Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Historical Events on 23 Dec

Historical Events on 23 Dec

1493 - Georg Alt's German translation of Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle is published.
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, decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in Revolt in the Vendée during the French Revolution.
1913 - The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve.
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 Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
1921 - Visva-Bharati University is inaugurated.
1936 - Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1937 - First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.
1938 - Discovery of the first modern coelacanth in South Africa.
1940 - World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis (Î¥-2) sinks the Italian motor ship Antonietta.
1941 - World War II: Japanese Imperial Army occupies Wake Island.
1947 - The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.
1948 - Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo.
1954 - The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
1958 - Dedication of Tokyo Tower, world's highest self-supporting iron tower.
1968 - The United States won the release of 82 sailors by issuing a writing apology to North Korea for spying on the Communist country.
1972 - The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism.
1972 - The Nicaraguan capital of Managua is struck by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake, killing more than 10,000.
1979 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.
1982 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces it has identified dangerous levels of dioxin in the soil of Times Beach, Missouri.
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.
1990 - History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88% of Slovenia's population vote for independence from Yugoslavia.
2002 - A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat.
2003 - PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
2004 - Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean is hit by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake.
2005 - Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Aktau, Kazakhstan crashes shortly after takeoff killing 23 people.
2005 - Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.
962 - Byzantine-Arab Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops stormed the city of Aleppo, recovering the tattered tunic of John the Baptist.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Historical Events on 22 Dec

Historical Events on 22 Dec

1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by 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.
1809 - The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, passes the U.S. Congress.
1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is called off at the last second.
1851 - The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
1864 - Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".
1885 - Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
1890 - Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kingsport and Kentville, Nova Scotia.
1894 - The Dreyfus affair begins, in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason, on antisemitic grounds.
1920 - The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.
1937 - The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.
1940 - World War II: Himarë 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: Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
1947 - The Constituent Assembly of Italy approves its constitution.
1956 - Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.
1963 - Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.
1964 - First flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird).
1965 - In the United Kingdom, a 70mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
1974 - Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
1974 - Ted Heath's house 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 - Subway vigilante Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four African-American men on an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City.
1988 - Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.
1989 - Kempsey bus crash: Two tourist coaches collide on the Pacific Highway north of Kempsey, New South Wales
1989 - Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
1989 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae CeauÅŸescu's Communist dictatorship.
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.
1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (Zaragoza) another van loaded by ETA with 750 kg of explosives (see related event on December 21, 1999).
2001 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan 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.
2003 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits near San Simeon, California.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Historical Events on 21 Dec

Historical Events on 21 Dec

1598 - Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile; all Spanish cities south of the Biobio river are eventually taken by the Mapuches, and all conquest of Mapuche territories by
1620 - Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1844 - The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their 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.
1883 - The first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army are formed: The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment.
1913 - Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
1958 - French presidential election: Charles de Gaulle is elected President of France as his Union des Démocrates pour la République party gain 78.5% of the vote.
1962 - Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.
1967 - Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, after living for 18 days.
1968 - Apollo program: Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At 2h:50m:37s Mission elapsed time (MES), the crew performs the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and become the first humans to le
1971 - The United Nations Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.
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.
1987 - The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing 1,565.
1988 - A bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.
1989 - The Romanian Revolution of 1989 moves from TimiÅŸoara to Bucharest.
1991 - Charilaos Florakis is elected honorary president of the Communist Party of Greece.
1992 - A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport (Portugal), killing 56 people.
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.
2007 - The Schengen Agreement area increases to include 9 European Union member states; Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia on land and sea borders.
69 - The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian becomes the fourth Emperor of Rome within a year.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Historical Events on 20 Dec

Historical Events on 20 Dec

1192 - Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the crusade.
1522 - 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.
1835 - First signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence at Goliad, Texas.
1860 - South Carolina becomes the first state to secede from the United States.
1915 - World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.
1917 - Cheka, the first Soviet secret police, is founded.
1941 - World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1942 - World War II: Bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.
1951 - The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for the first time. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
1952 - 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.
1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
1968 - The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
1973 - The Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
1984 - The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.
1988 - The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed in Vienna.
1989 - United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of 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 - The Democratic Social Movement is founded in Greece.
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 160.
1996 - NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
1999 - Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.
2001 - Argentine economic crisis: President of Argentina Fernando de la Rúa is forced out of office.
2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
2005 - The first same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated.
2005 - 2005 New York City transit strike: New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike, shutting down all New York City Subway and Bus services.
2005 - US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
2006 - A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
2007 - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
2007 - The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.
69 - Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Historical Events on 19 Dec

