DECEMBER 24
1968:As the crew of Apollo 8 goes into orbit around the moon, astronauts William Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman alternate reading from the Book of Genesis in a television broadcast that was the most-watched program at the time. Ending the transmission, Borman says, “and from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas—and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”
1818: Franz Xaver Gruber and Fr. Josef Mohr’s Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night is sung, with guitar accompaniment, for the first time during the Christmas Eve mass at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria.
1923: President Calvin Coolidge lights the first official National Christmas Tree at the White House Ellipse, inaugurating a traditional upheld by each subsequent president. The 48-foot-tall balsam fir, cut from Coolidge’s home state of Vermont, is covered by 2,500 electric light bulbs.
1818: Franz Xaver Gruber and Fr. Josef Mohr’s Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night is sung, with guitar accompaniment, for the first time during the Christmas Eve mass at St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria.
1923: President Calvin Coolidge lights the first official National Christmas Tree at the White House Ellipse, inaugurating a traditional upheld by each subsequent president. The 48-foot-tall balsam fir, cut from Coolidge’s home state of Vermont, is covered by 2,500 electric light bulbs.
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