Calendar for December 24th, 2012

Born 1809: Kit Carson (frontiersman)

1814: Treaty of Ghent signed between the U.S. and Great Britain, ending the War of 1812

1818: Stille Nacht (Silent Night) first performed, Oberndorf, Austria

Born 1818: Eliza Cook (poet)

1849: First great fire of San Francisco

1851: Two-thirds of the collection of the Library of Congress (35,000 volumes) and a portion of the Capitol were destroyed by fire

Born 1881: Juan Ramon Jimenez (poet)

Born 1881: Charles Wakefield Cadman (composer)

1906: Canadian-born Reginald A. Fessenden sent the first extended radio broadcast from Brant Rock, Massachusetts

1906: "O Holy Night" was played on the world's first radio program broadcast, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts

Born 1922: Ava Gardner (actress)

Born 1929: Mary Higgins Clark (author)

Born 1930: Robert Joffrey (dancer)

Born 1971: Ricky Martin (singer)

Born 1974: Ryan Seacrest (television host)

Died 1984: Peter Lawford (actor)

2004: Catcher Jason Varitek was named captain of the Boston Red Sox

Died 2005: Michael Vale (actor best known for his portrayal of a Dunkin Donuts baker who always said, "Time to make the doughnuts.")

Died 2011: Cheetah (chimpanzee sidekick in the Tarzan movies of the early 1930s)

Died 2012: Charles Durning (actor)

Died 2012: Jack Klugman (actor)