On December 24

Burmese military forces killed at least 40 civilians during the Mo So massacre in Kayah State, Myanmar.

The Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, began attacks on several villages in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing hundreds and committing numerous atrocities.

Jihadists linked to al-Qaeda hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 to force the release of Islamist figures held in prison in India.

The Soviet government deployed troops in Afghanistan, starting the Soviet–Afghan War.

The U.S. Congress granted home rule to Washington, D.C., allowing the residents to elect their own mayor and a city council.

Piloted by Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 became the first human spaceflight to reach and orbit the Moon (Earthrise pictured).

The Viet Cong bombed the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, killing two U.S. Army officers and raising fears of an escalation of the Vietnam War.

According to legend, the NORAD Tracks Santa program began after children began calling the Continental Air Defense Command Center to inquire about Santa Claus's whereabouts due to a misprinted phone number in an advertisement.

A railway bridge at Tangiwai on New Zealand's North Island was damaged by a lahar and collapsed beneath a passenger train (wreckage pictured), killing 151 people.

Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story in the London Evening News.

Forces united in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes defeated Hungarian forces to end the occupation of Međimurje.

World War I: British and German soldiers interrupted fighting to celebrate Christmas, beginning the Christmas truce .

Seventy-three people were crushed to death in a stampede after someone falsely yelled "fire" at a crowded Christmas party in Calumet, Michigan, U.S.

Aida, one of Giuseppe Verdi's most popular operas, made its debut in Cairo, Egypt.

Six Confederate veterans of the American Civil War founded a social club they named the Ku Klux Klan, which later became a white supremacist group.

The Sultanate of Brunei ceded the island of Labuan to the British Empire.

The Christmas carol "Silent Night" (audio featured) by Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber was first performed in a church in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria.

The United Kingdom and the United States signed a peace treaty in Ghent, present-day Belgium, ending the War of 1812.

The Tang-dynasty poet Du Fu departed for Chengdu, where he lived for the next five years and composed poems about life in his thatched cottage.