Saturday, December 31, 2011

31st of December

Today is the 365th day of the year, widely known as New Year's Eve.  It is the last day of the year.

406 - Vandals, Alans, and Suebians, cross the Rhine River beginning an invasion of Gaul.

1225 - The Ly Dynasty of Vietnam ends after 216 years of reign, by the enthronement of the boy emperor Train Thai Tong, husband of the last Ly monarch, Ly Chieu Hoang.  This begins the Tran Dynasty.

1600 - The British East India Company is chartered.

1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.

1759 - Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at 45 pounds per year, and starts brewing Guinness.

1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Canada, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.

1862 - Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.

1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Sqaure, then known as Longacre Square, in New York City.

1923 - The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.

1946 - President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.

1951 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.

1955 - The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion in a year.

1983 - The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.

1991 - All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.

1992 - Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia as separate countries.

1999 - Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia resigns, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.

2004 - The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 meters or 1,670 feet.

Friday, December 30, 2011

30th of December

It is the 364th day of the year, with only 1 day remaining until the end of the year.

1853 - The United States buys land from Mexico, in order to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

1862 - The ironclad USS Monitor, sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1924 - Edwin Hubble makes the announcement claiming the existence of other galaxies.

1948 - The Cole Porter Broadway musical, Kiss Me Kate, opens at the New Century Theatre and becomes the first show to win the Best Musical Tony Award.  It will have over 1,077 performances.

1977 - For the second time, Ted Bundy escapes from his cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

1981 - In the 39th game of his 3rd NHL season Wayne Gretsky, scores 5 goals giving him 50 on the year.  This sets a new NHL record previously held by Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy who earlier had each scored 50 goals in 50 games.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

29th of December

Today is the 363rd day of the year, with only 2 day remaining until the new year.

1778 - 3,500 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.

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.

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 - The United States annexes the Mexican state of Texas, following the Manifest Destiny doctrine.  For others, the Republic of Texas, which had been independent since the Texas Revolution of 1836, is admitted as the 28th state of the Union.

1890 - United States soldiers kill more than 200 Oglala Lakota people with four Hotchkiss guns in the Wounded Knee Massacre.

1939 - The first flight of the Consolidated B-24.

1940 - The Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England killing almost 200 civilians.

1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's 1.25 million chickens, in order 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 lives.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

28th of December

It is the 362nd day of the year, with only 3 days remaining.

1065 - Westminster Abbey is consecrated.

1612 - Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly cataloged 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 U.S. Army.

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

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

1895 - The Lumiere brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema.

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

1908 - An earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily killing over 75,000 people.

1944 - Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score eight points in one game of National Hockey League ice hockey.

1945 - Congress officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance.

1958 - Known as the Greatest Game Ever Played, Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the firt ever NFL sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium.

1990 - Probotector for the NES game platform system is released.

2000 - United States retail giant Montgomery Ward, announces it is going out of business after 128 years.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

27th of December

It is the 361st day of the year and there are only 4 days remaining.

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

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

1932 - Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.

1939 - Erzincan. Turkey is hit by an earthquake, killing 30,000 people.

1968 - Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the moon.

1978 - Spain becomes a democracy after nearly 40 years of dictatorship.

Monday, December 26, 2011

26th of December

Today is the 360th day of the year, with only 5 days remaining.

1776 - The British are defeated at the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolution.

1799 - Four thousand people attend George Washington's funeral, where Henry Lee declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hears of his countrymen."

1846 - Trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevada mountain range and without food, members of the Donner Party resort to cannibalism.

1861 - Confederate diplomatic envoys James Mason and John Slidell, are freed by the U.S. government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Britain.

1862 - Four nuns serving as volunteer nurse on board USS RED ROVER are the first female nurses on a Navy hospital ship.

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

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

1919 - Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox, is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee.

1933 - FM radio is patented.

1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1944 - Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.

1972 - 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history.

1982 - Time Magazines Man of the Year, is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.

