This Day in History

[lordroel]

Dec 16, 2018 12:36:51 GMT stevep said:

Dec 16, 2018 8:41:30 GMT lordroel said:

December 16th

714 – Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the Merovingian palace, dies at Jupille (modern Belgium). He is succeeded by his infant grandson Theudoald while his wife Plectrude holds actual power in the Frankish Kingdom.

755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Tang dynasty of China.

1431 – Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.

1497 – Vasco da Gama passes the Great Fish River, where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

1575 – An earthquake with an estimated of 8.5Mw  strikes Valdivia, Chile.

1598 – Seven-Year War: Battle of Noryang: The final battle of the Seven-Year War is fought between the China and the Korean allied forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive allied forces victory.

1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.

1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kołobrzeg.

1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.

1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.

1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.

1838 – Great Trek: Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

1843 – The discovery of octonions by John T. Graves, who denoted them with a boldface O, was announced to his mathematician friend William Hamilton, discoverer of quaternions, in a letter on this date.

1850 – The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.

1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville: Major General George Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.

1880 – Outbreak of the First Boer War between the Boer South African Republic and the British Empire.

1883 – Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.

1901 – Beatrix Potter privately publishes The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It goes on to sell over 45 million copies worldwide.

1903 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to guests.

1907 – The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.

1912 – First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.

1914 – World War I: Admiral Franz von Hipper commands a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.

1918 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic; it is dissolved in 1919.

1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake of 8.5Mw , rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.

1922 – President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.

1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a 200-strong posse, following a botched bank robbery, in Clinton, Indiana.

1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.

1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honour of the German Mother.

1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak.

1941 – World War II: The Japanese super-battleship IJN Yamato is commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy and transfers the title of Flagship from IJN Nagato.

1942 – The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.

1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight in support of communist North Korea.

1960 – A United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over Staten Island, New York and crash, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and six more on the ground.

1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.

1968 – Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.

1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India.

1971 – The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence, which is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.

1978 – Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.

1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.

1985 – Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of New York's Gambino crime family.

1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.

1989 – U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr.

1991 – Kazakhstan declares independence from the Soviet Union.

2000 – The December 2000 Tuscaloosa tornado, an F4 tornado, kills 11 and injures over 125 others in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Damages from the tornado totaled $35 million. Sixteen other tornadoes also touched down, with an additional fatality occurring in Geneva.

2013 – A bus falls from an elevated highway in the Philippines capital Manila killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.

2014 – Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 145 people, mostly schoolchildren.

  I like the irony of there being two 7 years war, and probably a few others floating about we're never heard of.  Knew vaguely of the former conflict but didn't realise it had earned that title as well by the duration.

Well its is also known as the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598).

[lordroel]

December 17th

497 BC – The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome.

546 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoths under king Totila plunder the city, by bribing the Byzantine garrison.

920 – Romanos I Lekapenos is crowned co-emperor of the underage Constantine VII.

942 – Assassination of William I of Normandy.

1398 – Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.

1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.

1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeat troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg.

1586 – Go-Yōzei becomes Emperor of Japan.

1718 – War of the Quadruple Alliance: Great Britain declares war on Spain.

1777 – American Revolution: France formally recognizes the United States.

1790 – The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City.

1807 – Napoleonic Wars: France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.

1812 – War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.

1819 – Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).

1835 – The second Great Fire of New York destroys 50 acres (200,000 square meters) of New York City's Financial District.

1837 – A fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg kills 30 guards.

1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

1865 – First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.

1892 – First issue of Vogue is published.

1896 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Schenley Park Casino, which was the first multi-purpose arena with the technology to create an artificial ice surface in North America, is destroyed in a fire.

1903 – The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1907 – Ugyen Wangchuck is crowned first King of Bhutan.

1913 – A spur of the Shaker Heights streetcar line opens, the first line of the eventual Cleveland RTA Rapid Transit system.

1918 – Darwin Rebellion: Up to 1,000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

1919 – Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1926 – Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the 1926 coup d'état is successful.

1927 – Indian revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri is hanged in Gonda jail, Uttar Pradesh, India, two days before the scheduled date.

1928 – Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru assassinate British police officer James Saunders in Lahore, Punjab, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police. The three were executed in 1931.

1935 – First flight of the Douglas DC-3.

1938 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.

1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate: The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.

1941 – World War II: Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo.

1943 – All Chinese are again permitted to become citizens of the United States upon the repeal of the Act of 1882 and the introduction of the Magnuson Act.

