Wednesday, December 24, 1997
Today's events
The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins.
The U.S. Commerce Department releases November personal income records.
|
On the horizon
On Thursday, December 25, much of the world celebrates
Christmas.
On Friday, December 26, one of the busiest U.S. shopping
days of the year begins with consumers rushing to grab
after-Christmas bargains.
On Saturday, December 27, National Football League wild-card playoff games are held.
On Monday, December 29, Kenya holds presidential and general elections.
On Tuesday, December 30, World Universities' Debating Championships will be held in Athens.
|
On this day
In 1491, Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Society of Jesus
(Jesuits), was born.
In 1524,Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer and navigator who
discovered the sea route to India via the Cape, died.
In 1618, Poland agreed to truces in its conflicts with both
Sweden and Turkey.
In 1800, authorities in Paris uncovered a plot to assassinate
Napoleon Bonaparte.
In 1814, the war of 1812 between America and Britain ended
with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.
In 1863, William Makepeace Thackeray, English author of
"Vanity Fair," died.
In 1865, the Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee.
In 1871, "Aida," an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi, was
first performed in Cairo, where the story of the opera is
set.
In 1914, the first air raid on Britain took place when a
German monoplane dropped a single bomb on Dover.
In 1941, the British Eighth Army recaptured Benghazi, Libya,
from the Germans.
In 1942, the German research station at Peenemunde
successfully tested a new surface-to-surface weapon system.
Called the FZG76, it later became better known as the V1 Flying
Bomb.
In 1942, Francois Darlan, French admiral and a leading figure
in the World War II Vichy government, was killed by an
anti-Vichy assassin.
In 1943, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed supreme
commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force preparing for the
invasion of France.
In 1951, Libya declared its independence and proclaimed a
monarchy under King Idriss I.
In 1953, in New Zealand, 151 people were killed when an
express train crashed into the Whangaehu river.
In 1976 - Takeo Fukuda became Japanese prime minister.
In 1980, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, commander-in-chief of the
German Navy during World War Two, died.
In 1986, Aurel Cornea, a French television soundman, was
released in Beirut by the clandestine pro-Iranian group which
had held him for 291 days.
In 1989, deposed Panamanian strongman General Manuel Antonio
Noriega turned himself in to the pope's envoy in Panama and
asked for political asylum.
In 1992, President George Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger and
five other Reagan aides involved in the Iran-contra affair.
In 1994, fundamentalist Muslim guerrillas killed two people as
they hijacked a French airliner at Algiers airport.
In 1995, thousands of Palestinians gathered at Bethlehem's
Manger Square to celebrate the city's first Christmas in 28
years free from Israeli occupation.
In 1995, Serb and Muslim armies swapped more than 200
prisoners of war in a Christmas Eve gesture symbolising a new
era of Bosnian peace under NATO's biggest military operation.
In 1995, the first general election victory by an Islamic
party in Turkey's 72-year secular history took place when the
Welfare Party received 21.32 percent of the vote.
|
Newslink
Today is the first full day of Hanukkah. Check out our special section to learn more about the traditions and meaning behing the Jewish holiday.
|
Holidays and more
Isreal celebrates Hanukkah.
Actress Jill Bennett is 66.
Author, director Nicholas Meyer is 52.
|
Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1997, J.P. Morgan
|