Historical Events on 19 Dec

1154 - Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.
1490 - Anne of Brittany is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
1606 - The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who, at Jamestown, Virginia, found the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.
1776 - Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in the Pennsylvania Journal titled The American Crisis.
1777 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
1828 - Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
1835 - The first issue of The Blade newspaper is published in Toledo, Ohio.
1907 - A group of 239 coal miners die during a mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.
1912 - William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over 1,000 people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after three-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison.
1916 - World War I: Battle of Verdun - On the Western Front, the French Army successfully holds off the German Army and drives it back to its starting position.
1920 - King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I of Greece and a plebiscite.
1924 - The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.
1932 - BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service
1941 - World War II: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
1961 - India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.
1967 - Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt is officially presumed dead.
1972 - Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.
1975 - John Paul Stevens appointed as a justice of The United States Supreme Court.
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.
1984 - The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that the People's Republic of 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 by Deng Xiao
1986 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from internal exile in Gorky.
1994 - Rolls-Royce announces its future cars will feature V12 engine which will be produced by BMW.
1997 - SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.
1997 - Titanic is released in theaters. This movie would become the most financially successful movie in U.S. history, grossing approximately $1.8 billion worldwide.
1998 - Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives forwards articles I and III of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to the Senate.
2000 - The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist attack a Nationalist Movement Party office in Istanbul, killing one person and injuring three.
2001 - Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots - Riots erupt in Buenos Aires after Domingo Cavallo's corralito measures restrict the withdrawal of cash from bank deposits.
2001 - A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia.
2007 - The Lakotah people, a Native American tribe, proclaim independence and withdraw all their treaties with the United States. They then proceed to establish the Republic of Lakotah, with an ongoing process of international recognition as a separate country.
324 - Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Historical Events on 18 Dec

Historical Events on 18 Dec

1271 - Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China.
1620 - The Mayflower lands in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts delivering 102 Pilgrims.
1642 - Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.
1777 - The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, celebrating the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of 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 Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.
1862 - American Civil War: In the Battle of Lexington, General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats a Union force under Colonel Robert Ingersoll.
1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified by Georgia, fulfilling the two-thirds requirement for ratification, and abolishing Slavery in the United States.
1878 - John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
1888 - Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Mesa Verde.
1898 - Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the new land speed record going 39.245 mph, in a Jeantaud electric car. This is the first recognized land speed record.
1900 - The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
1912 - The Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is supposedly found in the Piltdown Gravel Pit, by Charles Dawson.
1915 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.
1916 - World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when forces under Chief of Staff Erich Von Falkenhayn suffers 337,000 casualties by the French.
1932 - The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game was moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards long.
1935 - The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.
1941 - Japan invades Hong Kong after British governor of Hong Kong, Mark Aitchison Young refuses to surrender to Japanese forces.
1944 - World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.
1961 - Indonesia invades Netherlands New Guinea.
1966 - Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
1969 - Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for
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.
1987 - Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.
1987 - Ivan Boesky is sentenced to three years in prison for insider trading.
1989 - The European Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.[1]
1996 - The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring "Ebonics" a language or dialect.
1997 - HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
1999 - NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
2002 - 2003 California 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.
2007 - Progress on upcoming novel, Revolver Evolver begin by Nicholas Ortiz, a Los Angeles-based writer.
218 BC - Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia - Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Historical Events on 17 Dec

Historical Events on 17 Dec

1398 - Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.
1531 - Pope Clement VII establishes a parallel body to the Inquisition in Lisbon, Portugal.
1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.
1577 - Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for English Queen Elizabeth I.
1586 - Emperor Go-Yozei becomes Emperor of Japan.
1600 - Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici.
1637 - Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu.
1718 - Great Britain declares war on Spain.
1807 - France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
1819 - Simón Bolívar declares the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).
1834 - The Dublin and Kingstown Railway the first public railway on the island of Ireland, opens in Ireland.
1862 - American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
1903 - The Wright Brothers make their first powered and heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
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.
1935 - First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.
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.
1941 - World War II: Beginning of the Siege of Sebastopol.
1944 - World War II: Battle of the Bulge - Malmedy massacre - American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
1957 - The United States successfully launched the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1961 - History of Goa: Operation Vijay - India seizes Goa from Portugal.
1967 - Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria and was presumed drowned.
1969 - Project Blue Book: The USAF closes its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of "A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and miside
1969 - The SALT I talks begin.
1970 - Polish 1970 protests: In Gdynia, soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.
1973 - Terrorism: 30 passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport.
1978 - The Workers Party of Jamaica is founded by Trevor Munroe.
1981 - The Senegambia Confederation is founded.
1981 - Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigade in Verona, Italy.
1983 - The IRA bombs Harrods Department Store in London, killing six people.
1989 - Romanian Revolution: Protests continue in TimiÅŸoara with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party's District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.
1989 - First free elections in Brazil in 25 years.
1989 - The longest-running American sitcom The Simpsons had its debut.
1999 - The United Nations General Assembly passes resolution 54/134 designating November 25 as the annual International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women.
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 - SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first supersonic flight.
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.
2005 - Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong
2007 - Republic of Lakotah asserts independence from the United States
546 - Gothic War (535-554): The Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome by bribing the Byzantine garrison.
920 - Romanos I is crowned as co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII.
942 - Assassination of William I of Normandy.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Historical Events on 16 Dec

