The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include opera composer Giacomo Puccini in 1858; former Philadelphia A's Manager Connie Mack, the "Dean of Baseball," in 1862; former first lady Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1912; TV game show host Gene Rayburn in 1917; actress Barbara Billingsley in 1922 (age 86); actor Hector Elizondo in 1936 (age 72); TV personality Diane Sawyer in 1945 (age 63); Robin Gibb (age 59) and twin brother Maurice Gibb in 1949, members of the Bee Gees pop group; and actor Ralph Fiennes in 1962 (age 46).

In 1785, the American Continental Navy fleet was organized, consisting of two frigates, two brigs and three schooners. Sailors were paid $8 a month.

In 1864, after his Civil War march across Georgia, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent U.S. President Abraham Lincoln this message: "I beg to present you as a Christmas present the city of Savannah."

In 1894, French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason by a military court-martial on flimsy evidence in a highly irregular trial and sentenced to life in prison for his alleged crime of passing military secrets to the Germans.

In 1944, ordered to surrender by Nazi troops who had his unit trapped during the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division replied with one word: "Nuts!"

In 1956, the first gorilla to be born in captivity arrived into the world at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio.

In 1971, the U.N. General Assembly chose Austrian diplomat Kurt Waldheim to lead the United Nations.

In 1972, 5,000 people died when a series of earthquakes left the Nicaraguan capital of Managua in ruins.

In 1984, "subway vigilante" Bernard Goetz shot four would-be hold-up men on a New York City subway. He ended up serving eight months in prison for carrying an illegal weapon but was cleared of assault and attempted murder charges.

In 1986, political dissident and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner, were allowed to return to Moscow after seven years of internal exile.

In 1989, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last hard-line communist holdout against East Bloc reforms, fell from power in the face of continuing massive demonstrations.

In 1992, all 158 people aboard a Libyan Boeing 727 died when the jetliner crashed, apparently following an in-flight collision with a military plane.

In 1993, the daughter of Cuban President Fidel Castro was granted political asylum in the United States.

Also in 1993, South Africa's Parliament gave a strong endorsement to an interim constitution that ended centuries of white-minority rule.

In 1994, North Korea released the body of the slain U.S. helicopter pilot who was shot down five days earlier.

Also in 1994, Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned after seven months in office, following corruption charges against him.

In 1997, members of a pro-government militia attacked the village of Chenalh, Mexico, killing 45 people, including a number of children.

In 2001, American Airlines passengers and attendants overpowered a man trying to light a match to detonate powerful explosives hidden in his sneakers on a flight from Paris to Miami.

In 2004, 13 U.S. soldiers and nine others were killed in a suicide bomber attack on a U.S. military dining hall near Mosul, Iraq.

In 2005, Wal-Mart was ordered to pay more than 100,000 California employees $172 million for depriving them of breaks to eat.

In 2006, rape charges against three former members of the Duke University lacrosse team were dropped after the alleged victim said she couldn't be sure she had been raped.

In 2007, the U.S. Air Force reported finding major structural flaws in eight models of its F-15 fighter jets, grounding some U.S. air defense capabilities.

Also in 2007, 2 million children in Iraq faced malnutrition, lack of education and threats of disease and violence, the U.N. Children's Fund said in a report.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollion, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone, in 1790; Mormon church founder Joseph Smith in 1805; poet Harriet Monroe, founder of Poetry magazine, in 1860; Manhattan restaurateur Vincent Sardi Sr. in 1885; British film executive J. Arthur Rank in 1888; actor James Gregory in 1911; former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1918 (age 90); actor Harry Guardino in 1925; Japanese Emperor Akihito in 1933 (age 75); marathon runner Bill Rodgers in 1947 (age 61); and actors Susan Lucci in 1946 (age 62) and Corey Haim in 1972 (age 36).

In 1620, construction began of the first permanent European settlement in New England, one week after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth harbor in present day Massachusetts.

In 1783, Gen. George Washington resigned his commission with the U.S. Army and retired to Mount Vernon, Va. He became the new nation's first president in 1789.

In 1913, the U.S. Federal Reserve System was established.

In 1928, the National Broadcasting Company established a permanent U.S. coast-to-coast radio hookup.