1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge: Malmedy massacre: American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Joachim Peiper.

1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.

1948 – The Finnish Security Police is established to remove communist leadership from its predecessor, the State Police.

1950 – The F-86 Sabre's first mission over Korea.

1951 – The American Civil Rights Congress delivers "We Charge Genocide" to the United Nations.

1957 – The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1960 – Troops loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.

1960 – Munich C-131 crash: Twenty passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed.

1961 – Niterói circus fire: Fire breaks out during a performance by the Gran Circus Norte-Americano in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing more than 500.

1967 – Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, and is presumed drowned.

1969 – Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs.

1970 – 1970 Polish protests: In Gdynia, soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.

1973 – Thirty passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport.

1981 – American Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigades in Verona, Italy.

1983 – Provisional IRA members detonate a car bomb at Harrods Department Store in London. Three police officers and three civilians are killed.

1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests continue in Timișoara, Romania, with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party's District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.

1989 – Fernando Collor de Mello defeats Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, becoming the first democratically elected President in almost 30 years.

1989 – The Simpsons first premieres on television with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".

2002 – Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.

2003 – The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

2003 – SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first powered and first supersonic flight.

2005 – Anti-World Trade Organization protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.

2005 – Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicates the throne as King of Bhutan.

2009 – MV Danny F II sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals.

2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring.

2014 – The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them in 1960.

[lordroel]

December 18th

218 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia: Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.

1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan dynasty of Mongolia and China.

1499 – Rebellion triggeres in Alpujarras in response to the forced conversions of Muslims in Spain.

1622 – Portuguese forces score a military victory over the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in present-day Angola.

1655 – The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.

1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.

1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1793 – Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.

1833 – The national anthem of the Russian Empire, "God Save the Tsar!", is first performed.

1865 – US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the USA.

1878 – The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar.

1892 – Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car.

1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook, Victoria Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.

1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000 casualties.

1917 – The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.

1932 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans in the first NFL Championship Game.

1935 – The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.

1939 – World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place.

1944 – World War II: Seventy-seven B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.

1958 – Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.

1966 – Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker.

1972 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.

1973 – Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.

1981 – First flight of the Russian heavy strategic bomber Tu-160, the world's largest combat aircraft, largest supersonic aircraft and largest variable-sweep wing aircraft built.

1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

2002 – California gubernatorial recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.

2005 – The Chadian Civil War begins when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launch an attack in Adré.

2006 – The first of a series of floods strikes Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.

2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.

2015 – Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in Great Britain, closes.

2017 – Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501, derailed near DuPont, Washington, a city in United States near Olympia, Washington killing six people, and injuring 70 others.

[lordroel]

December 19th

211 – Caracalla has Geta, his brother and co-emperor, killed by the Praetorian Guard.

1154 – Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

1187 – Pope Clement III is elected.

1490 – Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.

1562 – The Battle of Dreux takes place during the French Wars of Religion.

1606 – The ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery depart England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

1675 – The Great Swamp Fight, a pivotal battle in King Philip's War, gives the English settlers a bitterly won victory.

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".

1777 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Two British frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart engage in battle off the coast of Murcia.

1828 – Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.

1879 – New Zealand grants universal male suffrage.

1900 – Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, appoints Sir William Lyne premier of the new state of New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and is forced to resign.

1907 – Two hundred thirty-nine coal miners die in the Darr Mine Disaster in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.

1912 – William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over one thousand people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after three-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison.

1920 – King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander of Greece and a plebiscite.

1924 – The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.

1924 – German serial killer Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death for a series of murders.

1927 – Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan, are executed by the British Raj for participation in the Kakori conspiracy.

1929 – The Indian National Congress promulgates the Purna Swaraj (the Declaration of the Independence of India).

1932 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service.

1941 – World War II: Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres.

1941 – World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers heavily damage HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour.

1945 – John Amery, British Fascist, is executed at the age of 33 by the British Government for treason.

1946 – Start of the First Indochina War.

1956 – Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.

1961 – India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.

1967 – Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia, is officially presumed dead.

1972 – Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.

1974 – Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1981 – Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.

1983 – The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1984 – The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 is signed in Beijing, China by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.

1986 – Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky.

1995 – The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Native American tribe.

1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.

1998 – President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached.

2000 – The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist attack a Nationalist Movement Party office in Istanbul, Turkey, killing one person and injuring three.

2001 – A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl, Mongolia.

2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December riots: Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2012 – Park Geun-hye is elected the first female president of South Korea.

