December Events Through History

December Events

12:Bingo’s Birthday Month
12:Colorectal Cancer Education and Awareness Month
12:Universal Human Rights Month
: Events depending on weekdays
M(12/7) :National Day (Central African Republic) (first Monday).
R(12/7) :Lover’s Fair (Belgium) (first Thursday).
S(12/14):Army and Navy Union Day (Massachusetts) (second Saturday).
M(12/19):US Electoral College votes during election years (Monday following the second Wednesday).
M(12/21):Nuts Fair (Belgium) (third Monday).
F(12/21):Underdog Day (third Friday).
: Normal events
12/1 :Computer Security Day.
12/1 :Independence Day (Portugal).
12/1 :National Day (Central African Republic).
12/1 :National Roof-Over-Your-Head Day.
12/1 :Restoration of Independence Day (Macau).
12/1 :University Students’ Celebration (Iceland).
12/1 :World Aids Day (UN).
12/1/66 :Saint Eligius, patron of veterinarians, locksmiths, cabdrivers, and jockeys, died.
12/1/1145 :Second Crusade began.
12/1/1751 :First manual training school opened (Talbot County, Maryland).
12/1/1797 :Oliver Wolcott, signer of the US Declaration of Independence, died.
12/1/1842 :First naval officer condemned for mutiny hanged.
12/1/1878 :First phone in White House.
12/1/1913 :Continuous moving assembly line introduced by Ford (a car every
:two hours, 38 minutes).
12/1/1913 :First drive-in gasoline station opened for business (Pittsburgh).
12/1/1917 :Boys Town founded (Father Edward Flanagan, Omaha, Nebraska).
12/1/1918 :Iceland became an independent state from Denmark.
12/1/1924 :First nation corn-husking championship (Alleman, Iowa).
12/1/1924 :George and Ira Gershwin’s “Lady, Be Good!” opened on Broadway.
12/1/1927 :Model A introduced.
12/1/1939 :LaGuardia Airport (New York) opened to the public.
12/1/1955 :Rosa Parks refused to move to back of the bus (Montgomery,
:Alabama).
12/1/1956 :Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” opened on Broadway.
12/1/1958 :Central African Republic gained autonomy.
12/1/1965 :Cuban refugees began airlift to Miami.
12/1/1970 :Italy gave final approval to its first divorce law.
12/1/1973 :David Ben-Gurion, first Israeli prime minister, died.
12/1/1988 :Atlantis (US) launched.
12/1/1989 :Alvin Ailey, dancer and choreographer, died.
12/2 :National Day (United Arab Emirates).
12/2 :Pan American Health Day.
12/2 :Walter Plinge Day.
12/2/1594 :Gerardus Mercator died.
12/2/1804 :Napoleon crowned Emperor of France.
12/2/1814 :The Marquis de Sade died.
12/2/1823 :Monroe Doctrine proclaimed.
12/2/1859 :John Brown, abolitionist, hanged.
12/2/1863 :Jane Means Appleton Pierce, wife of Franklin Pierce, died.
12/2/1899 :US acquired American Samoa.
12/2/1910 :Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science church, died.
12/2/1924 :Sigmund Romberg’s “The Student Prince” opened on Broadway.
12/2/1927 :First Model A Ford sold ($395).
12/2/1933 :Transatlantic telephone wedding took place (Detroit).
12/2/1942 :First sustained chain reaction on squash court at University of
:Chicago.
12/2/1961 :Fidel Castro disclosed he was a communist.
12/2/1968 :Henry Kissinger named special assistant for national security.
12/2/1969 :Boeing 747 made its inaugural flight.
12/2/1971 :Mars 3 (USSR) made the first softlanding on Mars.
12/2/1974 :Soyuz 16 (USSR) launched.
12/2/1982 :First permanent artificial heart transplant (Barney C. Clark).
12/2/1986 :Desi Arnaz died.
12/2/1988 :US Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on a secret mission.
12/2/1990 :Aaron Copland, American composer, died.
12/3 :Farmers Day (Ghana).
12/3 :National Holiday (Laos).
12/3/1639 :First annulment of a marriage by court decree (Boston).
12/3/1775 :First official US flag raised (aboard naval vessel Alfred).
12/3/1787 :First steam-powered boat demonstrated.
12/3/1818 :Illinois became 21st US state.
12/3/1818 :Tin cans introduced to the US.
12/3/1833 :First co-educational college in US (Oberlin College, Ohio).
12/3/1838 :First abolitionist elected to Congress (Joshua R. Giddings –
:Ohio).
12/3/1894 :Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author, died.
12/3/1905 :John Bartlett, compiler of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, died.
12/3/1910 :First neon light display (Paris).
12/3/1929 :Ford employees got a raise ($7 per day up from $6 per day).
12/3/1947 :”A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway.
12/3/1948 :First news of the Whittaker Chambers spy case.
12/3/1960 :Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot” opened on Broadway.
12/3/1967 :First successful human heart transplant (led by Dr. Barnard).
12/3/1967 :20th Century Limited (from Chicago to New York) made its last run.
12/3/1971 :Montreux Casino burned down during Frank Zappa concert.
12/3/1973 :Pioneer 10 (US) made the first flyby of Jupiter.
12/3/1979 :Rush for seats at a Cincinnati general admission Who concert (11
:killed).
12/3/1980 :Bernadine Dohrn, leader of “Weather Underground,” surrendered.
12/3/1984 :Poison gas leaked at a Union Carbide pesticide factory in India.
12/4 :Day of the Artisans.
12/4/1674 :First building built on what is now Chicago (Jesuit mission
:house).
12/4/1735 :#10 Downing Street became the official home of England’s prime
:minister.
12/4/1783 :Washington took leave of his officers at Fraunce’s Tavern, New
:York.
12/4/1786 :Mission Santa Barbara founded.
12/4/1812 :Horsepower mower patent granted (Peter Galliard).
12/4/1843 :Manila paper patented (J.M. and L. Hollingsworth, Braintree,
:Massachusetts).
