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What happened in history on this day: December 24?
Since 1995, I have been collecting information on a variety of topics,
creating several timelines of history.
Here you will find specific events from those databases
for this day, on the topics of personal computers, video games, the Walt Disney Company,
Chevrolet Corvettes, A&W Root Beer, Sweden, and Canadian coins.
On December 24 in ...
- 1997 - Shareholders of Hayes Microcomputer Products approve the merger with Access Beyond. The merged company will be called Hayes Corporation.
- 1937 - The Mickey Mouse film Lonesome Ghosts is released. Donald Duck and Goofy also appear.
- 1939 - The first color comic strip of "Pinocchio" is published in Sunday editions of newspapers.
- 1948 - The Donald Duck film Tea for Two Hundred is released.
- 1954 - Disney releases the second People and Places film, Siam, to theaters.
- 1970 - Buena Vista releases the animated feature film The Aristocats to theatres. It cost US$4 million to make. It is Disney's first animated feature film completed without Walt Disney.
- 1991 - Sierra Leone issues fifteen postage stamps depicting Walt Disney Company Christmas cards.
- 1995 - Disney releases the laserdisc Aladdin's Great Adventures, Volume 1 in Japan for 3900 Yen.
- 1995 - Disney releases the laserdisc Aladdin's Great Adventures, Volume 2 in Japan for 3900 Yen.
- 1995 - Disney releases the laserdisc Aladdin's Great Adventures, Volume 3 in Japan for 3900 Yen.
- 1998 - At Disneyland, Luan Phi Dawson is killed when an eight-pound cleat from the sailing ship Columbia strikes him in the face.
- 1998 - Nevis issues 22 stamps that depict Disney characters playing basketball, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie, Mouse, Goofy, and Huey/Dewey/Louie.
- 2008 - Disney releases the film Bedtime Stories to theaters in Belgium, France, and Egypt.
- 1953 - Production of 1953 Corvettes ends, with 300 built in total.
- 1961 - The final design of the next generation Corvette is approved by management.
- 1978 - Dave Erwin sells Grand Sport #005 to Bill Tower of Plant City, Florida.
- 1981 - Connie Ferrell of Tennessee wins the first Corvette built in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in a raffle draw.
- 1987 - Mercury Marine starts the first pre-production prototype LT5 engine.
- 1998 - Liberia issues a 50-cent postage stamp depicting a 1963-67 Corvette.
- 1939 - In Finland, the Soviet 163rd division begins an all-out attempt to break free of the Finnish troops, with the Soviet 44th Motorized Rifle Division attempting to reach them.
- 1941 - (0000 hours) Two Japanese destroyers, converted for use as troop transports, run aground on Wake Island to put ashore hundreds of troops. Defence forces fire a 3-inch anti-aircraft round into one, destroying it.
- 1941 - Japanese XVI Division lands 7000 troops at Siain and Antimonan, south Luzon.
- 1941 - (about 0930 hours) US forces on Wake Island surrender to the Japanese.
- 1941 - In the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur orders all American and Filipino forces to withdraw from Luzon to the Bataan Peninsula. Manila is declared an open city.
- 1941 - British forces under General Sir Claude Auchinleck occupy Benghazi, Libya.
- 1942 - French Admiral Jean Darlan is assassinated in Algiers.
- 1943 - (early) British General Sir Bernard Montgomery learns he will become Commander-in-Chief of 21st Army Group, the British and Canadian forces invading North-West Europe.
- 1943 - The first successful flight of the German V-1 weapon is made.
- 1944 - German General Manteuffel's force gets to within four miles of the Meuse River in France, the furthest reach of the German assault.
- 1944 - German General Joachim Peiper's battle group in France begins a retreat on foot.
- 1944 - Off Halifax harbor, Canada, German submarine U-806 torpedoes and sinks Canadian minesweeper Clayoquot.
- 2004 - Montserrat issues four postage stamps marking the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy.
- 1985 - During Nintendo's test-marketing of the Nintendo Entertainment System in New York, 90,000 units are sold in over 500 stores.
- 1993 - Acclaim releases the Mortal Kombat video game for the Super Famicom, Game Gear, and Game Boy in Japan.
- 2001 - THQ releases the Tetris Worlds game for the Game Boy Advance in the US.