In 1947, the transistor was invented, leading to a revolution in communications and electronics.

In 1948, former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo of Japan and six other Japanese war leaders were hanged in Tokyo under sentence of the Allied War Crimes Commission.

In 1973, the shah of Iran announced that the petroleum-exporting states of the Persian Gulf would double the price of their crude oil.

In 1987, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yaeger landed the experimental aircraft Voyager at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., completing a record nine-day, 25,012-mile global flight without refueling.

In 1992, the first U.S. casualties of the U.S.-led relief operation in Somalia occurred when a vehicle hit a land mine near the city of Badera, killing one civilian and injuring three others.

In 1995, more than 500 people, including entire families, were killed in Mandi Dabwali, India, when fire engulfed a tent set up for a school ceremony.

In 1997, Terry Nichols, the second defendant in the Oklahoma City bombing trial, was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter by a federal jury in Denver.

In 2002, North Korea, preparing to resume development of nuclear weapons, said it was reopening a plutonium reprocessing plant.

In 2003, the first case of mad cow disease was reported in the United States when a Holstein in Washington state tested positive for the ailment.

In 2004, China reported its Bohai Bay Basin in the north may contain 20.5 billion tons of offshore oil reserves.

Also in 2004, the Transportation Security Administration announced that most women's breasts will no longer be patted down at U.S. airports.

In 2006, the U.N. Security Council banned Iranian export and import of nuclear-related material and technology and froze some financial assets related to the nuclear program. Iran promptly condemned the sanctions.

In 2007, the presidential bid of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which had been floundering, re-energized in New Hampshire. Just over two weeks before the state's primary, a poll indicated McCain trailed leader Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, by 3 percentage points.

Also in 2007, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a "full scale war" was raging in Gaza against Palestinian insurgents. Olmert dismissed earlier talk of a cease-fire.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include English King John I in 1167; American diplomat Silas Deane in 1737; physician and chemist Benjamin Rush in 1745; frontiersman Christopher "Kit" Carson in 1809; English physicist and inventor James Prescott Joule in 1818; film director Michael Curtiz ("Casablanca") in 1888; composer Harry Warren ("Lullaby of Broadway," "Chattanooga Choo Choo") in 1893; industrialist, moviemaker and aviator Howard Hughes in 1905; actress Ava Gardner in 1922; author/director Nicholas Meyer in 1945 (age 63); actor Diedrich Bader ("The Drew Carey Show") in 1966 (age 42); and pop singer Ricky Martin in 1971 (age 37).

In 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed by representatives of the United States and Britain, ending the War of 1812.

In 1851, the Library of Congress and part of the Capitol building in Washington were destroyed by fire.

In 1865, a group of Confederate veterans met in Pulaski, Tenn., to form a secret society they called the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1871, Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" premiered in Cairo. It had been commissioned to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal.

In 1906, Reginald A. Fessenden, a Canadian-born radio inventor, broadcast the first musical program, accompanying on violin a female singer's "O Holy Night," from Brant Rock, Mass. He discovered the superheterodyne principle, the basis for all modern radio receivers.

In 1942, German rocket engineers launched the first surface-to-surface guided missile.

Also in 1942, Adm. Jean Louis Darlan, the French administrator of North Africa, was assassinated as a sympathizer of the French Vichy regime.

In 1983, one of the United States' severest early season cold waves in history claimed nearly 300 lives.

In 1989, Manuel Noriega, the object of U.S. invasion forces, took refuge at the Vatican Embassy in Panama City and asked for political asylum.

In 1990, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein reportedly threatened to attack Tel Aviv, Israel, if the allies tried to retake Kuwait.

Also in 1990, the bells of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow rang to celebrate Christmas for the first time since the death of Lenin.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush issued Christmas Eve pardons to former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger and five others involved in the Reagan administration's Iran-Contra scandal.

In 1994, Islamic militants hijacked an Air France Airbus. The hijacking ended two days later when the plane was stormed by French paramilitary commandos in Marseille, who killed the four militants.

In 1997, a French court convicted the international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal of the 1975 killings of three men in Paris and sentenced him to life in prison.

