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Christmas Eve
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502 – Chinese emperor Xiao Yan names Xiao Tong his heir designate.
640 – Pope John IV is elected.
759 – Tang dynasty poet Du Fu departs for Chengdu, where he is hosted by fellow poet Pei Di.
1144 – The capital of the crusader County of Edessa falls to Imad ad-Din Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo.
1294 – Pope Boniface VIII is elected, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned.
1500 – A joint Venetian–Spanish fleet captures the Castle of St. George on the island of Cephalonia.
1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.
1800 – The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise fails to kill Napoleon Bonaparte.
1814 – The Treaty of Ghent is signed ending the War of 1812.
1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning.
1851 – Fire devastates the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes.
1865 – The Ku Klux Klan is formed.
1871 – Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt.
1893 – Ford Motor Company Founder Henry Ford completes his first functional gasoline fueled engine.
1906 – Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
1911 – Lackawanna Cut-Off railway line opens in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
1913 – The Italian Hall disaster in Calumet, Michigan results in the deaths of 73 Christmas party participants (including 59 children) when someone falsely yells "fire".
1914 – World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.
1924 – Albania becomes a republic.
1929 – Assassination attempt on Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen.
1939 – World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
1941 – World War II: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces.
1942 – World War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers, Algeria.
1943 – World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Allied Commander for the Invasion of Normandy.
1945 – Five of nine children become missing after their home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, is burned down.
1951 – Libya becomes independent from Italy. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya.
1953 – Tangiwai disaster: In New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapses beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people.
1955 – The Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., fields phone calls from children wanting to know the whereabouts of Santa Claus after an ad in a local newspaper mistakenly gave the center’s number; thus began a tradition continued by NORAD of tracking Santa’s location the night before Christmas.
1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong operatives bomb the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, South Vietnam to demonstrate they can strike an American installation in the heavily guarded capital.
1966 – A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.
1968 – Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.
1969 – Charles Manson is allowed to defend himself at the Tate–LaBianca murder trial.
1969 – The oil company Phillips Petroleum made the first oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of North Sea.
1969 – Nigerian troops capture Umuahia, the Biafran capital.
1973 – District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.
1979 – The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
1980 – Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called "Britain's Roswell".
1994 – Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked on the ground at Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers, Algeria. Over the course of three days three passengers are killed, as are all four terrorists.
1997 – The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria kills 50–100 people.
1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 is hijacked in Indian airspace between Kathmandu, Nepal, and Delhi, India. The aircraft landed at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The incident ended on December 31 with the release of 190 survivors (one passenger killed).
2000 – The Texas Seven hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is murdered during the robbery.
2003 – The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
2005 – Chad–Sudan relations: Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.
2008 – Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, begins a series of attacks on Democratic Republic of the Congo, massacring more than 400.
Saints' Days and Holy Days
Christmas Eve and its related observances:
Aðfangadagskvöld, the day when the 13th and the last Yule
Lad arrives to towns. (Iceland)
Feast of the Seven Fishes (Italy)
Juleaften (Denmark)/Julaften (Norway)/Julafton (Sweden)
Nittel Nacht (certain Orthodox Jewish denominations)
Nochebuena (Spain and Spanish-speaking countries)
The Declaration of Christmas Peace (Old Great Square of
Turku, Finland's official Christmas City)
Traditional Western
Christmas Eve.
Contemporary Western
Christmas Eve
Adela and IrminaPaola Elisabetta Cerioli
Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran
Christmas Eve
Eastern Orthodox
Feasts
The Eve of the Nativity of Christ
Saints
Venerable Nun-martyr Eugenia of Rome, and with her:
Martyrs Philip (her father), Protus and Hyacinth (Jacinth),
Basilla, and Claudia (262)
Martyrs Sossios and Theokleios (c. 286-305)
Martyr Castulus (c. 307-323)
Martyr Achaicus, by the sword
Venerable Vitimionus of Scetis (Bitimionus of Scete) (5th century)
Venerable Aphrodisius, monk of Palestine (6th century)
Venerable Antiochus of Palestine (Antiochus Strategos, Antiochos
Sabbaitis), monk of the Great Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified
in Jerusalem (635)
Venerable Nicholas the Monk, of Bulgaria (c. 802-811)
Pre-Schism Western Saints
Martyrs Lucian, Metrobius, Paul, Zenobius, Theotimus,
and Drusus, in Tripoli in North Africa.
