on "The
Cage", the pilot for Star Trek
1965 A meteorite, weighing about 45 kilogrammes, lands in Leicestershire,
England
1966 Luna
13 lands on Moon
1966 USAF CL-44 military charter crashes near Binh Thai Vietnam kills
129
1967 Pirate Radio Pegasus starts broadcasting off New Zealand
1967 China People's Republic performs nuclear test at Lop Nor People's
Rebublic of China
1968 Apollo
8 astronauts' Christmas reading (Book of Genesis) while orbiting
Moon
1970 9 Jews are convicted in Leningrad for hijacking a plane
1970 Walt Disney's "The
Aristocats" is released
1971 Peruvian
Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all
except Juliane
Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later
1971 Giovanni
Leone is elected President of the Italian Republic.
1973 Ferryboat capsized off coast of Ecuador, drowning 200
1976 Takeo
Fukuda becomes Japanese premier
1979 Soviet troops invade Afghanistan
1979 1st Ariane-rocket
launched
1980 Americans remembered Iran hostages by shining lights for 417
seconds
1981 Guardian Angels Curtis
Sliwa and Lisa Evers marry
1981 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk
USSR
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 Panamá's dictator, Manual
Noriega seeks asylum at the Vatican embassy
1989
Charles Taylor enters Liberia to unseat President Samuel K Doe
1990 Saddam says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target
1990 Iraq recalls its ambassadors to the United States, to the United
Nations and to Western European countries while refusing to withdraw
its troops from Kuwait ahead of the Jan 15, 1991 deadline
1991 Mikhail
Gorbachev resigns as head of the Soviet Union
1992 President Bush pardons Caspar
Weinberger of 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
1999 Indian
Airlines Flight 814 is hijacked. 1 death.
2000 The
Texas 7 holds up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer
Aubrey Hawkins is shot during the robbery.
2002 The New
Delhi Metro opens.
2003 -The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg
of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
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Birthdates which
occurred on 24th December :
0003 -BC- Servius
Sulpicius Galba 6th Roman emperor (68-69)
1167 John "without a land" king of England (1199-1216)
1564 Abraham C Bloemaert painter/cartoonist/engraver
1653 Georg Motz composer
1679 Domenico Natale Sarro composer
1689 French van Mieris "the Young" Dutch painter/historian
1714 Rainieri De Calzabigi Italian's literary (1st European Lottery)
1716 Patrice F earl De Nény South Netherlands chairman of Secret
Council
1719 Johann Christoph Altnikol composer
1726 Johann Ernst Hartmann composer
1745 Benjamin Rush Byberry PA, physician/general (Continental Army,
signed Declaration of Independence)
1754 George Crabbe Aldeburgh England, poet (Everlasting Mercy)
1761 SelŒm III poet/composer/sultan of Turkey (1789-1808)
1773 Joseph Wolfl composer
1791 A Eugène Scribe French dramatist (Bertrand et Raton)
1798 Adam B Mickiewicz Poland, national poet (Pan Tadeusz)
1809 Christopher "Kit" Carson Kentucky, Union Brigadier-General/Indian
fighter
1812 Henry Russell composer
1813 Henry Wellington Greatorex composer
1818 James Prescott Joule physicist (discovered conservation of energy)
1822 Matthew Arnold England, poet/critic (Dover Beach)
1822 Charles Hermite French mathematician (E is Transcendent)
