Today in History for Dec. 24, 2014

U.S. Admiral David Dixon Porter

Dec. 24, 1814 – Following the American victory on Lake Champlain which led to the conclusion of the U.S.-British peace negotiations in Belgium, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, formally ending the War of 1812.

Dec. 24, 1824 – During his tour of the United States, the Marquis de Layayette arrived at the "Jug Bridge" crossing the Monocacy River on the National Pike east of Frederick, Md.

Dec. 24, 1863 - At the height of the Civil War, a Battle of Dandridge occurred at Dandridge, Tenn. as Confederate General James Longstreet and Union General Ambrose Burnside struggled for control of Knoxville.

Dec. 24, 1864 - Union Admiral David Dixon Porter began a bombardment of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. The attack, that used 60 ships, failed to destroy the fort. The ground attack the next day also failed.

Dec. 24, 1865 - Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tenn. called the Ku Klux Klan.

Dec. 24, 1893 – Outlaw Charles Kelley was arrested in Monroe County, five miles south of Pine Apple, hiding in a cotton house owned by H.L. Solomon. Solomon and some of his neighbors captured him and took him to Greenville the next day, which was Christmas. On Dec. 17, he and accomplice John Hipp robbed and murdered Butler County Tax Collector C.J. Armstrong. On Dec. 28, Hipp and Kelley were taken by a mob of 100 armed, masked men and lynched on the courthouse columns. 

Dec. 24, 1906 - Reginald A. Fessenden transmited the first radio broadcast, which consisted of a poetry reading, a violin solo and a speech.

Dec. 24, 1914 – Monroe Journal editor Q. Salter announced that “following our usual custom” there would be no Dec. 31 edition, so that his employees could have the holidays off from work.

Dec. 24, 1914 – The Evergreen Courant reported that 18 prisoners in the Conecuh County Jail almost escaped “one night last week.” Some of them used iron bar supports from their cots to remove enough bricks around a window a big enough for them to escape from their cell. They also torn their blankets into “strings” that they’d tied together to help them reach the ground. Sheriff Hines discovered their plot in time to prevent their escape.

Dec. 24, 1939 – Former Monroeville Pressing Shop manager L.D. Moore died suddenly early on this morning morning at the home of his sister, Mrs. Rex Russell. He was buried in the Baptist Cemetery in Monroeville, Ala.

Dec. 24, 1942 – The survivors of the Little Eva crash, including Grady Gaston of Frisco City, Ala., found a shack. Also on that day, survivor 2nd Lt. Dale Grimes, the bombardier, drowned in the Robinson River when the current took him out to sea and he was too weak to swim back. His body was later recovered.

Dec. 24, 1967 – Army Spc. Travis Robert Sutton of Andalusia was killed in action in Vietnam.

Dec. 24, 1967 – In an incident attributed to the Bermuda Triangle, the owner and a passenger on the cabin cruiser “Witchcraft” disappeared while the craft was at a harbor buoy one mile from Miami.

Dec. 24, 1967 - Joe Namath of the New York Jets became the first NFL quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards.

Dec. 24, 1968 - Apollo VIII astronauts orbiting the moon read passages from the Book of Genesis as part of a Christmas TV broadcast.

Dec. 24, 1969 - Center fielder Curt Flood of the St. Louis Cardinals wrote a letter to Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner of major league baseball, protesting the Cardinals' decision to trade him to the Philadelphia Phillies and asking to be made a free agent.

Dec. 24, 1975 – In connection with the “Amityville Horror” case, Father Ralph J. Pecoraro called George Lutz and advised him to stay out of the second floor room where he had heard a mysterious voice telling him to “get out.”

Dec. 24, 1980 – Witnesses reported the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called "Britain's Roswell."

Dec. 24, 1981 - Reggie Jackson announced that he would join Gene Autry’s California Angels for the 1982 season.

Dec. 24, 2000 – Thirty-six minutes after the end of a game, both the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins were called back to the playing field. The teams had to play the final three seconds of the game, which the Dolphins had won, 27-24. The end result did not change.