December 24
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December 24 (December 24) is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (359th in leap years). There are 7 more days until the end of the year.
Events
1777 - James Cook discovers Christmas Island, today's Kiritimati.
1814 - A peace treaty is signed in Ghent, Belgium, ending the 1812 war.
1838 - Under pressure from Russia and political opponents in Serbia, Prince Milos Obrenovic accepts the "Turkish Constitution" which limits the prince's absolute power.
1865 - A racist organization of whites, the Kew Klux Klan, is founded in Pulaski, Tennessee.
1871 - Verdi's "Aida" premieres in Cairo, the site of the play.
1914 - A German plane drops a bomb on Dover, World War I, the first air strike in British history.
1914 - World War I begins.
1924 - Albania becomes a republic.
1942 - A new ground-to-ground missile, FZG76, later known as the V-1, is successfully tested at the German experimental range in Peneminde.
1943 - US General Dwight D. In World War II, Eisenhower was appointed commander of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces for the invasion of occupied France.
1944 - The first issue of the Hungarian-language daily "Sabad Vaidasag" was published in Novi Sad, which changed its name to "Hungarian with" in September 1945.
1951 - The United Kingdom of Libya is proclaimed Emir al-Idriz as sovereign. In September 1969, King Idriz was overthrown in a military coup led by Muammar Gaddafi, who later proclaimed a republic.
1989 - Panama's ousted prime minister, General Manuel Noriega, takes refuge from US occupying forces at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Panama City and seeks political asylum.
1994 - A terrorist attack on a French passenger plane in Algeria kills two people and takes 239 hostages.
1995 - The Islamist Prosperity Party wins the most votes in Turkey's parliamentary elections, the first Islamist victory in the 72-year history of secular Turkey.
1996 - During a civil protest in Serbia over the falsification of local election results, strong police forces intervene in central Belgrade to separate supporters of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