12/4/1867 :National Grange founded.
12/4/1875 :William Marcy “Boss” Tweed escaped Ludlow Street jail.
12/4/1930 :Vatican approved the rhythm method.
12/4/1942 :Works Progress Administration liquidated.
12/4/1950 :Jesse Leroy Brown, first black American naval aviator, died.
12/4/1957 :”Chase’s Calendar of Annual Events” first appeared in print.
12/4/1963 :Malcolm X suspended by Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad.
12/4/1971 :E. Pakistan became the republic of Bangladesh.
12/4/1973 :Alfred Carl Fuller, founder of the Fuller Brush Co, died.
12/4/1976 :(Edward) Benjamin Britten, English composer, died.
12/4/1976 :Tommy Bolin died.
12/4/1978 :Pioneer Venus 1 (US) became the first craft to orbit Venus.
12/4/1984 :Dr. John Rock, “father of the Pill,” died.
12/4/1993 :Frank Zappa, musician, died.
12/5 :Discovery Day (Haiti).
12/5 :International Volunteer Day of Economic and Social Development.
:(UN)
12/5 :King’s Birthday and National Day (Thailand).
12/5/1492 :Haiti discovered (Christopher Columbus).
12/5/1776 :Phi Beta Kappa (first scholastic fraternity in US) founded
:(William and Mary).
12/5/1791 :Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, died.
12/5/1848 :Discovery of gold in California confirmed.
12/5/1854 :Folding theater chair patented.
12/5/1865 :Sir Henry Bessemer’s method for steel production granted US
:patent.
12/5/1868 :Velocipede bicycle riding school opened (New York).
12/5/1870 :Alexandre Dumas, French novelist (“The Three Musketeers”), died.
12/5/1876 :Ulysses S. Grant apologized to US Congress.
12/5/1876 :Pipe wrench patented (Daniel C. Stillson).
12/5/1908 :Hoover “suction sweeper” first advertised.
12/5/1926 :Claude Monet, French painter, died.
12/5/1931 :Vachel Lindsay, poet, committed suicide by drinking Lysol.
12/5/1933 :21st Amendment to the US Constitution (repeal of Prohibition)
:ratified (3:32 pm MST).
12/5/1945 :Flight 19 diappeared over the Bermuda Triangle.
12/5/1955 :AFL-CIO formed.
12/5/1955 :Bus boycott began (Montgomery, Alabama).
12/5/1966 :Roman Catholics first allowed to eat meat on Friday.
12/5/1985 :Dow Jones industrial average broke the 1500 mark for the first
:time.
12/6 :Day of Quito (Ecuador).
12/6 :Independence Day (Finland).
12/6/342 :Saint Nicholas (patron of Russia, Greece, and Sicily) died.
12/6/1534 :Quito Equador founded.
12/6/1790 :US Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.
12/6/1865 :13th Amendment to the US Constitution (abolishing slavery)
:ratified. (12/18?)
12/6/1877 :First sound recording made (Thomas Edison).
12/6/1882 :Anthony Trollope, English novelist, died.
12/6/1889 :Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, died.
12/6/1902 :Martha Washington became the first US woman on a US stamp.
12/6/1917 :Explosion in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia (>1600 killed).
12/6/1917 :Finland declared independence from Russia.
12/6/1921 :W.L. Mackenzie King elected Canadian Prime Minister.
12/6/1922 :Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) officially
:proclaimed.
12/6/1923 :First official US government radio message broadcast.
12/6/1955 :Honus Wagner (John Peter Wagner), baseball player, died.
12/6/1957 :First US satelite launch attempt (max altitude, 5 feet).
12/6/1961 :First black won the Heismann Memorial Trophy (Ernest Davis).
12/6/1969 :Altamont Concert.
12/6/1975 :$2.3 billion emergency loan to save New York from bankruptcy
:authorized.
12/6/1984 :Longest women’s tennis winning streak ended (Navratilova, 74
:matches).
12/6/1988 :Roy Orbison, singer, died.
12/6/1989 :Gunman killes 14 women at University of Montreal.
12/6/1993 :Don Ameche (Dominic Felix Amici), actor, died.
12/7 :Independence Day (Ivory Coast and Panama).
12/7 :National Day (Cote D’Ivoire).
12/7 :National Fire Safety Day.
12/7 :Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday (Fiji).
12/7/1787 :Delaware became the first US state.
12/7/1862 :Battle of Prairie Grove.
12/7/1877 :Thomas A. Edison first demonstrated the gramophone.
12/7/1902 :Thomas Nast, political cartoonist, died.
12/7/1909 :Bakelite patented (Leo Baekeland).
12/7/1926 :Gas refrigerator patented.
12/7/1941 :Pearl Harbor attacked (7:55 am local time, approximately 2,400
:killed).
12/7/1945 :Microwave oven patented.
12/7/1949 :Chiang Kai-shek fled to Formosa.
12/7/1960 :Ivory Coast gained full independence.
12/7/1972 :Apollo 17 (US), final manned lunar landing mission, launched.
12/7/1975 :Thornton Wilder, American playwright, died.
12/7/1979 :National Fire Safety Council founded.
12/7/1985 :Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of US Supreme Court, died.
12/7/1988 :Earthquake in Armenia (>25,000 killed, 5,000,000 homeless).
12/8 :Blessing of the Water (Uruguay).
12/8 :Buddha’s Enlightenment Celebrated (Japan).
12/8 :Lady of Camarin Day (Guam).
12/8 :Mother’s Day (Panama).
12/8 :Needle Day (Japan).
12/8 :Our Lady of the Cacupe (Paraguay).
12/8 :Shakyamuni Buddha gained “perfect enlightenment”, 6th century BC.
12/8/1741 :Captain Bering died of scurvy.
12/8/1794 :First issue of the Herald of Rutland, Vermont came out.
12/8/1831 :James Hoban, White House architect, died.
12/8/1859 :Thomas de Quincey, writer (“Confessions of an English
:Opium-Eater”), died.
12/8/1886 :AFL founded (Columbus, Ohio).
