This is a list of selected December 24 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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A radio -
Reginald Fessenden -
KKK rituals -
Ariane 1 replica -
Christmas Island (Kiritmati)
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1294 – Boniface VIII began his papacy, replacing St. Celestine V, who had declared that it was permissible for a Pope to resign, and then promptly did so. | needs more footnotes |
| 1818 – "Silent Night", a Christmas carol by Josef Mohr and Franz Gruber, was first performed in a church in Austria. | lots of ((cn)) tags, recentism |
| 1906 – Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden transmitted the first radio broadcast, which included his playing a song on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible. | ((more footnotes)) |
| 1913 – Seventy-three people were crushed to death in a stampede after someone falsely yelled "fire" at a crowded Christmas party in Calumet, Michigan, US. | neutrality disputed |
| 1979 – Ariane 1, the first launch vehicle to be developed by the European Space Agency, had its first launch. | refimprove |
Eligible
- 1777 – An expedition led by English explorer James Cook reached Christmas Island, the largest coral atoll in the world.
- 1814 – The Treaty of Ghent was signed in Ghent, in present-day Belgium, ending the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States.
- 1826 – More than one third of the cadets enrolled in the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, rioted over the smuggling of whiskey to make eggnog for a Christmas Day party.
- 1953 – On New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapsed beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people.
- 1955 – The NORAD Tracks Santa program began when children began calling the Continental Air Defense Command Center to inquire about Santa Claus' whereabouts due to a misprinted phone number.
- 1964 – The Viet Cong bombed the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, killing two US Army officers, raising fears of an escalation in the Vietnam War.
- 1973 – The United States Congress granted Washington, D.C. home rule, allowing the residents to elect their own mayor and city council.
- 1974 – Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin, Australia, eventually destroying more than 70 percent of the city.
Notes
- Apollo 8 appears on December 21, so Earthrise should not appear in the same year
- Christmas Island appears on December 25, so Kiritimati (aka Christmas Island, the 1777 blurb) should not appear in the same year
December 24: Christmas Eve (Western Christianity)
- 1865 – Six Confederate veterans of the American Civil War founded the Ku Klux Klan, which would later become a white supremacist group.
- 1914 – British and German soldiers interrupted the First World War to celebrate Christmas, beginning the Christmas truce.
- 1968 – Astronaut William Anders of the NASA Apollo 8 mission, the first manned voyage to orbit the Moon, took the famous photograph known as "Earthrise" (pictured), showing the Earth rising above the lunar surface.
- 1980 – Witnesses reported the first of several sightings of unexplained lights in the sky near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, an incident called "Britain's Roswell".
- 2008 – The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, began attacks on several villages in Haut-Uele District, Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 400 deaths and numerous atrocities.