/year

December 24 in history

223 sourced entries recorded on December 24, from 3 BCE to 2024 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 502Xiao Yan names Xiao Tong his heir designate.source
  • 640Pope John IV succeeds Severinus as the 72nd pope. His election is accepted by the Exarchate of Ravenna.source
  • 717A destructive earthquake, with six months of aftershocks, affects Syria and Mesopotamia.source
  • 759Tang dynasty poet Du Fu departs for Chengdu, where he is hosted by fellow poet Pei Di.source
  • 1017Michinaga is granted the honorary title Daijō-daijin of Japan.source
  • 1144Siege of Edessa: Seljuk forces led by Imad al-Din Zengi conquer the fortress city of Edessa after a four-week siege. Thousands of inhabitants are massacred – only the Muslims are spared. The women and children are sold into slavery. This eliminates the Crusader principality of Outremer. Lacking the forces to take on Zengi, Joscelin II retires to his fortress at Turbessel. There, he requests reinforcements from the Byzantines and Queen-Regent Melisende of Jerusalem. This will lead to the Pope preaching a Second Crusade.source
  • 1147Battle of Ephesus: The French crusaders under Louis VII leave Ephesus, and ascend the Meander Valley. Louis is warned by messengers of Manuel that Seljuk and Danishmendid forces are assembling west of Adalia. Louis ignores the advice and successfully fends off an ambush just outside Ephesus.source
  • 1161The widowed Emperor Manuel I Komnenos marries Maria of Antioch, aged 16, at Hagia Sophia.source
  • 1223Father Francis of Assisi (Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone), founder of the Order of the Franciscans with in the Roman Catholic Church, begins the tradition of celebrating Christmas with a nativity scene. Having received permission from Pope Honorius III, Francis arranges for a display in a cave near the Italian city of Greccio, with the representation of the events associated with the birth of Jesus Christ as described in the Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospel of Luke, using real people and animals.source
  • 1264The title Baron de Ros, the oldest held peerage title, is created by writ of summons during the reign of Henry III.source
  • 1294Pope Boniface VIII succeeds Pope Celestine V, becoming the 193rd pope, after Celestine V abdicates the papacy on December 13, only five months after reluctantly accepting his surprise election on July 5, wishing to return to his life as an ascetic hermit.source
  • 1347Pembroke College in the University of Cambridge, England, is founded by Marie de St Pol, Countess of Pembroke, as the Hall of Valence Marie.source
  • 1386Al-Burhan Ahmad al-Zahiri, (Burhan), Khalid al-Himsi, and Amin ad-Din Ibn al-Najib, arrested in September on charges of conspiring to assassinate the Egyptian Sultan Barquq, are brought to Cairo to face trial.source
  • 1423Hussite Wars: In what is now the Czech Republic, General Sigismund Korybut, commander of the Hussite Army, withdraws his troops from Prague on the orders of Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania and Władysław II Jagiełło, King of Poland.source
  • 1443The Christian crusaders under Hunyadi begin their retreat westward after their defeat at Zlatica, and the Ottoman forces follow them, with a confrontation ultimately taking place on January 2 at the Battle of Kunovica.source
  • 1443In Poland, Wenceslaus I, Duke of Siewierz sells the duchy of Siewierz to Zbigniew Oleśnicki, Bishop of Kraków, for 6,000 silver coins (Prague groschen), equivalent to at least 21 kg or 750 ounces of silver.source
  • 1444Ottoman General Kasım Pasha is defeated in the Battle of Melštica near Sofia by Christian troops who had survived the Battle of Varna.source
  • 1446Edmund Beaufort, Marquess of Dorset, is appointed as last Governor of English-occupied France.source
  • 1491The Black Army of Hungary and its Bohemian Czech allies, commanded by Stephen Zápolya, defeats Duke Jan II Olbracht at the Battle of Presov in what is now Slovakia.source
  • 1500The Siege of the Castle of St. George ends, and the island of Cephalonia is captured by a joint Venetian–Spanish fleet.source
  • 1504Nils Ravaldsson, the leader of the rebellion after Knut Alvsson's death, is attacked and his resistance crushed at Olsborg Castle in Båhuslen.source
  • 1515Thomas Wolsey is named Lord Chancellor of England.source
  • 1545King Henry VIII gives royal assent to multiple acts passed by the English Parliament on its final day, including the Dissolution of Colleges Act and the Custos Rotulorum Act.source
  • 1547King Edward VI of England gives royal assent to numerous laws enacted by Parliament, including the Treason Act and the Vagabonds Act.source
  • 1568The Morisco Revolt against King Philip II of Spain begins as Aben Humeya (formerly Fernando de Válor) is proclaimed as King of the Granadan rebels.source