1996 - Sadly, six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.

2004 - An 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 over 230,000 people including over 1700 on a moving train.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

25th of December

Today is the 359th day of the year, with only 6 days remaining until the new year.

800 - Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor in Rome.

1066 - William the Conqueror is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

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 Obendorf, Austria.

1868 - President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.

1914 - Known as the Christmas truce, German and British troops on the Western Front temporarily cease fire.

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

1974 - Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour standoff.

1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union, which dissolved the next day.  Ukraine referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the USSR.

2007 - In some odd occurrence, a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo escapes from its enclosure, and attacks three people, killing one.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

24th of December

Today is the 358th day of the year, with only one week (7 days) remaining until the end of the year.

1814 - The Treaty of Ghent is signed, ending the War of 1812.

1865 - The Ku Klux Klan is formed, founded by veterans of the Confederate Army.

1914 - The Christmas truce begins during the fighting of First World War.

1943 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander.

1968 - The crew of the USS Pueblo, is released by North Korea, after being held for 11 months of suspicion of spying.

1968 - The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the moon.  They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.

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

Friday, December 23, 2011

23rd of December

Today is the 357th day of the year, with only 8 days remaining until the new year.

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

1823 - A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known as The Night Before Christmas, is published anonymously.

1893 - The opera Hansel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.

1937 - It is the first flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.

1947 - The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

1970 - The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City is topped out at 1,368 feet, making it one of the tallest buildings in the world.

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

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

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.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

22nd of December

Today is the 356th day of the year, with only 9 days remaining until the end of the year.

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

1808 - Ludwig von Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna with premiere of his Fifth and Sixth Symphony's, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy, both performed by him.

1809 - The Non-Intercourse Act, lifts the Embargo Act, except for the United Kingdom and France.

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.

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

1942 - Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.

1944 - German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe, "Nuts!"

1956 - Colo is born, he is the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.

1964 - It is the first flight of the SR-71 Blackbird.

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

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

21st of December

It is the 355th day of the year, with only 10 days remaining until the new year.

1620 - William Bradford an the Pilgrims and on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts.

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

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

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

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

1968 - Apollo 8 is launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  The crew performs the first ever Trans Lunar Injection and become the first humans to leave Earth's gravity.

1994 - Mexican volcano, Popocatepetl, dormant for 47 years, erupts gases and ash.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

20th of December

Today is the 354th day of the year, with only 11 days remaining.

69 - Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor.

1192 - Richard the Lionheart is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third Crusade.

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

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

1917 - Cheka, the first Soviet secret police is founded.

1924 - Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.

1941 - It is the first battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.

1946 - An earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaid, Japan, killing over 1,300 people and destroy over 38,000 homes.

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

1968 - The Zodiac killer, kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.

1989 - The United States sends troops into Panama in order to overthrow the government of Manuel Noriega.  This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.

1996 - NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

2005 - U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of intelligent design in the court case, Kitzmiller Vs. Dover Area School District.

2007 - Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months, and 29 days.

Monday, December 19, 2011

19th of December

It is the 353rd day of the year, with only 12 days remaining.

211 - Publius Septimius Geta, co-emperor of Rome, is lured to come without his bodyguards to meet his brother Caracalla to discuss a possible reconciliation.  When he arrives the Praetorian Guard murders him and he dies in the arms of his mother Julia Domna.

1606 - The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery departed England.  They are carrying settlers who will found Jamestown, Virginia, the first of section of the thirteen colonies.

1777 - George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

1912 - William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over 1,000 people, is pardoned by President William Howard Taft after three-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison.

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

1946 - The start of the First Indochina War.

1972 - The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, returns to Earth.

1998 - The United States House of Representatives forwards articles I and III of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to the Senate.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

18th of December

It is the 352nd day of the year and only 13 days remaining.

218 BC - The Battle of the Trebia occurs as Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.

1271 AD - Kublai Kahn renames his empire Yuan, officially marking the beginning of his dynasty of Mongolia and China.

1777 - The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga.

