http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Dec 24, 1979: Soviet tanks roll into Afghanistan
On December 24, 1979, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty of 1978.
As midnight approached, the Soviets organized a massive military airlift into Kabul, involving an estimated 280 transport aircraft and three divisions of almost 8,500 men each. Within a few days, the Soviets had secured Kabul, deploying a special assault unit against Tajberg Palace. Elements of the Afghan army loyal to Hafizullah Amin put up a fierce, but brief resistance.
On December 27, Babrak Karmal, exiled leader of the Parcham faction of the Marxist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), was installed as Afghanistan’s new head of government. And Soviet ground forces entered Afghanistan from the north.
The Soviets, however, were met with fierce resistance when they ventured out of their strongholds into the countryside. Resistance fighters, called mujahidin, saw the Christian or atheist Soviets controlling Afghanistan as a defilement of Islam as well as of their traditional culture. Proclaiming a "jihad"(holy war), they gained the support of the Islamic world.
The mujahidin employed guerrilla tactics against the Soviets. They would attack or raid quickly, then disappear into the mountains, causing great destruction without pitched battles. The fighters used whatever weapons they could grab from the Soviets or were given by the United States.
The tide of the war turned with the 1987 introduction of U.S. shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles. The Stingers allowed the mujahidin to shoot down Soviet planes and helicopters on a regular basis.
New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev decided it was time to get out. Demoralized and with no victory in sight, Soviet forces started withdrawing in 1988. The last Soviet soldier crossed back across the border on February 15, 1989.
It was the first Soviet military expedition beyond the Eastern bloc since World War II and marked the end of a period of improving relations (known as détente) in the Cold War. Subsequently, the SALT II arms treaty was shelved and the U.S. began to re-arm.
Fifteen thousand Soviet soldiers were killed.
The long-term impact of the invasion and subsequent war was profound. First, the Soviets never recovered from the public relations and financial losses, which significantly contributed to the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991. Secondly, the war created a breeding ground for terrorism and the rise of Osama bin Laden.
Dec 24, 1814: War of 1812 ends
The Treaty of Peace and Amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America is signed by British and American representatives at Ghent, Belgium, ending the War of 1812. By terms of the treaty, all conquered territory was to be returned, and commissions were planned to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada.
In June 1812, the United States declared war against Great Britain in reaction to three issues: the British economic blockade of France, the induction of thousands of neutral American seamen into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. A faction of Congress, made up mostly of western and southern congressmen, had been advocating the declaration of war for several years. These "War Hawks," as they were known, hoped that war with Britain, which was preoccupied with its struggle against Napoleonic France, would result in U.S. territorial gains in Canada and British-protected Florida.
In the months following the U.S. declaration of war, American forces launched a three-point invasion of Canada, all of which were repulsed. At sea, however, the United States was more successful, and the USS Constitution and other American frigates won a series of victories over British warships. In 1813, American forces won several key victories in the Great Lakes region, but Britain regained control of the sea and blockaded the eastern seaboard.
In 1814, with the downfall of Napoleon, the British were able to allocate more military resources to the American war, and Washington, D.C., fell to the British in August. In Washington, British troops burned the White House, the Capitol, and other buildings in retaliation for the earlier burning of government buildings in Canada by U.S. soldiers. The British soon retreated, however, and Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor withstood a massive British bombardment and inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the "Star-Spangled Banner."
On September 11, 1814, the tide of the war turned when Thomas Macdonough's American naval force won a decisive victory at the Battle of Plattsburg Bay on Lake Champlain. A large British army under Sir George Prevost was thus forced to abandon its invasion of the U.S. northeast and retreat to Canada. The American victory on Lake Champlain led to the conclusion of U.S.-British peace negotiations in Belgium, and on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, ending the war. Although the treaty said nothing about two of the key issues that started the war--the rights of neutral U.S. vessels and the impressment of U.S. sailors--it did open up the Great Lakes region to American expansion and was hailed as a diplomatic victory in the United States.
News of the treaty took almost two months to cross the Atlantic, and British forces were not informed of the end of hostilities in time to end their drive against the mouth of the Mississippi River. On January 8, 1815, a large British army attacked New Orleans and was decimated by an inferior American force under General Andrew Jackson in the most spectacular U.S. victory of the war. The American public heard of the Battle of New Orleans and the Treaty of Ghent at approximately the same time, fostering a greater sentiment of self-confidence and shared identity throughout the young republic.
Dec 24, 1994: Islamic terrorists hijack a French plane
On this day in 1994, four Islamic extremists hijack Air France Flight 8969 in Algiers. The terrorists then flew the plane to Marseilles with the permission of the French and Algerian governments, given in part because French special forces would be ready to perform a rescue mission. More than two days after the terrorists took control of the plane, during which time they killed three hostages, French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur decided to use French commandos to put an end to the hijacking. In the ensuing mission, the terrorists were killed and the remaining hostages were released unharmed, despite the discovery of a cache of dynamite aboard the plane. Hostages claimed that the terrorists had discussed plans to fly the plane to Paris and blow it up.
