Today in History: Dec. 24

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 24, the 359th day of 2024. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve.

Today in history:

On Dec. 24, 1914, during World War I, impromptu Christmas truces began to take hold along parts of the Western Front between British and German soldiers.

Also 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 (about two-thirds of the library’s collection).

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 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 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe.

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

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

Today’s Birthdays: Immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci is 84. Filmmaker Lee Daniels is 65. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright is 63. Singer Ricky Martin is 53. Author Stephenie Meyer is 51. TV host Ryan Seacrest is 50. Rock singer Louis Tomlinson (One Direction) is 33. NFL wide receiver Davante Adams is 32.