A few of the great historical events that happened today in history, December 24th!
| 1638 | The Ottomans under Murad IV recapture Baghdad from Safavid Persia. |
| 1812 | Joel Barlow, aged 58, American poet and lawyer, dies from exposure near Vilna, Poland, during Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. Barlow was on a diplomatic mission to the emperor for President Madison.  |
| 1814 | A treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, ending the War of 1812, is signed at Ghent, Belgium. The news does not reach the United States until two weeks later (after the decisive American victory at New Orleans). |
| 1814 | The War of 1812 officially ended as the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium. |
| 1851 | Fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 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. |
| 1862 | A Christmas present arrives a day early for the Federal troops at Columbus, Kentucky, in the way of artillery on board the USS New Era. |
| 1865 | The Ku Klux Klan was founded as a private social club by several Confederate Army veterans in Pulaski, Tenn.  |
| 1871 | Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Aida” had its world premiere in Cairo, Egypt, to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal. |
| 1906 | Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, Mass. |
| 1914 | Over 577,000 Allied soldiers are to spend Christmas as prisoners in Germany. |
| 1917 | The Kaiser warns Russia that he will use “iron fist” and “shining sword” if peace is spurned. |
| 1920 | Enrico Caruso gave his last public performance, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. |
| 1943 | General Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed the Allied Supreme Commander, even though almost everyone believed the position would go to American Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. |
| 1943 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces during World War II. |
| 1947 | An estimated 20,000 communists, led by guerrilla General Markos Vafiades proclaim the Free Greek Government in northern Greece. They issue a call to arms to establish the regime throughout the nation.  |
| 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 | The U.S. headquarters in Saigon is hit by a bomb killing two officers. |
| 1966 | A Soviet research vehicle soft-lands on the moon. |
| 1967 | The Greek Junta frees ex-Premier Papandreou. |
| 1968 | The first pictures of an Earth-rise over the moon are seen as the crew of Apollo 8 orbits the moon. |
| 1970 | Nine GIs are killed and nine are wounded by friendly fire in Vietnam. |
| 1972 | Hanoi bars all peace talks with the United States until U.S. air raids over North Vietnam stop. |
| 1974 | An oil tanker’s spill pollutes 1,600 square miles of Japan’s Inland Sea. |
| 1992 | President George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.  |
| 2002 | Laci Peterson was reported missing from her Modesto, Calif., home, by her husband, Scott, who was later convicted of murdering her and their unborn son. |
| 2009 | The Senate passed health care legislation, 60-39, in the chamber’s first Christmas Eve vote since 1895. |
| 2009 | A woman jumped barriers in St. Peter’s Basilica and knocked down Pope Benedict XVI as he was walking down the main aisle to begin Christmas Eve Mass; the pope was unhurt. |
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