This is Sunday, Dec. 24, the 358th day of 2023 with seven to follow.
Tonight is Christmas Eve
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include English King John I in 1166; frontiersman Christopher “Kit” Carson in 1809; English physicist/inventor James Prescott Joule in 1818; “Raggedy Ann” creator Johnny Gruelle in 1880; film director Michael Curtiz in 1888; industrialist/moviemaker/aviator Howard Hughes in 1905; actor Ava Gardner in 1922; U.S. Army Gen. George Patton IV in 1923; author Mary Higgins Clark in 1927; infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci in 1940 (age 83); author/director Nicholas Meyer in 1945 (age 78); rock musician Lemmy Kilmister in 1945; director Lee Daniels in 1959 (age 64); Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in 1961 (age 62); fashion designer Kate Spade in 1962; basketball commentator Jay Bilas in 1963 (age 60); actor Diedrich Bader in 1966 (age 57); actor Amaury Nolasco in 1970 (age 53); pop singer Ricky Martin in 1971 (age 52); author Stephenie Meyer in 1973 (age 50); television/radio personality Ryan Seacrest in 1974 (age 49); actor Michael Raymond-James in 1977 (age 46); singer Louis Tomlinson in 1991 (age 32).
On this date in history:
In 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed by representatives of the United States and Britain, ending the War of 1812.
In 1851, the Library of Congress and part of the Capitol building in Washington were destroyed by fire.
In 1865, a group of Confederate veterans met in Pulaski, Tenn., to form a secret society they called the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1871, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Aida” premiered in Cairo. It had been commissioned to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal.
In 1906, Reginald A. Fessenden, a Canadian-born radio inventor, broadcast the first musical program, a female singer’s violin-accompanied “O Holy Night,” from Brant Rock, Mass. He had discovered the superheterodyne principle, the basis for modern radio receivers.
In 1909, Miss Jean L. Clemens, younger daughter of Mark Twain, was found dead in a bath tub at the home of her father. Miss Clemens’ cause of death is believed to have been the result of an epileptic convulsion.
In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge lit the first national Christmas tree on the White House lawn. Members of the First Congregational Church sang carols and the Marine band performed.
In 1942, German rocket engineers launched the first surface-to-surface guided missile.
In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt named Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of the Allied forces.
In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, kicking off the nine-year Soviet-Afghan War.
In 1983, officials said one of the United States’ severest early-season cold waves in history had claimed nearly 300 lives.
In 1990, the bells of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow rang to celebrate Christmas for the first time since the 1924 death of Lenin.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger for his role in the Iran-Contra affair.
In 1994, gunmen seized Air France Flight 8969 as it prepared to leave Algiers for Paris, killing three hostages. The hostage takers were killed and remaining hostages freed two days later.
In 1997, a French court convicted the international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal of the 1975 killings of three men in Paris and sentenced him to life in prison. The terrorist, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was given a third life sentence in 2017.
In 2005, Hwang Woo-suk, a South Korean scientist whose research on stem cells and cloning won him international acclaim, resigned after admitting he fabricated his groundbreaking paper in which he said he created stem cell colonies from 11 patients.
In 2021, a fire that consumed a river ferry in Bangladesh killed at least 40 people and left dozens injured. Investigators blamed a fault in the boat’s engine.
A thought for the day: “At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year.” — English farmer/poet Thomas Tusser