On this day: 24 December
Events, births and deaths on 24 December. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
Nothing recorded for that year.
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Richard Adams
- Deaths · Rick Parfitt
- Deaths · Liz Smith
100 years ago1926
- Deaths · Wesley Coe
1000 years ago1026
Nothing recorded for that year.
Events · 21
- 1737Battle of Bhopal — 1737 Imperial Maratha Conquests
- 1800Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise — Attempted assassination of Napoleon in 1800
- 1814Treaty of Ghent — December 1814 Peace Treaty ending the War of 1812
- 18541854 Ansei-Nankai earthquake — Terremoto en Japón en 1854
- 1913Italian Hall disaster — fatal stampede at Italian Hall on December 24, 1913
- 1945Sodder children disappearance — disappearance of five children in 1945
- 1951Libya — sovereign state in North Africa
- 1951Kingdom of Libya — kingdom in Northern Africa
- 1953Tangiwai disaster — train wreck
- 19641964 Brinks Hotel bombing — Viet Cong bombing in Saigon
- 1964Flying Tiger Line Flight 282 — 1964 aviation accident
- 19661966 Flying Tiger Line Canadair CL-44 crash — Flying Tiger Line CL-44 crashed
- 1968Earthrise — photograph of the Earth taken by astronaut Bill Anders during the Apollo 8 mission
- 1968Apollo 8 Genesis reading — reading of the Book of Genesis by Apollo 8 crewmembers
- 1971LANSA Flight 508 — 1971 aviation accident in Peru
- 1979Ariane 1 — rocket of the Ariane family
- 1982CAAC Flight 2311 — 1982 aviation accident
- 1983Aeroflot Flight 601 — plane crash
- 1999Indian Airlines flight 814 hijacking — aircraft hijacking
- 20182018 Puebla helicopter crash — 2018 accident
- 2021Mo So massacre — massacre in Myanmar
Births · 60
- 3 BCE(Julian date)Galba — sixth Roman Emperor (68–69)
- 1166(Julian date)John, King of England — King of England from 1199 to 1216
- 1588Constance of Austria — Queen consort of Poland and Sweden
- 1634Mariana of Austria — Queen consort of Spain (1634-1696)
- 1754George Crabbe — English poet, surgeon, and clergyman (1754-1832)
- 1761Selim III — 28th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1789–1807)
- 1798Adam Mickiewicz — Polish national poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, and political activist (1798-1855)
- 1809Kit Carson — American frontiersman and Union Army general (1809-1868)
- 1810Wilhelm Marstrand — painter and illustrator (1810-1873)
- 1818James Prescott Joule — English physicist and brewer (1818–1889)
- 1822Matthew Arnold — British poet and cultural critic (1822–1888)
- 1822Charles Hermite — French mathematician (1822-1901)
- 1837Empress Elisabeth of Austria — Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from 1854 to 1898 (1837–1898)
- 1845George I of Greece — King of Greece (r. 1863–1913)
- 1868Emanuel Lasker — Greman chess player, World Chess champion (1868–1941)
- 1879Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin — Queen consort of King Christian X of Denmark (1879–1952)
- 1881Juan Ramón Jiménez — poet
- 1887Louis Jouvet — French actor (1887-1951)
- 1892Ruth Chatterton — American actress (1892–1961)
- 1905Howard Hughes — American aviator, engineer, industrialist, and film producer (1905–1976)
- 1906Franz Waxman — German film composer (1906-1967)
- 1910Fritz Leiber — American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction (1910–1992)
- 1919Pierre Soulages — French painter and engraver (1919–2022)
- 1922Ava Gardner — American actress (1922–1990)
- 1927Mary Higgins Clark — American author of suspense novels (1927–2020)
Deaths · 60
- 1193(Julian date)Roger III of Sicily — King of Sicily
- 1257(Julian date)John I, Count of Hainaut — Count of Hainaut from 1246 to 1257
- 1281Henry V, Count of Luxembourg — Count of Luxembourg
- 1453(Julian date)John Dunstaple — English composer (c. 1390–1453)
- 1473(Julian date)John Cantius — Polish priest, Scholastic philosopher, physicist and theologian
- 1524(Julian date)Vasco da Gama — Portuguese explorer (c. 1460s – 1524)
- 1541Andreas Karlstadt — German theologian (1480 ca-1541)
- 1660Mary Henrietta, Princess Royal — eldest daughter of Charles I of England and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France; mother of William III of England (1631-1660)
- 1692Maria Antonia of Austria — Archduchess of Austria (1669-1692)
- 1813Go-Sakuramachi — empress regnant of Japan (1740-1813)
- 1863William Makepeace Thackeray — British novelist (1811–1863)
- 1865Charles Lock Eastlake — English painter, gallery director, collector and writer (1793-1865)
- 1867José Mariano Salas — President of Mexico (1797-1867)
- 1868Adolphe d'Archiac — academic, member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino since 1853 (1802–1868)
- 1872William John Macquorn Rankine — civil engineer (1820–1872)
- 1873Johns Hopkins — American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and abolitionist (1795–1873)
- 1898Charbel Makhluf — Lebanese Maronite monk and saint (1828–1898)
- 1914John Muir — Scottish-American naturalist (1838–1914)
- 1935Alban Berg — Austrian composer (1885–1935)
- 1938Bruno Taut — German architect (1880–1938)
- 1942François Darlan — French admiral (1881-1942)
- 1947Charles Gondouin — French rugby union player (1875–1947)
- 1957Norma Talmadge — American actress and film producer (1894–1957)
- 1957Shūmei Ōkawa — Japanese nationalist intellectual (1886–1957)
- 1962Wilhelm Ackermann — German mathematician best known for the Ackermann function (1896–1962)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.