1814 – The War of 1812 officially ended as the United States signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.
1818 – The first performance of “Silent Night” takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
1851– The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. burns.
1865 – The Ku Klux Klan was founded as a private social club by several Confederate Army veterans in Tennessee.
1968 – Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast.
1992 – President George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
2009 – The Senate passed health care legislation, in the chamber’s first Christmas Eve vote since 1895.