2013 – Spacecraft Gaia is launched by European Space Agency.

2016 – Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is assassinated while at an art exhibition in Ankara. The assassin, Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, is shot and killed by Turkish guards.

2016 – A vehicular attack in Berlin, Germany, kills and injures multiple people at a Christmas market.

2016 – The Electoral College of The United States votes and Donald J. Trump formally becomes 45th President-Elect of the United States.

[lordroel]

December 20th

AD 69 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor.

1192 – Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after the Third Crusade.

1334 – Pope Benedict XII is elected.

1522 – Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.

1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.

1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.

1808 – The original Covent Garden Theatre in London is destroyed by a fire, along with most of the scenery, costumes and scripts.

1832 – HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands.

1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.

1915 – World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.

1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.

1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.

1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.

1942 – World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.

1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.

1948 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the newly-formed Republic of Indonesia.

1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.

1952 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.

1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.

1957 – The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight.

1967 – A Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Metroliner exceeds 155 mph on their New York Division, also present day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.

1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.

1971 – The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.

1973 – The Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.

1984 – The Summit Tunnel fire, one of the largest transportation tunnel fires in history, burns after a freight train carrying over one million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.

1985 – Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.

1987 – In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).

1989 – The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega.

1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.

1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.

1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159.

1999 – Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.

2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.

2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, seven months and 29 days.

2007 – The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art.

[lordroel]

December 21st


AD 69 – The Roman Senate declares Vespasian emperor of Rome, the last in the Year of the Four Emperors.

1124 – Pope Honorius II is elected.

1140 – Conrad III of Germany besieges Weinsberg.

1237 – The city of Ryazan is sacked by the Mongol army of Batu Khan.

1361 – The Battle of Linuesa is fought in the context of the Spanish Reconquista between the forces of the Emirate of Granada and the combined army of the Kingdom of Castile and of Jaén resulting in a Castilian victory.

1598 – Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile.

1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1826 – American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declare their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion.

1832 – Egyptian–Ottoman War: Egyptian forces decisively defeat Ottoman troops at the Battle of Konya.

1844 – The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers commences business at its cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.

1861 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

1872 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England.

1879 – World premiere of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1883 – The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment, the first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army, are formed.

1907 – The Chilean Army commits a massacre of at least 2,000 striking saltpeter miners in Iquique, Chile.

1910 – An underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit in Over Hulton, Westhoughton, England, kills 344 miners.

1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

1919 – American anarchist Emma Goldman is deported to Russia.

1923 – United Kingdom and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship, called the Nepal–Britain Treaty of 1923, which superseded the Treaty of Sugauli signed in 1816.

1936 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 88 multi-role combat aircraft.

1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre.

1941 – World War II: A formal treaty of alliance between Thailand and Japan is signed in the presence of the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.

1946 – An 8.1 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaidō, Japan, kills over 1,300 people and destroys over 38,000 homes.

1963 – "Bloody Christmas" begins in Cyprus, ultimately resulting in the displacement of 25,000–30,000 Turkish Cypriots and destruction of more than 100 villages.

1965 – International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is adopted.

1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a human-to-human heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.

1970 – First flight of F-14 multi-role combat aircraft.

1973 – The Geneva Conference on the Arab–Israeli conflict opens.

1979 – Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.

1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. This is to date the deadliest air disaster to occur in British soil.

1988 – The first flight of Antonov An-225 Mriya, the largest aircraft in the world.

1992 – A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport, killing 56.

1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.

1999 – The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid, Spain.

2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.

[lordroel]

December 22nd

AD 69 – Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered at the Gemonian stairs in Rome.

401 – Pope Innocent I is elected.

609 – Muhammad claims to receive his first revelation.

856 – Damghan earthquake: An earthquake near the Persian city of Damghan kills an estimated 200,000 people, the sixth deadliest earthquake in recorded history.

880 – Luoyang, eastern capital of the Tang dynasty, is captured by rebel leader Huang Chao during the reign of Emperor Xizong.

1135 – Stephen of Blois becomes King of England

1216 – Pope Honorius III approves the Dominican Order through the papal bull of confirmation Religiosam vitam.

1622 – Bucaramanga, Colombia is founded.

1769 – Sino-Burmese War: The war ends with an uneasy truce.

1788 – Nguyễn Huệ proclaims himself Emperor Quang Trung, in effect abolishing on his own the Lê dynasty.

1790 – The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Alexander Suvorov and his Russian armies.

