- 557 Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, is significantly damaged by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake
- 644 Uthman ibn Affan, companion of Muhammad, appointed 3rd Caliph of Islam
- 835 Chinese Emperor Wenzong conspires with chancellor Li Xun and general Zheng Zhu to kill all the eunuchs, but the plot is foiled. Also known as the Sweet Dew Incident
- 867 Adrian II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 872 John VIII elected as Catholic Pope
- 1124 Theobald Buccapecus elected Pope Coelestinus II (he refuses)
- 1287 During St. Lucia's Flood in Northwest Netherlands the Zuiderzee seawall collapses with loss of over 50,000 lives. Fifth largest recorded flood in history
The Six-Day-Old Queen
1542 Princess Mary Stuart succeeds her father James V and becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland at 6 days old
- 1575 Polish Parliament selects Istvan Bathory as king of Poland
Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar
1582 Zealand, Brabant Netherlands adopt Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is 12/25
- 1600 Sea battle at Manila Bay between Olivier van Noort's Dutch ships and a Spanish fleet, Dutch sink the Spanish galleon San Diego, 350 die
- 1656 Artificial pearls 1st manufactured by M. Jacquin in Paris made of gypsum pellets covered with fish scales
- 1702 The Forty-seven Ronin (leaderless samurai), under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master in Japan
- 1708 Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon's play "Electre" premieres in Paris
- 1751 The first military academy in the world, the Theresian Military Academy, is founded in Austria
- 1774 First incident of American Revolution - 400 New Hampshire militiamen successfully attack Fort William and Mary
- 1782 Charleston, South Carolina evacuated by the British
- 1793 1st state road authorized, Frankfort, Kentucky, to Cincinnati
- 1798 David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patents a nut & bolt machine
- 1814 The Battle of Lake Borgne in Louisiana: British victory over the United States
- 1819 Alabama admitted to Union as 22nd state
- 1836 The Toledo War unofficially ends, boundary dispute between Ohio state and territory of Michigan
- 1849 1st chamber music group in US gives their 1st concert in Boston
- 1862 Battle of Kinston, fought in Lenoir County, North Carolina begins (Goldsboro Expedition), Union victory (US Civil War)
- 1863 Battle of Bean's Station-Confederacy repulses Union in Tennessee
Paraguay Invades
1864 War of the Triple Alliance: Paraguay invades the Brazilian province of Mato Grosso
Stanley Returns From the Congo
1882 Henry Morton Stanley returns to Brussels from the Congo
- 1889 American Academy of Political & Social Science organized in Philadelphia
- 1894 Day One 1st Test Cricket Aus v Eng Aust 5-346 (Giffen 161, Gregory 85)
- 1894 Test cricket debut of future Australian captain Joe Darling, great all-rounder Ernie Jones and outstanding England batsman Archie MacLaren; England wins 1st Test in Sydney by 10 runs
- 1896 The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company
Pact of Biak-na-Bato
1897 Emilio Aguinaldo signs the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, to end hostilities and dissolve his government, in exchange for amnesty and "$800,000 (Mexican)" as an indemnity
- 1900 Birth of Quantum Physics: German Physicist Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law
- 1900 France and Italy sign a secret agreement by which Italy recognizes France's right to exploit Morocco in return for France's conceding her the same right in Tripoli
- 1901 1st table tennis tournament is held at the London Royal Aquarium
- 1903 England cricket batsman R. E. Foster completes 287 on debut in 1st Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground
- 1903 The Wright brothers attempt to fly the Wright Flyer for the first time at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Event of Interest
1906 The Pure Food and Drug Act is introduced in the U.S. Senate, after lobbying by businessman Henry John Heinz
- 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.