12/8/1941 :US, Britain, and Australia declared war on Japan.
12/8/1949 :Chinese Nationalist government retreated to the island of Taiwan.
12/8/1949 :Jule Styne’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” opened on Broadway.
12/8/1963 :Frank Sinatra Jr kidnapped.
12/8/1965 :First Ph.D. awarded by Computer Science Department (University of
:Pennsylvania).
12/8/1978 :Golda Meir, Israeli prime minister, died.
12/8/1982 :James Hoffa, former Teamster union leader, declared legally dead
:(as of 7/30/1982).
12/8/1982 :Nuclear war opponent killed by police after threat to destroy the
:Washington Monument.
12/9 :Independence and Republic Day (Tanzania).
12/9/1502 :Patent of exploration granted to “Company of Adventurers to the
:New World.”
12/9/1640 :Hugh Bewitt banished from Massachusetts Colony for declaring
:himself free of original sin.
12/9/1775 :Battle at Great Bridge (Virginia).
12/9/1792 :First formal cremation of human remains in US (Henry Laurens).
12/9/1793 :First daily newspaper founded (“American Minerva” – Noah Webster,
:New York).
12/9/1803 :12th Amendment to the US Constitution passed (new electoral
:college rules).
12/9/1842 :First Christmas card created (England).
12/9/1842 :Samual Woolworth died.
12/9/1854 :”The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
:published.
12/9/1884 :Ball-bearing roller skates patented.
12/9/1889 :The Chicago Auditorium opened.
12/9/1907 :Christmas Seals first placed on sale in the Post Office in
:Wilmington, Delaware.
12/9/1909 :First American monoplane flown.
12/9/1920 :Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize.
12/9/1948 :UN General Assembly approved Genocide Punishment Convention.
12/9/1961 :First paired six-day bicycle race (New York).
12/9/1961 :Tanganyika became independent of Britain.
12/9/1967 :Charles Robb married Lynda Bird Johnson.
12/9/1971 :Ralph Johnson Bunch, US statesman and UN official, died.
12/9/1973 :”Tommy” premiered (London).
12/9/1980 :John Lennon killed.
12/10 :Constitution Day (Thailand).
12/10 :Foundation of Worker’s Party (Angola).
12/10 :Human Rights Day (UN).
12/10 :Nobel Prizes Awarded.
12/10 :Wyoming Day.
12/10/1799:Metric system established in France.
12/10/1817:Mississippi became the 20th US state.
12/10/1869:Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote.
12/10/1877:Jared Kirtland, US physician and naturalist, died.
12/10/1896:Alfred Bernhardd Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, died.
12/10/1898:Peace treaty signed, ending the Spanish-American War.
12/10/1901:First Nobel prizes awarded.
12/10/1905:”Gift of the Magi” published.
12/10/1909:Red Cloud, Sioux indian chief, died.
12/10/1911:Joseph Dalton Hooker, botanist, died.
12/10/1915:1,000,000th Ford automobile built.
12/10/1931:First American woman won the Nobel Peace Prize (Jane Addams).
12/10/1941:Japanese troops landed on northern Luzon in the Philippines.
12/10/1945:Preston Tucker revealed plans to produce the Torpedo, a new 150
:mile per hour car.
12/10/1946:Alfred Damon Runyon, US newspaperman and author, died.
12/10/1950:First black American won the Nobel Peace Prize (Ralph J. Bunche).
12/10/1971:Mets trade Nolan Ryan and three others to Angels for Jim Fregosi.
12/10/1977:Soyuz 26 (USSR) launched.
12/10/1984:First “planet” outside our solar system discovered.
12/10/1985:Bill to balance the federal budget passed by Congress.
12/10/1990:Armand Hammer died.
12/11 :Independence Day (Upper Volta).
12/11/1789:University of North Carolina chartered.
12/11/1816:Indiana became the 19th US state.
12/11/1838:US Congress passed the Atherton Gag Law (prohibit discussion of
:slavery).
12/11/1844:Anesthesia first used in dentistry.
12/11/1882:First theatrical performance lit by incandescent lights (Bijou
:Theater, Boston – “Iolanthe” – 650 bulbs).
12/11/1936:George VI became English Sovereign.
12/11/1936:King Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson.
12/11/1941:Germany and Italy declared war on US.
12/11/1946:UNICEF established.
12/11/1953:Alaska’s first TV station went on the air (KTVA).
12/11/1958:Republic of Upper Volta attained autonomy.
12/11/1961:First direct military support for South Vietnam arrived in Saigon.
12/11/1963:Frank Sinatra Jr released after his father paid $240,000 ransom.
12/11/1964:Cuban freedom fighters attacked UN with bazooka.
12/11/1964:Sam Cooke, soul singer, killed.
12/11/1971:US Libertarian Party founded.
12/11/1972:Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17) landed on moon.
12/11/1981:Big Ben stopped by cold weather (12:27 pm).
12/11/1981:Muhammad Ali announced his retirement (third time).
12/11/1983:30,000 women tried to rip down fences around US cruise missile
:base at Greenham Common, England.
12/11/1984:Nativity scene first displayed near the White House since 1973.
12/12 :Bonza Bottler Day.
12/12 :Guadalupe Day (Mexico).
12/12 :Jamhuri Day (Kenya).
12/12 :La Virgen de Guadalupe (Mexico).
12/12/1787:Pennsylvania became the second US state.
12/12/1792:Beethoven paid Haydn $.19 for first music lesson.
12/12/1792:The First Bank of the United States opened its main office
:(Philadelphia).
12/12/1808:First bible society organized (Bible Society of Philadelphia).
12/12/1851:Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, introducer poinsettia to US, died.
12/12/1870:First black US Congressman sworn in (Joseph R. Rainey).
12/12/1889:Robert Browning, English poet, died.
12/12/1901:First transatlantic wireless message transmitted (Marconi).
12/12/1913:”Mona Lisa,” stolen in 1911 announced recovered.
12/12/1917:Boys Town (Omaha, Nebraska) founded.
