Facts & Historical Events On This Day.
Over 30 civilians were massacred by Myanmar's military in Mo So village.
Eleven kindergarten children were killed after a minivan plunged into a roadside pond in Jiangxi, China.
Rudy Giuliani was named 'Person of the Year' by Time Magazine.
The Texas Seven held up a sports store.
USSR invades Afghanistan.
Walt Disney's 'Aristocats' was released.
The crew of NASA's Apollo 8 became the first humans to enter the Moon's orbit.
NORAD's Santa tracking service begins.
Libya gains independence from Italy.
Unofficial ceasefires sprang up across World War I's Western Front.
King George I established the Greek Presidential Guard as the royal escort.
Several Confederate veterans formed the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee.
The first great fire of early San Francisco started on the east side of the Plaza.
Eggnog riots begin at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.
The Christmas carol 'Silent Night' composed by Franz Xaver Gruber was first sung at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria.
The Treaty of Ghent was signed, which ended the War of 1812 between the US, the UK, and their allies.
A plot to blow up Napoleon Bonaparte with a barrel of gunpowder failed.
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.
Jan van Riebeeck departed for Cape of Good Hope to found the first permanent European settlement.