Historical Events on 16 Dec

1392 - Nanboku-chō - Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.
1431 - Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
1497 - Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
1575 - The 1575 Valdivia earthquake takes place.
1598 - Seven Year War: Battle of Noryang Point - The final battle of the Seven Year War is fought between the Korean and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive Korean 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.
1707 - Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1761 - Seven Years' War: After four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kolobrzeg.
1773 - American Revolution: Boston Tea Party - Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1811 - The first two in a series of severe earthquakes occurs, 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 - Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius combat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
1850 - History of New Zealand: The Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton.
1863 - American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee.
1864 - American Civil War: Franklin-Nashville Campaign - Battle of Nashville - Major General George H. Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
1893 - Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, "From The New World" was given its world premiere at Carnegie Hall.
1907 - Great White Fleet started its circumnavigation of the world
1910 - During a ground test of his Coandă-1910 plane, Henri Coandă, caught unaware by the power of the engine, finds himself briefly airborne and loses control of the machine which crashes to the ground.
1914 - World War I: German battleships under Franz Von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
1920 - The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, 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.
1925 - Alpha Phi Omega national service fraternity is founded at Lafayette College.
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 Honor of the German Mother
1941 - World War II: Japanese occupy Miri, Sarawak
1942 - Holocaust: Porajmos - Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
1944 - World War II: Battle of the Bulge - General Dwight D. Eisenhower's allied forces and Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt's German army engage in the Belgian Ardennes.
1946 - Léon Blum becomes Prime Minister of France.
1947 - William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
1949 - Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, later knows as SAAB, is founded in Sweden.
1950 - President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight with communist North Korea in the Korean War.
1957 - Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
1960 - 1960 New York air disaster: While approaching New York's Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.
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.
1971 - Independence Day of the State of Bahrain from British Protectorate Status
1971 - Bangladesh War of Independence and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan army brings an end to both conflicts.
1972 - Vietnam War: Henry Kissinger announces that North Vietnam has left private peace negotiations, in Paris.
1978 - Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first post-Depression era city to default on its loans, owing $14,000,000 to local banks.
1979 - Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, having an immediate dramatic effect on the United States.
1982 - The Federal Reserve announces that the operating capacity of factories has gone down to 67.8%.
1985 - Mafia: In New York City, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family.
1986 - Revolt in Kazakhstan against Communist party, known as Zheltoksan, which becomes the first sign of ethnic strife during Gorbachev's tenure
1989 - Walter LeRoy Moody begins his terrorist bombing streak when he sends Judge Robert Smith Vance a bomb in the mail, instantly killing him near his house in Birmingham, Alabama.
1989 - Protest breaks out in TimiÅŸoara in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor, László TÅ'kés.
1991 - Independence of The Republic of Kazakhstan.
1991 - United Nations General Assembly: UN General Assembly Resolution 4686 revokes UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 after Israel makes revocation of resolution 3379 a condition of its participation in the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991.
1998 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert Fox - The United States and United Kingdom bomb targets in Iraq.
755 - An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Historical Events on 15 Dec

Historical Events on 15 Dec

1167 - Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
1467 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
1791 - The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature.
1863 - Romania is using for the first time a mountain railway (from Anina to Oravita).
1864 - In the Battle of Nashville, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John B. Hood.
1868 - Shogunate rebels found Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō.
1891 - James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.
1905 - The Pushkin House is established in St. Petersburg to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin
1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1914 - World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
1914 - Gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine, Kyūshū, Japan, 687 killed. This accident is the worst coal mine disaster in Japanese history.
1915 - World War I: Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig replaces John French, 1st Earl of Ypres as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.
1917 - World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Bolshevik government and the Central Powers.
1939 - Gone with the Wind premiered at Loew's Grand Theater in Atlanta, GA, USA.
1941 - Annihilation of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine: at temperatures of -15 degrees C below zero near the Rogan works, 8 km away from Kharkiv in "Drobitsky Ravine" (Drobitsky Yar), over 15 000 Jews are shot.
1941 - The American Federation of Labor adopts a no-strike policy in war industries.
1942 - The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal campaign.
1945 - Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as state religion of Japan.
1960 - Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the U.S. President-Elect, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier.
1960 - King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón in Brussels.
1961 - In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7.
1967 - The Silver Bridge collapses, killing 46 people.
1970 - Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election.
1970 - South Korean ferry Namyong Ho capsized off Korean Strait, 308 killed.
1973 - John Paul Getty III, grandson of J. Paul Getty, American billionaire is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10, 1973
1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN.
1978 - President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and cutoff all relations with Taiwan
1993 - History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.
1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice hands down the "Bosman ruling", giving EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one UEFA Federation to another.
1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85.
2001 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.
2005 - Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.
2005 - Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of same-sex couples being entitled to marry.
2005 - The 2005 Atlantic Power Outage began.
2005 - Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
2006 - First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Historical Events on 14 Dec

Historical Events on 14 Dec

1287 - St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
1542 - Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland.
1751 - The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first Military Academy in the world.
1782 - The Montgolfier brothers first balloon lifts on its first test flight.
1819 - Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1825 - Advocates of Liberalism in Russia rise up against Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg.
1836 - The Toledo War unofficially ends.
1896 - The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
1900 - Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
1902 - The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.
1903 - The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1907 - The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Scilly Isles in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
1911 - Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
1914 - Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressist Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires.
1918 - Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
1939 - Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations.
1941 - German military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine issues an order, under which the Jewish population was to move to the city periphery within 2 days, into the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days 15,000 Jews are shot at Drobitsky Yar.
1941 - World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.
1946 - The UN General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.
1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
1955 - Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations.
1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first expedition to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
1962 - NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
1964 - American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States - The United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress can use its Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.
1972 - Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.
1981 - Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.
1995 - Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by leaders of various governments.
2003 - President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
2003 - President George W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein.
2004 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Historical Events on 13 Dec

