About December 24

December 24, 2024 is the 359th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 7 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Tuesday.

You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.

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Capricorn is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Turquoise is the modern birthstone for this month. Onyx is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 36 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

What Happened On December 24

  • 1294
    Pope Boniface VIII is elected Pope, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned.
  • 1777
    Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.
  • 1814
    The Treaty of Ghent is signed ending the War of 1812.
  • 1818
    The first performance of “Silent Night” takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
  • 1865
    The Ku Klux Klan is formed.
  • 1871
    Aida opens in Cairo.
  • 1906
    Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
  • 1913
    The Italian Hall Disaster (“1913 Massacre”) in Calumet, Michigan, results in the death of 73 Christmas party goers held by striking mine workers, including 59 children.
  • 1914
    World War I: The “Christmas truce” begins.
  • 1939
    World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
  • 1942
    World War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers.
  • 1943
    World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander.
  • 1951
    Libya becomes independent from Italy. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya.
  • 1953
    Tangiwai disaster: A railway bridge is destroyed by a lahar at Tangiwai, in the Central North Island of New Zealand, sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River, and killing 153 people.
  • 1955
    NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.
  • 1966
    A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.
  • 1973
    District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
  • 1997
    The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria kills 50-100 people.
  • 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.
  • 2008
    Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, begins a series of attacks on Democratic Republic of the Congo, massacring more than 400.

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