12/12/1937:US gunboat Panay sunk by Japanese planes (Yangtze River).
12/12/1939:Douglas Fairbanks Sr, actor, died.
12/12/1963:Kenya declared independence.
12/12/1975:Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to trying to kill US president
:Ford.
12/12/1980:Da Vinci notebook purchased for $5,126,000 (Armand Hammer).
12/12/1981:Martial law imposed in Poland.
12/12/1982:Largest armored car robbery ($11 million – Sentry Armored Courier
:office, New York).
12/12/1987:Jascha Heifetz died.
12/13 :Luciadagen (Sweden).
12/13 :National Day (St. Lucia).
12/13 :Republic Day (Malta).
12/13/1577:Drake embarked on a three year circumnavigation of the globe.
12/13/1642:New Zealand discovered (Abel Tasman, Dutch navigator).
12/13/1759:First music store in America opened.
12/13/1766:Gloucester Fox Hunting Club (first of its kind) met.
12/13/1769:Dartmouth College chartered.
12/13/1784:Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (wrote first English dictionary),
:died.
12/13/1816:First US savings bank (Provident Institute for Savings, Boston)
:opened.
12/13/1862:Battle at Marye’s Heights (outside Fredericksburg, Virginia).
12/13/1869:First waffle iron patented.
12/13/1918:First US president to visit Europe while in office (Wilson).
12/13/1918:US soldiers crossed the Rhine river.
12/13/1924:Samuel Gompers, labor leader, died.
12/13/1928:George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” premiered.
12/13/1944:A Japanese kamikaze plane crashed into US cruiser Nashville.
12/13/1947:Maine Turnpike opened to traffic.
12/13/1961:Anna Mary “Grandma” Moses, primitive painter, died.
12/13/1964:US and Mexico diverted the Rio Grande River, changing their
:border.
12/13/1974:Malta became a republic.
12/13/1983:Highest scoring NBA game (Detroit 186 – Denver 184, triple
:overtime).
12/13/1988:Hefty raises proposed for US government leaders.
12/14/1542:King James V died.
12/14/1774:First military operation of the American Revolution (Portsmouth,
:New Hampshire).
12/14/1799:George Washington, first US president, died.
12/14/1819:Alabama became the 22nd US state.
12/14/1861:Prince Albert died.
12/14/1873:Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, Swiss naturalist, died.
12/14/1902:Julia Dent Grant, wife of Ulysses Simpson Grant, died.
12/14/1911:Captain Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South
:Pole.
12/14/1934:Streamlined steam locomotive introduced (Albany, New York).
12/14/1939:USSR was expelled from the League of Nations.
12/14/1946:New York voted to be the UN headquarters.
12/14/1962:Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to pass another world (Venus).
12/14/1974:Walter Lippmann, journalist, died.
12/14/1984:Bank robbery in Geronimo, Oklahoma (4 killed and 3 wounded –
:$17,000 stolen).
12/14/1984:Howard Cosell retired from Monday Night Football.
12/14/1985:Longest soccor US soccor match (UCLA 1 – American University 0 in
:eighth overtime).
12/14/1989:Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov, Soviet physicist, died.
12/14/1989:The ANSI Board of Standards Review approved the proposed C
:programming language standard.
12/14/1993:Myrna Loy, actress, died.
12/15 :Kingdom Day and Antillean Flag (Curacao).
12/15 :Statue Day (Netherlands Antilles).
12/15/1683:Izaac Walton, English author (“The Compleat Angler”), died.
12/15/1791:Bill of Rights became effective.
12/15/1796:”Mad” Anthony Wayne, American Revolutionary War general, died.
12/15/1815:”Emma” by Jane Austen published.
12/15/1854:First street cleaning machine used.
12/15/1857:Sir George Cayley, English father of aerodynamics, died.
12/15/1877:Edison patented the phonograph.
12/15/1890:Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake) shot.
12/15/1891:James Naismith invented basketball.
12/15/1903:Patent for the ice cream cone issued (Italo Marchiony).
12/15/1939:”Gone With the Wind” premiered (Loew’s Grand Theater, Atlanta).
12/15/1944:Alton Glenn Miller disappeared over the English Channel.
12/15/1944:US forces landed at Mindoro, Philippines.
12/15/1948:Alger Hiss indicted for perjury.
12/15/1954:Netherlands Antilles granted complete autonomy.
12/15/1959:Antillean Flag first hoisted.
12/15/1960:Tefal pans first went on sale.
12/15/1964:First quintuplet arrested (Marie Dionne, for assault).
12/15/1966:Walter Elias Disney, cartoon creator, died.
12/15/1969:San Francisco Fire Department replaced leather helmets with
:plastic.
12/15/1970:Venera 7 (USSR) became the first to softland on Venus.
12/15/1973:American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality not a
:mental illness.
12/15/1976:Argo Merchant oil spill.
12/15/1980:Angus Campbell, professor of psychology and sociology, died.
12/15/1982:Roy L. Williams, Teamsters president, convicted of bribery.
12/15/1984:Jan Peerce died.
12/15/1984:Vega I (USSR) launched.
12/15/1985:Carlos Romulo, Filipino statesman, died.
12/15/1985:Sylvester Stallone married Brigitte Nielson.
12/15/1989:Military dictatorship ended in Chile.
12/16 :Constitution Day (Nepal).
12/16 :Day of the Covenant (South Africa).
12/16 :Independence Day (Bahrain).
12/16 :Victory Day (Bangladesh).
12/16/1773:Boston Tea Party (30-60 patriots and 342 chests of tea).
12/16/1809:Napoleon divorced Empress Josephine.
12/16/1811:Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee formed by an earthquake.
12/16/1835:Fire swept through New York.
12/16/1859:Wilhelm Carl Grimm, historian and compiler (with Jacob) of
:”Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” died.
12/16/1864:Battle of Nashville (Tennessee).
12/16/1879:Battle of Isandhlwana (Zulus defeat British forces).
12/16/1905:First issue of “Variety” distributed.