1787 - New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1878 - Jack 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 Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.

1898 - Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph in a Jeantaud electric car.

1916 - The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of Staff Erich Von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French and British, and suffer 337,000 casualties.

1918 - The House of Representatives approves the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition.

1944 - 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China that holds a Japanese support base/

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

1972 - President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

17th of December

It is the 351st day of the year, with only 14 days (two weeks) remaining until the end of the year.

546 - The Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome by bribing the Byzantine garrison.

1577 - Francis Drake sails from Plymouth, England on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas, he is assigned this by Queen Elizabeth I.

1777 - France formally recognizes the United States of America as a country.

1790 - This marks the discovery of the Aztec calendar stone.

1862 - 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.

1935 - This is the first flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.

1944 - Known as the Malmedy massacre, American 285th Field Artillery Observation POW's are hot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.

1947 - The first flight of the Boeing b-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.

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

1969 - Project Blue Book occurs, as the United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs, stating that sighting are 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 misidentification of various conventional objects."

1989 - The first episode of the television series The Simpsons, airs in the United States.  It is called "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire."

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

Friday, December 16, 2011

16th of December

Today is the 350th day of the year, with only 15 days remaining until the new year.

1497 - Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomau Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

1653 - Oliver Cromwell becomes the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

1707 - It i the last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.

1773 - Members of the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk Indians, dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.  It will famously become known as the Boston Tea Party.

1863 - Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee.

1907 - The Great White Fleet, the nickname of the United States Navy, begins its circumnavigation of the world.

1914 - German battleships under Franz von Hipper, bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.

1920 - The Haiyuan earthquakes, magnitude 8.5 rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000 people.

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

1942 - Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.

1944 - The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

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

1950 - President Harry Truman, declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight with communist North Korea during the Korean War.

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

1972 - Henry Kisinger 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 million to local banks.

1985 - In New York City, Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti, are shot dead on the order of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of the Gambino family.

1997 - Strangely enough, an episode of Pokemon, entitled Denno Senshi Porygon, airs in Japan inducing seizures in 685 Japanese children.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

15th of December

Today is the 349th day of the year, with only 16 days remaining until the new year.

1791 - The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.

1864 - In the Battle of Nashville, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of the Tennessee under John Bell Hood.

1914 - The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.

1933 - The Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution officially becomes effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.

1939 - Gone with the Wind, receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.

1941 - German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobitsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine.

1945 - General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.

1965 - Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida.  Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.

1973 - John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire, is found alive near Naples, Italy.  He is found after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10.

2000 - The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.

2001 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27 million to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.

2005 - Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into United States Air Force active service.

2006 - Marks the first flight of the F-25 Lightning II.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

14th of December

It is the 348th day of the year, with only 17 days remaining until the new year.

1287 - The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, known as St. Lucia's flood, kills over 50,000 people.

1542 - Princess Mary Stuart, become Mary, Queen of Scots.

1819 - Alabama becomes the 22nd state admitted to the Union.

1903 - The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1911 - Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmber Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, become the first to reach the South Pole.

1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR, is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.

1962 - NASA's Mariner 2, becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

2006 - American spy satellite USA-193 is launched.  Its mission is still classified.

2008 - President George W. Bush makes his fourth and final trip to Iraq as president, and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during a news conference in Baghdad.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

13th of December

It is the 347th day of the year, with only 18 days remaining.

1545 - The Council of Trent begins, with a meeting of the Roman Catholic Church.

1577 - Sir Francis Drake set 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.

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

1862 - At the Battle of Fredericksburg, General Robert E. Lee defeats Union Major General Ambrose Burnside.

1938 - The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, Germany.

1962 - NASA Relay 1 is launched as the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.

1972 - Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity or moonwalk of Apollo 17.

2003 - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, is captured near his home town of Tikrit, as part of Operation Red Dawn.

Monday, December 12, 2011

12th of December

It is the 346th day of the year, with only 19 days remaining until the new year.

