Today is Saturday, December 24, the 358th day of 2011. There are seven days left in the year.
1798 ― Russia and England sign Second Anti-French Coalition
1814 ― Treaty of Ghent (end of the War of 1812) signed
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 City)
1943 ― FDR appoints General Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
1951 ― United Kingdom of Libya gains independence from Italy via the U.N.
1986 ― Iran offensive against Iraqi islands of Shatt al-Arab
1991 ― Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Soviet Union