12/16/1917:Ice jam on Ohio River Warsaw, Kentucky backed up river 100 miles.
12/16/1944:”Battle of the Bulge” began.
12/16/1965:W. Somerset Maugham, English author (“Of Human Bondage”), died.
12/16/1971:”American Pie” released.
12/16/1979:Sound barrier on land broken (Stan Barrett).
12/16/1980:Colonel Harland Sanders, of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, died.
12/16/1988:Lyndon LaRouche, former presidential candidate, convicted of
:conspiracy and mail fraud.
12/17 :First Day of Saturnalia.
12/17 :National Day (Bhutan).
12/17 :Pan American Aviation Day.
12/17 :Wright Brothers Day.
12/17/63 :Lazarus died for the second time.
12/17/1777:France recognized American independence.
12/17/1790:Aztec calendar discovered.
12/17/1830:Simon Bolivar, South American revolutionary, died.
12/17/1843:”A Chistmas Carol” by Charles Dickens published.
12/17/1857:Sir Francis Beaufort, developer of Beaufort Scale, died.
12/17/1862:General Grant expelled Jews from his command.
12/17/1903:Orville and Wilbur Wright made history’s first airplane flights.
12/17/1914:US government passed the Harrison Act (narcotics by prescription
:only).
12/17/1919:Pierre Auguste Renoir, French painter, died.
12/17/1925:General William “Billy” Mitchell found guilty of “conduct
:prejudicial to the good of the armed services.”
12/17/1935:DC-3 flew for the first time.
12/17/1939:Graf Spee, Nazi warship, was scuttled off the coast of Uruguay.
12/17/1944:Japanese-Americans released from detention camps.
12/17/1961:Brazilian circus fire (323 killed).
12/17/1962:Dulles International Airport opened.
12/17/1969:”Project Blue Book” (US Air Force UFO investigation) closed.
12/17/1969:Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki on “The Tonight Show.”
12/17/1971:”Diamonds are Forever” released in the US.
12/17/1991:Largest point difference in an NBA game (Cleveland 148 – Miami
:80).
12/17/1992:Dana Andrews, actor (“The Best Years of Our Lives”), died.
12/18 :Feast of Our Lady of Solitude (Mexico).
12/18 :Most Boring Celebrities Announced.
12/18 :Republic Day (Niger).
12/18/1737:Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker, died.
12/18/1787:New Jersey became the third US state.
12/18/1789:Virginia released Kentucky from its jurisdiction.
12/18/1796:First Sunday newspaper (“Monitor,” Baltimore).
12/18/1862:First orthopedic hospital opened.
12/18/1865:13th amendment to US Constitution (abolishing slavery) ratified.
:(12/6?)
12/18/1892:”The Nutcracker” first performed.
12/18/1895:Motor vehicles were denied access to Lincoln Park, Illinois.
12/18/1898:First official automobile speed record set (39.24 miles per hour).
12/18/1899:Golf tee patented (George Grant).
12/18/1915:Woodrow Wilson married Edith Bolling Galt.
12/18/1917:Prohibition Amendment passed.
12/18/1936:First living Giant Panda reached US (Su-Lin).
12/18/1958:Atlas satellite (US) launched.
12/18/1965:A US spaceship returned to earth after spending 14 days in orbit.
12/18/1969:”On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” released in the US.
12/18/1971:Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones Jr, first golfer to win grand slam,
:died.
12/18/1973:Soyuz 13 (USSR) launched.
12/18/1986:William Casey, CIA chief, had a cancerous brain tumor removed.
12/19/1154:Henry II became the English Sovereign.
12/19/1732:Publication of “Poor Richard: An Almanack” announced.
12/19/1776:”American Crisis” (Thomas Paine) published.
12/19/1777:Continental Army began a winter encampment at Valley Forge,
:Pennsylvania.
12/19/1815:Benjamin Smith Barton, botanist, died.
12/19/1823:First state birth registration law enacted (Georgia).
12/19/1828:South Carolina opposed the Tariff of Abominations.
12/19/1843:”A Christmas Carol” published.
12/19/1848:Emily Bronte, English novelist (“Wuthering Heights”), died.
12/19/1911:Association of American Sculptors and Painters formed.
12/19/1915:Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist, died.
12/19/1946:War in Indochina.
12/19/1957:”The Music Man” opened on Broadway.
12/19/1958:President Eisenhower’s Xmas peace message “from space.”
12/19/1959:Walter Williams, last living Civil War veteran (aged 117), died.
12/19/1966:Climbers reached summit of Vinson Massif, Antarctica.
12/19/1968:Norman Thomas, six time Socialist party presidential candidate,
:died.
12/19/1971:Intelsat 4 F-3 (US) launched.
12/19/1972:Apollo 17 splashed down.
12/19/1974:Nelson Rockefeller sworn in as US vice president.
12/19/1974:”The Man with the Golden Gun” released in the US.
12/19/1984:Britain agreed to return Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty by 1997.
12/19/1984:Cosmos 1614 (USSR) (unmanned space shuttle) launched.
12/19/1985:US Poet Laureate selection authorized.
12/19/1985:First female artificial heart transplant (Mary Lund).
12/20/1606:Virgina Company expedition left for America.
12/20/1790:First US cotton mill (Samuel Slater, Pawtucket, Rhode Island).
12/20/1803:The US took over territory acquired from France in the Louisiana
:Purchase.
12/20/1812:Sacagawea, Indian woman who traveled with Lewis and Clark, died.
12/20/1820:Missouri imposed a $1 per year bachelor’s tax on men from 21 to
:50.
12/20/1821:First mention of the Christmas tree in the New World
:(Pennsylvania).
12/20/1849:William Miller, religious leader (creator of Millerism), died.
12/20/1860:South Carolina voted to secede from the Union.
12/20/1862:Confederate forces under General Van Dorn attacked Union forces
:at Holly Springs (Mississippi).
12/20/1864:General William Sherman completed his “march to the sea.” (12/21?)
12/20/1879:First private demonstration of Edison’s incandescent light.
