On this day: December 24
POSTED: 10:13 PM PST Dec 21, 2012
UPDATED: 11:00 PM PST Dec 23, 2012
"Silent Night" is first performed, the Library of Congress burns, NORAD begins tracking Santa, and man orbits the Moon for the first time, all on this day.
Library of Congress
1914: Scottish-American naturalist John Muir, an early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States and the founder of the Sierra Club, dies of pneumonia at the age of 76 in Los Angeles, Calif. Muir's activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and other wilderness areas.