In 2003, nine nations imposed bans on U.S. beef imports after the United States' first documented case of mad cow disease was reported in Washington state.

In 2004, gunmen opened fire on a bus in northern Honduras, killing at least 23 and wounding 16. Authorities suspected a noted Central American youth gang.

Also in 2004, a Chinese freighter wrecked in the Aleutian Islands broke apart, spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the Bering Sea.

In 2005, the South Korean scientist whose research on stem cells and cloning won him international acclaim, Dr. Hwang Woo-suk, resigned after admitting he fabricated his groundbreaking paper in which he claimed to have created stem cell colonies from 11 patients.

In 2006, fighting escalated in Somalia as Ethiopian planes and helicopter gunships attacked Islamist targets in several central provinces.

Also in 2006, French and U.S. intelligence agencies said the 31-mile tunnel connecting England and France had been targeted by al-Qaida terrorists for an attack.

In 2007, the chairman of the Sept. 11 commission accused the CIA of interfering with the panel's work by failing to turn over tapes of agents interrogating suspected terrorists with "enhanced" techniques, including waterboarding. The CIA earlier admitted destroying several such tapes.

Also in 2007, U.S. officials said billions of dollars in U.S. funding to Pakistan to help fight al-Qaida and Taliban terrorism has been wasted because of too little control over the money.

This is Christmas Day.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include British mathematician, physicist and astronomer Isaac Newton in 1642; American Red Cross founder Clara Barton in 1821; French painter Maurice Utrillo in 1883; jazz pioneer Edward "Kid" Ory in 1886; hotelier Conrad Hilton in 1887; Robert "Believe It or Not" Ripley in 1893; acting legend Humphrey Bogart in 1899; jazz bandleader Cab Calloway in 1907; Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1918; TV writer Rod Serling in 1924; singers Jimmy Buffett in 1946 (age 62) and Barbara Mandrell in 1948 (age 60); actors Gary Sandy in 1945 (age 63) and Sissy Spacek in 1949 (age 59), and singer Annie Lennox in 1954 (age 54).

In about 3 B.C., according to Christian belief, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Calendar miscalculations of the time make it impossible to be certain of the year.

In 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned King William I of England.

In 1818, the first known Christmas carol was sung at Oberndorf, Austria. It was "Silent Night, Holy Night," composed by organist Franz Gruber and the Rev. Joseph Mohr.

In 1938, after auditioning hundreds for the role, producer David O. Selznick chose British actress Vivien Leigh to play Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind."

In 1941, British Hong Kong surrendered to advancing Japanese forces.

In 1985, Mexico City police discovered a major museum theft of pre-Colombian treasures.

In 1986, the hijackers of an Iraqi Airways Boeing 737 en route from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, exploded grenades, causing a fiery crash in Saudi Arabia. Sixty-seven of the 107 people aboard died.

In 1989, ex-Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife and second-in-command, Elena, were executed. The United States officially recognized the new Romanian government.

In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev was given direct control of the Soviet Cabinet and all government ministries in a major widening of his power.

In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the Soviet president. The next day, the Supreme Soviet voted to end the Soviet Union.

In 1995, actor-singer Dean Martin died at the age of 78.

In 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton offered a Middle East peace plan that, among other things, included proposals for Israel to give up sovereignty over the Temple Mount and for Palestinians to surrender right of refugees to return to Israel.

In 2002, Iran and Russia signed an agreement to complete a nuclear power plant in southern Iran.

In 2003, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf survived a second assassination attempt in a little over a week but 14 others were killed and 40 injured in the suicide attack.

In 2004, a frail but determined Pope John Paul II delivered his traditional Christmas sermon in Rome's St. Peter's Square, calling for peace and prosperity.

Also in 2004, authorities said Colombian guerrillas stormed a spa near San Rafael and kidnapped an estimated 40 tourists.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI focused on child abuse and suffering in a Christmas mass at Saint Peter's Basilica. Later, in a mass for pilgrims, he urged Israel and the Palestinians to make peace.

