Monday, December 31, 2012

Historical Events on 1 Jan

Historical Events on 1 Jan

1001 - Grand Prince Stephen I of Hungary is named the first King of Hungary by Pope Silvester II.
1259 - Michael VIII Palaiologos is proclaimed co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea with his ward John IV Laskaris.
1438 - Albert II of Habsburg is crowned King of Hungary.
1515 - King Francis I of France succeeds to the French throne.
1527 - Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as king of Croatia in the Parliament on Cetin.
153 BC - Roman consuls begin their year in office.
1600 - Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead of 25 March.
1651 - Charles II is crowned King of Scotland.
1700 - Russia begins using the Anno Domini era and no longer uses the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.
1707 - John V is crowned King of Portugal.
1739 - Bouvet Island is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
1772 - The first traveler's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London.
1781 - 1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey as part of the Pennsylvania (Continentals; Regiment) Mutiny of 1781.
1788 - First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.
1800 - The Dutch East India Company is dissolved.
1801 - The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1801 - The dwarf planet Ceres is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.
1803 - Emperor Gia Long orders all bronze wares of the Tây Sơn Dynasty to be collected and melted into nine cannons for the Royal Citadel in Huế, Vietnam.
1804 - French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black republic and first independent country in the West Indies.
1806 - The French Republican Calendar is abolished.
1808 - The importation of slaves into the United States is banned.
1833 - The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
1845 - The Cobble Hill Tunnel in Brooklyn is completed.
1861 - Porfirio Díaz conquers Mexico City.
1863 - The first claim under the Homestead Act is made by Daniel Freeman for a farm in Nebraska.
1863 - American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
1876 - The Reichsbank opens in Berlin.
1877 - Queen Victoria of Britain is proclaimed Empress of India.
1880 - Ferdinand de Lesseps begins French construction of the Panama Canal.
1890 - Eritrea is consolidated into a colony by the Italian government.
1892 - Ellis Island opens to begin processing immigrants into the United States.
1893 - Japan begins using the Gregorian calendar.
1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal, England, is officially opened to traffic.
1898 - New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.
1899 - Spanish rule ends in Cuba.
1901 - The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister.
1901 - Nigeria becomes a British protectorate.
1902 - The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena.
1906 - British India officially adopts the Indian Standard Time.
1908 - For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City's Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.
1909 - Drilling begins on the Lakeview Gusher.
1910 - Captain David Beatty is promoted to Rear Admiral, and becomes the youngest admiral in the Royal Navy (except for Royal family members), since Horatio Nelson.
1911 - Northern Territory is separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control.
1912 - The Republic of China is established.
1916 - German troops abandon Yaoundé and their Kamerun colony to British forces and begin the long march to Spanish Guinea.
1919 - Edsel Ford succeeds his father, Henry Ford, as president of the Ford Motor Company.
1920 - The Belorussian Communist Organisation is founded as a separate party.
1922 - The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly of Epidaurus.
1923 - Britain's Railways are grouped into the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, and LMSR.
1925 - The American astronomer Edwin Hubble announces the discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way.
1927 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar: December 18, 1926 (Julian), is immediately followed by January 1, 1927 (Gregorian).
1929 - The former municipalities of Point Grey, British Columbia and South Vancouver, British Columbia are amalgamated into Vancouver.
1934 - Alcatraz Island becomes a United States federal prison.
1934 - Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring".
1937 - Safety glass in vehicle windscreens becomes mandatory in Great Britain.
1939 - William Hewlett and David Packard found Hewlett-Packard.
1939 - Sydney, Australia, swelters in 45 ËšC (113 ËšF) heat, a record for the city.
1942 - The Declaration by the United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
1945 - World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches Unternehmen Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow.
1945 - World War II: In retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops massacre 30 SS prisoners at Chenogne.
1947 - The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after the World War II, merge to form the Bizone, that later became the Federal Republic of Germany.
1948 - The Constitution of Italy comes into force.
1948 - British railways are nationalised to form British Rail.
1948 - After partition, India declines to pay the agreed share of Rs.550 million in cash balances to Pakistan.
1949 - United Nations cease-fire takes effect in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly.
1950 - The state of Ajaigarh is ceded to the Government of India.
