Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 24
- 1777 – An expedition led by English explorer James Cook reached Christmas Island (pictured), the largest coral atoll in the world.
- 1814 – The Treaty of Ghent was signed in Ghent, present-day Belgium, ending the War of 1812 between the United Kingdom and the United States.
- 1865 – Six Confederate veterans of the American Civil War founded the Ku Klux Klan, which would later become a white supremacist group.
- 1906 – Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden transmitted the first radio broadcast, which included his playing a song on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible.
- 1914 – British and German soldiers interrupted World War I to celebrate Christmas, beginning the Christmas truce.
- 1968 – The crew of the NASA spacecraft Apollo 8 became the first humans to orbit the Moon.
- 1974 – Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin, Australia, eventually destroying more than 70 percent of the city.
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