Anniversaries 24 December

Birth

Benjamin Rush11

American physician, educator, author 1745–1813

George Crabbe20

English poet, surgeon, and clergyman 1754–1832

Charles Boarman6

US Navy Rear Admiral 1795–1879

Adam Mickiewicz11

Polish national poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, trans… 1798–1855

Kit Carson8

American frontiersman and Union Army general 1809–1868

James Prescott Joule2

English physicist and brewer 1818–1889

Eliza Cook4

British writer 1818–1889

Matthew Arnold166

English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector… 1822–1888

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn37

British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor 1838–1923

Emanuel Lasker8

German World Chess Champion and grandmaster, contract bridg… 1868–1941

Juan Ramón Jimenéz18

Spanish poet 1881–1958

Georges Guynemer1

French flying ace 1894–1917

Joseph M. Juran2

Quality guru 1904–2008

James Hadley Chase1

writer from England 1906–1985

I. F. Stone15

American investigative journalist and author 1907–1989

Fritz Leiber67

American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction 1910–1992

Ivan Kostov Nikolov2

Bulgarian mineralogist 1913–2004

Ad Reinhardt22

American painter 1913–1967

Pierre Soulages1

French painter and engraver 1919

Ava Gardner12

American actress 1922–1990

George S. Patton IV15

U.S. Army general 1923–2004

Satyananda Saraswati2

yogi 1923–2009

Atal Bihari Vajpayee30

10th Prime Minister of India 1924–2018

Marc Ferro1

French historian 1924–2021

Mary Higgins Clark3

Novelist, writer 1927–2020

Walter Abish1

Austrian-American author 1931

Stjepan Mesić3

Former Croatian and Yugoslav president 1934

Anthony Fauci11

American immunologist and head of the U.S. National Institu… 1940

Tarja Halonen2

11th President of Finland 1943

Oswald Gracias1

Catholic cardinal 1944

Karl Marlantes3

Businessman, novelist 1944

Lemmy Kilmister11

British singer-songwriter 1945–2015

Jeff Sessions4

Former United States Attorney General 1946

Roselyne Bachelot1

French politician 1946

David Cay Johnston23

Investigative journalist and author 1948

Menghesteab Tesfamariam1

Eritrean Catholic archbishop 1948

Andrew Hsia1

Taiwanese politician 1950

Dana Gioia80

American writer 1950

Christopher Buckley2

American writer 1952

Peter F. Christensen1

Catholic bishop 1952

Gregory Scott Paul22

U.S. researcher, author, paleontologist, and illustrator 1954

Sharon G. Flake3

American children's writer 1955

Hamid Karzai13

President of Afghanistan 1957

Michael T. Flynn9

25th United States National Security Advisor 1958

Ilham Aliyev12

4th President of Azerbaijan from 2003 1961

Kate Spade1

American fashion designer 1962–2018

Ibukun Awosika8

Nigerian business magnate 1962

Paul Bloom2

Canadian/American psychologist 1963

Mark Millar5

Scottish comic book writer 1969

Ed Miliband4

British politician 1969

Ricky Martin1

singer from Puerto Rico 1971

Stephenie Meyer56

American author 1973

Gaur Gopal Das3

Indian spiritual leader, lifestyle coach and motivational … 1973

Maria Zakharova1

Russian diplomat and journalist 1975

Tomas Kalnoky21

American musician 1980

Satomi Ishihara1

Japanese actress 1986

Louis Tomlinson3

English pop singer 1991

Death

Andreas Karlstadt7

German theologian 1486–1541

James Smith3

English writer 1775–1839

Albert Barnes22

American theologian 1798–1870

Frédéric Bastiat33

French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and… 1801–1850

Leonard Bacon2

American Congregational preacher and writer. 1802–1881

William Makepeace Thackeray69

novelist 1811–1863

Charles Mackay22

British writer 1814–1889

Edwin M. Stanton2

American lawyer, judge and politician 1814–1869

William John Macquorn Rankine28

civil engineer 1820–1872

Charbel Makhlouf10

Lebanese Maronite monk and saint 1828–1898

John Muir183

Scottish-born American naturalist and author 1838–1914

Charles Hamilton (writer)10

English writer of school stories 1876–1961

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy47

Tamil politician and social reformer 1879–1973

Alban Berg2

Austrian composer 1885–1935

Karl Dönitz22

President of Germany; admiral in command of German submarin… 1891–1980

Louis Aragon3

French poet, novelist and editor 1897–1982

Norman Vincent Peale63

American writer 1898–1993

Barry Perowne1

British crime writer 1908–1985

Sadik Kaceli6

Albanian artist 1914–2000

Samael Aun Weor10

Colombian writer 1917–1977

George Gerbner3

American writer, freelancer and sociologist 1919–2005

Richard Adams23

English novelist best known as the author of Watership Down 1920–2016

Samuel P. Huntington36

American political scientist 1927–2008

John Osborne10

English playwright 1929–1994

Harold Pinter25

playwright from England 1930–2008

Richard Rodney Bennett1

English composer and pianist 1936–2012

Guy N. Smith2

British writer 1939–2020

Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi1

Iranian politician and cleric 1948–2018

Dennis O'Driscoll30

Irish poet, critic 1954–2012