1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).

1851 – India's first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.

1864 – Savannah, Georgia falls to the forces of General Sherman.

1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.

1888 – The Christmas Meeting of 1888, considered to be the official start of the Faroese independence movement.

1890 – Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kentville and Kingsport, Nova Scotia.

1891 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.

1894 – The Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.

1920 – The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.

1921 – Opening of Visva-Bharati College, also known as Santiniketan College, now Visva Bharati University, India.

1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.

1939 – Indian Muslims observe a "Day of Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over their not having been consulted over the decision to enter World War II with the United Kingdom.

1940 – World War II: Himara is captured by the Greek army.

1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.

1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge: German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"

1944 – World War II: The Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indochina, now Vietnam.

1948 – Sjafruddin Prawiranegara established the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia (Pemerintah Darurat Republik Indonesia, PDRI) in West Sumatra.

1951 – The Selangor Labour Party is founded in Selangor, Malaya.

1963 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira, Portugal with the loss of 128 lives.

1964 – The first test flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird) took place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

1965 – In the United Kingdom, a 70 mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time.

1968 – Cultural Revolution: People's Daily posted the instructions of Mao Zedong that "The intellectual youth must go to the country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty."

1974 – Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.

1974 – The house of former British Prime Minister Edward Heath is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.

1978 – The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.

1984 – Bernhard Goetz shoots four would-be muggers on an express train in Manhattan section of New York, New York.

1987 – In Zimbabwe, the political parties ZANU and ZAPU reach an agreement that ends the violence in the Matabeleland region known as the Gukurahundi.

1989 – Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife flee Bucharest in a helicopter as protesters erupt in cheers.

1989 – Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.

1990 – Lech Wałęsa is elected President of Poland.

1990 – Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship.

1997 – Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces.

1997 – Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquishes the disputed title of President of Somalia by signing the Cairo Declaration, in Cairo, Egypt. It is the first major step towards reconciliation in Somalia since 1991.

2001 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

2001 – Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.

2008 – An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of coal fly ash slurry.

2010 – The repeal of the Don't ask, don't tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama.

2016 – A study finds the VSV-EBOV vaccine against the Ebola virus between 70-100% effective, and thus making it the first proven vaccine against the disease.

2017 – The UN Security Council votes 15–0 in favor of additional sanctions on North Korea, including measures to slash the country's petroleum imports by up to 90%.

[lordroel]

December 23rd

484 – Huneric dies and is succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund, who becomes king of the Vandals. During his reign Christians are protected from persecution.

558 – Chlothar I is crowned King of the Franks.

562 – Hagia Sophia in Constantinople reopened with a rebuilt dome after a series of earthquakes caused the original to collapse.

583 – Maya queen Yohl Ik'nal is crowned ruler of Palenque.

679 – King Dagobert II is murdered while hunting.

962 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops storm the city of Aleppo.

1572 – Theologian Johann Sylvan is executed in Heidelberg for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.

1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to Paris, France after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.

1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.

1793 – The Battle of Savenay: A decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in War in the Vendée during the French Revolution.

1815 – The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published.

1876 – First day of the Constantinople Conference which resulted in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

1893 – The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.

1913 – The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.

1914 – World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt.

1916 – World War I: Battle of Magdhaba: Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

1919 – Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom.

1936 – Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1941 – World War II: After 15 days of fighting, the Imperial Japanese Army occupies Wake Island.

1947 – The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

1948 – Seven Japanese military and political leaders convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed by Allied occupation authorities at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.

1954 – First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.

1968 – The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea.

1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.

1970 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo officially becomes a one-party state.

1972 – A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000.

1972 – The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having reportedly survived by cannibalism.

1979 – Soviet–Afghan War: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.

1986 – Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.

1990 – History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88.5% of Slovenia's overall electorate vote for independence from Yugoslavia.

2002 – A U.S. MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft.

2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.

2007 – An agreement is made for the Kingdom of Nepal to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state.

2015 – A bomb explodes at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport, killing one airport cleaner. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks claim responsibility for the attack four days later.

2016 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2334 condemning "Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967".

[lordroel]

December 24th

502 – Chinese emperor Xiao Yan names Xiao Tong his heir designate.

640 – Pope John IV is elected.

759 – Tang dynasty poet Du Fu departs for Chengdu, where he is hosted by fellow poet Pei Di.

820 – Emperor Leo V is assassinated in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople and is succeeded by Michael II.

