The Soviet army in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 31st, 1979.

Soviet Union invades Afghanistan

Born on This Day

Ava Gardner

Ava Gardner

1922 - 1990

Actress known for her sultry looks and roles in 1940s and '50s films "The Killers" and "Mogambo."

Video Game Designer Masaya Nakamura Posing with His Creations

Masaya Nakamura

1925 - 2017

Japanese founder of video game company Namco. Creator of arcade games like "Pac-Man."

The Fourth Annual Academy Museum Gala - Arrivals

Ricky Martin

1971 -

Puerto Rican singer and LGBTQ+ advocate known for his hits like "Livin' la Vida Loca" and "She Bangs."

Ava GardnerCorbis via Getty Images

Masaya NakamuraBettmann Archive

Ricky MartinGetty Images

1971

DEC24

Lightning strikes LANSA flight 508, exploding it over the Amazon. Still strapped to her seat, passenger Juliane Koepcke plummets two miles into the jungle; despite numerous injuries, she survives 11 days in the rainforest before being rescued.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on December 24th

Richard Trevithick introduces his “Puffing Devil”

British inventor Richard Trevithick takes seven of his friends for a test ride on his “Puffing Devil,” or “Puffer,” the first steam-powered passenger vehicle, on December 24, 1801. Unlike the steam engine pioneered by the Scotsman James Watt, Trevithick’s used “strong steam”—that is, steam at a very high pressure (145 pounds per square inch, or […]

Treaty signed to end the War of 1812

The Treaty of Peace and Amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America is signed by British and American representatives at Ghent, Belgium, ending the War of 1812. By terms of the treaty, all conquered territory was to be returned, and commissions were planned to settle the boundary of the United States […]

2:52m read read

Fire ravages Library of Congress

A devastating fire at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroys about two-thirds of its 55,000 volumes, including most of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library, sold to the institution in 1815. The Library of Congress was established in 1800, when President John Adams approved legislation that appropriated $5,000 to purchase “such books as may be […]

1:50m read read

President Coolidge lights first national Christmas tree

On December 24, 1923, President Calvin Coolidge touches a button and lights up the first national Christmas tree to grace the White House grounds. Not only was this the first White House “community” Christmas tree, but it was the first to be decorated with electric lights—a strand of 2,500 red, white and green bulbs. The […]

President Coolidge lights the first national Christmas tree.

A family moves into the world’s first fully solar house

On Christmas Eve 1948, a family of three moves into a home in Dover, Massachusetts with unusually large windows—the world’s first fully solar house, an idea decades ahead of its time. Nobody had ever tried living in a residence heated only by the sun, much less through a frigid New England winter. The 800-square-foot wedge-shaped […]

2:16m read read

modern glass fronted house in snowy landscape

McCarran-Walter Act goes into effect, revising immigration laws

The McCarran-Walter Act takes effect and revises U.S. immigration laws. The law was hailed by supporters as a necessary step in preventing alleged communist subversion in the United States, while opponents decried the legislation as being xenophobic and discriminatory. The act, named after Senator Pat McCarran (Democrat-Nevada) and Representative Francis Walter (Democratic-Pennsylvania), did relatively little to […]

1:28m read read

Viet Cong bomb Brinks Hotel

Two Viet Cong agents disguised as South Vietnamese soldiers leave a car filled with explosives parked at the Brinks Hotel in Saigon. The hotel was housing U.S. officers. Two Americans were killed in the blast and 65 Americans and Vietnamese were injured. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor, Gen. William Westmoreland, and other senior U.S. officials tried to […]

0:40m read read

Bob Hope gives his last show in Vietnam

Comedian Bob Hope gives what he says is his last Christmas show to U.S. servicemen in Saigon. Hope was a comedian and star of stage, radio, television and over 50 feature films. Hope was one of many Hollywood stars who followed the tradition of traveling overseas to entertain American troops stationed abroad. The 1972 show […]

Stephenie Meyer, best-selling author of “Twilight” novels, is born

On December 24, 1973, Stephenie Meyer, author of the “Twilight” novels, a vampire romance series for young adults that became a literary phenomenon, is born in Hartford, Connecticut. Meyer, born Stephenie Morgan, was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, the second of six siblings. She married at 21 and graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree […]

1:24m read read

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