Hagia Sophia
563 The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.
- 640 John IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1046 Pope Clement II, [Suitger] elected
- 1294 Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII
- 1476 400 Burgundian soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy
- 1515 Thomas Wolsey appointed Lord Chancellor of England
- 1565 Compromise of the Nobles in Habsburg Netherlands closes against inquisition
- 1568 Morisco Revolt against Spanish suppression in the mountainous Alpujarra region of Granada, begins with a wave of violence led by Aben Humeya
- 1568 Uprising of Moriscos in Granada
- 1593 Storm hits Texel: 40 ships hit, 500 killed
- 1651 Jan van Riebeeck departs for Cape of Good Hope to found 1st permanent European settlement
- 1715 Swedish troops occupy Norway
- 1734 Royal Alcázar of Madrid burns down in Madrid with the lost of many artworks, though paintings of Velázquez are saved
Cook Visits Kiritimati
1777 James Cook is first European to visit Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island
- 1798 Russia & Britain sign Second anti-French Coalition
Treaty of Ghent Signed
1814 Treaty of Ghent signed, ending the War of 1812 between the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies
- 1815 Karol Kurpiński's melodramatic opera "The Reward, or the Revival of the Polish Kingdom" premieres at the Warsaw Opera
- 1818 Christmas carol "Silent Night" composed by Franz Xaver Gruber is first sung at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria
- 1832 1st US Negro hospital founded by whites chartered, Savannah, Georgia
- 1832 HMS Beagle anchors in Wigwam Bay at Cape Receiver
- 1849 First great fire of early San Francisco starts east side of the Plaza, first of great seven fires in 2 years
- 1851 Fire devastates US Library of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes
- 1853 William Henry Fry's "Santa Claus: Christmas Symphony" premiere performance by conductor Louis Antoine Jullien's orchestra at Metropolitan Hall, NYC [1]
- 1860 Actor Joseph Jefferson's dramatization of "Rip Van Winkle" premieres in NYC
- 1864 Battle of Gordonsville, Virginia
- 1865 Several Confederate veterans form Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee
- 1871 Giusseppi Verdi's "Aida" opera premieres in Cairo, Egypt
- 1874 Pope Pius IX proclaims a jubilee for 1875
Edison's Cylinder Phonograph
1877 Thomas Edison files for a patent for the cylinder phonograph [1]
- 1884 Austria-Hungary admits King Leopold II's Congo Free State
- 1889 Daniel Stover & William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake
Ford's First Gasoline Engine
1893 Henry Ford completes his first useful petrol / gasoline fuelled engine
- 1894 Scheveningse fishing boats destroyed by storm
- 1895 George Vanderbilt opens Biltmore estate, the largest privately owned house in America at 178,926 square feet (16,622.8 m2) in Asheville, North Carolina
- 1898 Herman Heijermans' "Ghetto" premieres in Amsterdam
- 1900 Foreign powers present the Chinese Empress with their list of 'irrevocable conditions' before their nations will withdraw troops from China
- 1900 Herman Heijermans' "Hope of Blessing" premieres in Amsterdam
- 1900 The French Chamber of Deputies and Senate pass a bill calling for an end to agitation or prosecutions against those involved in the Dreyfus affair, which has divided France since 1894
- 1901 Private companies allowed to use the word "postcard" in the US. Previously they were labelled "Private Mailing Cards" and known as "souvenir cards".
- 1904 German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
- 1906 Reginald Fessenden becoomes 1st to broadcast music over radio (disputed)
- 1910 Luisa Tetrazzini sings to 250,000 people at Lotta's Fountain, San Francisco
- 1912 Irving Fisher patents archiving system with index cards
- 1914 German plane drops bombs on Dover, England
Caruso's Last Performance
1920 Enrico Caruso gives his last public performance, with the Metropolitan Opera in NYC
- 1921 Ottawa’s Harry Broadbent scores in 10-0 Senators blowout of the Montreal Canadiens; first in 16-game NHL record goal-scoring streak; Charlie Simmer’s 13 game streak (1979) is considered modern-day record
- 1922 BBC broadcasts first British radio play "The Truth about Father Christmas"
- 1922 London Coloseum opens
- 1924 1st radio transmission of NCRV in Netherlands
- 1924 Albania becomes a republic (ex-premier Ahmed Zogoe's coup)
- 1924 Richard Rodgers Theater (46th St Chanin's) opens at 226 W 46th NYC
- 1924 School in Babb's Switch, Oklahoma, catches fire, 36 die
- 1927 Test Cricket debut of Walter Hammond, who scored 51 & took 5-36 v S Af
- 1928 George Abbott Theater (Adelphi, 54 St) opens at 152 W 54th St NYC
- 1930 F Garcia Lorca's "La Zapatera Prodigiosa" premieres in Madrid
- 1932 Arturo Alessandri wins presidential election in Chile
- 1933 Paris express train derails & kills 160, injures 300 (France)
- 1934 Clarrie Grimmett takes 9-180 for SA as Queensland make 430
- 1935 National Council of Negro Women forms
- 1936 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered in Berkeley, California
- 1937 Dutch government recognizes Italian king Emanuel III as emperor of Abyssinia
Attack on Pearl Harbor
1941 First ships of admiral Nagumo's Pearl Harbor fleet return to Japan
- 1942 First powered flight of V-1 'buzz bomb', Peenemunde, Germany
- 1942 Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja & Morozowsk
"While the Sun Shines"
1943 Terence Rattigan's comedy play "While the Sun Shines" premieres in London
Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander
1943 US President FDR appoints General Eisenhower Supreme Commander of the Allied forces
- 1946 French Fourth Republic is founded
- 1946 US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor Nazis" amnesty
- 1948 First US completely solar heated house is occupied (Dover, Mass)
- 1948 Greek government disbands due to state of war, press censorship
- 1951 1st opera commissioned for television - "Amahl and the Night Visitors" by Gian Carlo Menotti premieres on NBC with the NBC Opera Theater
- 1951 United Kingdom of Libya gains independence from Italy via UN
- 1953 KHOL (now KHGI) TV channel 13 in Kearney, NB (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1953 KOA (now KCNC) TV channel 4 in Denver, CO (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1953 Two fast express trains crash head-on killing 103 in Czechoslovakia
- 1953 Wellington-Auckland (NZ) express train swept away in flood kills 166
- 1954 Council for the Protection of Children forms in Netherlands
- 1954 Laos gains its independence from France
Huxley Takes LSD
1955 Author Aldous Huxley takes LSD for the first time
Oilers Beat Chargers
1961 AFL Championship, Balboa Stadium, San Diego: Houston Oilers beat San Diego Chargers 10-3; Billy Cannon scores game's only TD
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1963 Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus
- 1966 Soviet spacecraft Luna 13 lands on Moon
- 1966 USAF C144 military charter aircraft crashes near Binh Thai, Vietnam, killing 129
- 1967 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- 1967 Pirate Radio Pegasus starts broadcasting off New Zealand
- 1968 Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis
- 1968 Ballon d'Or: Manchester United's winger George Best wins award for best European football player ahead of teammate Bobby Charlton and Red Star Belgrade winger Dragan Džajić; first Northern Irish national to win the award
- 1968 WATU (now WAGT) TV channel 26 in Augusta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
Flood Urges Free Agency
1969 Curt Flood writes to baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn refusing to accept the Cardinals’ right to deal him and in favor of free agency [1]
- 1970 9 Jews are convicted in Leningrad of hijacking a plane
- 1970 Walt Disney releases animated musical "The Aristocats" featuring voices of Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Hermione Baddeley, Sterling Holloway, and Scatman Crothers
One Survives Amazon Plane Crash
1971 Peruvian Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later
- 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
- 1973 Ferryboat capsized off coast of Equador, drowning 200
Glenn Joins US Senate
1974 Former US astronaut John Glenn joins the US Senate representing Ohio
- 1977 "Ghost to the Post", Raiders tight end Dave Casper ("The Ghost") catches a 42-yard reception to set up the Raiders' tying field goal near the end of regulation (Raiders win in OT)
- 1979 1st Ariane rocket launched
- 1980 Americans remembered Iran hostages by shining lights for 417 seconds
- 1981 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1982 Chaminade, with a student body of only 850 students, beats #1 ranked Virginia 77-72 in a Honolulu holiday basketball classic
- 1984 Palace coup in Mauritania
Ballon d'Or
1985 Ballon d'Or: Juventus' French midfielder Michel Platini is named Europe's best football player for the 3rd consecutive time; beats Verona striker Preben Elkjær and Barcelona midfielder Bernd Schuster
- 1986 French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released
- 1986 Iran offensive against Iraqi islands of Shatt al-Arab
First Liberian Civil War
1989 Charles Taylor starts First Liberian Civil War when he enters country at the head of guerilla group the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, to overthrow President Samuel Doe
Raines to White Sox
1990 Expos trade Tim Raines to White Sox for Ivan Calderon & Barry Jones
Israel Iraq's First Target
1990 Saddam Hussein says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target
- 1991 Ballon d'Or: Marseille forward Jean-Pierre Papin is named Europe's best football player; first from the French League to win the trophy
Event of Interest
1992 US President George Bush issues a pardon to former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane for his role in Iran-Contra Affair
Caspar Weinberger Pardoned
1992 US President George H. W. Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger for Iran-contra affair
Ballon d'Or
1996 Ballon d'Or: Borussia Dortmund's German sweeper Matthias Sammer is named best football player in Europe ahead of PSV/Barcelona striker Ronaldo and Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer
- 1997 The Dominican Republic becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
- 1997 The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria kills 50-100 people.
John Paul II Opens Holy Door
1999 Opening of St Peter's Holy Door by Pope John Paul II in approach of 3rd millennium
- 2000 The Texas 7 hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot during the robbery
Giuliani Person of the Year
2001 "Time Magazine" names New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani 'Person of the Year', for leadership after 9/11 attacks
- 2003 Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
Film & TV History
2010 Gary Sinise converts to Catholicism, following his wife who converted in 2000