1144 – The capital of the crusader County of Edessa falls to Imad ad-Din Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo.

1294 – Pope Boniface VIII is elected, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned.

1500 – A joint Venetian–Spanish fleet captures the Castle of St. George on the island of Cephalonia.

1737 – The Marathas defeat the combined forces of the Mughal Empire, Rajputs of Jaipur, Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Awadh and Nawab of Bengal in the Battle of Bhopal.

1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.

1800 – The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise fails to kill Napoleon Bonaparte.

1814 – Representatives of Britain and the United States sign the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.

1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning.

1846 – British acquired Labuan from the Sultanate of Brunei for Great Britain.

1851 – The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., burns.

1865 – Jonathan Shank and Barry Ownby form The Ku Klux Klan.

1868 – The Greek Presidential Guard is established as the royal escort by King George I.

1871 – The Opera Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt.

1906 – Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.

1911 – Lackawanna Cut-Off railway line opens in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

1913 – The Italian Hall disaster in Calumet, Michigan results in the deaths of 73 Christmas party participants (including 59 children) when someone falsely yells "fire".

1914 – World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.

1924 – Albania becomes a republic.

1929 – Assassination attempt on Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen.

1939 – World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.

1941 – World War II: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces.

1941 – World War II: Benghazi is conquered by British forces.

1942 – World War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers, Algeria.

1943 – World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Allied Commander for the Invasion of Normandy.

1945 – Five of nine children become missing after their home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, is burned down.

1951 – Libya becomes independent from Italy. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya.

1952 – First flight of Britain's Handley Page Victor strategic bomber.

1953 – Tangiwai disaster: In New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapses beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people.

1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong operatives bomb the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, South Vietnam to demonstrate they can strike an American installation in the heavily guarded capital.

1966 – A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.

1968 – Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed ten lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures.

1969 – The oil company Phillips Petroleum made the first oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of North Sea.

1969 – Nigerian troops capture Umuahia, the Biafran capital.

1973 – District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.

1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.

1980 – Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called "Britain's Roswell".

1994 – Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked on the ground at Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers, Algeria. Over the course of three days three passengers are killed, as are all four terrorists.

1997 – The Sid El-Antri massacre in Algeria kills between 50 and 100 people.

1999 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 is hijacked in Indian airspace between Kathmandu, Nepal, and Delhi, India. The aircraft landed at Kandahar in Afghanistan. The incident ended on December 31 with the release of 190 survivors (one passenger is killed).

2003 – The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.

2005 – Chad–Sudan relations: Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.

2008 – Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, begins a series of attacks on Democratic Republic of the Congo, massacring more than 400.

[lordroel]

December 25th

36 – Forces of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han, under the command of Wu Han, conquer the separatist Chengjia empire, reuniting China.

274 – A temple for Sol Invictus is dedicated in Rome by Emperor Aurelian.

333 – Roman Emperor Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.

336 – First documentary sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.

350 – Vetranio meets Constantius II at Naissus (Serbia) and is forced to abdicate his title (Caesar). Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen on a state pension.

508 – Clovis I, king of the Franks, is baptized into the Catholic faith at Reims, by Saint Remigius.

597 – Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow-labourers baptise in Kent more than 10,000 Anglo-Saxons.

800 – The Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

1000 – The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.

1013 – Sweyn Forkbeard takes control of the Danelaw and is proclaimed king of England.

1025 – Coronation of Mieszko II Lambert as king of Poland.

1066 – William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

1076 – Coronation of Bolesław II the Generous as king of Poland.

1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first king of Sicily.

1261 – Eleven-year-old John IV Laskaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaiologos.

1492 – The carrack Santa María, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off Haiti due to an improper watch.

1553 – Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.

1559 – Pope Pius IV is elected.

1758 – Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's prediction of its passage. This was the first passage of a comet predicted ahead of time.

1776 – George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.

1809 – Dr. Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy, removing a 22-pound tumor.

1814 – Rev. Samuel Marsden holds the first Christian service on land in New Zealand at Rangihoua Bay.

1815 – The Handel and Haydn Society, oldest continually performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance.

1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.

1831 – The Great Jamaican Slave Revolt begins; up to 20% of the island's slaves mobilize in an ultimately unsuccessful fight for freedom.

1837 – Second Seminole War: American general Zachary Taylor leads 1100 troops against the Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee.

1868 – Pardons for ex-Confederates: United States President Andrew Johnson grants an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans.

1914 – A series of unofficial truces occur across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas.

1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills 275 people.

