Dec 24 in History
802 — Byzantine Emperor Leo V the Armenian, c 45, is assassinated in the palace chapel of St Stephen in Constantinople. Michael II, 50, whom he had imprisoned on suspicion of conspiracy, is crowned early Christmas morning with the heavy iron fetters still on his legs – because Leo had hidden the key on his person and his mutilated remains dumped unceremoniously in the snow.
1801 — Richard Trevithick, inventor of the first working steam locomotive, demonstrates his “Puffing Devil”, a full-size steam road locomotive carrying six passengers, on the streets of Camborne, England.
1826 — The Eggnog Riot starts at the US Military Academy at West Point. A large amount of whiskey was smuggled in to make eggnog for a Christmas Day party, but the party is started prematurely by nine cadets. Others join in and chaos ensues, until the corps is called to attention in the mess hall in the morning.
1868 — The Greek Presidential Guard is established as the royal escort by King George I. The elite unit that guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Presidential Mansion in Athens is closely associated with the traditional Evzones uniform and is a major tourist attraction.
1906 — Reginald Fessenden, a Canada-born inventor, transmits the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo and a speech.
1906 — Anna Neethling-Pohl, South African actress, film producer and the first woman broadcaster for the SABC, is born in GraaffReinet. She also writes under the pen names Niehausvor and Wynand du Preez, and translates seven Shakespeare dramas into Afrikaans.
1914 — World War 1: The three-day “Christmas truce”, a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front, begins.
1951 — Libya gains independence from Italy and becomes the Kingdom of Libya with Idris I as king. He is overthrown in a bloodless coup, led by Muammar Gaddafi, on September 1 1969 and the Libyan Arab Republic is established.
1953 — At Tangiwai, New Zealand, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapses beneath a passenger train. The locomotive and the first six carriages derail into the Whangaehu River, killing 151 people.
1974 — Cyclone Tracy, the second-smallest tropical cyclone on record (in terms of gale-force wind diameter), devastates Darwin, Australia. It kills 71 people and destroys 80% of the houses.