What happened on December 24 ?

427 - Sisinnius, Patriarch of Constantinople

820 - Leo V, Byzantine Emperor (assassinated) (b. 775)

1257 - John I, Count of Hainaut (b. 1218)

1453 - John Dunstable, English composer

1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer

1660 - Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b. 1631)

1707 - Noël Coypel, French painter (b. 1628)

1813 - Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan, (b.1740)

1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray, English writer (b. 1811)

1865 - Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, English painter and writer (b. 1793)

1868 - Adolphe d'Archiac, French paleontologist and geologist (b. 1802)

1873 - Johns Hopkins, Baltimore philanthropist and businessman (b. 1795)

1889 - Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate, Dutch poet and clergyman (b. 1819)

1914 - John Muir, Scottish-born naturalist (b. 1838)

1935 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer (b. 1885)

1938 - Bruno Taut, German architect (b. 1880)

1941 - Siegfried Alkan, German composer (b. 1858)

1942 - François Darlan, vice-premier of Vichy France (b. 1881)

1957 - Norma Talmadge, American actress (b. 1893)

1972 - Gisela Richter, English art historian (b. 1882)

1975 - Bernard Herrmann, American film composer (b. 1911)

1977 - Samael Aun Weor, Columbian writer (b. 1917)

1980 - Karl Dönitz, President of Germany (b. 1891)

1980 - Siggie Nordstrom, model, actress, entertainer, socialite and lead singer of The Nordstrom Sisters (b. 1893)

1982 - Louis Aragon, French writer (b. 1897)

1984 - Peter Lawford, English actor (b. 1923)

1986 - Gardner Fox, American writer (b. 1911)

1987 - Joop den Uyl, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1919)

1993 - Norman Vincent Peale, American writer (b. 1898)

1994 - John Boswell, American historian (b. 1947)

1997 - Toshirô Mifune, Japanese actor (b. 1920)

1999 - João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo, President of Brazil (b. 1918)

2002 - Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author (b. 1920)

2004 - Johnny Oates, baseball player and manager (b. 1946)

2005 - Michael Vale, American commercial actor (b. 1922)