12/20/1880:First electric lights on Broadway, New York.
12/20/1892:Pneumatic automobile tire patented.
12/20/1912:”Peg o’ My Heart” opened (New York).
12/20/1922:USSR formed.
12/20/1937:Erick Ludendorff, WWI German General, died.
12/20/1963:Berlin Wall opened for the first time.
12/20/1965:”The Dating Game” first aired.
12/20/1966:Seattle granted an NBA franchise.
12/20/1968:John Steinbeck, novelist, died.
12/20/1973:Bobby Darin died.
12/20/1976:Richard J. Daley, Chicago mayor, died.
12/20/1978:H.R. Haldeman released after serving 18 months for Watergate
:crimes.
12/20/1980:Dynorphin found (200 times more powerful than morphine).
12/20/1981:Arthur Rubinstein, pianist, died.
12/20/1984:33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in the Yale library.
12/20/1985:Position of poet laureate established in US.
12/20/1989:US invaded Panama. (12/19?)
12/20/1990:First joint Siberian-American musical theatre production.
12/20/1992:Steven J. Ross, Time Warner chief executive, died.
12/21 :Forefathers Day (New England).
12/21 :Humbug Day.
12/21 :National Flashlight Day.
12/21/1375:Giovanni Boccaccio died.
12/21/1620:First Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
12/21/1624:First Swedish colony to America authorized.
12/21/1824:James Parkinson, English physician and paleontologist, died.
12/21/1864:Union forces under General Sherman captured Savannah, Georgia.
:(12/20?)
12/21/1872:Phileas Fogg completed his trip around the world in less than 80
:days.
12/21/1881:First Ivory soap ad (“The Independent”).
12/21/1913:First crossword puzzle appeared (New York Sunday World).
12/21/1937:”Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” opened (Los Angeles).
12/21/1940:Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, novelist (“The Great Gatsby”), died.
12/21/1942:Six week Nevada divorces upheld by the Supreme Court.
12/21/1945:General George Smith Patton Jr died.
12/21/1968:Apollo 8 (US) launched.
12/21/1974:Charges brought against the CIA for domestic spying.
12/21/1975:William Lundigan, actor, died.
12/21/1988:Pan Am flight exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland (270 killed).
12/21/1988:Space endurance record of 365 days set (USSR).
12/21/1991:Soviet Union disbanded.
12/22/1662:First catamaran launched.
12/22/1785:American Continental Navy organized (four ships). (1775?)
12/22/1807:Embargo Law passed.
12/22/1828:Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson, died.
12/22/1849:Fyodor Dostoevsky was to be executed but pardoned at the last
:minute.
12/22/1880:George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), English novelist, died.
12/22/1894:US Golf Association formed.
12/22/1917:Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, first US Roman Catholic saint, died.
12/22/1938:Coelacanth caught off the coast of South Africa.
12/22/1939:Ma (Gertrude Bridget) Rainey, “Mother of the Blues,” died.
12/22/1940:Nathanael West, novelist, died.
12/22/1943:(Helen) Beatrix Potter, author (“The Tale of Peter Rabbit”), died.
12/22/1944:General Anthony McAuliffe replied “Nuts!” when ordered to
:surrender.
12/22/1972:Chemical Bank of New York provided motion pictures for waiting
:customers.
12/22/1984:Bernhard Goetz shot four youths in a New York subway.
12/22/1988:Bess Myerson, former Miss America, acquitted on conspiracy, etc.
12/22/1989:Romania topples Ceausescu regime.
12/22/1989:Samuel Beckett, playwright, died.
12/23 :Birthday of the Emperor (Japan).
12/23 :Last Day of Saturnalia.
12/23 :Night of the Radishes (Mexico).
12/23 :Victory Day (Egypt).
12/23/1617:First penal colony in US established (Virginia).
12/23/1672:Giovanni Cassini discovered a moon of the planet Saturn (Rhea).
12/23/1749:Mark Catesby, botanist, died.
12/23/1776:”Crisis” by Thomas Paine published.
12/23/1783:General George Washington resigned his commission.
12/23/1823:”A visit from Saint Nicholas” published.
12/23/1834:Thomas Malthus, English economist and author, died.
12/23/1852:First train run west of Mississippi (Saint Louis to Cheltenham,
:Missouri).
12/23/1863:William Makepeace Thackeray, English novelist (Vanity Fair”),
:died.
12/23/1871:First Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration (Thespis).
12/23/1873:Sarah Moore Grimke, American antislavery and women’s rights
:advocate, died.
12/23/1888:Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear.
12/23/1913:US Federal Reserve Banking System went into effect.
12/23/1919:USS Relief, hospital ship, launched.
12/23/1923:Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, French designer of the Eiffel Tower,
:died.
12/23/1928:NBC established a permanent coast-to-coast radio hookup.
12/23/1938:Boogie-woogie, eight-to-the-bar bass introduced (Carnegie Hall).
12/23/1943:First submarine to be struck by an enemy submarine (Covina, US).
12/23/1947:Transistor invented (William Shockley).
12/23/1948:Tojo Hideki and six others hanged by the Allied War Crimes
:Commission.
12/23/1968:Crew of the captured spy ship Pueblo was released by North Korea.
12/23/1973:Baseball “free-agency” created.
12/23/1975:Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act.
12/23/1982:Jack Webb, actor-writer-director, died.
12/23/1987:First non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world completed
:(216 hours).
12/24 :”Silent Night, Holy Night” Celebrations (Austria).
12/24/1784:Methodist Episcopal Church in America founded.
12/24/1801:Skeleton of a mastodon unveiled (Charles Willson Peale).
12/24/1814:Treaty of Ghent (end of the War of 1812) signed.
12/24/1851:Fire in Library of Congress and part of the Capitol building.
12/24/1856:Hugh Miller, geological writer, committed suicide.
12/24/1865:KKK formed (Pulaski, Tennessee).
12/24/1913:Louis Francis Sockalexis, first native American baseball player,
:died.
12/24/1914:John Muir, naturalist and author, died.