Historical Events on 13 Dec

1294 - Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
1545 - Council of Trent begins.
1577 - Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
1636 - The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.
1642 - Abel Janszoon Tasman reaches New Zealand.
1643 - English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
1769 - Dartmouth College is founded by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, with a Royal Charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal Governor John Wentworth.
1862 - American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside.
1937 - Nanjing Massacre. Japanese troops begin carrying out several weeks of raping and killing of civilians and suspected Chinese resistance after the fall of Nanjing.
1937 - Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanjing - Nanjing, defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to the Japanese.
1938 - The Holocaust: 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen build the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.
1939 - World War II: Battle of the River Plate - Captain Hans Langsdorff of the German Deutschland class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles.
1941 - World War II: Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
1943 - World War II: 710 Bombers of U.S. 8th Air Force attack Kiel, Germany.
1949 - The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.
1951 - Margaret Thatcher (Roberts) marries Denis Thatcher at City Methodist in London.
1959 - Archbishop Makarios becomes the first President of Cyprus.
1962 - NASA "Relay 1" launch, first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
1967 - San Diego, CA records snow at a zero elevation after temperatures plunge 19 degrees (F) in eight hours.
1967 - Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels
1968 - Brazilian president Artur da Costa e Silva decrees the AI-5 (or the fifth Institutional Act), which lasts until 1978 and marks the beginning of the hard times of Brazilian military dictatorship.
1972 - Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.
1974 - Malta becomes a republic.
1977 - A DC-3 aircraft chartered from the Indianapolis-based National Jet crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff and boosters of the team.
1979 - The Canadian Government of Prime Minister Joe Clark is defeated in the House of Commons, prompting the 1980 Canadian election.
1981 - General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
1989 - The last issue of Gnistan (The Spark), the organ of the Solidaritetspartiet, is published in Sweden.
1996 - Kofi Annan is elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations.
2000 - The "Texas 7" escape from the John Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas and go on a robbery spree, during which police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot and killed.
2000 - American Vice President Al Gore delivers his concession speech effectively ending his hopes of becoming the 43rd President of the United States.
2001 - the Indian Parliament Sansad is attacked by terrorists. 15 people are killed, including all the terrorists.
2002 - Enlargement of the European Union: The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.
2003 - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit (see Operation Red Dawn).
2004 - Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest, after being sued under accusations over 9 kidnapping actions and manslaughter. The house arrest is lifted the same day on appeal.
2006 - The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin, announced as extinct.
2007 - The Mitchell Report is publicly released listing the names of 89 Major League Baseball players that have presumably used anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Notable players to be named include Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Historical Events on 12 Dec

Historical Events on 12 Dec

1098 - First Crusade: Massacre of Ma'arrat al-Numan - Crusaders breach the town's walls and massacre about 20,000 inhabitants. After finding themselves with insufficient food, they resort to cannibalism.
1408 - Order of the Dragon: The Order of the Dragon was first created on December 12, 1408 by Emperor Sigismund, then King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje following the battle for possession of Bosnia.
1781 - American Revolutionary War: Second Battle of Ushant - A Royal Navy squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt in HMS Victory, defeats a French fleet.
1787 - Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution five days after Delaware became the first.
1812 - French invasion of Russia comes to an end.
1862 - USS Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River, becoming the first armored ship to be sunk by an electrically detonated mine.
1870 - Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black U.S. congressman.
1897 - Belo Horizonte, the first planned city of Brazil, is founded.
1901 - Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
1911 - Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
1914 - The largest one-day percentage drop in the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 24.39%.
1915 - President of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai announces his intention to reinstate the monarchy and proclaim himself Emperor of China.
1917 - In Nebraska, Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.
1925 - The Majlis of Iran votes to crown Reza Khan as the new Shah of Persia.
1936 - Xi'an Incident: The Generalissimo of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.
1937 - Panay incident: Japanese aircraft shell and sink US gunboat Panay on the Yangtze River in China.
1939 - Winter War: Battle of Tolvajärvi - Finnish forces defeat those of the Soviet Union in their first major victory of the conflict.
1940 - World War II: Approximately 70 people are killed in the Marples Hotel, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield as a result of a German air raid.
1941 - Adolf Hitler announces extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery
1941 - World War II: Great Britain declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan.
1941 - World War II: USMC F4F "Wildcats" sink the first 4 major Japanese ships off Wake Island.
1941 - World War II: Fifty four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Philippines. Jesus Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off; Cesar Basa is killed.
1942 - A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland kills 100 people.
1946 - A fire at a New York City ice plant spreads to a nearby tenement killing 37 people.
1948 - Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali Massacre - 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaysia allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
1950 - Paula Ackerman, the first woman appointed to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leads the congregation in her first services.
1956 - Commencement of the Irish Republican Army's Border Campaign.
1963 - Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1964 - Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first President of the Republic of Kenya.
1969 - Strategia della tensione: Piazza Fontana bombing - The offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, are bombed.
1979 - Rhodesia changes its name to Zimbabwe.
1979 - President of Pakistan, Zia-ul-Haq, confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam.
1979 - Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Pa
1982 - Women's peace protest at Greenham Common - 30,000 women hold hands and form a human chain around the 14.5 km (9 mi) perimeter fence.
1984 - Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya becomes the third president of Mauritania after a coup d'etat against Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla while the latter was attending a summit. Taya was ousted in March 2005 by Ely Ould Mohamed Vall in another coup.
1985 - Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland killing 256, including 248 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.
1988 - The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains - one of the worst train crashes in Britain.
1991 - Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.
2000 - The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore
2006 - Peugeot produces its last car at the Ryton Plant signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry, formerly a major centre of the British motor industry.
627 - Battle of Nineveh: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Historical Events on 11 Dec

