🎨 'Silent Night' is sung for the first time (1818)
Today it is sung in more than 300 languages.
Where: Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria
📅 On This Day: December 24
December 24, 1818: 'Silent Night' is sung for the first time. On Christmas Eve 1818, in a church in the small Austrian village of Oberndorf, the song 'Silent Night' was sung for the first time. Joseph Mohr wrote the words and Franz Gruber the music, and it was sung with a guitar instead of an organ.
✨ More events on this day
- 1777 🧭 Explorer James Cook reached a large coral island in the Pacific on Christmas Eve, so he named it Christmas Island. Today it is called Kiritimati, part of Kiribati.
- 1906 💡 Inventor Reginald Fessenden made the first radio broadcast of voice and music, with a poetry reading, a violin solo and a speech surprising ships at sea.
- 1968 🚀 The crew of Apollo 8 went into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans ever to circle it. They also saw and photographed Earth rising over the Moon.
🧠 Question of the day
Which instrument accompanied the first 'Silent Night'?
- A guitar
- A trumpet
- Drums
Show the answer
Answer: A guitar
🎂 Landmarks that opened on December 24
Questions
What happened on December 24?
December 24, 1818: 'Silent Night' is sung for the first time. It happened in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria.
Which landmarks opened on December 24?
Lotus Temple (dedicated 1986).
In the game, the "Today on Earth" panel shows this story on its day, with a question to answer and a place to fly to.
More days in December
- December 1
- December 2
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- December 4
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- December 8
- December 9
- December 10
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- December 12
- December 13
- December 14
- December 15
- December 16
- December 17
- December 18
- December 19
- December 20
- December 21
- December 22
- December 23
- December 25
- December 26
- December 27
- December 28
- December 29
- December 30
- December 31
Source: stillenacht.at/en/research/the-odyssey-of-the-mohr-guitar