12/24/1920:Caruso’s last US performance.
12/24/1938:Declaration of Lima.
12/24/1942:Admiral Jean Louis Darlan, French administrator of North Africa,
:killed.
12/24/1942:First surface-to-surface guided missile launched.
12/24/1948:First solar heating system (Dr. Maria Telkes, Dover,
:Massachusetts).
12/24/1949:Dick Tracy and Tess Trueheart married.
12/24/1953:First color and black-and-white telecast sponsored (“Dragnet”).
12/24/1959:New York policemen ordered to stop using tubular whistles.
12/24/1968:Apollo 8 (US) became the first manned craft to orbit the moon.
12/24/1990:Christmas bells rang at St. Basil’s Cathedral for the first time
:since Lenin’s death.
12/24/1993:Reverand Norman Vincent Peale, author and radio evangelist, died.
12/25 :Birthday of Quaid-i-Azam (Pakistan).
12/25 :Children’s Day (Congo).
12/25 :Taisho Tenno Sai, Commemoration of the Demise of the Late Emperor
:(Japan).
12/25/1644:England forbade observance of Christmas.
12/25/1651:Massachusetts General Court ordered a fine (five shillings) for
:”observing any such day as Christmas.”
12/25/1761:Empress Elizabeth died.
12/25/1776:George Washington’s troops crossed the Delaware River.
12/25/1818:First known Christmas carol (“Silent Night, Holy Night”) sung.
12/25/1831:Louisiana and Arkansas became first US states to observe
:Christmas as a legal holiday.
12/25/1868:Linus Yale, developer of cylinder lock, died.
12/25/1878:Anna Claypoole Peale, US painter of miniatures, died.
12/25/1917:”Why Marry,” first drama to win Pulitzer Prize, opened (New York).
12/25/1937:NBC Symphony debuted.
12/25/1940:Rodgers and Hart’s “Pal Joey” opened on Broadway.
12/25/1946:Claude William Dukenfield (W.C. Fields), actor and juggler, died.
12/25/1964:”Goldfinger” released in the US.
12/25/1977:Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, film comedian, died.
12/25/1989:Nicolae Ceausescu shot.
12/25/1989:Billy Martin, former baseball manager, died.
12/26 :Blessing of the Wine (Luxembourg).
12/26 :Boxing Day (Canada, UK, Australia).
12/26 :Day of the Wren (Ireland).
12/26 :Family Day (South Africa).
12/26 :Feast of Our Theotokos (Greece).
12/26 :God-Awful Tie Day.
12/26 :Junkanoo (Bahamas).
12/26 :National Whiner’s Day.
12/26 :Second Christmas.
12/26/800 :Charlemagne crowned emperor.
12/26/1066:William the Conquerer crowned King William I of England. (10/14?)
12/26/1135:Stephen became the English Sovereign.
12/26/1620:Main body of Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
12/26/1776:Battle of Trenton (New Jersey).
12/26/1865:Coffee percolator patented (James H. Nason, Franklin,
:Massachusetts).
12/26/1878:First electric lighting installed in a store (Philadelphia).
12/26/1910:A plane flew at 11,474 feet.
12/26/1917:Federal Government took control of US railroads for WWI.
12/26/1931:Melville Louis Kossuth “Melvil” Dewey, American librarian, died.
12/26/1931:”Of thee I Sing” opened (New York).
12/26/1944:”The Glass Menagerie” first performed publicly (Chicago).
12/26/1951:DPMA founded.
12/26/1972:Harry S Truman, 33rd US president, died.
12/26/1974:Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky), comedian, died.
12/26/1981:Three Indian tribes won a court battle to use gill nets.
12/26/1991:William Buckley’s body found in Beirut.
12/26/1993:Big Bertha, world’s oldest cow (49), died.
12/27 :Bank Holiday (Cayman Islands).
12/27 :Constitution Day (North Korea).
12/27 :Public Holiday (Lesotho and Zimbabwe).
12/27/1831:Charles Darwin set out on a Pacific voyage.
12/27/1834:Charles Lamb, English critic, poet, and essayist, died.
12/27/1836:Stephen Fuller Austin, namesake of Texas capital, died.
12/27/1845:Ether first used as anesthetic in childbirth.
12/27/1892:American Psychological Association first met.
12/27/1892:Foundation Stone of the Cathedral of Saint John laid (New York).
12/27/1900:Carry Nation, militant prohibitionist, smashed her first bar.
12/27/1903:”Sweet Adeline” first sung.
12/27/1904:”Peter Pan” opened.
12/27/1906:American Sociological Society held first annual meeting.
12/27/1927:”Show Boat” opened (Ziegfeld Theater, New York).
12/27/1929:Cadillac introduced its Fleetwood Custom models.
12/27/1932:Radio City Music Hall opened (New York).
12/27/1941:Japanese planes bombed Manila.
12/27/1945:The World Bank created.
12/27/1947:”Puppet Playhouse” (later “Howdy Doody”) first telecast (NBC).
12/27/1956:APT report published.
12/27/1968:Apollo 8 astronauts returned to earth after 10 moon orbits.
12/27/1970:”Hello Dolly!” closed on Broadway.
12/27/1979:USSR seized control of Afghanistan.
12/27/1981:Hoagland Howard “Hoagie” Carmichael, actor and songwriter, died.
12/27/1983:Propane gas explosion (Buffalo, New York – six killed).
12/27/1984:First artificial comet made.
12/28 :National Holiday (Nepal).
12/28 :Proclamation Day (Australia).
12/28/1732:First known ad for “Poor Richard’s Almanack” (“The Pennsylvania
:Gazette”).
12/28/1832:John Caldwell Calhoun became the first US vice president to
:resign.
12/28/1836:Spain recognized the independence of Mexico.
12/28/1846:Iowa became the 29th US state.
12/28/1859:Thomas Babington Macaulay, English essayist and historian, died.
12/28/1869:Chewing gum patented (William F. Semple, Mount Vernon, Ohio).
