Today in History

Today is Sunday, Dec. 24, the 358th day of 2023. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Dec. 24, 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast.

On this date:

In 1814, the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 following ratification by both the British Parliament and the U.S. Senate.

In 1851, fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes.

In 1865, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, that was the original version of the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1906, Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to transmit the human voice (his own) as well as music over radio, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.

In 1913, 73 people, most of them children, died in a crush of panic after a false cry of "Fire!" during a Christmas party for striking miners and their families at the Italian Hall in Calumet, Michigan.

In 1914, during World War I, impromptu Christmas truces began to take hold along parts of the Western Front between British and German soldiers.

In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe as part of Operation Overlord.

In 1951, Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors," the first opera written specifically for television, was broadcast by NBC-TV.

In 1990, actor Tom Cruise married his "Days of Thunder" co-star, Nicole Kidman, during a private ceremony at a Colorado ski resort.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

In 2012, actors Charles Durning, 89, and Jack Klugman, 90, died on the same day.

In 2013, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II granted a posthumous pardon to code-breaker Alan Turing, who was convicted of homosexual behavior in the 1950s.

In 2017, Peru's president announced that he had granted a medical pardon to jailed former strongman Alberto Fujimori, 79, who had been serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses, corruption and the sanctioning of death squads.

In 2020, Bethlehem ushered in Christmas Eve with a stream of joyous marching bands and the triumphant arrival of the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, but few people were there to greet them as the pandemic and a strict lockdown dampened celebrations.

In 2021, Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve Mass before an estimated 2,000 people in St. Peter's Basilica, going ahead with the service despite the resurgence in COVID-19 cases that had prompted a new vaccine mandate for Vatican employees.

In 2022, Kathy Whitworth, the golfer whose 88 career LPGA victories were the most by any player on a single professional tour, died at age 83.

Today's Birthdays: Dr. Anthony Fauci is 83. Recording company executive Mike Curb is 79. Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is 77. Actor Grand L. Bush is 68. Actor Stephanie Hodge is 67. The former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is 66. Rock musician Ian Burden (The Human League) is 66. Actor Anil Kapoor is 64. Actor Eva Tamargo is 63. Actor Wade Williams is 62. Rock singer Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs) is 60. Actor Mark Valley is 59. Actor Diedrich Bader is 57. Actor Amaury Nolasco is 53. Singer Ricky Martin is 52. Author Stephenie Meyer is 50. TV personality Ryan Seacrest (TV: "Live With Kelly & Ryan") is 49. Actor Michael Raymond-James is 46. Actor Austin Stowell is 39. Actor Sofia Black-D'Elia is 32. Rock singer Louis Tomlinson (One Direction) is 32. NFL wide receiver Davante Adams is 31. Estonian tennis player Anett Kontaveit is 28.