On This Day - What happened 24 December

The French met the remnants of Conrad's army in northern Turkey, and Conrad "Conrad III of Germany" joined Louis' "Louis VII of France" force. They fended off a Seljuk attack at the battle of Ephesus on 24 December 1147.

Mozart was infamous enough to be challenged to a duel by December. Another pianist had arrived in town, Clementi himself was a supremely respected pianist, and was invited to court on this occasion as part of the general merrymaking surrounding the presence of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Russia. Mozart and Clementi were asked to become musical gladiators for the amusement of the court, and participated in a piano virtuosity contest, Mozart got off best and this certainly made his name the power of good.

Napoleon drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul, taking up residence at the Tuileries.

The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, also known as the Machine infernale plot, was an assassination attempt on the life of the First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, in Paris on 24 December 1800. It followed the conspiration des poignards of 10 October 1800, and was one of many Royalist and Catholic plots. Though Napoleon and his wife Josephine narrowly escaped the attempt, five people were killed and twenty-six others were injured.

On December 24, 1851, the largest fire in the library's history destroyed 35,000 books, about two–thirds of the library's collection and two-thirds of Jefferson's original transfer.

Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was the son of Allene Stone Gano (1883—1922) and of Howard R. Hughes Sr. (1869-1924), a successful inventor and businessman from Missouri. He had English, Welsh, and some French Huguenot ancestry, and was a descendant of John Gano (1727-1804), the minister who allegedly baptized George Washington. His father patented (1909) the two-cone roller bit, which allowed rotary drilling for petroleum in previously inaccessible places. The senior Hughes made the shrewd and lucrative decision to commercialize the invention by leasing the bits instead of selling them, obtained several early patents, and founded the Hughes Tool Company in 1909. Hughes' uncle was the famed novelist, screenwriter, and film director Rupert Hughes.

He was born on December 24, 1905, in Harris County, Texas. However, his certificate of baptism, recorded on October 7, 1906, in the parish register of St. John's Episcopal Church in Keokuk, Iowa, listed his date of birth as December 24, 1905, without any reference to the place of birth.

On 24 December 1914, Minister of War Enver Pasha implemented a plan to encircle and destroy the Russian Caucasus Army at Sarikamish in order to regain territories lost to Russia after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Enver Pasha's forces were routed in the battle, and almost completely destroyed. Returning to Constantinople, Enver Pasha publicly blamed his defeat on Armenians in the region having actively sided with the Russians.

On 24 December, units of the Romanian Army entered Kolozsvár.

A law passed on 24 December 1925—Christmas Eve for the largely Roman Catholic country—changed Mussolini's formal title from "President of the Council of Ministers" to "Head of the Government", although he was still called "Prime Minister" by most non-Italian news sources.

Mother's Day in Italy was celebrated for the first time on 24 December 1933 as the "Day of the mother and the child" (Giornata della madre e del fanciullo).

On December 24, the creation of a United Front between the CPC and KMT against Japan. The alliance having salutary effects for the beleaguered CPC, they agreed to form the New Fourth Army and the 8th Route Army and place them under the nominal control of the NRA.

As the Western Allies entered the war against Japan, the Sino-Japanese War would become part of a greater conflict, the Pacific theatre of World War II. Almost immediately, Chinese troops achieved another decisive victory in the Battle of Changsha, which earned the Chinese government much prestige from the Western Allies.

The third Battle of Changsha (24 December 1941 – 15 January 1942) was a major offensive in China by Imperial Japanese forces following the Japanese attack on the Western Allies. The offensive resulted in failure for the Japanese, as Chinese forces were able to lure them into a trap and encircle them. After suffering heavy casualties, Japanese forces were forced to carry out a general retreat. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha.

On 24 December 1962, some prisoners were flown to Miami, others following on the ship African Pilot, plus about 1,000 family members also allowed to leave Cuba.

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce.

Due to his performances with both Paris Saint-Germain and Milan, in 1995 Weah won the Ballon d'Or.

On 24 December 2013, Queen Elizabeth II signed a pardon for Turing's conviction for "gross indecency", with immediate effect.

On 24 December 2015, Goulding volunteered in central London at the Marylebone Project to help end homelessness and to assist in the elimination of the stereotype associated with the homeless population.

The World Bank has been assigned temporary management responsibility of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), focused on making renewable energy cost-competitive with coal-fired power as quickly as possible, but this may not continue after UN's Copenhagen climate change conference in December 2009, because of the Bank's continued investment in coal-fired power plants.

The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Selim III, was born in Topkap Palace in Istanbul.