- 1155 - Danish Prince Magnus Henriksson arranges the death of Swedish King Sverker, on the evening before Christmas.
- 1654 - In Brussels, former Queen Kristina secretly renounces Lutheranism to governor Archduke Leopold William.
- 1809 - Former king Gustav IV Adolf leaves Sweden forever.
- 1986 - Numismatics magazine calls Robert-Ralph Carmichael, to inform him that his loon design will be used for the new $1 coin. Carmichael had submitted the design in 1976 for a coin contest.
- 1912 - The San Francisco Mint begins coining its first 5-cent coins, 1912-dated Liberty Head and "V" coins.
- 1921 - The Philadelphia Mint begins striking Peace Dollars, using high-relief dies struck with 150 tons of pressure.
- 1927 - Test Cricket debut of Walter Hammond, who scored 51 and took 5-36 versus South Africa.
- 1934 - Clarrie Grimmett takes 9-180 in cricket for South Africa as Queensland make 430.
- 1935 - Donald Bradman scores 233 in 191 minutes, South Africa versus Queensland, 28 fours 1 six.
- 1961 - Houston Oilers beat San Diego Chargers 10-3 in AFL championship game.
- 1974 - Saint Louis Cardinals' Lou Brock is named Sportsman of the Year.
- 1982 - Chaminade, with a student body of only 850 students, beats #1 ranked Virginia 77-72 in a Honolulu holiday basketball classic.
- 1990 - Montreal Expos trade Tim Raines to Chicago White Sox for Ivan Calderon and Barry Jones.
- 1966 - Luna 13 lands on Moon.
- 1968 - The crew of Apollo 8 (Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders) become the first men to orbit the Moon.
- 1979 - The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
- 1593 - Storm hits Texel: 40 ships hit, 500 killed.
- 1953 - Wellington-Auckland (New Zealand) express train swept away in flood kills 166.
- 1776 - General George Washington crosses the Delaware River to surprise Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey.
- 1814 - In Ghent, Belgium, a peace agreement is signed between the US and Great Britain.
- 1851 - The U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. experiences its worst fire, which destroys 35,000 books, about two-thirds of the Library's collection.
- 1864 - Battle of Gordonsville, Virginia.
- 1865 - Several Confederate States of America war veterans form the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee.
- 1906 - In Massachusetts, USA, Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast, consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
- 1924 - School in Babb's Switch, Oklahoma, USA catches fire; 36 die.
- 1936 - The first radioactive isotope medicine is administered in Berkeley, California.
- 1941 - (about 0930 hours) US forces on Wake Island surrender to the Japanese.
- 1943 - US President Franklin Roosevelt appoints General Dwight Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces.
- 1946 - US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor Nazis" amnesty.
- 1948 - First US house completely sunheated is occupied (Dover, Massachusetts).
- 1966 - US Air Force CL-44 military charter crashes near Binh Thai, Vietnam killing 129.
- 1968 - The crew of Apollo 8 (Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders) become the first men to orbit the Moon.
- 1970 - Buena Vista releases the animated feature film The Aristocats to theatres. It cost US$4 million to make. It is Disney's first animated feature film completed without Walt Disney.
- 1973 - In New Mexico, USA, a magnitude 4.1 earthquake occurs.
- 1980 - Americans remember Iran hostages by shining lights for 417 seconds.
- 1987 - In the USA, the Illinois State Lottery draw for US$39.5 million is split between four winners.
- 1992 - US President Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger of role in Iran-contra affair.
- 2003 - A BSE (mad cow disease) outbreak in Washington State is announced. Several countries including Brazil, Australia and Taiwan ban the import of beef from the United States of America.
- 2009 - The Barack Obama administration pledges to back mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to US$810 billion during 2010, up from the current US$200 billion, no matter how big their losses may be in the next three years.
Other history:
- 1814 - Treaty of Ghent (end of the War of 1812) signed.
- 1818 - "Silent Night" composed by Franz Joseph Gruber; sung for first time the next day.
- 1851 - Fire devastates Library of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes.
- 1946 - Fourth French republic established.
- 1951 - United Kingdom of Libya gains independence from Italy via the UN.
- 1954 - Laos gains its independence.
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