  • 1571Henry XI, Duke of the German Duchy of Liegnitz (now part of Poland), who had increased the Duchy's debts from 80,000 thalers to 700,000 thalers over 11 years, attempts to get the representatives of the Congress of Estates to pledge their own goods and valuables as collateral for refinancing the debt. When the representatives of the different parts of the Duchy refuse, he has them jailed until they agree to pay taxes for 10 percent of the debt owed.source
  • 1579German astronomer Michael Maestlin makes the first cataloging of the Pleiades cluster, recording 11 separate stars visible to the naked eye, with a detailed illustration and measurements.source
  • 1601December 24 (Julian calendar, used by the English; January 3, 1602, according to the Gregorian calendar used by the Irish and Spanish forces in the battle) – The Battle of Kinsale ends the siege of Kinsale, Ireland (begun in autumn 1601).source
  • 1617An unexpected storm strikes off the coast of Finnmark in Norway, sinking 10 ships and drowning at least 40 people. A little more than three years later, Mari Jørgensdatter tells interrogators that she and several other witches caused the storm, prompting the Vardø witch trials.source
  • 1617Eastern Finnmark suffered a terrible storm. A great majority of the male population was out at sea at that time and were surprised by the storm, ten boats sank and forty men drowned.source
  • 1624Denmark's first postal service is launched by order of King Christian IV.source
  • 1624Royal Danish Mail is founded.source
  • 1646Prince of Gui Zhu Youlang established the Yongli (永曆) regime in the same vicinity.source
  • 1647Parliament presents the King with new demands which he rejects.source
  • 1654William Petty contracts to undertake an accurate survey of Ireland (the "Down Survey").source
  • 1660Claus von Ahlefeldt was appointed commander-in-chief of the Norwegian army.source
  • 1660Tenures Abolition Act changes several types of feudal land tenure in England.source
  • 1661The Indian city of Quilon (now Kollam in the Kerala state), ruled by Portugal since 1498, is captured by the Dutch East India Company.source
  • 16751675–1676 Malta plague epidemic begins.source
  • 1692The French ship Soleil Royal, a three-decker First Rank ship with 104 guns, is launched at Brest Dockyard.source
  • 1696The Inquisition in Portugal carries out the sentence of burning at the stake against several Marrano Jews in Évora.source
  • 1707The first British Governor of Gibraltar, directly appointed by Queen Anne, Roger Elliott, takes up his residence in the Convent of the Franciscan Friars.source
  • 1715Denmark's Siege of Stralsund ends.source
  • 171624 December (4 January 1717 New Style) – Britain, France and the Dutch Republic sign the Triple Alliance in an attempt to maintain the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Britain having signed a preliminary alliance with France on 17 November (28 November New Style).source
  • 1717HDMS Lossen is wrecked during the Christmas storm of 1717, outside the island Vesterøy in Hvaler.source
  • 1717December 24–25 – Christmas flood: A disastrous flood hits the North Sea coast, between the Netherlands and Denmark; thousands die or lose their houses.source
  • 1724General George Wade is appointed Commander in Chief in Scotland after his report on the need for military roads in the country.source
  • 1724Francesco Valesio resumes writing his Diario di Roma, 13 years after he ceased his recording of daily life in Rome.source
  • 1726The settlement of Montevideo is founded by the Spaniards in the Viceroyalty of Peru.source
  • 1734A fire destroys the Royal Alcázar of Madrid, the residence of the Spanish royal family, along with more than 400 valuable paintings, 100 sculptures and thousands of documents.source
  • 1737General Baji Rao I of the Maratha Empire in India defeats the armies of the rulers of Hyderabad, Oudh, Bhopal and Jaipur in the Battle of Bhopal.source
  • 1757The Pratt-Yorke opinion distinguishes British overseas territories acquired by conquest from those acquired by private treaty: while the Crown of Great Britain enjoys sovereignty over both, only the property of the former is vested in the Crown.source
  • 1757the Pratt-Yorke opinion distinguishes overseas territories acquired by conquest from those acquired by private treaty: while the Crown of Great Britain enjoys sovereignty over both, only the property of the former is vested in the Crown.source
  • 1770France's Secretary of the Navy, César Gabriel de Choiseul, is dismissed from his position by the king.source
  • 1770César Gabriel de Choiseul is dismissed from his position as Secretary of the Navy by the kingsource
  • 1777Third voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain Cook locates Kiritimati (Christmas Island).source
  • 1777Kiritimati (Christmas Island) visited by James Cook.source
  • 1792The American ship Hope arrives in Sydney; Grose is forced to buy alcohol to obtain other cargo.source