1956 - The Republic of the Sudan achieves independence from the Egyptian Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1956 - A new year event causes panic and stampedes at Yahiko Shrine, Yahiko, central Niigata, Japan, killing at least 124 people.
1957 - George Town, Penang becomes a city by a royal charter granted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
1957 - An Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit attacks Brookeborough RUC barracks in one of the most famous incidents of the IRA's Operation Harvest.
1958 - The European Community is established.
1959 - Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution.
1960 - The Republic of Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1962 - Western Samoa achieves independence from New Zealand; its name is changed to the Independent State of Western Samoa.
1962 - United States Navy SEALs established.
1964 - The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is divided into the independent republics of Zambia and Malawi, and the British-controlled Rhodesia.
1965 - The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan is founded in Kabul.
1966 - After a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa assumes power as president of the Central African Republic.
1966 - A twelve-day New York City transit strike begins.
1971 - Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.
1973 - Denmark, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland are admitted into the European Community.
1978 - The Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands becomes effective.
1978 - Air India Flight 855 Boeing 747 crashes into the sea, due to instrument failure and pilot disorientation, off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
1979 - Formal diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America.
1980 - Victoria is crowned princess of Sweden.
1981 - The Republic of Palau achieves self-government though it is not independent from the United States.
1981 - The Republic of Greece is admitted into the European Community.
1982 - Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes the first Latin American to hold the title of Secretary General of the United Nations.
1983 - The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
1984 - The original American Telephone & Telegraph Company is broken up into twenty-two independent units as a result of the settlement of the 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T .
1984 - The Sultanate of Brunei becomes independent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1985 - The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
1985 - The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.
1986 - The Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic are admitted into the European Community.
1986 - Aruba becomes independent of Curaçao, though it remains in free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
1988 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
1989 - The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer comes into force.
1990 - David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.
1993 - Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia is divided into the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic.
1993 - A single market within the European Community is introduced.
1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.
1994 - The European Economic Area comes into effect.
1994 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiates twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican State of Chiapas.
1994 - The International Tropical Timber Agreement comes into effect.
1995 - The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe becomes the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
1995 - The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.
1995 - The World Trade Organization comes into effect.
1995 - The Kingdom of Sweden and the republics of Austria and Finland are admitted into the European Union.
1996 - Curaçao gains limited self-government, though it remains within free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
1997 - Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan is appointed Secretary General of the United Nations.
1997 - The Republic of Zaïre officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Zaïre.
1998 - The European Central Bank is established.
1998 - Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
1999 - The Euro currency is introduced.
2002 - Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states.
2002 - Taiwan officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Chinese Taipei.
2002 - The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially comes into force.
2004 - In a vote of confidence, General Pervez Musharraf wins 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October 2007.
2007 - Adam Air Flight 574 disappears over Indonesia with 102 people on board.
2007 - Bulgaria and Romania officially join the European Union. Also, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Irish become official languages of the European Union, joining 20 other official languages.
2008 - A New Hampshire law legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples comes into effect.
2008 - Malta and Cyprus officially adopt the Euro currency.
404 - The last known gladiatorial competition in Rome takes place.
45 BC - The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time.
630 - The Prophet Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with the army that captures it bloodlessly.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Historical Events on 31 Dec