1941 – Admiral Chester W. Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

1941 – World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

1941 – Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which become the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.

1946 – The first European self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within the Soviet Union's F-1 nuclear reactor.

1950 – The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.

1951 – A bomb explodes at the home of Harry T. Moore and Harriette V. S. Moore, early leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, killing Harry instantly and fatally wounding Harriette.

1962 – The Soviet Union conducts its final above-ground nuclear weapon test, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

1963 – Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.

1968 – Kilvenmani massacre: Forty-four Dalits (untouchables) are burnt to death in Kizhavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit laborers.

1976 – EgyptAir Flight 864 crashes in Bangkok, Thailand, killing all 52 people on board, along with 19 people on the ground.

1977 – Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat.

1989 – Romanian Revolution: Deposed President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, are condemned to death and executed after a summary trial.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.

2003 – UTAGE Flight 141, a Boeing 727-223, crashes at the Cotonou Airport in Benin, killing 151 people.

2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.

2004 – The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.

2012 – An Antonov An-72 plane crashes close to the city of Shymkent, killing 27 people.

2016 – A Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 carrying members of the Alexandrov Ensemble crashes into the Black Sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 92 people on board.

[lordroel]

December 26th

887 – Berengar I is elected as king of Italy by the lords of Lombardy. He is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy at Pavia.

1481 – Battle of Westbroek: Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.

1489 – The forces of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, take control of Almería from the Nasrid ruler of Granada, Muhammad XIII.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army attacks and successfully defeats a garrison of Hessian forces.

1790 – Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.

1793 – Second Battle of Wissembourg: France defeats Austria.

1799 – Henry Lee III's eulogy to George Washington in congress declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen". (This is not to be confused with Washington's funeral on December 18.)

1805 – Austria and France sign the Treaty of Pressburg.

1806 – Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.

1811 – A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.

1825 – Advocates of liberalism in Russia rise up against Czar Nicholas I but are suppressed in the Decembrist revolt in Saint Petersburg.

1860 – The first ever inter-club English association football match takes place between Hallam and Sheffield football clubs in Sheffield.

1861 – American Civil War: The Trent Affair: Confederate diplomatic envoys James Murray Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and the United Kingdom.

1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.

1862 – Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.

1862 – The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, where 38 Native Americans died.

1871 – Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.

1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.

1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee, allegedly establishing the Curse of the Bambino superstition.

1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1943 – World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.

1944 – World War II: George S. Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.

1948 – Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.

1948 – The last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea.

1963 – The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.

1966 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

1968 – The Communist Party of the Philippines is established by Jose Maria Sison, breaking away from the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930.

1972 – Vietnam War: As part of Operation Linebacker II, 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history.

1975 – Tu-144, the world's first commercial supersonic aircraft, surpassing Mach 2, went into service.

1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War.

1994 – Four Armed Islamic Group hijackers seize control of Air France Flight 8969. When the plane lands at Marseille, a French Gendarmerie assault team boards the aircraft and kills the hijackers.

1998 – Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.

1999 – The storm Lothar sweeps across Central Europe, killing 137 and causing US$1.3 billion in damage.

2003 – The 6.6 Mw  Bam earthquake shakes southeastern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving more than 26,000 dead and 30,000 injured.

2004 – The 9.1–9.3 Mw  Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). One of the largest observed tsunamis follows, affecting the coastal areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia; death toll is estimated at 227,898.

2004 – Orange Revolution: The final run-off election in Ukraine is held under heavy international scrutiny.

2009 – China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.

2015 – During the December 2015 North American storm complex, a Tornado Outbreak occurred in the DFW Metroplex, with the most notable tornadoes being an EF2, EF3, and an EF4. About a dozen people died due to various reasons, 10 of which due to the EF4, which did substantial damage to the suburb of Rowlett.

[lordroel]

December 27th

36 – Two days after conquering the separatist Chengjia empire, Eastern Han general Wu Han orders the looting and burning of its capital Chengdu.

537 – The construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is completed.

1512 – The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regard to native Indians in the New World.

1521 – The Zwickau prophets arrive in Wittenberg, disturbing the peace and preaching the Apocalypse.

1655 – Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.

1657 – The Flushing Remonstrance articulates for the first time in North American history that freedom of religion is a fundamental right.

1703 – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.

1814 – War of 1812: The American schooner USS Carolina is destroyed. It was the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson's makeshift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.

1831 – Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate his theory of evolution.

1836 – The worst ever avalanche in England occurs at Lewes, Sussex, killing eight people.