Historical Events on 11 Dec

1282 - Llywelyn the Last (b. c.1228), the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, south Wales.
1602 - A surprise attack by forces under the command of the Duke of Savoy and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva. Commemorations/celebrations on Fête de l'Escalade are usually held on December 11 or the closest weeken
1789 - The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.
1792 - French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
1816 - Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state.
1872 - P.B.S. Pinchback becomes the first black member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
1905 - A workers uprising occurs, establishing the Shuliavka Republic in Kiev.
1907 - New Zealand Parliament Buildings almost completely destroyed by fire.
1917 - British troops take Jerusalem from the troops of the Ottoman Empire.
1925 - Quas Primas encyclical is promulgated, introducing the Feast of Christ the King.
1927 - Guangzhou Uprising: Communist militia and worker red guards launch an uprising in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.
1931 - The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster, establishing legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Dominion of Newfoundland, the Dominion of New
1936 - Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India becomes effective.
1937 - Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italy leaves the League of Nations.
1941 - World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The United States, in turn, declares war on Germany and Italy.
1946 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.
1958 - Upper Volta gains self-government from France, and becomes an autonomous republic in the French Community.
1960 - A violent clash occurred with French forces cracking down on protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French president Charles de Gaulle.
1964 - Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. An unknown terrorist fires a mortar shell at the building during the speech.
1971 - The Libertarian Party of the United States is formed.
1972 - Apollo 17 becomes the sixth mission to land on the Moon.
1980 - The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (known as either CERCLA or Superfund) is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
1981 - El Mozote massacre: Salvadoran armed forces kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the country's civil war.
1993 - Forty-eight people are killed when a block of the Highland Towers collapses near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1994 - First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.
1997 - The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change opens for signature.
1998 - A Thai Airways Airbus A310-200 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101.
2001 - The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.
2005 - The Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead is rocked by explosions, causing a huge oil fire.
2005 - Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who were not) in Cronulla Sydney. These are followed up by ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
2006 - The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
2007 - Two car bombs go off at the Constitutional Court building in Algiers and the United Nations office. An estimated 45 people are killed in the bombings.
359 - Honoratus, the first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople, takes office.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Historical Events on 10 Dec

Historical Events on 10 Dec

1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
1508 - The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
1520 - Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.
1541 - Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
1665 - The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps was founded by Michiel de Ruyter
1684 - Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
1817 - Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
1836 - Emory College (now Emory University) is chartered in Oxford, Georgia.
1861 - American Civil War: the Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
1864 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea - Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach Savannah, Georgia.
1868 - The first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
1869 - Wyoming grants women the right to vote.
1869 - The first American chapter of Kappa Sigma is founded at the University of Virginia.
1898 - Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
1898 - The first western pilgrims were welcomed at The House of `Abdu'lláh Páshá
1899 - The Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
1901 - The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
1902 - Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.
1904 - Founding of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity.
1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
1907 - The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals who have been vivisected.
1932 - Thailand adopts a Constitution and becomes a constitutional monarchy.
1935 - The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, was given to halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago. This award was given to the best college football player east the Mississippi River.
1936 - Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
1941 - World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
1941 - World War II: Battle of the Philippines - Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on the Philippine mainland.
1948 - The UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today is also International Human Rights Day.
1949 - Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
1968 - Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.
1978 - Arab-Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1981 - The United Nations General Assembly approves Pakistan's proposal for establishing nuclear free-zone in South Asia.
1981 - During the Ministerial Session of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, Spain signes the Protocol of Accession to NATO.
1983 - Democracy is restored in Argentina with the assumption of President Raúl Alfonsín.
1989 - Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of Mongolia's democratic movement that peacefully changed the second oldest communist country into a democratic society.
1996 - Rwandan Genocide: Military advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Maurice Baril recommends that the UN multi-national forces in Zaire stand down.
2006 - One million Lebanese opposition supporters gather in downtown Beirut, calling for the government to resign.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Historical Events on 9 Dec

Historical Events on 9 Dec

1425 - The Catholic University of Leuven is founded.
1793 - New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
1824 - Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
1835 - The Republic of Texas captures San Antonio, Texas.
1851 - The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
1856 - The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
1861 - American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
1872 - In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.
1875 - Massachusetts Rifle Association "America's Oldest Active Gun Club" is founded.
1888 - Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department.
1897 - Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde in Paris.
1905 - In France, the law separating church and state is passed.
1917 - In Palestine, Field Marshal Edmund Allenby captures Jerusalem.
1922 - Gabriel Narutowicz is announced the first president of Poland.
1931 - The Constituent Cortes approves the constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.
1935 - Walter Liggett American newspaper editor and muckraker killed in gangland murder.
1937 - Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanjing - Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanjing.
1940 - World War II: Operation Compass - British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.
1941 - World War II: The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.
1941 - World War II: The 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.
1946 - The "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" began with the "Doctors' Trial", prosecuting doctors alleged to be involved in human experimentation.
1950 - Harry Gold is sentenced to thirty years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
1953 - Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.
1958 - Red Scare: The John Birch Society was founded in the United States.
1960 - The first episode of Britain's longest running soap opera Coronation Street is broadcast.
1961 - The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Israel ends with him being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
1961 - Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
1968 - NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.
1979 - The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.
1987 - Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
1988 - The Michael Hughes Bridge in Sligo, Ireland is officially opened.
1990 - Lech Wałęsa becomes the first directly elected president of Poland.
2003 - A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
2006 - Moscow suffers its worst fire since 1977, killing 45 women in a drug rehabitational center.
536 - Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Historical Events on 8 Dec

