Oberndorf, Austria, Christmas Eve – according to a popular story, Father Joseph Mohr has suddenly discovered the town’s church organ is out of commission, and just hours until Christmas services would start. Mohr quickly comes up with a backup plan. He would take his poem “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,” written several years prior, and with the help of the local school teacher and church organist Franz Xaver Gruber set it to a guitar theme. With that, the famous Christmas carol was born.

On this day, December 24, in 1818, Franz Xaver Gruber of St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria, composed the music for Father Mohr’s poem to create the song “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht” – or in English, “Silent Night.”

From its humble small-town Germany roots, the song has been translated in some 140 languages and covered by numerous prominent artists. The new-age singer-songwriter Enya sang it in Gaelic; Andrea Bocelli in Italian. In the U.S. everyone from Perry Como and Frank Sinatra to Christina Aguilera and Josh recorded a rendition. And in 1914, during the “Christmas Truce,” German and British troops both left their trenches to jointly sing “Silent Night.”