December 24- Christmas� Eve Truce 1914

The first bit is somewhat recycled from an earlier thread, but I like the story and it can�t be told often enough.

On December 24, 1914, in the midst of the ongoing mass slaughter, sometimes euphemistically referred to as WW1, soldiers from the opposing sides of the frontlines, French and British on the one, and Germans on the other, crawled out of their trenches and met in No-Man�s-land. For one day they lay down their weapons, talked to each other, gave each other gifts, sang Christmas carols, celebrated mass together and played a famous football match. (Which the Germans won 3-2 after a penalty shoot out, as usual). The day after Christmas, in some parts of the trenches only after New Year, they went back into their holes and continued to bombard each other with grenades and mustard gas.
The Christmas truce of 1914 was never repeated, the military leaders of both sides made sure of that, but it has remained as a symbol for an unfailing sense of sanity that can prevail even in the most hellish circumstances. It had been a totally spontaneous act, not sanctioned by the mad generals of WW1 and was consequently either hushed up or condemned on both sides.



British and German soldiers during the Xmas truce 1914


On a less pleasant note, on December 24,1865, the �Ku-Klux-Klan� was founded in Tennessee by six Confederate war veterans. From its humble beginnings, it rose to become the largest and most loathsome of all US American racist, anti-semit and white supremacist organizations that over hundred years terrorized mainly the Southern states and was responsible for the murder of thousands of black Americans and civil rights activists. From a membership of over 2 Million, it has now declined to just a couple of thousands, but it�s activities are being continued by other organizations, like �Stormfront� whose guru David Duke is a former Ku-Klux-Klan activist.



"The best argument against the notion of 'white supremacy' are the white supremacictst hemselves"

On December 24, 1979 Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan, having been asked to assist the Communist government of the then �Democratic Republic of Afghanistan� against internal opposition. A ten year long civil war began, in which the increasingly radicalized Muslim resistance, the Mujahidin ( to which the now infamous Osama Bin Laden belonged) and the Taliban, with massive support by other Islamic states and the USA, fought against Soviet and Afghan governmental forces. After the retreat of the Soviets and the collapse of the Soviet-Union in 1989, the civil war continued until the final take-over of the country by Taliban forces in 1998. The rest, as they say, is history���..


Complete list of events:


Wikipedia

Merry Christmas and all that, from the "Today in History" crew.