Historical Events on 8 Dec

1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room, the second public library of Europe.
1659 - Mexican border town Ciudad Juárez is founded by Fray García de San Francisco.
1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogma of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin.
1864 - The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon is officially opened.
1869 - Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.
1886 - The American Federation of Labor is founded in Columbus, Ohio.
1904 - Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen. Still existing today, it is the oldest political youth organization in Denmark and believed to be one of the oldest in the world.
1907 - King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.
1912 - First Balkan War: The Greek army captures Korçë that had been under Ottoman rule.
1914 - World War I: Battle of the Falkland Islands - The Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee is engaged by the Royal Navy.
1926 - Disappearance of Agatha Christie
1935 - The Japanese military police launches a violent suppression of the religious sect Oomoto, beginning with a crackdown on the sect's operational bases of Ayabe and Kameoka in Kyoto Prefecture and the arrest of its leader Onisaburo Deguchi.
1941 - World War II: The Japanese invade the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. They also invade the portions of Shanghai administered by European powers and bomb American bases in the Philippines. Because of the time difference
1941 - World War II: Pacific War - After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. Congress passes a declaration of war against Japan.
1941 - World War II: Pacific War - the Republic of China officially declares war against Japan.
1941 - World War II: Pacific War - The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in China issues a proclamation which declared war against Japan and Germany on behalf of Korean people, who were under Japanese occupation since 1910.
1941 - World War II: First Japanese attack on Wake Island.
1941 - Holocaust: Gas vans are first used as a means of execution, at the Chelmno extermination camp near Łódź in Poland.
1942 - Holocaust: in Ternopil, Ukraine, the German SS organizes the deportation of the last 1,400 Ternopil Jews to the death camp in Belzec. The chief of the Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Müller, bore overall responsibility for the mass murder of the Jew
1949 - Chinese Civil War: The capital of the Republic of China is moved from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.
1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the Atoms for Peace speech.
1966 - The Greek SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
1969 - An Olympic Airways Douglas DC-6 crashes in Keratea during a storm, killing 93 people.
1972 - United Airlines Flight 553 crashes near Chicago Midway Airport, killing 45 people.
1974 - A plebiscite results in the abolition of monarchy in Greece.
1980 - Mark David Chapman shoots and kills John Lennon in front of The Dakota apartment building.
1982 - Activist Norman Mayer threatens to blow up the Washington Monument, before being killed by United States Park Police.
1982 - In Suriname several opponents of the military government are killed.
1987 - The Alianza Lima air disaster.
1987 - The Queen Street Massacre: Frank Vitkovic shoots and kills 8 people at the offices of Australia Post in Melbourne, Australia before being killed himself.
1987 - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed.
1991 - The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1991 - The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.
1993 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.
1998 - Tadjena massacre: 81 people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
2002 - The Caribbean Community Heads of Government meet with the Government of Cuba and declare the date to be "CARICOM-Cuba Day" - To celebrate diplomatic ties between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba.
2004 - The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
2005 - Ante Gotovina, Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Historical Events on 7 Dec

Historical Events on 7 Dec

1696 - Connecticut Route 108, one of the states first highways is laid out in Trumbull.
1724 - Tumult of Thorn - religious unrest was followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.
1732 - The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.
1776 - Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general.
1787 - Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the US Constitution.
1900 - Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission.
1917 - World War I: The US declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1930 - W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts broadcasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The broadcast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.
1940 - The first prototype Fairey Barracuda flew
1941 - World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor - The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the US Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (See also December 8. Because of the time difference, events of December 8 that
1941 - Holocaust (Shoah): Extermination of Jewish people at the death camp of Chelmno begins.
1946 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.
1949 - Chinese Civil War: The government of Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei.
1962 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.
1963 - Instant replay is used for the first time in a Army-Navy game.
1965 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.
1966 - A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.
1970 - The first ever general election on the basis of direct adult franchise is held in Pakistan for 313 National Assembly seats.
1971 - Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces formation of a Coalition Government at Centre with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as Vice-Prime Minister.
1972 - Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as "The Blue Marble" as they leave the Earth.
1975 - Indonesia invades East Timor.
1982 - In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the US.
1983 - An Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco DC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid Barajas International Airport, killing 93 people.
1987 - Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
1988 - Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
1988 - Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills nearly 25,000, injures 15,000 and leaves 400,000 homeless.
1993 - The Long Island Rail Road massacre: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.
1995 - The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
1999 - The RIAA files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client, on charges of copyright infringement.
2003 - The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
2005 - Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of US federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
2006 - A tornado struck Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging around 150 properties.
2007 - The Hebei Spirit oil spill began in South Korea after a crane barge being towed by tug collided with the very large crude carrier, Hebei Spirit.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Historical Events on 6 Dec

