What happened on this day in history? We round up the events, births and deaths that happened this week…
Featured anniversary | 24 December
1818: An Austrian priest, Josef Mohr, unveils his new carol: ‘Silent Night’
As the worshippers trudged through the snow towards St Nicholas’s Church that Christmas Eve, none knew that they were to witness the birth of a musical phenomenon. Today ‘Silent Night’ is probably the world’s most familiar carol, having been translated into an estimated 300 languages and dialects. Its fame in the English-speaking world owes much to an American priest, John Freeman Young, who translated it for his New York parishioners in 1859 and later became bishop of Florida.
Yet the carol we sing today is not quite the same as Mohr and Gruber’s original. During its early days, it was faster and jauntier, a song to gee up the parishioners of a bruised, moribund little town – and a long way from the gentle ballad we know and love in the 21st century.
Why we should remember
Historians consider key anniversaries and why they should be remembered
