Good morning, and thank you for trudging through the snow and ice to Daily View. It’s Christmas Eve, and the staff at LDV Towers are expecting a half-day holiday if they get through all their work.
Across Europe, it’s today (rather than tomorrow) that many continental children receive their visit from Santa. Is that enough date-related trivia? Hell no! Carol Vorderman, Caroline Aherne and Barry Chuckle were all Christmas babies and are celebrating birthdays today.
Literary giants Harold Pinter and William Makepeace Thackery both died on Christmas eve, albeit 145 years apart.
And in events on Christmas eve: in 1946, the French Fourth Republic was founded; and in 1968 the crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to escape the Earth’s gravity, and the first to broadcast the bible from space.
An eventful day! But click on to find what’s happening today.