TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, Dec. 24, the 358th day of 2017. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Dec. 24, 1914, during World War I, impromptu Christmas truces began to take hold along parts of the Western Front between British and German soldiers.
On this date
1814 — The United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 following ratification by both the British Parliament and the U.S. Senate.
1851 — Fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes.
1865 — Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, that was the original version of the Ku Klux Klan.
1871 — Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Aida” had its world premiere in Cairo, Egypt.
1906 — Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to transmit the human voice (his own) as well as music over radio, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
1943 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe as part of Operation Overlord.
1951 — Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” the first opera written specifically for television, was broadcast by NBC-TV.
1968 — The Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast.
1974 — Cyclone Tracy began battering the Australian city of Darwin, resulting in widespread damage and causing some 65 deaths.
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.
1995 — Fire broke out at the Philadelphia Zoo, killing 23 rare gorillas, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs. 2012 — A group of around 20 people were part of a flash mob that sang carols at Mount Berry Square Mall. The event was organized by the family of Max Tucker.
Ten years ago
President George W. Bush made Christmas Eve calls to 10 U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other spots around the world, thanking them for their sacrifice and wishing them a happy holiday.
Today’s Birthdays
Author Mary Higgins Clark is 90. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is 71. The former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is 60. Rock musician Ian Burden (The Human League) is 60. Actor Wade Williams is 56. Designer Kate Spade is 55. Rock singer Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs) is 54. Actor Amaury Nolasco is 47. Singer Ricky Martin is 46. Author Stephenie Meyer is 44. TV personality Ryan Seacrest is 43. Rock singer Louis Tomlinson (One Direction) is 26.