Amundsen 1st to the South Pole
1911 Norwegian Roald Amundsen's Antarctic expedition is the 1st to reach the South Pole
Harrison Narcotics Tax Act
1914 US President Woodrow Wilson signs Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, to regulate and tax production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products
- 1916 America's first board certified doctors are named by the American Board of Ophthalmology following an examination at the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis, Tennessee
- 1917 UFA, Universal Film AG, forms in Germany
- 1918 David Loyd George's coalition Government wins a clear majority in the UK general election
Il Trittico
1918 Giacomo Puccini's opera "Il Trittico" premieres in NYC
- 1918 Sinn Féin candidates win 73 of 105 Irish seats in UK general election, though all will refuse to take seats in Westminster, instead meeting at a Dail Eireann in Dublin
Dempsey vs. Brennan
1920 Jack Dempsey KOs Bill Brennan in 12 for heavyweight boxing title in NYC
- 1924 Respighi's symphony "Pini di Roma" premieres in Paris
- 1925 Alban Berg's first opera, "Wozzeck" premieres at the Berlin State Opera.
- 1926 Thomas Madsen-Mygdal head of the Liberal Party forms a government in Denmark
- 1927 Iraq gains independence from Britain, but British troops remain
- 1929 Alexander Zaimis elected president of Greece
- 1930 NY Giants defeat Notre Dame 22-0 in a charity game
- 1931 1st assembly of Anton Musserts NSB in Utrecht
Event of Interest
1932 French government of Édouard Herriot falls
Baker in Amsterdam
1933 Josephine Baker performs in Amsterdam
Standard Ball for MLB
1938 Major League Baseball agrees on use of a standard ball; disagrees on increasing rosters from 23 to 25 players, although Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis eventually decides on 25
Churchill to the US
1941 Premier Winston Churchill travels to US on board HMS Duke of York
- 1941 U-557 torpedoes British cruiser Galatea
- 1944 Beginning of Liese-Aktion: Germany tries to recruit Dutch men for the Germany labor force
- 1944 German occupiers forbid use of electricity in parts of Holland
- 1944 US Congress establishes rank of General of Army (5-star General)
Dream Girl
1945 Elmer Rice's play "Dream Girl" premieres in NYC
- 1946 General Assembly of United Nations votes to construct headquarters in New York City [1]
- 1946 Togo made a trusteeship territory of UN
- 1947 The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida
- 1950 Baseball owners choose Lou Perini (Braves), Phil Wrigley (Cubs), Del Webb (Yankees), & Ellis Ryan (Indians) to select new commissioner
- 1950 UN General Assembly establishes High Commission for Refugees, goes on to win Nobel Peace Prize in 1954
- 1952 KROD (now KDBC) TV channel 4 in El Paso, TX (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1952 R H Shodhan scores 110 on Test Cricket debut v Pakistan, Calcutta
- 1952 UN Troops kill 82 North Korean POWs during a prison camp riot in Pongam-do, South Korea
Dodgers Sign Koufax
1953 Brooklyn Dodgers sign pitcher Sandy Koufax
Summerall's Winning Goal
1958 Pat Summerall kicks game winning field goal for the New York Giants against the Cleveland Browns at Yankee Stadium
- 1959 Archbishop Makarios proclaimed president of Cyprus
- 1959 Joe B. Jordan in F-104C starfighter sets world altitude record, 31,513m
- 1959 The album "Time Out" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet is released, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard pop albums chart, and becomes the first jazz album to sell a million copies.