1845 – Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.

1845 – Journalist John L. O'Sullivan, writing in his newspaper the New York Morning News, argues that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon Country "by the right of our manifest destiny".

1911 – "Jana Gana Mana", the national anthem of India, is first sung in the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.

1918 – The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.

1922 – Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose built aircraft carrier to be commissioned in the world.

1927 – Kern and Hammerstein's musical play Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.

1929 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class".

1932 – Radio City Music Hall, "Showplace of the Nation", opens in New York City.

1935 – Regina Jonas is ordained as the first female rabbi in the history of Judaism.

1939 – The 7.8 Mw  Erzincan earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). At least 32,700 people were killed.

1939 – Winter War: Finland holds off a Soviet attack in the Battle of Kelja.

1945 – The International Monetary Fund is created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.

1949 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesian independence. End of the Dutch East Indies.

1966 – The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.

1978 – Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship.

1979 – The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

1983 – Pope John Paul II visits Mehmet Ali Ağca in Rebibbia's prison and personally forgives him for the 1981 attack on him in St. Peter's Square.

1985 – Palestinian guerrillas kill eighteen people inside the airports of Rome, Italy, and Vienna, Austria.

1989 – The Romanian Revolution concludes, as the last minor street confrontations and stray shootings abruptly end in the country's capital, Bucharest.

1996 – Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Airfield which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan.

1997 – Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

2002 – Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.

2004 – Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.

2007 – Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a shooting incident.

2007 – Riots erupt in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of the presidential election, triggering a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.

2008 – Operation Cast Lead: Israel launches 3-week operation on Gaza.

2009 – Iranian election protests: On the Day of Ashura in Tehran, Iran, government security forces fire upon demonstrators.

[lordroel]

December 28th

169 BC – The menorah is lit to rededicate the Holy Temple of Jerusalem after two centuries of foreign rule and religious oppression and a seven-year revolt. The menorah burns for eight days without the sufficient fuel needed to do so, birthing the holiday Hanukkah.

418 – Pope Boniface I is elected.

457 – Majorian is acclaimed emperor of the Western Roman Empire and recognized by Emperor Leo I the Thracian.

484 – Alaric II succeeds his father Euric and becomes king of the Visigoths. He establishes his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour (Southern Gaul).

893 – An earthquake destroys the city of Dvin, Armenia.

1065 – Westminster Abbey is consecrated in England.

1308 – The reign of Emperor Hanazono of Japan begins.

1659 – The Marathas defeat the Adilshahi forces in the Battle of Kolhapur

1768 – King Taksin's coronation achieved through conquest as a king of Thailand and established Thonburi as a capital.

1795 – Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto).

1832 – John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign.

1835 – Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army.

1836 – South Australia and Adelaide are founded.

1836 – Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico with the signing of the Santa María–Calatrava Treaty.

1846 – Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.

1867 – United States claims Midway Atoll, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.

1879 – Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.

1885 – Indian National Congress, a political party of India is founded in Bombay Presidency, British India.

1895 – The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines.

1895 – Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.

1902 – The Syracuse Athletic Club defeated the New York Philadelphians, 5–0, in the first indoor professional football game, which was held at Madison Square Garden.

1908 – The 7.1 Mw  Messina earthquake shakes Southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 75,000 and 200,000.

1912 – The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco.

1918 – Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons.

1941 – World War II: Operation Anthropoid, the plot to assassinate high-ranking Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich, commences.

1943 – Soviet authorities launch operation Operation Ulussy, beginning the deportation of the Kalmyk nation to Siberia and Central Asia.

1943 – World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the Battle of Ortona concludes with the victory of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division over the German 1st Parachute Division and the capture of the Italian town of Ortona.

1944 – Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score eight points in one game of NHL ice hockey.

1948 – The DC-3 airliner NC16002 disappears 50 miles south of Miami.

1956 – Chin Peng, David Marshall and Tunku Abdul Rahman meet in Baling, Malaya to try and resolve the Malayan Emergency situation.

1958 – "Greatest Game Ever Played": Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium.

1967 – Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

1973 – The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.

1989 – A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13 people.

2006 – War in Somalia: The militaries of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and Ethiopian troops capture Mogadishu unopposed.

2009 – Forty-three people die in a suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan, where Shia Muslims are observing the Day of Ashura.

2014 – Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashes into the Karimata Strait en route from Surabaya to Singapore, killing all 162 people aboard.

