Today in History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
640 - John IV becomes Pope
1777 - Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, was discovered by James Cook
1814 - The Treaty of Ghent was signed which ended the War of 1812
1818 - Silent Night composed by Franz Xaver Gruber
1851 - Library of Congress burns
1906 - The first radio program, a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, broadcasts
1914 - World War I: The “Christmas truce” begins
1953 - NBC’s Dragnet becomes the first network-sponsored television program
1968 - The crew of the USS Pueblo was released by North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of spying
1974 - Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, Australia
1979 - The launch of the first European Ariane rocket
1985 - A black bull blocked Cross Harbour Tunnel of Hong Kong for three hours

Births
1166 - John, King of England (d. 1216)
1491 - Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit order) (d. 1556)
1809 - Kit Carson, American frontiersman (d. 1868)
1818 - James Prescott Joule, British physicist (d. 1889)
1898 - Baby Dodds, jazz musician (d. 1959)
1905 - Howard Hughes, film producer, inventor, recluse (d. 1976)
1907 - Cab Calloway, musician (d. 1994)
1910 - Fritz Leiber, American science fiction writer (d. 1992)
1929 - Mary Higgins Clark, author
1971 - Ricky Martin, singer

Deaths
1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer (b. 1469?)
1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray, writer (b. 1811)
1889 - Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate, Dutch poet and clergyman (b. 1819)
1914 - John Muir, naturalist (b. 1838)
1984 - Peter Lawford, actor (b. 1923)
1993 - Norman Vincent Peale, writer
2000 - Aubrey Hawkins, Irving, Texas police officer (b. 1971)

Holidays & observances
December 24 is celebrated as the day before Christmas, thus called Christmas Eve

It is the day when food is set out for Santa Claus and his reindeer. Children around the world are urged to go to bed early so they are not awake when he comes

In Sweden and Iceland, most children are visited by Santa Claus this day