- 1960 Australia v West Indies 1st Test Cricket at the Gabba ends in a tie
- 1960 Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) forms
- 1960 Washington Senators joins American League
- 1961 Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" is 1st country song to get a gold record
- 1962 Mariner 2 makes 1st US fly-by of another planet (Venus)
- 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1963 Verne Gagne beats The Crusher in Minneapolis, to become NWA champ
- 1964 Michael Brown meets Renee Fladen, then writes "Walk Away Renee"
Lester B. Pearson Retires
1967 Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson announces that he is retiring from politics, succeeded by Pierre Trudeau
- 1967 DNA created in a test tube
Leaving on a Jet Plane
1969 "Leaving on a Jet Plane" single sung by Peter, Paul and Mary, written by John Denver, hits #1 on US Billboard's Hot Top 100
- 1969 Bishen Bedi takes 7-98 (career-best) v Australia at Calcutta
Jackson Five on Ed Sullivan
1969 Jackson Five make their 1st appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show"
- 1971 Golden Gate Bridge lights out all night due to power failure
- 1971 The Pakistan Army executes an estimated 1,111 of East Pakistan's intellectuals during the Bangladesh Liberation War
- 1971 U.S. premiere of "Nicholas and Alexandra", film adaptation of Robert K. Massie's best selling novel
- 1971 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1972 Eugene Cernan & Harrison Schmitt leave the Moon
The Towering Inferno
1974 Disaster film "The Towering Inferno" is released, starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman
- 1974 Islander Glenn Resch's 1st shut-out opponent-Kings 3-0
Richards' 1st Test Century
1974 Viv Richards scores 1st Test Cricket ton 192 v India 20 fours 6 sixes
Pieter Menten Sentenced
1977 Dutch war criminal Pieter Menten sentenced in Amsterdam to 15 years
- 1977 Egyptian & Israeli representatives gather in Cairo for first formal peace conference
- 1977 MLB Boston Red Sox trade Fergie Jenkins to Texas Rangers for John Poloni & cash
Abdul Qadir Test Debut
1977 Test Cricket debut of Pakistan spin bowling great Abdul Qadir v England in 1st Test at Lahore
Silence for John Lennon
1980 At 2 PM EST there is 10 minutes of silence in memory of John Lennon
- 1980 Massacre at Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Los Angeles with 3 people killed and 6 injured
- 1980 Minnesota Vikings pass for 456 yards against Cleveland Browns, winning 28-24
- 1980 New Orleans Saints end 14 game losing streak, beat NY Jets 21-20
- 1980 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1981 Israel annexes Golan Heights (seized from Syria in war of 1967)
Dionne Scores 500
1982 LA Kings' Marcel Dionne becomes 9th NHLer to score 500 goals
Sikwood
1983 Biographical drama film "Silkwood", directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher premieres
- 1984 Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from Monday Night Football
Shultz Visits West Berlin
1985 US Secretary of State George P. Shultz arrives in West Berlin
- 1986 Experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan & Jeana Yeager, takes off from Edwards AFB, California on 1st non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world; lands 9 days later
Border Becomes Top Batsman
1987 Allan Border scores 205 vs NZ to become Australian crickets' top run getter
- 1987 Chrysler pleads no contest to selling driven vehicles as new
- 1988 CBS' $1.1 B bid wins exclusive 1990-94 major-league baseball rights
- 1988 NBA's Miami Heat wins 1st game ever, 89-88 (Clippers), after 17 loses
- 1988 Spanish General strike to protest austerity measures
- 1988 US agrees to talk to Palestine Liberation Org for the 1st time in 13 yrs
Five Guys Named Moe
1990 Louis Jordan's revue "Five Guys Named Moe" premieres in London
- 1990 Right to Die case permits Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed, she dies 12 days later
- 1991 57th Heisman Trophy Award: Desmond Howard, Michigan (WR)
- 1991 Ferry boat Salem Express sinks in the Red Sea, 476 killed
- 1992 52 people, including 25 children, are killed when a helicopter from Tkvarcheli is shot down during the War in Abkhazia
Lewis Given WBC Title
1992 Lennox Lewis given WBC title, when Riddick Bowe refused to fight him
Philadelphia
1993 "Philadelphia", one of the first mainstream films about AIDS, directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, premieres in Century City, California
The Dayton Agreement
1995 The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by leaders of various governments ending the conflict in the former Yugoslavia including Slobodan Milošević, Alija Izetbegović, Franjo Tuđman and Bill Clinton
- 1996 62nd Heisman Trophy Award: Danny Wuerffel, Florida (QB)
Gartner Scores 700
1997 Phoenix Coyote winger Mike Gartner becomes 5th NHLer to score 700 goals
