What happened on your birthday?

What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on December 24, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    95
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    2
  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    245
  • Vietnam War 1972 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    155

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.

What happened today

1812

Joel Barlow, aged 58, American poet and lawyer, dies from exposure near Vilna, Poland, during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Barlow was on a diplomatic mission to the emperor for President Madison.

Famous birthdays

1809

Christopher Kit Carson, one of the most famous mountain men and scouts in the West.

more events on December 24

  • 2005

    Chad declares a state of war against Sudan in the wake of the Dec. 18 attack on the town of Adre, in which approximately 100 people were killed.

  • 1974

    Ryan Seacrest, radio personality, TV host; host of American Idol TV talent competition.

  • Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, destroying more than 70 percent of the city’s buildings, including 80 percent of its houses.

  • An oil tanker’s spill pollutes 1,600 square miles of Japan’s Inland Sea.

  • 1973

    Stephenie Meyer, author best known for her young-adult, vampire romance series Twilight.

  • 1972

    Hanoi bars all peace talks with the United States until U.S. air raids over North Vietnam stop.

  • 1971

    Ricky Martin, Puerto Rican pop musician, actor, author; was a member of the boy group Menudo before launching a successful solo career (“Livin’ la Vida Loca”).

  • 1970

    Nine GIs are killed and nine are wounded by friendly fire in Vietnam.

  • 1968

    The first pictures of an Earth-rise over the moon are seen as the crew of Apollo 8 orbits the moon.

  • 1967

    The Greek Junta frees ex-Premier Papandreou.

  • 1966

    A Soviet research vehicle soft-lands on the moon.

  • 1964

    The U.S. headquarters in Saigon is hit by a bomb killing two officers.

  • 1963

    New York’s Idlewild Airport is renamed JFK Airport in honor of the murdered President Kennedy.

  • 1956

    African Americans defy a city law in Tallahassee, Florida, and occupy front bus seats.

  • 1955

    Scott Fischer, mountain climber and guide; first American to reach the summit of Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest mountain.

Dec 23
Dec 25