On this day: December 24

Events on December 24

• 640 Pope John IV is elected, several months after his predecessor's death. Wikipedia
• 759 The Tang-dynasty poet Du Fu departed for Chengdu, where he lived for the next five years and composed poems about life in his thatched cottage. Wikipedia
• 1144 The capital of the crusader County of Edessa falls to Imad ad-Din Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo. Wikipedia
• 1294 Pope Boniface VIII is elected, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned. Wikipedia
• 1777 Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook. Wikipedia
• 1814 The United Kingdom and the United States signed a peace treaty in Ghent, present-day Belgium, ending the War of 1812. Wikipedia
• 1818 The Christmas carol "Silent Night" by Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber was first performed in a church in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. Wikipedia
• 1846 The Sultanate of Brunei ceded the island of Labuan to the British Empire. Wikipedia
• 1865 Six Confederate veterans of the American Civil War founded a social club they named the Ku Klux Klan, which later became a white supremacist group. Wikipedia
• 1871 Aida, one of Giuseppe Verdi's most popular operas, made its debut in Cairo, Egypt. Wikipedia
• 1913 Seventy-three people were crushed to death in a stampede after someone falsely yelled "fire" at a crowded Christmas party in Calumet, Michigan, U.S. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: British and German soldiers interrupted fighting to celebrate Christmas, beginning the Christmas truce . Wikipedia
• 1918 Forces united in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes defeated Hungarian forces to end the occupation of Međimurje. Wikipedia
• 1925 Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story in the London Evening News. Wikipedia
• 1929 Assassination attempt on Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen. Wikipedia
• 1939 World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace. Wikipedia
• 1951 Libya becomes independent. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya. Wikipedia
• 1953 A railway bridge at Tangiwai on New Zealand's North Island was damaged by a lahar and collapsed beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people. Wikipedia
• 1955 According to legend, the NORAD Tracks Santa program began after children began calling the Continental Air Defense Command Center to inquire about Santa Claus's whereabouts due to a misprinted phone number in an advertisement. Wikipedia
• 1964 The Viet Cong bombed the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, killing two U.S. Army officers and raising fears of an escalation of the Vietnam War. Wikipedia
• 1968 Piloted by Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 became the first human spaceflight to reach and orbit the Moon. Wikipedia
• 1973 The U.S. Congress granted home rule to Washington, D.C., allowing the residents to elect their own mayor and a city council. Wikipedia
• 1979 The Soviet government deployed troops in Afghanistan, starting the Soviet–Afghan War. Wikipedia
• 1999 Jihadists linked to al-Qaeda hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 to force the release of Islamist figures held in prison in India. Wikipedia
• 2008 The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, began attacks on several villages in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing hundreds and committing numerous atrocities. Wikipedia
• 2021 Burmese military forces killed at least 40 civilians during the Mo So massacre in Kayah State, Myanmar. Wikipedia

Born on December 24

• 3 BC Galba, Roman emperor (died 69) Wikipedia
• 1166 John, King of England (died 1216) Wikipedia
• 1761 Selim III, Ottoman sultan (died 1808) Wikipedia
• 1798 Adam Mickiewicz, Polish poet and playwright (died 1855) Wikipedia
• 1818 James Prescott Joule, English physicist and brewer (died 1889) Wikipedia
• 1822 Matthew Arnold, English poet and critic (died 1888) Wikipedia
• 1837 Empress Elisabeth of Austria (died 1898) Wikipedia
• 1845 George I of Greece (died 1913) Wikipedia
• 1868 Emanuel Lasker, German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher (died 1941) Wikipedia
• 1905 Howard Hughes, American businessman, engineer, and pilot (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1922 Ava Gardner, American actress (died 1990) Wikipedia
• 1934 Stjepan Mesić, Croatian lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Croatia Wikipedia
• 1940 Anthony Fauci, American physician, Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Wikipedia
• 1943 Tarja Halonen, Finnish lawyer and politician, 11th President of Finland Wikipedia
• 1945 Lemmy, English hard rock singer-songwriter and bass player (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1956 Anil Kapoor, Indian actor and producer Wikipedia
• 1957 Hamid Karzai, Afghan politician, 12th President of Afghanistan Wikipedia
• 1961 Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijani businessman and politician, 4th President of Azerbaijan Wikipedia
• 1971 Ricky Martin, Puerto Rican singer-songwriter and actor Wikipedia
• 1973 Stephenie Meyer, American author and film producer Wikipedia
• 1981 Dima Bilan, Russian singer-songwriter and actor Wikipedia
• 1991 Louis Tomlinson, English singer Wikipedia

Died on December 24

• 36 Gongsun Shu, emperor of Chengjia Wikipedia
• 1524 Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer and politician, Governor of Portuguese India (born 1469) Wikipedia
• 1863 William Makepeace Thackeray, English author and poet (born 1811) Wikipedia
• 1872 William John Macquorn Rankine, Scottish physicist and engineer (born 1820) Wikipedia
• 1914 John Muir, Scottish-American geologist, botanist, and author, founded Sierra Club (born 1838) Wikipedia
• 1935 Alban Berg, Austrian composer and educator (born 1885) Wikipedia
• 1980 Karl Dönitz, German admiral and politician, President of Germany (born 1891) Wikipedia
• 1982 Louis Aragon, French author and poet (born 1897) Wikipedia
• 1997 Toshiro Mifune, Chinese-Japanese actor and producer (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 1999 João Figueiredo, Brazilian general and politician, 30th President of Brazil (born 1918) Wikipedia
• 2008 Harold Pinter, English playwright, screenwriter, director, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1930) Wikipedia
• 2011 Johannes Heesters, Dutch-German entertainer (born 1903) Wikipedia
• 2012 Charles Durning, American soldier and actor (born 1923) Wikipedia
• 2016 Richard Adams, English author (born 1920) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Adela and Irmina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Paola Elisabetta Cerioli Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Adam and Eve Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: December 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: Aðfangadagskvöld, the day when the 13th and the last Yule Lad arrives to towns. (Iceland) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: Feast of the Seven Fishes (Italian Americans) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: Juleaften (Denmark)/Julaften (Norway)/Julafton (Sweden) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: Nittel Nacht (certain Orthodox Jewish denominations) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: Nochebuena (Spain and Spanish-speaking countries) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: The Declaration of Christmas Peace (Old Great Square of Turku, Finland's official Christmas City) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: Wigilia (Poland) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: Quviasukvik, the Inuit new year (Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia) Wikipedia
• Christmas Eve (Christianity) and its related observances: Kūčios (Lithuania) Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Libya) Wikipedia
• Day of Military Honour – Siege of Ismail (Russia) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “December 24” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/December 24” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “December 24” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for December 24 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.