On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on December 24:
0003 BC Servius Sulpicius Galba 6th Roman emperor (68-69)
1167 John "Lackland" Plantagenet, king of England (1199-1216)
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon28.html
1745 Benjamin Rush, Byberry Pa, physician/general/signer (Declaration of Independence)
http://www.benjaminrush.com/
1809 Christopher (Kit) Carson(frontiersman: subject of adventure novels; fur trapper, guide, American Indian agent and brevet Union general)
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/carson.htm
1818 James Prescott Joule, physicist (discovered conservation of energy)
1868 Emanuel Lasker, Germany, world chess champion (1894-21)
1905 I.F. (Isidor Feinstein) Stone ("journalist")
1905 Howard Hughes, American industrialist, film producer, director and aviator
1922 Ava Gardner Grabtown NC, actress (On the Beach, Night of the Iguana)
1940 Paul Tagliabue NFL commissioner (1989- )
1944 Mike Curb (music executive: producer: Oscar-winner You Light Up My Life)(Burning Bridges-Kelly's Heroes)
1950 John Matuszak (football: Oakland Raiders defensive end: Super Bowls XI, XIV)
Deaths which occurred on December 24:
1524 Vasco da Gama Portuguese explorer/viceroy of Cochin India, dies at about 55
1863 W M Thackeray writer, dies at 52
1869 Edwin M[cMasters] Stanton US Secretary of War (1861-65), dies at 55
1942 Admiral Jean Darlan French naval officer is murdered
1979 Rudi [Rudolf] Dutschke German student leader, founder Green Party dies at 39
1980 Karl Dönitz German great admiral/Führer (1945), dies at 89
http://www.adolfhitler.ws/lib/nsdap/Donitz.html 1984 Peter Lawford actor, dies of cardiac arrest at 61
1991 Walter Hudson 1,025 lb man, dies at 46
1992 Pierre Culliford [Peyo] Belgian cartoonist (Smurfs), dies at 64
1993 Norman Vincent Peale (Power of Positive Thinking), dies at 95
1994 John Eastburn Boswell medievalist, dies at 47
1994 Rossano Brazzi Italian resistance fight/actor (Final Justice), dies at 78
1996 Nguyen Huu Tho President of Vietnam (1980-81), dies
1996 Peter Dormer arts writer, dies at 47
1997 Alan Fluck musical educationalist, dies at 69
1997 Toshiro Mifune Japanese actor (Shogun), dies at 77
2000 Nick Massi (73), an original member of the Four Seasons, died
Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
24-Dec-2003 5 | US: 5 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant Michael E. Yashinski Kirkuk - At Ta'mim Non-hostile - electrocution
US Command Sergeant Major Eric F. Cooke Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Sergeant Benjamin W. Biskie Samarra (near) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Captain Christopher F. Soelzer Samarra (near) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Major Christopher J. Splinter Samarra (near) - Salah ad Din Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
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Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php
On this day...
0640 John IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1046 Pope Clement II [Suitger] elected
1294 Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII
1476 400 Burgundian soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy
1515 Thomas Wolsey appointed English Lord Chancellor
1638 The Ottomans under Murad IV recapture Baghdad from Safavid Persia.
1724 Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
1799 Jacobin plot against Napoleon uncovered
1814 The Treaty of Ghent between the United States and Great Britain, terminating the War of 1812, signed at Ghent, Belgium
http://www.classbrain.com/artteenst/publish/article_76.shtml 1851 Fire devastates Library of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes
1861 The USS Gem of the Sea destroys the British blockade runner Prince of Wales off the coast at Georgetown, S.C
1865 Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tenn., called the Ku Klux Klan.
1889 Daniel Stover & William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake
1893 Henry Ford completes his 1st useful gas motor
1904 German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
1906 Reginald A Fessenden became 1st to broadcast music over radio (Massachusetts)
1914 World War I was only months old on Christmas Eve 1914 when an extraordinary unofficial truce occurred in many places along the Western Front. "We were all moved and felt quite melancholy," wrote one German soldier, "each of us taken up with his own thoughts of home." German and English troops, often less than one hundred yards from each other, set aside warfare to trade Christmas greetings and sing familiar carols in two languages. The truce, probably observed by two-thirds of the British and German troops, ended with the holiday, but reasserted the basic decency of ordinary men like these British and German soldiers caught up in war.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWchristmas.htm 1941 1st ships of Admiral Nagumo's Pearl Harbor-fleet return to Japan
1942 1st powered flight of V-1 buzz bomb, Peenemünde, Germany
1943 FDR appoints General Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
1946 4th French republic established
1946 US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor nazis" amnesty
1951 Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors," the first opera written specifically for television, was first broadcast by NBC.