  • 1797Walter Scott marries Charlotte Carpenter at St Mary's Church, Carlisle, and the couple immediately move into their new home at 50 George Street, Edinburgh.source
  • 1800The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise fails to kill Napoleon Bonaparte.source
  • 1800Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise, assassination attempt on Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris.source
  • 1800Pierre Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de la Chevalerie found the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Paris.source
  • 1801Cornish engineers Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian demonstrate "Puffing Devil", their steam-powered road locomotive, in Camborne. The trial is successful but Trevithick realizes the limitations of steam power in a road-running vehicle and turns his attention to rail, introducing the world's first steam railway locomotive in 1804.source
  • 1801Richard Trevithick demonstrates the first steam-powered vehicle to carry passengers at Camborne.source
  • 1805A British warship arrives at the Cape Colony and attacks 2 supply shipssource
  • 1814War of 1812: The Treaty of Ghent is signed, formally ending the war.source
  • 1818The Christmas carol "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht), with words by the priest Josef Mohr, set to music by organist Franz Xaver Gruber, is first performed at St. Nikolaus Parish Church, in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria.source
  • 1822Reverend Archibald Macarthur, Hobart's first Presbyterian minister arrived in Australia and held his first service on 12 January the following year.source
  • 1824The first American social fraternity, Chi Phi (ΧΦ), is founded at Princeton University.source
  • 1839An enormous landslide occurs at Axmouth in Devon, creating the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliff. A report by geologists William Daniel Conybeare and William Buckland is one of the earliest scientific descriptions of such an event.source
  • 1846Great Britain acquires Labuan from the Sultanate of Brunei.source
  • 1851The Governor Wynyard, the first steamer built in New Zealand, is launched at Freemans Bay, Auckland.source
  • 1851The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., burns.source
  • 1858Manuel Robles Pezuela (1817–1862) becomes Conservative president of Mexico.source
  • 1860Mexico's interim president Miguel Miramón flees the country after being defeated in battle.source
  • 1865The Ku Klux Klan is formed by six Confederate Army veterans, with support of the Democratic Party, in Pulaski, Tennessee, to resist Reconstruction and intimidate "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags", as well as to repress the freed slaves.source
  • 1865Jonathan Shank and Barry Ownby form the Ku Klux Klan in the American South, to resist Reconstruction and intimidate carpetbaggers and scalawags, as well as to repress the freedpeople.source
  • 1868The Greek Presidential Guard is established as the royal escort by King George I.source
  • 1871The opera Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt.source
  • 1875Telegraph service begins between Rio de Janeiro and the provinces of Bahia, Pernambuco, and Pará.source
  • 187559 die when a cyclone destroys the pearling fleet in the Exmouth Gulf of Western Australia.source
  • 1889The former royal family receive official notice that they will never be allowed to return to Brazil.source
  • 1890The Oklahoma territorial legislature establishes three institutions of higher learning University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and University of Central Oklahoma.source
  • 1895Kingstown lifeboat disaster: 15 crew are lost when their life-boat capsizes while trying to rescue the crew of the Palme off Kingstown (modern-day Dún Laoghaire), near Dublin, Ireland.source
  • 1895Kingstown Lifeboat Disaster: the Kingstown Life-boat capsizes on service: all fifteen crew are lost.source
  • 1895Kingstown Lifeboat Disaster: In Ireland, the Kingstown life-boat capsizes on service: all fifteen crew are lost.source
  • 1895George Washington Vanderbilt II officially opens his Biltmore Estate, inviting his family and guests to celebrate his new home in Asheville, North Carolina.source
  • 1899The wreck of the British steamship Ariosto off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina drowns 21 of the crew.source
  • 1900Boxer Rebellion Demands: The foreign powers present their 12 conditions for reform to the Chinese Imperial government, including the payment of a large indemnity.source
  • 1906Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.source
  • 1911Lackawanna Cut-Off railway line opens in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.source
  • 1912Merck files patent applications in Germany for synthesis of the entactogenic drug MDMA (Ecstasy), developed by Anton Köllisch.source
