Portal:Biography/Selected anniversaries/December 24

Births

• 1761 - Jean-Louis Pons, French astronomer (d. 1831)
• 1809 - Kit Carson, American frontiersman (d. 1868)
• 1905 - Howard Hughes, American film producer and inventor (d. 1976) (pictured)
• 1922 - Ava Gardner, American actress (d. 1990)
• 1971 - Ricky Martin, Puerto Rican singer

Deaths

• 1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer (bc. 1469)
• 1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray, English writer (b. 1811)
• 1873 - Johns Hopkins, Baltimore philanthropist and businessman (b. 1795)
• 1914 - John Muir, Scottish-born naturalist (b. 1838)
• 1993 - Norman Vincent Peale, American writer (b. 1898)