THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2009

Today is Thursday, December 24, the 358th day of 2007. There are seven days left in the year.

1799 _ Jacobins plot against Napoleon uncovered

1818 _ ``Silent Night" composed by Franz Joseph Gruber; sung for first time the next day

1865 _ Several Confederate veterans form the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tenn.

1870 _ Giusseppi Verdi's ``Aida" premieres at Cairo Opera, one year after the opening of the Suez Canal, for which it was commissioned

1920 _ Enrico Caruso gives his last public performance (New York, N.Y.)

1943 _ FDR appoints General Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces

1963 _ Greek and Turks riot in Cyprus

1968 _ Apollo 8 astronauts' Christmas reading (Book of Genesis) while orbiting Moon

1980 _ Americans remembered Iran hostages by shining lights for 417 seconds

1991 _ Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Soviet Union