Today is Thursday, Dec. 24, the 359th day of 2020. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Dec. 24, 1814, the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 following ratification by both the British Parliament and the U.S. Senate.
On this date:
In 1865, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, that was the original version of the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast.
Five years ago: Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned Robert Downey Jr. for a nearly 20-year-old felony drug conviction that sent the Oscar-nominated actor to jail for nearly a year.
One year ago: With the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris unable to host Christmas services for the first time since the French Revolution because of damage from a fire earlier in the year, the clergy, choir and congregation relocated to a Gothic church next to the Louvre Museum for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services.
Today’s Birthdays: Federal health official Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., is 80. Recording company executive Mike Curb is 76. Actor Stephanie Hodge is 64. The former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is 63. Rock musician Ian Burden (The Human League) is 63. Actor Anil Kapoor is 61. Actor Eva Tamargo is 60. Actor Wade Williams is 59. Rock singer Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs) is 57. Actor Mark Valley is 56. Actor Diedrich Bader is 54. Actor Amaury Nolasco is 50. Singer Ricky Martin is 49. Author Stephenie Meyer is 47. TV personality Ryan Seacrest (TV: “Live With Kelly & Ryan”) is 46. Actor Michael Raymond-James is 43. Actor Austin Stowell is 36. Actor Sofia Black-D’Elia is 29. Rock singer Louis Tomlinson (One Direction) is 29.
