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Today in History ~ December 24
Events1476 - 400 Burgundy soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy
1515 - Thomas Cardinal Wolsey appointed English Lord Chancellor
1724 - Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
1798 - Russia & England sign Second anti-French Coalition
1799 - Jacobin plot against Napoleon uncovered
1814 - The War of 1812 officially ended as the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium. [H]
1818 - "Silent Night" composed by Franz Joseph Gruber
1851 - Fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes. [H]
1865 - Several Confederate veterans form Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tn
1871 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" had its world premiere in Cairo, Egypt, to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal.
1889 - Daniel Stover & William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake
1893 - Henry Ford completes his 1st useful gas motor
1904 - German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
1906 - Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, Mass.
1920 - Enrico Caruso gave his last public performance, singing in Jacques Halevy's "La Juive" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
1933 - Paris express train derails & kills 160, injures 300
1936 - 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered, Berkeley, Ca
1941 - 1st ships of Admiral Nagumo's (Pearl Harbor) fleet return to Japan
1943 - President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation "Overlord."
1946 - 4th French republic established
1946 - US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor Nazis" amnesty
1951 - Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors," the first opera written specifically for television, was first broadcast by NBC TV.
1953 - 2 speeding express trains crash head-on killing 103 (Czechoslovakia)
1953 - Wellington-Auckland (NZ) express train swept away in flood kills 166
1963 - Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus
1966 - Luna 13 lands on Moon
1968 - Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis and transmitting a message to all mankind calling for 'peace on earth'. The three astronauts, James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman, had reached the moon. They would orbit the moon ten times, paving the way for the first Earthling to walk on the lunar surface some seven months down the road.
1970 - Walt Disney's "Aristocats" is released
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.
1989 - US armed invasion of Panama climaxed when Panamanian strong man and drug kingpin Manuel Noriega, the object of US invasion forces, took refuge at the Vatican Embassy in Panama City, asking for political asylum. It took weeks of negotiation and loud rock music played incessantly outside the embassy by American forces before Noriega agreed to give himself up. This was one of the high points in American foreign policy, especially when Noriega was kidnapped and flown to the US to stand trial -- which of course convicted him.
1990 - Saddam says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target
1991 - A day before resigning, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev briefed Russian President Boris Yeltsin on nuclear weapons-firing procedures. Gorbachev also held a farewell meeting with staff members.
1992 - Pres Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger of Iran-contra affair
1996 - The streets of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, turned violent as demonstrators traded blows with supporters of President Slobodan Milosevic and then were clubbed by riot police.
1997 - 1st time a Channukah candle is officially lit in Vatican City
2000 - Bombs exploded outside churches in nine Indonesian cities and towns, killing at least 19 people.
Birthdays Today
1167 - John "Lackland" Plantagenet, king of England (1199-1216)
1745 - Benjamin Rush, Byberry Pa, physician/general/signer (Declaration of Independence)
1809 - Kit (Christopher) Carson (frontiersman: subject of adventure novels; fur trapper, guide, American Indian agent and brevet Union general)
1818 - James Prescott Joule, physicist (discovered conservation of energy)
1868 - Emanuel Lasker, Germany, world chess champion (1894-21)
1879 - Stanislav Pylypovych Lyudkevych, composer
1893 - Harry Warren (Salvatore Guaragna) (composer: Song Writer's Hall of Famer: Best Song Oscars: Lullaby of Broadway [1935], You'll Never Know [1943], On the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe [w/Johnny Mercer-1946]; You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, That's Amore)
1904 - Herbert D Riley, US vice-admiral (WW II, Guadalcanal, Okinawa)
1905 - Howard Hughes (industrialist: Hughes Aircraft; pilot: the 'Spruce Goose'; Hollywood producer: Jean Harlow's career, The Front Page, Scarface, The Outlaw; eccentric recluse)
1905 - I.F. (Isidor Feinstein) Stone (journalist)
1914 - Ralph Marterie ('Caruso of the trumpet': musician, bandleader: Pretend, Caravan, Skokiaan )
1922 - Ava Gardner (Lucy Johnson) (actress: The Barefoot Contessa, Earthquake, The Long Hot Summer, The Night of the Iguana; wife of Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra)
1924 - Carol Haney (dancer, actress)
1929 - Mary Higgins Clark, Bronx NY, author (Cry in the Night, Stillwatch)
1930 - Jill Bennett (actress: For Your Eyes Only, The Old Curiosity Shop, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Sheltering Sky)
1930 - Robert Joffrey (Khan) (choreographer)
1931 - Ray Bryant (pianist, composer: Slow Freight, Little Susie, Cubano Chant, The Madison Time, Sack of Woe, After Hours)
1944 - Bob Howard (football)
1944 - Mike Curb (music executive: producer: Oscar-winner You Light Up My Life [1977]; Curb Records; The Mike Curb Congregation: Sweet Gingerbread Man)
1945 - Cas Banaszek (football)
1946 - Jan Akkerman (musician: guitar, lute: bands: Friendship Sextet, Johnny and the Cellar Rockers, Brainbox, Focus, Eli)
1946 - 'Mean' Joe Green (football: Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle: Super Bowls IX, X, XIII, XIV; Miami Dolphins defensive coach)
1950 - John Matuszak (football: Oakland Raiders defensive end: Super Bowls XI, XIV)
Famous deaths
1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer/viceroy of Cochin, who had discovered a sea route around Africa to India, died in Cochin, India. dies at about 55
1660 - Mary I Henriette Stuart, queen of England, dies at 29
1869 - Edwin M[cMasters] Stanton, US Secretary of War (1861-65), dies at 55
1930 - Eduard David, German minister (constitution of Weimar), dies at 67
1942 - Jean LXF Darlan, French admiral, murdered by gaullists
1991 - Walter Hudson, 1,025 lb man, dies at 46
1993 - Norman Vincent Peale, rev (Power of Positive Thinking), dies at 95
2000 - Nick Massi, an original member of the Four Seasons, died at age 73.
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
Yesterday Tomorrow