Historical Events on 31 Dec

1229 - James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Majorca.
1599 - British East India Company is chartered.
1660 - James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.
1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
1775 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold.
1831 - Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
1857 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada.
1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.
1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time.
1891 - A new immigration depot was opened on Ellis Island, New York.
1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
1909 - Manhattan Bridge opens.
1923 - The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.
1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.
1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
1955 - The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.
1960 - The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
1961 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $12 billion USD in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
1963 - The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
1981 - Coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
1983 - The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.
1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
1987 - Robert Mugabe assumes office as President of Zimbabwe.
1991 - The Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
1994 - This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively.
1998 - Exchange rates between the euro and legacy currencies in the Eurozone become fixed.
1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.
1999 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
1999 - The United States Government hands Panama Canal control over to Panama as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.
2004 - The official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).
2007 - December 2007 Bocaue Fire. Seven people injured when a fire razed several fireworks stores in the Municipality of Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines.
2007 - The Massive Big Dig construction project in Boston, Massachusetts ends.
406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.
535 - Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Historical Events on 30 Dec

Historical Events on 30 Dec

1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield.
1816 - The Treaty of St. Louis is proclaimed.
1853 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
1853 - A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.
1862 - The USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
1896 - José Rizal is executed by firing squad in Manila.
1897 - Natal annexes Zululand.
1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills 600.
1905 - Former Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated near his home in Caldwell, Idaho.
1906 - The All India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India Empire, which later laid down the foundations of Pakistan.
1919 - Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.
1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
1927 - The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.
1936 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
1940 - California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
1943 - Subhash Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
1944 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.
1947 - King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet-backed Communist government of Romania.
1953 - The first ever NTSC color television sets go on sale for about USD at $1,175 each from RCA.
1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.
1972 - Vietnam War: The United States halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
1977 - For the second time, Ted Bundy escapes from his cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
1986 - The Swift Current Broncos' bus crashes during bad weather outside of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, killing 4 players and injuring 1.
1993 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
1995 - The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982.
1996 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
1996 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
1997 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people are killed from four villages.
2000 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
2003 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself and his office from the Plame affair.
2004 - A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.
2005 - Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.
2006 - Madrid Barajas International Airport is bombed.
2006 - Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Historical Events on 29 Dec

Historical Events on 29 Dec

1170 - Thomas Becket: Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently becomes a saint and martyr in the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
1778 - American Revolutionary War: 3,500 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell captures Savannah, Georgia without firing a shot.
1786 - French Revolution: The Assembly of Notables is convoked
1812 - The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle.
1813 - British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York during the War of 1812.
1835 - The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
1845 - Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state.
1851 - The first American YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
1860 - The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, HMS Warrior is launched.
1876 - The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster occurs, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.
1890 - United States soldiers clash with members of the Great Sioux Nation in the Wounded Knee Massacre.
1911 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China.
1911 - Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty.
1930 - Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the Two-Nation Theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan.
1934 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
1937 - The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.
1939 - First flight of the Consolidated B-24.
1940 - World War II: In The Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe firebombs London, killing almost 200 civilians.
1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.
1972 - An Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed "Tristar") crashes on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101.
1975 - A bomb exploded at La Guardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring 74.
1989 - Václav Havel is elected president of Czechoslovakia. He became the first non-Communist to attain the post in more than four decades.
1989 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
1992 - Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign amidst corruption charges, but is then impeached.
1996 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.
1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
1998 - Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million.
2001 - Mesa Redonda shopping center fire, Lima, Peru, at least 291 killed.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Historical Events on 28 Dec

Historical Events on 28 Dec

1065 - Westminster Abbey is consecrated.
1308 - The reign of Emperor Hanazono, emperor of Japan, begins.
1612 - Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
1832 - John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign.
1835 - Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army.
1836 - Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico.
1836 - South Australia and Adelaide are founded.
1846 - Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.
1867 - United States claims Midway Island, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.
1879 - The Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passed over it, killing 75.
1895 - The Lumière brothers have their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines marking the debut of the cinema.
1908 - An earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily killing over 75,000.
1912 - The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, California.
1929 - "Black Saturday" in Samoa: New Zealand colonial police kill 11 unarmed demonstrators, an event which leads the Mau movement to demand independence for Samoa.[1]
1935 - Pravda publishes a letter by Pavel Postyshev, who revives New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.
1939 - First flight of the Consolidated XB-24 Liberator bomber prototype.
1945 - The Congress of the United States officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance.
1948 - The DC-3 airliner NC16002 disappears 50 miles south of Miami, Florida.
1950 - The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park.
1973 - The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.
1974 - Senegalese marxist group Reenu-Rew founds the political movement And-Jëf at a clandestine congress.
1981 - The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia.
1989 - A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13 people.
1999 - Saparmurat Niyazov is proclaimed President for Life in Turkmenistan.
2000 - U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
2005 - A U.S. immigration judge orders John Demjanjuk deported to Ukraine for crimes against humanity committed during World War II.
2007 - Nepal declared a federal democratic Republic by interim parliament, abolishing the monarchy.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Historical Events on 27 Dec