The hijacking came during a period of political upheaval in Algeria that pitted Islamic rebels against the country's military dictatorship. France, along with other Western countries, supported the dictatorship to prevent the takeover of the country by Islamic fundamentalist. The hijacking was designed as a protest against this support. The brutal Algerian civil war, which began in 1992, when the Algerian army cancelled an election that the Islamic party was winning, continues to this day. Although the violence died down to a certain extent in 1999 when Abdelaziz Bouteflika--who promised reform and end to the war--was elected president, fighting still breaks out periodically. Despite the resistance of Islamic fundamentalist groups, the army has maintained power. Over 100,000 people have died in the fighting, most of them citizens who were brutally murdered by the regime.
Dec 24, 1851: Fire ravages Library of Congress
A devastating fire at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroys about two-thirds of its 55,000 volumes, including most of Thomas Jefferson's personal library, sold to the institution in 1815.
The Library of Congress was established in 1800, when President John Adams approved legislation that appropriated $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress." The first books, ordered from London, arrived in 1801 and were stored in the U.S. Capitol, the library's first home. The first library catalog, dated April 1802, listed 964 volumes and nine maps. Twelve years later, the British army invaded the city of Washington and burned the Capitol, including the 3,000-volume Library of Congress.
Former president Thomas Jefferson, who advocated the expansion of the library during his two terms in office, responded to the loss by selling his personal library, the largest and finest in the country, to Congress to "recommence" the library. The purchase of Jefferson's 6,487 volumes was approved in the next year, and a professional librarian, George Watterston, was hired to replace the House clerks in the administration of the library. In 1851, a second major fire at the library destroyed about two-thirds of its books. Congress responded quickly and generously to the disaster, and within a few years a majority of the lost books were replaced.
After the Civil War, the collection was greatly expanded, and by the 20th century the Library of Congress had become the de facto national library of the United States and one of the largest in the world. Today, the collection, housed in three enormous buildings in Washington, contains more than 17 million books, as well as millions of maps, manuscripts, photographs, films, audio and video recordings, prints, and drawings.
Dec 24, 1851: Fire destroys Jefferson library
On this day in 1851, a fire sweeps through the Library of Congress and destroys two-thirds of Thomas Jefferson's personal literary collection.
Jefferson, who died in 1826, had offered to sell his personal library to Congress after the Congressional library, along with the rest of the Capitol and the White House, was burned by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812. His collection of 6,487 volumes of books and newspapers fetched $23,950 and, in addition to providing an invaluable archive to the nation, the fee helped pay off some of Jefferson's personal debts. According to the Library of Congress, Jefferson also offered to arrange and number all the books himself. He called his collection, which contained a vast assortment of scientific works, an "interesting treasure" that he hoped would have a "national impact."
Jefferson was a voracious reader who claimed that he could not live without books. His servants often found him sitting on the floor of his library at Monticello surrounded by as many as 20 open books and newspapers at a time. He studied a variety of subjects, including paleontology, mechanics, classical literature, natural history, agriculture, math, chemistry, philosophy and, of course, politics.
Today
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
563 - The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.
640 - John IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1046 - Pope Clement II, [Suitger] elected
1294 - Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII
1476 - 400 Burgundian soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy
1515 - Thomas Wolsey appointed English Lord Chancellor
1565 - Compromise of the Nobles closes against inquisition
1568 - Uprising of Morisco's in Granada
1593 - Storm hits Texel: 40 ships hit, 500 killed
1651 - John van Riebeeck departs to Cape of Good Hope
1715 - Swedish troops occupy Norway
1777 - Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook
1798 - Russia & England sign Second anti-French Coalition
1799 - Jakobijns plot against Napoleon uncovered
1814 - Treaty of Ghent (end of US-Britain's War of 1812) signed
1818 - "Silent Night" composed by Franz Joseph Gruber; 1st sung next day
1832 - 1st US Negro hospital founded by whites chartered, Savannah, Georgia
1832 - HMS Beagle anchors in Wigwam Bay at Cape Receiver
1851 - Fire devastates US Library of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes
Captain/Explorer James CookCaptain/Explorer James Cook 1860 - Joseph Jefferson's "Rip Van Winkle," premieres in NYC
1864 - Battle of Gordonsville, VA
1865 - Several Confederate veterans form Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tn
1871 - Giusseppi Verdi's "Aida" premieres in Cairo, at Suez canal opening
1874 - Pope Pius IX proclaims a jubilee for 1875
1884 - Austria-Hungary admits King Leopold II's Congo Free State
1889 - Daniel Stover & William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake
1893 - Henry Ford completes his 1st useful gas motor
1894 - Scheveningse fishing boats destroyed by storm
1894 - Soccer team Achilles '94 forms in Axes
1898 - Herman Heijermans' "Ghetto," premieres in Amsterdam
1900 - Herman Heijermans' "Hope of Blessing" premieres in Amsterdam
1904 - German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
1906 - Reginald A Fessenden became 1st to broadcast music over radio (Mass)
1910 - Luisa Tetrazzini sings to 250,000 people at Lotta's Fountain