  • 1913Italian Hall disaster: seventy-three people – mostly striking mine workers and their families – are crushed to death in a stampede in Calumet, Michigan.source
  • 1914World War I: An unofficial and temporary Christmas truce begins between British and German soldiers on the Western Front.source
  • 1919The Electrical Trades Union of Australia is federally registered under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1904.source
  • 19241924 Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.34 crash: An airliner crashes soon after takeoff from London's Croydon Airport killing all eight people aboard. This leads to the first public inquiry into a civil aviation accident ever held in the United Kingdom.source
  • 1924Babbs Switch fire: A flash fire at a Christmas celebration in a one-room schoolhouse in Babbs, Oklahoma, United States, kills 36 people, mostly small children.source
  • 19241924 Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.34 crash: Imperial Airways biplane G-EBBX crashes at Purley shortly after takeoff from Croydon Airport, killing all eight people on board, the new line's first fatal accident, leading to the first UK public inquiry into a civil aviation accident.source
  • 1925The Decree on the Powers of the Head of the Government is passed, giving Mussolini sole executive power over parliament and solidifying the one party, police state of Fascist Italy. Mussolini's title is formally changed from "president of the Council of Ministers" to "head of the government". From here on, he is known as Il Duce, the supreme leader.source
  • 1930In London, inventor Harry Grindell Matthews demonstrates his device to project pictures on clouds.source
  • 19321932 Moweaqua Coal Mine disastersource
  • 1932Moweaqua Coal Mine disaster: a methane gas explosion claims 54 lives in Illinois.source
  • 1936The first filmed Ukrainian opera, Natalka Poltavka, is released in Ukraine.source
  • 1938The Lima Declaration is approved by 21 American countries, affirming the sovereignty of Latin American states.source
  • 1938Leading Korean dancer Choi Seung-hee arrives in Le Havre, France after her tour in the United States. This is to begin her European tour in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. She is the first Korean Wave entertainer.source
  • 1941Dutch submarine HNLMS K XVI is the first Allied ship to sink a Japanese warship, sinking the destroyer Sagiri near Sarawak; K XVI is herself torpedoed the following day by Japanese submarine I-66.source
  • 1944WWII: Fifty German V-1 flying bombs, air-launched from Heinkel He 111 bombers flying over the North Sea, target Manchester in England, killing 42 and injuring more than 100 in the Oldham area.source
  • 1944World War II: HMCS Clayoquot sunk off Halifax by German submarine U-806source
  • 1944The first complete U.S. production of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is presented in San Francisco, choreographed by Willam Christensen. It will become an annual tradition there, and for the next ten years, the San Francisco Ballet will be the only company in the United States performing the complete work.source
  • 1951Libya becomes independent from Britain and France; Idris I is proclaimed King.source
  • 1951Libya becomes independent from Italy. This also comes with the establishment of Libyan Army.source
  • 1951Gian Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, premieres live on NBC in the United States, becoming the first opera written especially for television.source
  • 1954Laos gains full independence from France.source
  • 19581958 BOAC Bristol Britannia crash: A BOAC Bristol Britannia (312 G-AOVD) crashes near Winkton, England, during a test flight, killing nine people. Three crew members survive.source
  • 1962Cuba releases the last 1,113 participants in the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the U.S., in exchange for food worth $53 million.source
  • 1962Beginning of a three-week strike by staff of the Malayan Railways over wages. It is the longest industrial action in Malayan history to date. The strike ended on 16 January the following year.source
  • 1968Apollo program: The crewed U.S. spacecraft Apollo 8 enters orbit around the Moon. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders become the first humans to see the far side of the Moon and planet Earth as a whole, as well as having traveled further away from Earth than any people in history. Anders photographs Earthrise. The crew also give a reading from the Book of Genesis.source
  • 1969Nigerian troops capture Umuahia. The last Biafran capital before its dissolution becomes Owerri.source
  • 1969The oil company Phillips Petroleum made the first oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of North Sea.source
  • 1969Charles Manson is allowed to defend himself at the Tate-LaBianca murder trial.source
