- 1812] War is over: The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain ends with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium...
- 1818] Shhhhhh: "Silent Night", written by Josef Mohr with music by Franz Gruber of Germany is composed...
- 1865] It should have stayed private: Several veterans of the Confederate Army form a private social club in Pulaski (TN) called the Ku Klux Klan...
- 1906] The first disc jockey: No, it wasn't Bruce Morrow. It was Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden who becomes the 1st person to broadcast a music program over the radio from Brant Rock (MA)...
- 1920] Curtains: The great Enrico Caruso gives his final public performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He would continue to offer himself for weddings and bar mitzvahs however...
- 1948] Debuted on this date: A Midnight Mass is broadcast on TV for the first time from St. Patrick's Cathedral...1953] NBC-TVs "Dragnet" becomes the first network show to be sponsored (by Fatima cigarettes)...
- 1954] "Happy Trails": R&B singer Johnny Ace shoots himself fatally while playing Russian Roulette backstage at a concert in Houston. Ace of "Pledging My Love" fame was just 25...
- 1968] "Twas the night before Christmas": The Apollo 8 astronauts orbiting the moon read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast...
- 1981] Wedding Bells: Guardian Angel mahof Curtis Sliwa and Lisa Evers walk down the aisle in their red berets. They would break up in 1993. Curtis is on the radio, Lisa on TV now...1990] Nicole Kidman succumbs to the many "charms" of Tom Cruise as they tie the knot. The marriage made in Scientology heaven ends in 2001...
- 1997] Guilty as Charged: Ilich Ramirez Sanchez a.k.a. Carlos the Jackal is sentenced to life for the 1975 murders of 2 French investigators and a Lebanese national. He's now serving a lifetime sentence...For more on December 24th: C L I C K:
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