December 24
1524
Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama died in Cochin, India.
1814
The War of 1812 between America and Britain ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.
1818
“Silent Night” was composed by Franz Joseph Gruber.
1865
The Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee.
1871
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida premiered in Cairo, Egypt, at the opening of the Suez Canal.
1943
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of Allied Forces by President Franklin Roosevelt.
1992
President Bush pardoned former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Birthdays
Kit Carson
1809–68, American frontiersman and guide.
James Prescott Joule
physicist (1818)
Juan Ramón Jiménez
lyric poet (1881)
Howard Hughes
business executive (1905)
Ava Gardner
actress (1922)
Mary Higgins Clark
novelist (1931)
Ricky Martin
singer (1971)
Ryan Seacrest
TV personality (1974)