1098 - The massacre of Ma'arrat al-Numan occurs during the First Crusade.  They breach the town's walls and kills about 20,000 inhabitants.  After finding themselves with insufficient food, they resort to cannibalism.

1787 - Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1935 - The Lebensborn Project, a Nazi reproduction program, is founded by Heinrich Himmler.

1941 - Fifty-four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Phillipines.  Jesus Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off.

1941 - F4F Wildcats sink 4 major Japanese ships off of Wake island.

1941 - Adolf Hitler announces extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery.

1963 - Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1985 - Arrow Air Flight 1285, crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland killing 256, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.

2000 - The United States Supreme Court releases its final decision on Bush Vs. Gore.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

11th of December

It is the 345th day of the year and there are only 20 days remaining.

361 - Julian the Apostate becomes sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.  He rules from Constantinople and tries to restore paganism.

1819 - Indiana becomes the 19th state of the United States of America.

1941 - Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on Japan.  The U.S. then declares war on Germany and Italy in retaliation.

1946 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF, is established.

1964 - Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

2001 - The People's Republic of China decides to join the World Trade Organization.

2008 - Bernard Madoff, is arrested and charged with securities fraud in $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

10th of December

Today is the 344th day of the year, with only 21 days remaining until the end of the year.

1520 - Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.

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 state admitted to the Union.

1864 - Major General William T. Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.

1868 - The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London.  They use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.

1884 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is published for the first time.

1898 - The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.

1901 - The first Nobel prizes are awarded.

1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.

1935 - The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, is awarded to halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.

1965 - The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under their new name.

Friday, December 9, 2011

9th of December

It is the 343rd day of the year, with only 22 days remaining until the end of the year.

1851 - The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.

1861 - The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by Congress.

1872 - In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U. S. state.

1888 - Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department.

1940 - British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.  The event is codenamed Operation Compass.

1946 - The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, begin with the Doctors' Trial, prosecuting doctors alleged to be involved in human experimentation.

1950 - Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union.  His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

1953 - General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.

1961 - The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Israel, ends with verdicts of guilty on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity, against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.

1965 - A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania, witnesses report something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh.  It is known as the Kecksburg UFO incident.  In 2005, NASA admits that it examined the object.

1979 - The eradication of smallpox virus is certified, making it the first and to date, the only human disease driven to extinction.

2008 - Rod Blagojevich, the Governor of Illinois, is arrested by federal officials for a number of alleged crimes including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat, being vacated by Barack Obama.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

8th of December

Today is the 342nd day of the year with only 23 days remaining.

1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt declares the previous day to be "a date which will live in infamy," after which the U.S. and the Republic of China declare war against Japan.

1980 - English musician John Lennon, is murdered by Mark David Chapman, a mentally unstable fan, in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City.


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

7th of December

It is the 341st day of the year, with only 24 days remaining until the end of the year.

1776 - Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general.

1787 - Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1869 - American outlaw Jesse James, commits the first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Mississippi.

1917 - The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1941 - The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Forces and Marines at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing a declaration of war to come.

1946 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in history.

1963 - Instant replay is used for the first time, in an Army-Navy game by it inventor, Tony Verna.

1972 - Apollo 17, the last moon mission is launched.  The crew takes the famous photograph known as The Blue Marble, as they leave the Earth.

1982 - In Texas, Charles Brooks Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

1988 - In Armenia, the Spitak earthquake kills nearly 25,000, injures 15,000, and leaves 400,000 homeless.

1999 - The Recording Industry Association of America, files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client alleging copyright infringement.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

6th of December

It is the 340th day of the year, with only 25 days remaining until the new year.

1768 - The first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is published.

1849 - American abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.

1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.

1877 - The first edition of the Washington Post is published.

1877 - Thomas Edison, using his new phonograph, makes on of the earliest recordings of a human voice, reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb.

1884 - The famous Washington Monument is finally completed.

1897 - London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.