Also in 2006, British and Iraqi troops raided a Basra police station Monday, freeing 76 prisoners believed to be in danger of execution by local authorities.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI revealed a new-style nativity scene in Rome's St. Peter's Square depicting Jesus' birth in Joseph's house and makes no mention of a manger or a journey to Bethlehem. The new Christmas scene apparently is based on Matthew's version of the nativity.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include English poet Thomas Gray in 1716; English inventor Charles Babbage, who developed the first speedometer, in 1791; Adm. George Dewey, the U.S. naval hero of Manila, in 1837; writer Henry Miller in 1891; Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese communist revolution, in 1893; actor Richard Widmark in 1914; entertainer Steve Allen in 1921; comedian Alan King in 1927; music producer Phil Spector in 1940 (age 68); and dogsled racer Susan Butcher in 1954.

In 1776, American forces under Gen. George Washington, having crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night, defeated Hessian mercenary troops fighting for the British at the Battle of Trenton, N.J.

In 1908, Jack Johnson became the first African-American to win the world heavyweight boxing title when he knocked out Tommy Burns in the 14th round near Sydney, Australia.

In 1917, the federal government took over operation of U.S. railroads for the duration of World War I.

In 1972, Harry Truman, 33rd president of the United States, died at age 88.

In 1974, legendary comedian Jack Benny died of cancer. He was 80.

In 1990, Nancy Cruzan, the focus of a right-to-die case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, died in a Missouri hospital.

In 1993, members of China's Communist Party gathered in Beijing to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong.

In 1996, child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, 6, was found slain in a basement room of her family's posh Boulder, Colo., home.

In 2001, the man captured as he tried to ignite explosives hidden in his sneakers aboard an American Airlines jet was identified as Richard Reid, a 28-year-old unemployed British citizen.

In 2003, more than 26,000 people were reported killed and thousands injured when an earthquake struck the ancient Iranian city of Bam.

Also in 2003, the death toll reached 135 in the crash of a Boeing 727 in Benin.

In 2004, a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami in South and Southeast Asia, with massive tidal waves, some 40 feet high, slamming into India, Thailand, Indonesia and several other countries, killing thousands of people.

Also in 2004, Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko claimed victory in the court-ordered second vote in the country's presidential run-off. The earlier vote, which favored Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, was annulled after strong allegations of fraud.

In 2005, a report said U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court that handles such matters was challenging his requests at an unprecedented rate.

In 2006, former U.S. President Gerald Ford died at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at the age of 93. A Michigan congressman chosen by President Richard Nixon as vice president to succeed the resigned Spiro Agnew, Ford was elevated to president when the Watergate scandal drove Nixon from office in 1974. Ford served as the 38th president until defeated two years later by Jimmy Carter.

Also in 2006, more than 200 people died when a gas pipeline being vandalized exploded in the Nigerian capital of Lagos.

And, a Baghdad appeals court upheld the death sentence for deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for a 1982 massacre of 148 Shiite men.

In 2007, U.S. employers were told by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that they can reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees once they become eligible for Medicare.

The moon is new. The morning stars are Saturn and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include German astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1571; English engineer George Cayley, father of the science of aerodynamics, in 1773; French bacteriologist Louis Pasteur in 1822; actor Sydney Greenstreet in 1879; actress Marlene Dietrich in 1901; news correspondent Cokie Roberts in 1943 (age 65); French actor Gerard Depardieu in 1948 (age 60); and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon in 1951 (age 57).

In 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City.

In 1941, Japanese warplanes bombed Manila in the Philippines, even though it had been declared an "open city."

In 1947, the first "Howdy Doody" show, under the title "Puppet Playhouse," was telecast on NBC.

In 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth after orbiting the moon 10 times, paving the way for moon-landing missions.

In 1985, terrorists killed 20 people and wounded 110 in attacks on passengers of the Israeli airline El Al at the Rome and Vienna airports. U.S. President Ronald Reagan blamed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

In 1991, a Scandinavian Airlines jet with 129 people aboard crashed and broke apart after taking off from Stockholm. No one was killed.

In 1992, a U.S. jet shot down an Iraqi fighter over southern Iraq's "no-fly" zone in the first such incident since the Persian Gulf War.

In 1997, Britain's Windsor Castle was reopened to the public following restoration work. One hundred rooms of the palace were damaged in a 1992 fire.