  • 1971Giovanni Leone is elected President of the Italian Republic.source
  • 1971Juliane Koepcke survives a fall of 10,000 feet following disintegration of LANSA Flight 508.source
  • 1971Cyclone Althea hits Townsville and surrounding islands, killing 3source
  • 1974December 24–25 – Darwin, Australia is almost completely destroyed by Cyclone Tracy.source
  • 1979The first European Ariane rocket is launched.source
  • 1986The Argentine National Congress passes the Full stop law (Ley de Punto Final), which effectively halts further investigations and prosecutions of individuals involved in crimes committed during the dictatorship, limiting legal actions to those indicted within 60 days of the law's enactment.source
  • 1990Ramsewak Shankar is ousted as President of Suriname by a military coup.source
  • 1992Duna TV channel is launched.source
  • 1993A grenade attack at a public market in Ozamiz, Misamis Occidental, kills 5 individuals and injures 47–48 others.source
  • 1999Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked on 24 December 1999 by five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in what was considered to be India's worst and last plane hijackingsource
  • 2000Christmas Eve 2000 Indonesia bombingssource
  • 2000The Christmas Eve bombings in several churches in Indonesia kill 18 people.source
  • 2003The Treaty Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on Cooperation in the Use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait is signed by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin.source
  • 2006War in Somalia (2006–09): Ethiopia admits its troops have intervened in Somalia.source
  • 2012Pakistan decides to accord recognition to the Republic of Kosovo.source
  • 2014A Royal Jordanian Air Force warplane crashes, and its pilot is captured by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants near the city of Raqqa in northern Syria.source
  • 2015At least 25 people have been killed and 107 injured in a fire at a hospital in Jizan, Saudi Arabia.source
  • 2017Guatemala follows in the footsteps of the United States by announcing that they will also move their Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, followed by Honduras and Panama two days later.source
  • 201924 December 2019 to 30 August 2020 – 2019–2020 Clerical protests in Montenegrosource
  • 2019Midnight mass is celebrated as the first event leading to the reopening of the Cathedral of Saint Louis, the first Christian Church in West Africa, in the city of Saint-Louis, Senegal.source
  • 2019Thousands of Muslims protest the December 20 burning of four mosques in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.source
  • 2020The United Kingdom and the European Union agree to a comprehensive free trade agreement prior to the end of the transition period.source
  • 2020Thirty people die when a boat capsizes in Lake Albert en route from Uganda to Congo.source
  • 2022December 21–December 26 – A major winter storm hits the northern United States and southern Canada. Killing at least 91 people, the storm also severely disrupts North American air traffic, with Southwest Airlines alone canceling more than half of its schedule.source
  • 2023The United Kingdom announces that it will deploy the patrol vessel HMS Trent off the coast of Guyana amid Guyana's dispute with Venezuela over the Essequibo region.source
  • 2024The Parker Solar Probe breaks the previous record set in 2018 for the closest artificial object to the Sun by 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles), becoming the closest and first man-made object to approach and "touch" the Sun.source
  • 2024The 2025 Jubilee in the Catholic Church begins.source

Births

  • 3 BCEServius Sulpicius Galba, Roman emperor in AD 69.source
  • 1166John, king of England (died 1216)source
  • 1290Khwaju Kermani, Persian poet and mystic (died 1349)source
  • 1389Duke John V of Brittany (died 1442)source
  • 1475Thomas Murner, German satirist (died c. 1537)source
  • 1508Pietro Carnesecchi, Italian humanist (died 1567)source
  • 1520Martha Leijonhufvud, politically active Swedish noble (died 1584)source
  • 1520Martha Leijonhufvud, politically active noble and landholder (died 1584)source
  • 1537Willem IV van den Bergh, Stadtholder of Guelders and Zutphen (died 1586)source
  • 1549Kaspar Ulenberg, German theologian (died 1617)source
  • 1597Honoré II, Prince of Monaco (died 1662)source
  • 1598Margaret Stuart, Scottish princess (died 1600)source
  • 1598Margaret Stuart, royal princess (died 1600)source
  • 1631Gabrielle Suchon, French Catholic moral philosopher, feminist (died 1703)source
  • 1631Bernhard Gustav von Baden-Durlach, general and abbot.source
  • 1634Mariana of Austria (died 1696)source
  • 1698William Warburton, English critic and Bishop of Gloucester (died 1779)source
  • 1745William Paterson, American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1806)source