Historical Events on 6 Dec

1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary
1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev under Danylo of Halych and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.
1534 - The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1648 - Colonel Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order for the King's trial to go ahead; came to be known as "Pride's Purge".
1768 - The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.
1790 - The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1845 - Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity is founded at Yale College.
1849 - American abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.
1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.
1877 - The first edition of the Washington Post is published.
1884 - The Washington Monument in Washington D.C. is completed.
1897 - London becomes the world's first city to host licenced taxicabs.
1907 - A coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia kills 362 workers.
1916 - World War I: The Central Powers capture Bucharest.
1917 - Finland declares independence from Russia.
1917 - Halifax Explosion: In Canada, a munitions explosion kills more than 1900 people and destroys part of the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1921 - The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London by British and Irish representatives.
1922 - One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.
1933 - U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that the James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene.
1941 - World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.
1947 - The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.
1956 - A water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
1957 - Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.
1965 - Pakistan's Islamic Ideology Advisory Committee recommends that Islamic Studies be made a compulsory subject for Muslim students from primary to graduate level.
1969 - Meredith Hunter is killed by the Hells Angels during a The Rolling Stones's concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.
1971 - Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India following New Delhi's recognition of Bangladesh.
1973 - The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3).
1975 - Balcombe Street Siege: An IRA Active Service Unit takes a couple hostage in Balcombe Street, London.
1977 - South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.
1978 - Spain approves its latest constitution in a referendum.
1989 - The École Polytechnique Massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
1991 - In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city since May.
1992 - Extremist Hindu activists demolish Babri Masjid - a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya, India which had been used as temple since 1949. Hindus believe this structure was built on the site of the birthplace of Lord Rama.
1997 - A Russian Antonov An-124 transport cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.
1998 - Hugo Chávez Frías, Venezuelan military and politician, is elected President of Venezuela.
2001 - The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.
2005 - Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China.
2006 - NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Historical Events on 5 Dec

Historical Events on 5 Dec

1082 - Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona is assassinated.
1360 - The French Franc is created.
1408 - Emir Edigu of Golden Horde reaches Moscow.
1484 - Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and leads to one of the severest witch hunts in European history.
1492 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola.
1496 - King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree of expulsion of "heretics" from the country.
1590 - Niccolò Sfondrati becomes Pope Gregory XIV.
1746 - Revolt in Genoa against the Spanish rule.
1757 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen - Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
1766 - In London, James Christie holds his first sale.
1775 - At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1776 - In the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, students from the College of William and Mary meet for the first time founding Phi Beta Kappa, the first scholastic fraternity in the United States.
1815 - Foundation of Maceió in Brazil.
1831 - Former US President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.
1847 - Jefferson Davis is elected to the US senate, his first political post.
1848 - California Gold Rush: In a message before the U.S. Congress, US President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
1865 - Chincha Islands War: Peru allies with Chile against Spain.
1892 - Sir John Thompson becomes the fourth Prime Minister of Canada.
1893 - First appearance of an electric car.
1914 - The Italian Parliament proclaims the neutrality of the country.
1920 - Dimitrios Rallis forms a government in Greece.
1926 - Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin premieres.
1932 - German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
1933 - Prohibition in the United States ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment
1934 - Abyssinia Crisis: Italian troops attack Wal Wal in Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city.
1936 - The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.
1941 - World War II: In the Battle of Moscow Georgy Zhukov launches a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army, with the biggest offensive launched against Army Group Centre.
1941 - World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.
1943 - World War II: U.S. Army Air Force begin attacking Germany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow .
1944 - World War II: Allied troops occupy Ravenna.
1945 - Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
1952 - Great Smog of 1952: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.
1955 - E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL-CIO.
1957 - Sukarno expels all Dutch people from Indonesia.
1958 - The Preston bypass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.
1958 - Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the UK by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.
1964 - Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
1969 - Life Magazine reports the My Lai Massacre .
1970 - Premiere of Dario Fo's Morte accidentale di un anarchico.
1976 - The United Nations General Assembly adopts Pakistan's resolution on security of non-Nuclear States.
1977 - Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen. The move is in retaliation for the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt.
1978 - The Soviet Union signs a "friendship treaty" with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1979 - Sonia Johnson is formally excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for her outspoken criticism of the church concerning the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
1983 - ICIMOD established and inaugurated with its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal, and legitimised through an Act of Parliament in Nepal in the same year.
1983 - Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina.
1993 - The mayor of Wien (Vienna), Helmut Zilk, is wounded by a letter bomb.
1995 - The Sri Lankan government announces the conquest of Tamil stronghold of Jaffna.
2005 - The Lake Tanganyika earthquake causes significant damage, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2005 - The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.
2006 - Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
2007 - Westroads Mall massacre: A gunman opens fire with a semi-automatic rifle at an Omaha, Nebraska mall, killing eight people before taking his own life.
63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations.
663 - Fourth Council of Toledo takes place.
771 - Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Historical Events on 4 Dec