1824 Peter Cornelius composer
1826 Ignacy Krzyzanowski composer
1829 Benjamin Ipavec composer
1829 Jose Rogel composer
1837 Sissi Emperor of Austria
1859 Roman Statkowski composer
1867 Manuel de Oliveira Lima Brazilian historian/diplomat
1867 Tevfik Fikret Turkish poet (Servet-i Fünun, Sis)
1868 Emanuel Lasker Germany, world chess champion (1894-21)
1869 Henriëtte Roland Holst-van der Schalk Dutch poet (Women
in Forest)
1870 Rosario Scalero composer
1871 Henri Stroethoff Dutch actor (A Chique Little Boy)
1879 Stanislav Pylypovych Lyudkevych composer
1881 Bronislaw Zygmunt Szulc composer
1881 Charles Wakefield Cadman composer
1881 Juan Ramón Jiménez Spain, poet (Distant Gardens,
Nobel 1956)
1885 Arthur Dolphin cricketer (Yorkshire & England keeper, later
Test umpire)
1887 Louis Jouvet Crozon France, actor (Volpone, Topaze, La Marseillaise)
1889 Vladimir Sokoloff Moscow Russia, actor (Road to Morocco)
1893 Carl Brisson Copenhagen Denmark, actor (Murder at the Vanities)
1893 Ruth Chatterton US actress (Madame X, Sarah & Son)
1894 Georges Guynemer French WWI pilot
19-- Michael Billington England, actor (Colonel Foster-UFO, The Quest)
1904 Daniel K Womack singer/guitarist
1904 Herbert D Riley US vice-admiral (WWII, Guadalcanal, Okinawa)
1905 Howard Hughes reclusive billionaire (Hughes Aircraft)/inventor
1905 Anna "Ans" van Dike ("the Young") Jewish
nazi collaborator
1906 Franz Waxman Königshütte, Germany, composer (Day at
the Races)
1906 John Walker museum director
1907 I[sidore] F[einstein] Stone US journalist (IF Stone's Weekly,
Columbia Award 1971)
1909 Adam Popovich composer
1909 Adam Rapacki Polish minister of Foreign Affairs (1956-68)
1910 Mitchell Ayres Milwaukee WI, orchestra leader (Hollywood Palace)
1910 Betty Ann Davies London England, actress (Tough Guy)
1910 Fritz [Reuter] Leiber Jr US, sci-fi author (Bazaar of the Bizarre)
1911 Eric Briault educationalist
1911 Malcolm MacEwen writer
1913 Karl Michael Komma composer
1914 Dorothy Hyson actress (Ghoul, Spare a Copper, Sing as We Go)
1914 Guus Verstraete Sr [August de Graef] Dutch actor/director (Black
Magic)
1918 Anwar El Sadat Egypt, President of Egypt (1970-81)
1920 Dave Bartholomew Louisiana, jazz artist/songwriter (Blueberry
Hill)
1921 Bill Dudley NFL halfback (Pittsburgh, Detroit, Washington)
1921 Gerard Thomas Victory composer
1922 Ava Gardner Grabtown NC, actress (On the Beach, Night of the
Iguana)
1923 Wilton S Mkwayi South African ANC leader
1924 [Irving] Lee Dorsey New Orleans LA, vocalist (Working in the
Coal Mine)
1924 Roy Miller cricketer (West Indies all-rounder in one Test 1953,
23 & 0-28)
1924 Willem Drees economist/Dutch politician (DS'70)
1926 Ronald Draper cricketer (South African batsman vs Australia 1949-50)
1927 Mary Higgins Clark Bronx NY, author (A Cry in the Night, Stillwatch)
1927 Teresa Stich-Randall US soprano (Vienna State Opera)
1929 Noel Da Costa composer
1930 Robert Joffrey [Abdullah Jaffa Anver Bey Khan] US, choreographer
(Joffrey Ballet)
1931 Jill Bennett Penang Malay, actress (Lady Jane, Concrete Jungle)
1931 Mauricio Kagel Argentina/German composer
1932 [Michael] Colin Cowdrey English cricket player
1932 Colin Cowdrey cricketer (in India England batsman, 1st to 100
Tests)
1938 Ralp Inbar Dutch TV host (Banana Split)
1940 Jorma Kaukonen rock guitarist/vocalist (Jefferson Airplane, Hot
Tuna)
1940 Paul Tagliabue NFL commissioner (1989- )
1940 Anthony Fauci US health official