- 1998 64th Heisman Trophy Award: Ricky Williams, Texas (RB)
- 1999 Flash floods in Venezuela after torrential rainfall results in the deaths of thousands of people and causes a total collapse in the state's infrastructure
- 2003 President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt
Hussein Capture Announced
2003 US President George W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein
- 2004 The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, designed by architect Norman FOster and engineer Michel Virlogeux, near Millau, France is officially opened
Bush Gets Shoes Thrown at Him
2008 President George W. Bush make 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 farewell conference in Baghdad
- 2009 75th Heisman Trophy Award: Mark Ingram, Jr., Alabama (RB)
- 2012 28 people, including 20 children, are shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut
- 2012 Australian Joel Parkinson wins the 2012 ASP World Tour
- 2012 Gene Wolfe wins the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award
Ramakrishnan Named Greatest Indian
2013 Venkatraman Ramakrishnan is named as one of the 25 Greatest Global Living Indians by NDTV Channel, India
Shinzō Abe Re-elected
2014 Shinzō Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party win re-election in Japan, retaining their two-thirds majority with coalition partner New Kōmeitō Party
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2015 "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" directed by J.J. Abrams and starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Harrison Ford has its world premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles
- 2015 Bus plunges off bridge into Balboa River near Argentina city of Rosario de la Frontera, killing 43 frontier police on board
- 2016 Amazon announces its 1st delivery by drone 2 km from their warehouse in the UK
Rock for the Rainforest Benefit
2016 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include: Sting, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Ronnie Spector, Idina Menzal, Darlene Love, and Jennifer Nettles
- 2016 University of Toronto scientists present findings of the world's oldest water - 2 billion years old from a mine in Canada
- 2017 Australian government establishes a Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry
- 2017 British surgeon Simon Bramhall admits to branding the liver of 2 patients with his initials
- 2017 Suicide bomber kills at least 18 police officers at a training centre parade in Mogadishu, Somalia, Islamic group al-Shabab claim responsibility
- 2017 The Walt Disney Company buys most of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion
- 2017 Train ploughs into a school bus cutting it in half, killing 4 children and injuring 20 near Perpignan, France
- 2017 US media regulator the Federal Communications Commission votes to end net neutrality
- 2018 Report by Reuters US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson knew for decades their talc was contaminated with asbestos
Joe Burrow Wins
2019 85th Heisman Trophy Award: Joe Burrow, Louisiana State University (QB); highest percentage of first place votes ever with 90.7%
- 2019 Bel Air mansion featured in TV series "The Beverly Hillbillies" sells for $150 million, becoming California's most expensive property
- 2019 Miss World won by Miss Jamaica Toni-Ann Singh in London. First time all five major beauty titles held by black women.
- 2020 America begins its first COVID-19 vaccinations using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on the same day it records over 300,000 deaths
- 2020 Russia revealed to have been behind massive cyberattack on US government agencies and private companies since the Spring
- 2020 Total solar eclipse visible across southern Chile and Argentina
- 2020 US Attorney General William Barr resigns
- 2021 American Covid-19 death toll passes 800,000, with more deaths recorded in 2021 than 2020
- 2021 Fuel tanker explosion after an accident leaves at least 90 dead in city of Cap-Haitien, Haiti [1]
- 2021 Steph Curry makes his 2,974th three-point shot to pass Ray Allen as the NBA's greatest career 3-point shooter during Golden State Warriors' 105-96 win over NY Knicks at Madison Square Garden
- 2022 HSBC, Europe's largest bank, says it will stop financing new oil and gas fields, in attempt to lower global greenhouse gas emissions [1]
- 2022 Peru declares 30-day nationwide state of emergency, following a week of political protests after the removal and arrest of former President Pedro Castillo [1]
- 2022 President Joe Biden vows to extend US involvement in Africa in address at US-Africa Leaders summit in Washington, amid competition from China on the continent [1]
- 2023 European Union agrees to open membership negotiations with Ukraine at a summit on Brussels [1]
Sports History
2023 Lewis Koumas is an unused substitute in a Europa League match against Union SG
