What happened on 24 December?

8 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan USSR's decade-long Afghan war; helps bleed the Soviet economy.
2. 1914 Christmas truce 1914 Soldiers along the Western Front spontaneously truce, exchange gifts, play football.
3. 1925 Battleship Potemkin Sergei Eisenstein's silent classic with the Odessa Steps sequence.
4. 1871 Verdi's Aida premieres Grand opera written for the Khedivial Theatre in Cairo.
5. 1968 Earthrise photograph William Anders's Apollo 8 photo of the Earth rising over the Moon becomes an emblem of the planet.
6. 1968 Apollo 8 orbits the Moon The first humans to leave Earth's gravity read Genesis from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve to the largest audience in history — the audacious flight that won the race in all but name
7. 1986 Lotus Temple, Delhi Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi; an architectural landmark.
8. 1144 Fall of Edessa to Zengi Atabeg Zengi captures the County of Edessa, the first crusader state; Bernard of Clairvaux preaches the Second Crusade in response.