1943 Christiane Schmidtmer Heidelberg Germany, actress (Ship of Fools)
1943 Tatton Sykes English baron/large landowner
1944 Erhard Keller German Federal Republic, 500 meter speed skater
(Olympics-gold-1968, 72)
1944 Mike Curb Savannah GA, singer (Mike Curb Congregation)
1945 Lemmy [Ian Kilminster] rocker (Hawkwind, Motorhead-Built for
Speed)
1945 Nicholas Meyer director (Star Trek II Wrath of Khan)
1946 Sharon Farrell Sioux City IA, (Lori-Hawaii 5-0, Young & Restless)
1946 John Akkerman Dutch guitarist/composer (Focus-Can't Stand Noise)
1946 Judy Tyler Los Angeles CA, playmate (Jan 1966)
1949 Cameron Seward LPGA golfer
1950 Libbi Larsen composer
1950 Peter te Bos Dutch singer (Claw Boys Claw)
1951 Johnny Contardo rocker (Sha Na Na-Shannon)
1955 Clarence Gilyard Jr Moses Lake WA, actor (Chips, Duck Factory)
1955 Anwar Khan cricketer (bowled four overs for Pakistan 1979)
1956 Stephanie Hodge comedian/actress (I Madman, Happily Ever After)
1957 Ian Burden Sheffield England, rock bassist (Human League-Only
Human)
1962 Michael Ray rocker
1963 Mary Ramsey singer (10,000 Maniacs)
1963 Timo Jutila Tampere Finland, hockey defenseman (Team Finland)
1964 Elbert Shelley NFL cornerback (Atlanta Falcons)
1964 Gary Muller South Africa, tennis star
1964 Marcel van der Net Dutch soccer player (FC Utrecht)
1964 Mark Valley Odgensvurg NY, actor (Days of Our Lives)
1965 Erika von Heiland Angeles City Philippines, US badminton player
(Olympics-92,96)
1965 Michael Haynes NFL wide receiver (New Orleans Saints, Atlanta
Falcons)
1965 Nancy Reno Elmhurst IL, WPVA volleyballer (Olympics-96)
1965 Winston Moss NFL linebacker (Seattle Seahawks)
1966 Deidrich Bader Washington DC, actor (Oswald-Drew Carey Show)
1968 Joe Scuderi cricketer (South Australian all-rounder)
1969 Kenny "Damn" Kelly Paterson NJ, rapper (Riff-Judy had
a Boyfriend)
1970 Filmel Johnson NFL defensive back (Buffalo Bills)
1970 Marian Smerciak Martin Czechoslovakia, hockey defenseman (Team
Slovakia 1998)
1970 Michael Batiste NFL/WLAF defensive tackle (Cowboys, Frankfurt
Galaxy)
1970 Romeo Wouden Dutch soccer player (Dordrecht '90, Heerenveen)
1971 Ricky Martin Puerto Rico, singer (Menudo)/actor (General Hospital)
1971 Tamir Bloom New York NY, fencer-epee (Olympics-96)
1973 Eddie Pope Greensboro NC, soccer defender (Olympics-gold-96)
1975 Natalie Ward Australian softball shortstop/2nd baseman (Olympics-bronze-96)
1985 Gregory Scott director
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Deaths which occurred on 24th December:
1069 Godfried II with the Beard, duke of Neder-Lutherans, dies
1380 John von Neumarkt German bishop/Chancellor Karel IV, dies
1453 John Dunstable English composer, dies
1524 Vasco da Gama Portuguese explorer/viceroy of Cochin India, dies
at about 55
1541 Andreas R Bodenstein von Carlstadt radical Lutheran, dies at
about 61
1548 Maximilian of Egmond Dutch count/stadholder of Frisia, dies
1660 Mary I princess of England, dies at 29
1707 Noel Coypel French painter, dies at 78
1823 Philipp Christoph Kayser composer, dies at 68
1862 Joseph Funk composer, dies at 84
1863 W M Thackeray writer, dies at 52
1869 Edwin M[cMasters] Stanton US Secretary of War (1861-65), dies
at 55
1885 Louis-Prosper Gachard Belgian historian, dies at 85
1898 Eugeniusz Pankiewicz composer, dies at 41
1904 Juliaan Dillens Flemish sculptor, dies at 55
1907 Isidor Feinstein "Izzy" Stone journalist (IF Stone's