Historical Events on 4 Dec

1110 - First Crusade: The Crusaders conquer Sidon.
1259 - Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
1563 - The final session of the Council of Trent is held (it opened on December 13, 1545).
1619 - 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (this is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).
1674 - Father Jacques Marquette founds a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illiniwek (the mission would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois).
1676 - Battle of Lund: A Danish army under the command of King Christian V of Denmark engages the Swedish army commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt.
1783 - At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, US General George Washington formally bids his officers farewell.
1791 - The first issue of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
1829 - In the face of fierce opposition, British governor Lord William Bentinck issues a regulation declaring that all who abetted suttee in India were guilty of culpable homicide.
1864 - American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea - At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General William T. Sherman's campaign destroying a w
1867 - Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange).
1872 - The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia (the ship was abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged).
1875 - Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Cuba, then Spain.
1881 - The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.
1906 - Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity in the United States established for men of African descent, is founded at Cornell University.
1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
1921 - The Virginia Rappe manslaughter trial against Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle ends in a hung jury.
1942 - Holocaust: In Warsaw, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Filipowicz set up the Żegota organization.
1942 - Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign ends.
1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment in the United States.
1943 - World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
1945 - By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations (the UN was established on October 24, 1945).
1951 - Mir Waiz Maulvi Muhammad Yusouf is appointed President of Azad Kashmir Government.
1952 - Great Smog of 1952: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.
1954 - The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida, USA
1958 - Dahomey (present-day Benin) becomes a self-governing country within the French Community.
1967 - Vietnam War: US and South Vietnamese forces engage Viet Cong troops in the Mekong Delta.
1969 - Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
1971 - The Montreux Casino in Switzerland is set ablaze by someone wielding a flare gun during a Frank Zappa concert; the incident would be noted in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water".
1971 - The UN Security Council calls an emergency session to consider the deteriorating situation between India and Pakistan.
1971 - The Indian Navy attacks the Pakistan Navy and Karachi.
1977 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjong Kupang, Johor, killing 100.
1977 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire.
1978 - Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco, California's first female mayor (she served until January 8, 1988).
1979 - The Hastie fire in Hull, kills three schoolboys and eventually leads police to arrest Bruce George Peter Lee.
1981 - South Africa grants independence to the Ciskei "homeland" (not recognized by any government outside South Africa).
1982 - The People's Republic of China adopts its current constitution.
1984 - Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane, killing four passengers.
1991 - Journalist Terry A. Anderson is released after 7 years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut. He was the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.
1991 - Captain Mark Pyle pilots Clipper Goodwill, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 727-221ADV, to Miami International Airport ending 64 years of Pan Am operations.
1992 - Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 US troops to Somalia in Northeast Africa.
1993 - A truce is concluded between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels.
1998 - The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.
2005 - Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage.
2006 - An adult giant squid is caught on video by Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo.
771 - Austrasian King Carloman dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne King of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Historical Events on 3 Dec

Historical Events on 3 Dec

1800 - War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden, French General Moreau defeats the Austrian Archduke John near Munich decisively, coupled with First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte's victory at Marengo effectively forcing the Austrians to sign an armistice a
1805 - Lewis and Clark Expedition mark their explorations from the Missouri River overland to the Columbia River on a pine tree.
1818 - Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.
1854 - Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.
1901 - US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking the Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
1904 - The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
1912 - First Balkan War: The Naval Battle of Elli takes place.
1912 - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long First Balkan War.
1917 - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.
1929 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover announces to the U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy.
1944 - The Greek Civil War breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between communists and royalists.
1964 - Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents' decision to forbid protests on UC property.
1967 - At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky).
1967 - The luxury train 20th Century Limited completes its last run from New York City to Chicago (the train was inaugurated on June 15, 1902).
1970 - October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libération du Québec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Canadian governme
1971 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: India invades West Pakistan and a full scale war begins claiming hundreds of lives.
1973 - Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
1976 - An assassination attempt is made on Bob Marley-He is shot twice-plays a concert two days later
1979 - In Cincinnati, Ohio, eleven fans are killed during a stampede for seats before a Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum.
1979 - Shadow Traffic begins broadcasting in the New York City metropolitan area.
1982 - A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
1984 - Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000-600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industri
1989 - Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end (some commentators from both nations exaggerate
1990 - At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crew members aboard flight 1482.
1992 - UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid is distributed in Somalia.
1992 - The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.
1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.
1999 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
2005 - XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.
2007 - Devastating winter storms caused the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars of damaged are blamed on the floods.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Historical Events on 2 Dec

Historical Events on 2 Dec

1409 - The University of Leipzig opens.
1755 - The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
1804 - At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French, the first French Emperor in a thousand years.
1805 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz - French troops under Napoleon defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.
1823 - Monroe Doctrine: US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts.
1845 - Manifest Destiny: US President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
1848 - Franz Josef I becomes Emperor of Austria.
1851 - Newly-elected French President Charles Louis Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.
1852 - Napoleon III becomes Emperor of the French.
1859 - Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.
1867 - In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
1899 - Philippine-American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.
1908 - Child Emperor Pu Yi ascends the Chinese throne at the age of two
1920 - Following more than a month of Turkish-Armenian War, the Turkish dictated peace treaty is concluded -Treaty of Alexandropol
1927 - Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
1930 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover goes before the United States Congress and asks for a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
1939 - New York City's La Guardia Airport opens.
1942 - Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
1943 - A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks an American ship with a mustard gas stockpile. Numerous fatalities (though the exact death toll is unresolved as the bombing raid itself caused hundreds of deaths too).
1946 - British Government invites four Indian leaders, Nehru, Baldev Singh, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan to obtain the participation of all parties in the Constituent Assembly.
1947 - Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan.
1954 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
1954 - The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and the Republic of China, is signed in Washington, DC.
1956 - The Granma yacht reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente province and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution.
1961 - In a nationally-broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
1962 - Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to not make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress.
1970 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.
1971 - Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.
1972 - Gough Whitlam becomes the first Australian Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years.
1975 - Pathet Lao seizes power in Laos, and establishes the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
1976 - Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.
1977 - The first World Series Cricket "supertest" match played between Australia and West Indies
1980 - Four U.S. nuns and churchwomen, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel, are murdered by a death squad in El Salvador.
1988 - Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.
1990 - A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932.
1993 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed in Medellín.
1993 - Space Shuttle program: STS-61 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
1999 - The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.
2001 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2005 - Van Tuong Nguyen is executed in Singapore for drug trafficking.