Hieromartyr Gregory of Spoleto, a priest martyred in Spoleto
in Italy under Maximinian Herculeus.
Saint Delphinus, Bishop of Bordeaux in France; he helped
convert St Paulinus of Nola and was an untiring opponent
of Priscillianism (404)
Saint Venerandus, born of a senatorial family in Clermont in
Auvergne in France, he became bishop there from 385-423 (423)
Saint Caranus, a saint of the east of Scotland
Saint Tarsila, an aunt of St Gregory the Great, sister of St Emiliana
and niece of Pope Felix; she led a life of seclusion and
asceticism in her paternal home (581)
Saint Mochua, Abbot of Timahoe (637)
Saint Irmina, sister of St. Adela, daughter of Dagobert II
(King of the Franks) (708)
Saint Adela, daughter of Dagobert II (King of the Franks),
first Abbess of Pfalzel near Trier in Germany (c. 730)
Saint Alberic (Albert), a monk at Gladbach Abbey in Germany (10th century)
Saint Bruno, a holy man at the monastery of Ottobeuren Abbey
in Bavaria in Germany (1050)
Post-Schism Orthodox Saints
New Martyr Achmed (Ahmet) the Calligrapher, at Constantinople (1682)
Venerable Agapios the Younger (1812)
New Martyrs and Confessors
Martyrs Protopresbyter St. Michael Shafaniv,
and Presbytera St. Sofia (1918)
New Hieromartyr Innocent (Beda), Archimandrite, of Voronezh
(Innokenty (Bida) of Poltava) (1928)
New Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev, Archpriest, of Moscow (1942)
The Eve of the Nativity of Christ
Saints
Venerable Nun-martyr Eugenia of Rome, and with her:
Martyrs Philip (her father), Protus and Hyacinth (Jacinth),
Basilla, and Claudia (262)
Martyrs Sossios and Theokleios (c. 286-305)
Martyr Castulus (c. 307-323)
Martyr Achaicus, by the sword
Venerable Vitimionus of Scetis (Bitimionus of Scete) (5th century)
Venerable Aphrodisius, monk of Palestine (6th century)
Venerable Antiochus of Palestine (Antiochus Strategos, Antiochos
Sabbaitis), monk of the Great Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified
in Jerusalem (635)
Venerable Nicholas the Monk, of Bulgaria (c. 802-811)
Pre-Schism Western Saints
Martyrs Lucian, Metrobius, Paul, Zenobius, Theotimus,
and Drusus, in Tripoli in North Africa.
Hieromartyr Gregory of Spoleto, a priest martyred in Spoleto
in Italy under Maximinian Herculeus.
Saint Delphinus, Bishop of Bordeaux in France; he helped
convert St Paulinus of Nola and was an untiring opponent
of Priscillianism (404)
Saint Venerandus, born of a senatorial family in Clermont in
Auvergne in France, he became bishop there from 385-423 (423)
Saint Caranus, a saint of the east of Scotland
Saint Tarsila, an aunt of St Gregory the Great, sister of St Emiliana
and niece of Pope Felix; she led a life of seclusion and
asceticism in her paternal home (581)
Saint Mochua, Abbot of Timahoe (637)
Saint Irmina, sister of St. Adela, daughter of Dagobert II
(King of the Franks) (708)
Saint Adela, daughter of Dagobert II (King of the Franks),
first Abbess of Pfalzel near Trier in Germany (c. 730)
Saint Alberic (Albert), a monk at Gladbach Abbey in Germany (10th century)
Saint Bruno, a holy man at the monastery of Ottobeuren Abbey
in Bavaria in Germany (1050)
Post-Schism Orthodox Saints
New Martyr Achmed (Ahmet) the Calligrapher, at Constantinople (1682)
Venerable Agapios the Younger (1812)
New Martyrs and Confessors
Martyrs Protopresbyter St. Michael Shafaniv,
and Presbytera St. Sofia (1918)
New Hieromartyr Innocent (Beda), Archimandrite, of Voronezh
(Innokenty (Bida) of Poltava) (1928)
New Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev, Archpriest, of Moscow (1942)
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