2014 – Nine people die and another 19 are reported missing, when the MS Norman Atlantic catches fire in the Strait of Otranto, in the Adriatic Sea, in Italian waters.

[lordroel]

December 29th

875 – Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor Charles II.

1170 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently becomes a saint and martyr in the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church.
1427 – The Ming army begins its withdraw from Hanoi, ending the Chinese domination of Đại Việt.

1503 – The Battle of Garigliano (1503) was fought between a Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and a French army commanded by Ludovico II, Marquess of Saluzzo.

1508 – Portuguese forces under the command of Francisco de Almeida attack Khambhat at the Battle of Dabul.

1778 – American Revolutionary War: Three thousand British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.

1812 – USS Constitution, under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three-hour battle.

1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.

1845 – In accordance with International Boundary delimitation, the United States annexes the Republic of Texas, following the manifest destiny doctrine. The Republic of Texas, which had been independent since the Texas Revolution of 1836, is thereupon admitted as the 28th U.S. state.

1851 – The first American YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.

1860 – The launch of HMS Warrior, with her combination of screw propeller, iron hull and iron armour, renders all previous warships obsolete.

1874 – The military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos in Sagunto ends the failed First Spanish Republic and the monarchy is restored as Prince Alfonso is proclaimed King of Spain.

1876 – The Ashtabula River railroad disaster occurs, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.

1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota are killed by the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment.

1911 – Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty, enthroning 9th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu as Khagan of Mongolia.

1911 – Sun Yat-sen becomes the provisional President of the Republic of China; he formally takes office on January 1, 1912.

1916 – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first novel by James Joyce, was first published as a book by an American publishing house B. W. Huebschis after it had been serialized in The Egoist (1914–15).

1930 – Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the two-nation theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan.

1934 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

1937 – The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.

1940 – World War II: In the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, killing almost 200 civilians.

1949 – KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.

1972 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) crashes in the Florida Everglades on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101 of the 176 people on board.

1975 – A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring 74.

1989 – Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia.

1992 – Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign amidst corruption charges, but is then impeached.

1996 – Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.

1997 – Hong Kong begins to kill all the city's 1.25 million chickens to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.

1998 – Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over one million lives.

2003 – The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct.

2006 – UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt.

2011 – Samoa and Tokelau skip straight to December 31 when moving from one side of the International Date Line to another.

2012 – A Tupolev Tu-204 airliner crashes in a ditch between the airport fence and the M3 highway after overshooting a runway at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, killing five people and leaving three others critically injured.

2013 – A suicide bomb attack at the Volgograd-1 railway station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd kills at least 18 people and wounds 40 others.

2017 – 2017 Bronx apartment fire 12 people are killed when an apartment building in the Bronx, New York is accidentally set alight.

[lordroel]

December 30th

999 – Battle of Glenmama: The combined forces of Munster and Meath under king Brian Boru inflict a crushing defeat on the allied armies of Leinster and Dublin near Lyons Hill in Ireland.

1066 – Granada massacre: A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city.

1419 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of La Rochelle.

1460 – Wars of the Roses: Lancastrians kill the 3rd Duke of York and win the Battle of Wakefield.

1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine.

1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.

1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed.

1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed.

1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

1890 – Following the Wounded Knee Massacre, the United States Army and Lakota warriors face off in the Drexel Mission Fight.

1896 – Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila.

1896 – Canadian ice hockey player Ernie McLea scores the first hat-trick in Stanley Cup play, and the Cup-winning goal as the Montreal Victorias defeat the Winnipeg Victorias 6–5.

1897 – The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.

1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605.

1905 – Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated at the front gate of his home in Caldwell.

1906 – The All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India (later Dhaka, Bangladesh).

1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Moscow river three days later.

1916 – The last coronation in Hungary is performed for King Charles IV and Queen Zita.

1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.

1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.

1936 – The United Auto Workers union stages its first sitdown strike.

1943 – Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.

1944 – King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.

1947 – Cold War: King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.

1958 – The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing three and sparking international tension.

1965 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.

1972 – Vietnam War: The United States halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1993 – Israel establishes diplomatic relations with Vatican City and also upgrades to full diplomatic relations with Ireland.

1996 – Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.

1997 – In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people from four villages are killed.

2000 – Rizal Day bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a period of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.

2004 – A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.

2005 – Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.

2006 – Madrid–Barajas Airport is bombed.

2006 – The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths.

2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed.

2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 150,000 l (40,000 US gal) of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River.

2009 – A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan.

2013 – More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.