Ford Motor Company Founder Henry FordFord Motor Company Founder Henry Ford 1912 - Irving Fisher patents archiving system with index cards
1914 - German plane drops bombs on Dover England
1920 - Enrico Caruso gives his last public performance (NYC)
1922 - BBC sends 1st British radio play "Truth about Father Christmas"
1922 - London Coloseum opens
1924 - 1st radio transmission of NCRV in Netherlands
1924 - Albania becomes a republic (ex-premier Ahmed Zogoe's coup)
1924 - Richard Rodgers Theater (46th St Chanin's) opens at 226 W 46th NYC
1924 - School in Babb's Switch, Oklahoma catches fire, 36 die
1927 - Test Cricket debut of Walter Hammond, who scored 51 & took 5-36 v S Af
1928 - George Abbott Theater (Adelphi, 54 St) opens at 152 W 54th St NYC
1930 - Bandung, Java: ir Sukarno 4 years jail sentenced
1930 - F Garcia Lorca's "La Zapatera Prodigiosa," premieres in Madrid
1932 - Arturo Alessandri wins presidental election in Chile
1933 - Paris express train derails & kills 160, injures 300 (France)
1934 - Grimmett takes 9-180 for SA as Queensland make 430
1935 - Bradman scores 233 in 191 mins, SA v Queensland, 28 fours 1 six
1935 - National Council of Negro Women forms
1936 - 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered, Berkeley, Ca
1937 - Dutch government recognizes Italian king Emanuel III as emperor of Abyssinia
1939 - World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
1941 - 1st ships of admiral Nagumo's Pearl Harbor-fleet return to Japan
1942 - 1st powered flight of V-1 buzz bomb, Peenemunde, Germany
1942 - Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja & Morozowsk
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943 - FDR appoints Gen Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
1943 - Terence Rattigan's "While the Sun Shines," premieres in London
1946 - 4th French republic established
1946 - US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor nazi's" amnesty
1946 - France's Fourth Republic is founded.
1948 - 1st US house completely sunheated is occupied (Dover Mass)
1948 - Greek government disbands due to state of war, press censorship
1950 - Cleveland Browns win NFL championship, beat LA 30-28
1951 - 1st televised opera (Amahl & Night Visitor)
1951 - United Kingdom of Libya gains independence from Italy via UN
1953 - 2 fast express trains crash head-on killing 103 (Czechoslovakia)
1953 - KHOL (now KHGI) TV channel 13 in Kearney, NB (ABC) begins broadcasting
1953 - KOA (now KCNC) TV channel 4 in Denver, CO (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 - René Coty elected pres of France
1953 - Wellington-Auckland (NZ) express train swept away in flood kills 166
1954 - Council for the Children Protection forms in Neth
1954 - Laos gains its independence
1956 - "I Love Lucy" Christmas show airs, never put in syndication
1956 - Ferdinand de Lesseps statue blown up in Port Said Egypt
1960 - Dutch bishops question papacy values
1961 - Houston Oilers beat San Diego Chargers 10-3 in AFL championship game
1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1963 - Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus
1964 - Shooting begins on "The Cage" the pilot for Star Trek
1966 - "Joyful Noise" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 12 perfs
1966 - Luna 13 lands on Moon
1966 - USAF C144 military charter crashes near Binh Thai Vietnam kills 129
1967 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC
1967 - Pirate Radio Pegasus starts broadcasting off New Zealand
1968 - Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis
1968 - WATU (now WAGT) TV channel 26 in Augusta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1970 - 9 Jews are convicted in Leningrad of hijacking a plane
1970 - Walt Disney's "Aristocats" is released
1971 - Peruvian Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later
1973 - Ferryboat capsized off coast of Equador, drowning 200
1973 - District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
1974 - Cardinals' Lou Brock is named Sportsman of the Year
1979 - 1st Ariane-rocket launched
1980 - Americans remembered Iran hostages by shining lights for 417 seconds
1981 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1982 - Chaminade, with a student body of only 850 students, beats #1 ranked Virginia 77-72 in a Honolulu holiday basketball classic
1984 - Palace coup in Mauritania
1986 - French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released
1986 - Iran offensive against Iraqi islands of Shatt al-Arab
1989 - Charles Taylor enters Liberia to unseat President Samuel K Doe
1989 - Panama's dictator, Manual Noriega seeks asylum at Vatican embassy
1990 - Expos trade Tim Raines to White Sox for Ivan Calderon & Barry Jones
1990 - Saddam says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail GorbachevGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of Soviet Union
1992 - Pres Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger of Iran-contra affair
1994 - 4 Moslem fundamentalists capture Air France pilot in Algiers
1997 - 1st time a Channukah candle is officially lit in Vatican City
1997 - The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria kills 50-100 people.
1997 - The Dominican Republic becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
2000 - The Texas 7 hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot 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.
2012 - 11 kindergarten children are killed after a minivan plunges into a roadside pond
1524 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama died in Cochin, India. 1814 The War of 1812 between America and Britain ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. 1818 "Silent Night" was composed by Franz Joseph Gruber. 1865 The Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee. 1871 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida premiered in Cairo, Egypt, at the opening of the Suez Canal. 1943 Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of Allied Forces by President Franklin Roosevelt. 1992 President Bush pardoned former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/dec24.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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