1917 - In Canada, a munitions explosion kills more than 1,900 people and destroys part of the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1947 - The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.

1967 - Adrian Kantrowitz, performs the first human heart transplant in the United States.

2006 - NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor, suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

Monday, December 5, 2011

5th of December

It is the 339th day of the year with only 26 days remaining.

63 BC - Cicero delivers his fourth and final Catiline Orations.

771 AD - The great Charlemagne, becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother, Carloman.

1775 - At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begin his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1776 - At the College of William and Mary, Phi Beta Kappa is founded and becomes the first American college fraternity.

1847 - Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. Senate, his first political post.

1848 - In a message before Congress, President James Polk confirms that large amounts of gold have been discovered in California.

1932 - German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein, is granted and American visa.

1933 - Prohibition in the United States ends, after Utah ratifies the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution.

1943 - U.S. Army Air Force begins attacking Germany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow.

1945 - Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

1952 - A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.

1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge together.

1964 - For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the conflict in Vietnam.

2010 - The Harlem Globetrotters, play their famous, "four point game" against the Generals.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

4th of December

Today is the 338th day of the year, with only 27 days remaining until the new year.

1563 - The final session of the Council of Trent is held.

1674 - Father Jacques Marquette founds a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illiniwek, the mission would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois.

1864 - At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with the campaign of Sherman on his march toward the Atlantic Ocean.

1875 - Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed, escapes from prison and flees to Cuba, from Spain.

1909 - The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, the oldest professional hockey franchise in the world, is founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.

1918 - President Woodrow Wilson, sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US President to travel to Europe while in office.

1943 - President Franklin Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment.

1954 - The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida.

1967 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces engage Viet Cong  troops in the Mekong Delta.

1969 - Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officer.

1980 - English rock group Led Zeppelin officially disbands, following the death of drummer John Bonham that occurred in September.

1991 - Journalist Terry A. Anderson is released after 7 years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut.

1991 - Captain Mark Pyle pilots Clipper Goodwill, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 727-221ADV, to Miami International Airport ending 64 years of Pan Am operations.

1992 - President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 U.S. troops to Somalia in Northeast Africa.

1998 - The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.

2006 - An adult giant squid is caught on video for the first time by Tsunemi Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 620 miles south of Tokyo.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

3rd of December

Today is the 337th day of the year, with only 28 days remaining until the new year.

1818 - Illinois becomes the 21st state admitted to the Union.

1910 - Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.

1964 - Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest, of the decision to forbid protests.

1973 - Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.

1976 - An assassination attempt is made on Bob Marley.  He is shot twice, but plays a concert two days later.

1979 - In Cincinnati, Ohio, 11 fans are suffocated in a rush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert.

1999 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before it enters the Martian atmosphere.

Friday, December 2, 2011

2nd of December

Today is the 336th day of the year, with only 29 days remaining.

1775 - The USS Alfred become the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag, the precursor to the Stars and Stripes, the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.

1804 - At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French, the first one in a thousand years.

1823 - President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts.

1845 - President James K. Pol announces to Congress that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.

1859 - Militant abolitionist John Brown, is hanged for his raid on Harper's Ferry.

1927 - Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.

1942 - A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

1954 - The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.

1961 - In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.

1970 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.

1993 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

2001 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

1st of December

It is the 335th day of the year, with only 30 days remaining until the end of the year.

It is also the beginning of the twelfth month of the year.

1824 - Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution.

1864 - In his State of the Union Address, President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.

1885 - It is the first serving of the soft drink Dr. Pepper, at a drug store in Waco, Texas.

1913 - The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.

1941 - Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City, and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.

1952 - The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgenson, the first notable case of sexual reassignment surgery.

1955 - Seamstress Rosa Parks, refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1969 - The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.

1981 - The AIDS virus is officially recognized.

1982 - At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.

1990 - Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the seabed.

2001 - Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport.  He brings an end to 76 years of TWA operations because the company would then be purchased by American Airlines.