In 2002, Chechen rebels, seeking independence from Russia, killed 52 people with two vehicle bombs at pro-Russian government offices.

In 2003, the search continued for bodies in the aftermath of the Christmas Day mudslide in California's San Bernardino Mountains. At least one dozen people were feared dead.

Also in 2003, the Italian government took control of Parmalat, the dairy conglomerate, and arrested its chairman in a major accounting scandal.

In 2004, the death toll jumped to 23,500 in the Asian tsunami with hundreds of thousands reported hurt and many thousands missing.

In 2005, workmen installing a water main in the Iraqi Shiite city of Karbala unearthed a grave containing dozens of bodies from a 1991 massacre.

In 2006, the U.S. State Department indicated it supported Ethiopia's military incursion into Somalia as a means to counter Islamists trying to topple the government.

In 2007, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, first woman to hold that post in an Islamic state, was assassinated in a suicide attack as she left a political rally in Rawalpindi. Police said she was shot twice by a gunman who then blew himself up in her motorcade, killing another 20 people. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf blamed the attack on al-Qaida terrorists as rioting broke out across the country.

Also in 2007, preliminary results in the Kenyan presidential election showed opposition candidate Raila Odinga the winner over incumbent Mwai Kibaki, 57 to 39 percent. Three days later the election commission reversed the results, touching off tribal violence.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Saturn and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States, in 1856; jazz pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines in 1903; actors Lew Ayres in 1908, Martin Milner in 1931 (age 77) and Maggie Smith in 1934 (age 74); rock musician Edgar Winter in 1946 (age 62); and actor Denzel Washington in 1954 (age 54).

In 1732, the Pennsylvania Gazette carried the first known advertisement for the first issue of "Poor Richard's Almanack" by Richard Saunders (Benjamin Franklin).

In 1832, John Calhoun, at odds with U.S. President Andrew Jackson, became the first U.S. vice president to resign.

In 1865, French film pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed the first commercial motion pictures at a Paris cafe.

In 1869, The Knights of Labor, a group of tailors in Philadelphia, staged the first Labor Day ceremonies in U.S. history.

In 1908, nearly 80,000 people were killed when an earthquake struck the ancient town of Messina, Sicily.

In 1945, the U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States.

In 1950, advancing Chinese troops crossed the 38th Parallel, dividing line between North and South Korea, to help the communist North Koreans fight U.S.-led U.N. forces.

In 1985, warring Lebanese Muslim and Christian leaders signed a peace agreement backed by Syria.

In 1992, in a violent day in Lima, Peru, car bombs exploded outside two embassies, police thwarted a bank raid and rebels launched a missile attack on a police station. Five people were killed, 24 injured.

In 1997, Hong Kong officials announced that all chickens in the territory would be killed in an attempt to eradicate carriers of the avian flu, which had killed several people.

In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau announced a total of 281,421,906 people in the nation. The figure was a 13.2-percent increase in the last 10 years.

In 2001, U.S. President George Bush granted permanent normal trade status to China, reversing a 20-year policy.

In 2003, as aid poured in from scores of nations officials in Iran's ancient city of Bam said perhaps half the city's population of 80,000 were killed or injured in the earthquake that struck the area.

In 2004, at least 18 Iraqi policemen were reported killed by insurgents in several attacks on police stations.

Also in 2004, record numbers of Britons turned out with horses and hounds for a fox hunt on what could be Britain's last legal Boxing Day hunt with a hunting ban scheduled to go into effect in two months.

In 2005, many Sunni Arabs claimed voter fraud but U.N. observers said the Iraqi parliamentary elections were "transparent and credible."

In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled that certain meat and milk produced by cloned animals are safe to eat.

Also in 2006, a Louisiana grand jury indicted seven New Orleans police officers on murder and attempted murder charges related to an alleged 2005 police ambush about one week after Hurricane Katrina struck.

In 2007, hundreds of thousands of mourners filled the streets of the Pakistani village of Garhi Khuda Baksh for the funeral of Benazir Bhutto, the assassinated former prime minister. Tempers flared and nine people were killed in rioting before the start of the funeral procession.

Also in 2007, Nepal abolished its monarchy and became a federal democratic republic.