12/28/1908:Messina, Italy struck by an earthquake (nearly 80,000 died).
12/28/1928:Last recording of Ma Rainey, “Mother of the Blues,” made.
12/28/1935:Clarence Day, writer (“Life with Father”), died.
12/28/1944:Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Town” opened on Broadway.
12/28/1945:Congress officially recognized the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
12/28/1945:Theodore Dreiser, US novelist, died.
12/28/1946:Carrie Jacobs Bond, American composer (“I Love You Truly”), died.
12/28/1948:US announced a study to launch an Earth satellite.
12/28/1950:Chinese troops crossed the 38th Parallel in Korea.
12/28/1961:Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, second wife of Woodrow Wilson, died.
12/28/1963:Abbott Joseph Liebling, American journalist and writer, died.
12/28/1963:Paul Hindemith, composer and teacher, died.
12/28/1973:Comet Kohoutek at perihelion.
12/28/1973:Solzhenitsyn published “Gulag Archipelago.”
12/28/1980:Jersey calf lived 222 days with an artificial heart.
12/28/1980:Mexico terminated fishing agreements with US.
12/28/1981:First US test tube baby born (Norfolk, Virginia).
12/28/1984:Creosote bush determined to be 11,700 years old.
12/28/1984:Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister of India.
12/29 :His Majesty, the King’s Birthday (Nepal).
12/29/1170:Thomas Becket murdered at Canterbury Cathedral.
12/29/1837:The Caroline was boarded and set afire by Canadian militia.
12/29/1845:Texas became the 28th US state.
12/29/1848:Gas lights first installed in the White House.
12/29/1851:First YMCA opened (Boston).
12/29/1890:Battle of Wounded Knee (200 Indians killed).
12/29/1913:First movie serial (Adventures of Kathleen) began playing
:(Chicago).
12/29/1916:Grigori Efimovich Rasputin (Novjkh), Russian mystic, shot.
12/29/1919:Sir William Osler, physician and teacher, died.
12/29/1933:”Flying Down to Rio,” the first Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
:movie, released.
12/29/1938:Work began on first pontoon bridge of reinforced concrete.
12/29/1940:Hitler firebombed London.
12/29/1960:Eden Phillpotts, English novelist and poet, died.
12/29/1961:Minimum wage law approved for New York City public contract work.
12/29/1965:”Thunderball” released in the US.
12/29/1967:”The Trouble With Tribbles” first aired.
12/29/1969:Dick Cavett replaced Joey Bishop in ABC’s late night spot.
12/29/1975:Terrorist bombing at LaGuardia airport (11 killed, 75 injured).
12/29/1983:US announced its withdrawal from UNESCO.
12/29/1989:Havel became president of Czechoslovakia.
12/30 :National Holiday (Madagascar).
12/30 :Rizal Day (Philippines).
12/30/1691:Robert Boyle, Irish physicist, chemist, and author, died.
12/30/1723:Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, doctor and botanist, died.
12/30/1816:Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley married.
12/30/1853:US paid Mexico $10 million for Arizona-New Mexico.
12/30/1862:”Monitor” sank in a storm.
12/30/1873:American Metrological Society formed.
12/30/1879:Dress rehersal for “Pirates of Penzance” (New York).
12/30/1894:Amelia Jenks Bloomer, social reformer for whom the female
:undergarment was named, died.
12/30/1896:Dr. Jose Rizal martyred.
12/30/1903:Iroquois Theater fire (Chicago) (up to 602 died).
12/30/1940:First Los Angeles freeway dedicated (Arroyo Seco Parkway).
12/30/1948:Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate” opened on Broadway.
12/30/1952:Tuskegee Institute reported that 1952 was the first year in 71
:years with no lynchings in US.
12/30/1959:First ballistic missile submarine commissioned (George
:Washington).
12/30/1972:Bombing of North Vietnam ordered halted.
12/30/1986:Exxon withdrew from South Africa because of racial policies.
12/30/1992:Ling-Ling, giant panda, died.
12/30/1993:Mack David, songwriter (theme song to “Cinderella”), died.
12/31 :Bank Holiday (El Salvador, Honduras, and Pakistan).
12/31 :Feed Yourself Day (Benin).
12/31 :First Night (Boston).
12/31 :Hogmanay (Scotland).
12/31 :Leap Second Adjustment Time.
12/31 :Make Up Your Mind Day.
12/31 :Namahage (Japan).
12/31 :New Year’s Eve.
12/31 :Proclamation of the Republic (Congo).
12/31 :Revolution Day (Ghana).
12/31 :Samoan Fire Dance (Western Samoa).
12/31 :You’re All Done Day.
12/31/1335:Pope Sylvester I died.
12/31/1781:The Bank of North America established by Congress.
12/31/1802:Francis Lewis, signer of US Declaration of Independence, died.
12/31/1807:Last legal date for importation of slaves into the US.
12/31/1808:John Nixon, revolutionary patriot, died.
12/31/1857:Queen Victoria named Ottawa capital of Canada.
12/31/1864:George Mifflin Dallas, 11th US vice president, died.
12/31/1879:First public demo of incandescent lamp (T. Edison, Menlo Park,
:New Jersey).
12/31/1904:Ball first dropped from Times Tower.
12/31/1935:Monopoly patented.
12/31/1946:Harry Truman proclaimed the official end of WWII.
12/31/1948:Malcolm Campbell, British auto racer (first to travel five miles
:per minute), died.
12/31/1955:First corporation to make $1,000,000,000 profit in a year
:(General Motors).
12/31/1964:Canada got a new flag.
12/31/1972:Roberto Clemente, baseball player, died.
12/31/1975:The NBC peacock logo (old style?) used for the last time.
12/31/1980:(Herbert) Marshall McLuhan, university professor and author, died.
12/31/1980:Screening test for cystic fibrosis reported.
12/31/1983:AT&T breakup took effect at midnight.
12/31/1985:Eric Hilliard (“Ricky”) Nelson died.
12/31/1993:Thomas J. Watson Jr., IBM chief executive, died.

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