1956 African Americans defy a city law in Tallahassee, Florida, and occupy front bus seats.
1963 New York's Idlewild Airport is renamed JFK Airport in honor of the murdered President Kennedy.
1964 Shooting begins on "The Cage", the pilot for Star Trek
1966 Luna 13 lands on Moon
1968 Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis
Apollo 8 astronauts look back 30 years after historic flight
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9812/20/apollo.anniv/ 1971 Peruvian Airlines Electra crashed at headwaters of the Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later.
1986 French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released
1989 Panama's dictator, Manual Noriega seeks asylum at Vatican embassy
1990 Saddam says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target
1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Soviet Union
1992 President Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger of Iran-contra affair
1994 4 Moslem fundamentalists (aka: TERRORISTS!) capture Air France pilot in Algiers
1996 The streets of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, turned violent as demonstrators traded blows with supporters of President Slobodan Milosevic and then were clubbed by riot police.
1997 1st time a Channukah candle is officially lit in Vatican City
1999 Algerian Islamic terrorists kill 29 people at a roadblock near Khemis Miliana, some 50 miles west of Algiers.
2002 Saddam Hussein said in an address read on television that Iraqis were ready to fight a holy war against the United States.
(And now back to the real world)
2004 The world's biggest earthquake in almost four years, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale, struck off the coast of Australia's southern island state of Tasmania, but caused no damage or injury.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Laos : Sovereignty Day (1954)
Libya : Independence Day (1951)
US : Holidays Are Pickle Days (thru 12-31)
National Egg Nog Day
Hi Neighbor Month
Religious Observances
Christian : Christmas Eve
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Sharbel Makhlouf, Lebanese monk, hermit
Jewish : Hanukkah-Festival of Lights
Religious History
1784 Methodism was officially organized in the newlyÂindependent United States of America, in Baltimore. Francis Asbury was consecrated the first Methodist bishop, a few days later.
1818 In St. Nicholas Church at Oberndorf, Austria, church organist Franz Gruber, 31, composed a melody on guitar for the poem, "Stille Nacht," written earlier by pastor Joseph Mohr, 26. This evening the world heard "Silent Night" sung for the very first time.
1871 The Northside Tabernacle in Chicago was dedicated by evangelist Dwight L. Moody. It became the original structure of what is today the Moody Memorial Church.
1943 German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.'
1951 "Amahl and the Night Visitors," a Christmas musical, had its TV debut. Written by composer Gian Carlo Menotti, it was the first musical to be broadcast over television.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
THE 24 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
By RUDOLPH JONES
LONDON -- Following a lifelong search, Christmas historian Dr. Frank Robinson of the British Carolophile Institute, has discovered the original manuscript of the classic "The Twelve Days of Christmas." The document was found in the pocket of a very old coat in a very old costume shop.
"Apparently, someone had been studying the verses before taking part in a Christmas play," Dr. Robinson told Weekly World News.
"Written in 1780, the song was meant to honor the relatively new tradition of widespread Christmas gift-giving," the historian went on. "What is remarkable, though, is that the composition was originally called "The 24 Days of Christmas."
The 12 days of the song refer to the days between Christmas and Epiphany, when the three wise men appeared before the baby Jesus.
"However, it would appear that the wise men stayed and rested an additional 12 days, which would explain the extra period of giftgiving," Robinson speculated.
Robinson shared with Weekly World News the 12 gifts that were given in the next verses of song:
13 Copper Kettles
14 Horses Trotting
15 Coconut Trees
16 Cocker Spaniels
17 Cats-A-Scratching
18 Soldiers Marching
19 Butchers Chopping
20 Quills-A-Scratching
21 Magpies Nattering
22 Pirates Dancing
23 Brooms-A-Sweeping
24 Elephants Charging
"I can certainly see why that part of the song was cut," said Robinson. "Not only are the verses more difficult to remember, but most of those gifts sound like a lot less fun than the first 12."
Thought for the day :
"The difference between burlesque and the newspapers is that the former never pretended to be performing a public service by exposure."
I. F. Stone