Historical Events on 27 Dec

1512 - The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regards to native Indians in the New World.
1657 - The Flushing Remonstrance is signed.
1703 - Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.
1814 - Destruction of schooner Carolina, the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson's make-shift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
1831 - Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate the theory of evolution.
1836 - The worst ever avalanche in England occurs at Lewes, Sussex, killing 8 people.
1845 - Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Williamson Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
1918 - The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.
1923 - Namba Daisuke, a Japanese student, tries to assassinate the Prince Regent Hirohito.
1939 - Erzincan, Turkey was hit by an earthquake.
1942 - The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded.
1945 - The World Bank was created with the signing of an agreement by 28 nations.
1949 - Indonesian National Revolution: The Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesian independence.
1968 - Apollo Program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first manned mission to the Moon.
1978 - Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.
1979 - The Soviet Union seizes control of Afghanistan and Babrak Karmal replaces overthrown and executed President Hafizullah Amin.
1985 - Palestinian guerrillas kill eighteen people inside Rome and Vienna airports.
1996 - Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram air base which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul.
1997 - Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland.
2001 - The People's Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States.
2002 - Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya.
2007 - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a suicide bomber.
537 - The Hagia Sophia is completed.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Historical Events on 26 Dec

Historical Events on 26 Dec

1481 - Battle of Westbrook - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.
1620 - Elizabeth Báthory's crimes are uncovered.
1620 - Pilgrim Fathers land at what becomes New Plymouth in Massachusetts.
1776 - American Revolutionary War: The British are defeated in the Battle of Trenton.
1790 - Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.
1792 - The final trial of Louis XVI of France begins in Paris.
1793 - The wedding of Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia and Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz takes place.
1793 - Battle of Geisberg: French defeat Austrians.
1805 - Austria and France sign the Treaty of Pressburg.
1806 - Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.
1811 - A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.
1825 - Several Imperial Russia army officers lead circa 3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising.
1848 - The Phi Delta Theta fraternity is founded at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
1860 - The first ever inter-club football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at the Sandygate Road ground in Sheffield, England.
1861 - American Civil War: The Trent Affair: Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Britain.
1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.
1862 - Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
1862 - The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, killing 39.
1870 - The 12.8-km long Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.
1871 - Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.
1883 - The Harbour Grace Affray between Irish Catholics and Protestant Orangemen causes five deaths in Newfoundland.
1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
1916 - Joseph Joffre is made Marshal of France.
1919 - Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee.
1925 - The Communist Party of India is founded.
1925 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
1933 - The Nissan Motor Company is organized in Tokyo, Japan.
1933 - FM radio is patented.
1943 - World War II: The German warship Scharnhorst sinks off the coast of North Cape in Norway after being attacked by the Royal Navy late the previous evening.
1944 - World War II: U.S. troops repulse German forces at Bastogne.
1945 - CFP franc and CFA franc are created.
1948 - Cardinal Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.
1966 - The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
1973 - Comet Kohoutek reaches perihelion but is not as spectacular a display as expected.
1973 - Soyuz 13 lands on earth after a week in orbit.
1974 - Salyut 4 is launched.
1975 - The Tupolev Tu-144 goes into service in Soviet Union.
1976 - The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) is founded.
1979 - Soviet Special forces take over presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.
1979 - Opening night of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea at the Hammersmith Odeon; a benefit concert for the citizens of Cambodia who were victims of dictator Pol Pot.
1980 - Aeroflot puts the Ilyushin Il-86 into service.
1982 - Time Magazine's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.
1986 - World Population reaches 5 billion according to www.ibiblio.org world population tracker.
1986 - The first long-running American television soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, airs its final episode after thirty-five years on the air.
1988 - The Nanjing Anti-African protests in Nanjing, the People's Republic of China begin.
1991 - The Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR.
1996 - Start of the largest strike in South Korean history.
1996 - The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification goes into force.
1996 - Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.
1997 - The Soufriere Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat explodes, creating a small tsunami offshore.
1998 - Severe gales over Ireland, northern England, and southern Scotland cause widespread disruption and widespread power outages in Northern Ireland and southern Scotland.
1998 - Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.
1999 - Severe weather in France kills over 100 people and causes extensive damage to property, trees and the French national power grid (see Lothar).
2003 - A strong magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.
2004 - A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people.
2005 - Boxing Day shooting on a busy shopping street in Toronto.
2006 - The 2006 Hengchun earthquake with 7.1 magnitude hit Taiwan.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Historical Events on 25 Dec