Weekly), dies
1908 François-Auguste Gevaert Belgian musicologist/composer,
dies at 80
1909 Nicolaas G Pierson director Suriname/Dutch Bank, dies at 80
1930 Eduard David German minister (constitution of Weimar), dies at
67
1930 Oskar Nedbal composer, dies at 56
1932 Eyvind Alnaes composer, dies at 60
1935 Alban Maria Johannes Berg composer, dies at 50
1942 Admiral Jean Darlan French naval officer is murdered
1942 Friedrich Klose composer, dies at 80
1942 Jean Darlan French admiral, murdered by gaullists
1942 Konstantin Dmitrieyevich Balmont Russian poet, dies at 75
1944 Joseph Gustav Mraczek composer, dies at 66
1945 Francisco Pujol composer, dies at 67
1952 Henry A "Hans" Kramers Dutch theoretical physicist,
dies at 58
1955 Nana Bryant actress (Mrs Nestor-Our Miss Brooks), dies at 67
1957 Norma Talmadge US actress (sign on bay), dies at 60
1961 Guy de Lioncourt composer, dies at 76
1966 Gaspar Cassado Moreu composer, dies at 69
1972 Charles Atlas [Angelo Siciliano] body builder, dies at 79
1972 Ernst Kreuder writer, dies at 69
1974 Tilly Losch actress (Duel in the Sun, Good Earth), dies at 70
1975 Bernard Herrmann US movie composer, dies at 64
1975 Otto AP Fürst von Bismarck-Schönhausen German diplomat,
dies at 78
1976 Victor Stanitsin actor (War & Peace, Jubilee), dies at 79
1977 Harriët Freezer Dutch journalist/author, dies at 66
1979 Dirk Uipko Stikker Dutch CEO (Heineken)/Secretary-General NATO,
dies at 82
1979 Rudi [Rudolf] Dutschke German student leader, dies at 39
1980 Alec Lafayette Chew Wilder composer, dies at 73
1980 Karl Dönitz German great admiral/Führer (1945), dies
at 89
1982 Louis Aragon French poet (Pour un Réalisme Socialiste),
dies at 85
1984 Peter Lawford actor (The Thin Man), dies of cardiac arrest at
61
1984 Ian Hendry actor (Assassin, Get Carter, Repulsion), dies at 53
1986 Gardner F[rancis] Fox author (Kothar-Barbarian Swordsman), dies
at 75
1987 John M "Joop" de Uyl Dutch social-democratic premier
(1973-77), dies at 68
1991 Walter Hudson 1,025 lb man, dies at 46
1992 Abdulkadir Widjojoatmodjo Java diplomat, dies
1992 Pierre Culliford [Peyo] Belgian cartoonist (Smurfs), dies at
64
1993 Alexander Mackendrick British/US director (Lady Killers), dies
at 81
1993 Norman Vincent Peale rev (Power of Positive Thinking), dies at
95
1993 Yen Chia-kan PM/President of Taiwan (1963-72, 75-78), dies
1994 Jimmy Buddy Lee Land Ace singer, dies at 57
1994 John Eastburn Boswell medievalist, dies at 47
1994 John James Osborne (Entertainer Luther), playwright, dies of
cardia arrest at 65
1994 John Keith Wright English Assistant Secretary of State (1971-84),
dies at 66
1994 Julie Haydon [Donella Donaldson] US actress (Scoundrel), dies
at 84
1994 Louise H "Lous" Hensen actress (Uncle Wanja, Charlotte),
dies at 74
1994 Nathan I. Daniel inventor (Guitars), dies at 82
1994 Rossano Brazzi Italian resistance fight/actor (Final Justice),
dies at 78
1995 Geoffrey Pinnington journalist, dies at 76
1995 Harry McLevy trade unionist, dies at 59
1996 Edward Leadbitter politician, dies at 77
1996 Nguyen Huu Tho President of Vietnam (1980-81), dies
1996 Peter Dormer arts writer, dies at 47
1997 Alan Fluck musical educationalist, dies at 69
1997 Anthea Joseph music producer, dies at 57
1997 James Komack producer (Courtship of Eddie's Father), dies at
67
1997 Toshiro Mifune Japanese actor (Shogun), dies at 77
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