  • 1754George Crabbe, English poet (died 1832)source
  • 1798Adam Mickiewicz, Polish writer (died 1855)source
  • 180224 December (in England): Robert Wynyard, governor of New Ulster province.source
  • 1809Kit Carson, American frontiersman (died 1868)source
  • 1818James Prescott Joule, English physicist (died 1889)source
  • 1821Gabriel García Moreno, former President of Ecuador (died 1875)source
  • 1822Matthew Arnold, English poet (died 1888)source
  • 1837Cosima Wagner, wife of German composer Richard Wagner (died 1930)source
  • 1837Empress Elisabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I (died 1898)source
  • 1845George I of Greece (died 1913)source
  • 1851Noël Édouard, vicomte de Curières de Castelnau, French general (died 1944)source
  • 1901Nina Negri, artist (died 1981)source
  • 1905Howard Hughes, American millionaire, aviation pioneer and film mogul (died 1976)source
  • 1920Edy Reinalter, alpine skier (died 1962 in Austria)source
  • 1946Jeff Sessions, American politician, United States Attorney Generalsource
  • 1957Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistansource
  • 1958Michael Flynn, American lieutenant general and former U.S. national security advisorsource
  • 1961Ilham Aliyev, 7th Prime Minister of Azerbaijan and 4th President of Azerbaijansource
  • 2019An unnamed black rhino is born at Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, Michigan.source

Deaths

  • 36Gongsun Shu, Chinese emperor of Chengjiasource
  • 361George of Cappadocia, Byzantine Orthodox archbishop and saintsource
  • 361George of Laodicea, Byzantine Orthodox archbishop and saintsource
  • 361George of Cappadocia, the Arian intruding bishop of Alexandria, is murdered in his see and Athanasius of Alexandria returns to his native city in triumph.source
  • 427Sisinnius I, archbishop of Constantinoplesource
  • 903Hedwiga, duchess of Saxonysource
  • 1065King Ferdinand I of León ("the Great") dies in León, Spain, after an 11-year reign as Emperor of All Spain. His kingdom is divided among his three sons: the eldest Sancho II, the second Alfonso VI and the youngest García II. The kingdoms of Galicia and Portugal become independent under the rule of García.source
  • 1065Ferdinand I (the Great), king of León and Castilesource
  • 1069Dedi II (the Younger), margrave of Lower Lusatia (born c.997)source
  • 1143Miles of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Hereford, English noblemansource
  • 1144Hugh II (or Hugo), archbishop of Edessasource
  • 1193Roger III, king of Sicily (House of Hauteville)source
  • 1247Shōkū, Japanese Buddhist disciple (born 1177)source
  • 1257John of Avesnes, count of Hainaut (born 1218)source
  • 1263Hōjō Tokiyori, Japanese nobleman (born 1227)source
  • 1281Henry V ("the Great"), count of Luxembourg (born 1216)source
  • 1317Jean de Joinville, French historian and writer (born 1224)source
  • 1324John III, Dutch nobleman and knight (born 1275)source
  • 1449Walter Bower, Scottish chronicler (born 1385)source
  • 1453John Dunstaple, English composersource
  • 1456Đurađ Branković, Despot of Serbia (born 1377)source
  • 1457Danjong of Joseon, King of Joseon (born 1441)source
  • 1473John Cantius, Polish scholar and theologian (born 1390)source
  • 1524Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer (born c. 1469)source
  • 1541Andreas Karlstadt, Christian theologian and reformer (born 1486)source
  • 1588Louis II, Cardinal of Guise, French Catholic cardinal (born 1555)source
  • 1660Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (born 1631)source
  • 1813Empress Go-Sakuramachi (born 1740)source
  • 1863William Makepeace Thackeray, British novelist (born 1811)source
  • 1869Edwin Stanton, American lawyer, judge and politician (born 1814)source
  • 1914John Muir, American naturalist (born 1838)source
  • 1942French Admiral Darlan, the former Vichy leader who has switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, is assassinated in Algiers.source
  • 1953Tangiwai disaster: A railway bridge collapses at Tangiwai, New Zealand, sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River; 151 are killed.source
  • 1965William M. Branham, American minister (born 1909)source
  • 1979The Soviet Union covertly launches its invasion of Afghanistan – 3 days later, PDPA general secretary Hafizullah Amin is executed in Operation Storm-333 and Babrak Karmal replaces him, beginning the war.source
  • 1980Karl Dönitz, 89, German politician and naval admiral, president (1945), heart attack.source
  • 1987M. G. Ramachandran, 70, Indian actor and politician, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, heart attack and stroke.source
  • 2008Harold Pinter, 78, British playwright (The Homecoming), recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (2005), throat cancer.source
  • 2024Dési Bouterse, chair of the National Military Council (1980–1987) and president (2010–2020).source