Historical Events on 25 Dec

1000 - The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1066 - Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
1100 - Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity
1130 - Roger II of Sicily is crowned as the first King of Sicily
1223 - St. Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.
1261 - John IV Lascaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaeologus.
1553 - Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeats the Spanish conquistadors and exetutes the governor of Chile Pedro de Valdivia.
1599 - The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.
1643 - Christmas Island founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary.
1776 - George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the Kingdom of Great Britain's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.
1818 - The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
1837 - Battle of Lake Okeechobee: United States forces defeat Seminole Native Americans.
1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.
1914 - World War I: Known as the Christmas truce, German and British troops on the Western Front temporarily cease fire.
1926 - Emperor Taishō of Japan dies. His son, Prince Hirohito succeeds him as Emperor Shōwa.
1932 - A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 people.
1941 - World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.
1941 - Admiral Chester W Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet
1947 - The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
1950 - The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.
1963 - Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots were forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
1965 - The Yemeni Nasserite Unionist People's Organisation is founded in Taiz
1968 - 42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit labourers.
1968 - Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans Earth Injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
1973 - The ARPANET crashes when a programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.
1974 - Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Northern Territory Australia.
1974 - Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour standoff.
1977 - Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt Anwar Sadat.
1979 - The Soviet Union airlifts forces into Afghanistan to begin its costly occupation.
1989 - Nicolae CeauÅŸescu, former communist dictator of Romania, and his wife Elena are condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges.
1990 - The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web.
1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
2003 - The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe which was released from the Mars Express Spacecraft on December 19, disappears shortly before its scheduled landing.
2004 - Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
274 - Roman Emperor Aurelian dedicates a temple to Sol Invictus on the supposed day of the winter solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun.
800 - Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Historical Events on 24 Dec

Historical Events on 24 Dec

1294 - Pope Boniface VIII is elected Pope, replacing St. Celestine V, who had abdicated.
1777 - Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.
1814 - The Treaty of Ghent is signed ending the War of 1812.
1851 - Library of Congress burns.
1865 - Several U.S. Civil War Confederate veterans form the Ku Klux Klan.
1906 - Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
1914 - World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.
1924 - Albania becomes a republic.
1929 - Assassination attempt on Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen.
1939 - World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
1941 - World War II: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces.
1941 - World War II: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese Imperial Army.
1942 - World War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers.
1943 - World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander.
1946 - France's Fourth Republic is founded.
1951 - Libya becomes independent from Italy. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya.
1953 - Tangiwai disaster: A railway bridge is destroyed by a lahar at Tangiwai, in the Central North Island of New Zealand, sending a fully loaded passenger train into the Whangaehu River, and killing 153 people.
1958 - Cuba On December 24 and Blessed by the pope ["El Cristo de La Habana"] ][1]"(Havana's Christ) was erected for the first time. The marble sculpture is the work of Jilma Madera and its the biggest free standing sculpture made by a woman in the world.
1966 - A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.
1968 - Apollo Program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in h
1968 - The crew of the USS Pueblo is released by North Korea after being held for 11 months on suspicion of spying.
1973 - District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
1974 - Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.
1979 - The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to support the country's Marxist government.
1979 - The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
1997 - The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria kills 50-100 people.
1997 - The Dominican Republic becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
2000 - The Texas 7 hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot during the robbery.
2003 - The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
563 - The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

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.

Friday, December 21, 2012

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.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

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.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

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.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

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.

Monday, December 17, 2012

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.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

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.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

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.

Friday, December 14, 2012

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.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

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.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

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.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

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.

Monday, December 10, 2012

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.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

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.