Edmond Halley
1678 Edmond Halley receives MA from The Queen's College, Oxford
- 1685 Charles II bars Jews from settling in Stockholm, Sweden
- 1689 First recorded successful separation of conjoined twins Elisabet and Catherina Meijerin, completed by Swiss surgeon Johannes Fatio in Basel [1]
- 1694 English parliamentary election set for every 3 years
- 1699 Baron Jacob Hop appointed treasurer-general of the Hague
Colley Cibber
1730 Colley Cibber is appointed British Poet Laureate under King George II
Earth Confirmed as Ellipsoid
1736 Astronomer Anders Celsius takes measurements that confirm Newton's theory that the earth was an ellipsoid rather than the previously accepted sphere
Andrew Jackson
1828 Andrew Jackson elected 7th US President
North Star
1847 Frederick Douglass publishes first issue of his newspaper "North Star"
Eureka Stockade
1854 Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences
Knoxville Siege Abandoned
1863 Confederate General James Longstreet abandons his siege at Knoxville, Tennessee
- 1864 Skirmish at Thomas' Station, Georgia
First Black Jury
1868 1st blacks on US trial jury appointed for Jefferson Davis trial
Stanley Founds Leopoldville
1881 Henry Morton Stanley founds Leopoldville (now Kinshasa)
Talk of the Town
1907 George M. Cohan's musical "Talk of the Town" premieres in NYC
Elgar's 1st Symphony
1908 Edward Elgar's 1st Symphony in A performed by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter, premieres in Manchester, England
- 1910 Neon lights first publicly displayed (Paris Auto Show)
Air Conditioning
1911 Willis Carrier presents his influential "Rational Psychrometric Formulae", on air conditioning to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers - makes air conditioning possible
- 1912 First Balkan War: The Naval Battle of Elli takes place.
- 1912 Gerrit Brinkman becomes 1st Dutch traffic officer
- 1912 Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece & Bulgaria sign weapons pact
- 1914 Dutch army opens fire on interned Belgian soldiers: 8 killed
- 1915 General Joseph Joffre becomes Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies
- 1917 After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge finally opens to traffic after two prior collapses
- 1917 The Supreme Allied War Council, meeting at Versailles to define war aim, fails to reach an agreement
- 1920 Turkey & Armenia agree to peace treaty
- 1923 First Congressional open session broadcast via radio (Washington, D.C.)
Agatha Christie Disappears
1926 Detective novelist Agatha Christie mysteriously disappears for 11 days
- 1926 Manchester Guardian (German Reichswehr/Red Army work together)
Bruins Streak begins
1929 Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1, the first win of an NHL record 14-game winning streak, and a 22-game home winning streak
- 1930 Airborn chemicals combine with fog to kill 60 (Meuse Valley, Belgium)
- 1930 Otto Ender forms Austrian government
Evergreen
1930 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical "Evergreen" premieres in London
Mickey Cochrane
1933 As part of a famous MLB fire sale of players, Philadelphia A's owner Connie Mack sells catcher Mickey Cochrane to Detroit for $100,000; Cochrane is immediately named Tigers manager
Arthur Currie's Funeral
1933 Funeral of WWI commander Sir Arthur Currie with 150,000 people lining the streets of Montreal - largest Canadian funeral at the time
Hitler in Ukraine
1941 Adolf Hitler views Poltava, Ukraine
- 1943 9th Heisman Trophy Award: Angelo Bertelli, Notre Dame (QB)
Requiem
1943 Howard Hanson conducts premiere of his 4th Symphony ("Requiem") with the Boston Symphony; wins Pulitzer Prize for Music, 1944
- 1943 World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy begins
- 1944 Britain's Home Guard ('Dad's Army') is officially stood down at a special farewell parade in Hyde Park, London.
- 1944 British order to disarm causes general strike in Greece
- 1944 Hungarian death march of Jews ends
- 1944 Mussert puts Seyss-Inquart plan for small Nazi-Europe
- 1944 Temporary merger of 2 NFL teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Cardinals, dissolves at finish of season; WWII ends before start of 1945 season, so both teams resume normal operations
- 1944 The Greek Civil War breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between communists and royalists
- 1944 US 5th Armoured division occupies Brandenburg Hurtgenwald
- 1946 12th Heisman Trophy Award: Glenn Davis, Army (HB)
US Wants Franco Out
1946 US government asks UN to order dictator Francisco Franco out of Spain
A Streetcar Named Desire
1947 Tennessee Williams' stage drama "A Streetcar Named Desire", starring Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, and Kin Hunter, and directed by Elia Kazan opens the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, NYC; runs for 855 performances, wins a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize
- 1948 "Pumpkin Papers" come to light (claimed to be from Alger Hiss)
- 1948 1st US woman army officer not in medical corps sworn in
Bradman's Testimonial
1948 Australian cricket icon Don Bradman scores 123 for the Bradman XI in his own testimonial match against the Lindsay Hassett's XI in front of 52,360 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
- 1948 Chinese refugee ship "Kiangya" explodes in East China Sea killing 1,100
- 1949 KRLD (now KDFW) TV channel 4 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1950 Cleveland Browns last NFL team with no-pass game (beat Philadelphia 13-7)
- 1952 1st TV broadcast in Hawaii
- 1952 Marcos Perez Jiménez elected president of Venezuela
Shostakovich' 5th String Quartet
1953 Premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich' 5th String Quartet in Leningrad
Republican Party Communists
1953 US President Dwight Eisenhower criticizes Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy for saying communists are in the Republican Party
- 1953 Webb Pierce records single "In the Jailhouse Now" (Billboard Song of the Year, 1955)
Prayers of Kierkegaard
1954 Samuel Barber's cantata "Prayers of Kierkegaard" premieres
- 1954 William Walton's opera "Troilus & Cressida" premieres in London
- 1955 KTVE TV channel 10 in Monroe-El Dorado, LA (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1956 Australian 4 x 200m freestyle relay team of Kevin O'Halloran, John Devitt, Murray Rose & Jon Henricks swim world record 8:23.6 to take the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics; Rose's 2nd of 3 gold at the Games
Chamberlain's Varsity Debut
1956 Basketball icon Wilt Chamberlain makes his much anticipated varsity debut; scores 52 points and grabs 31 rebounds, breaking both all-time Kansas records in an 87–69 win against Northwestern
- 1956 Britain and France pull troops out of Egypt
- 1956 KFSA (now KFSM) TV channel 5 in Ft Smith, AR (CBS) 1st broadcast
- 1957 23rd Heisman Trophy Award: John Crow, Texas A&M (HB)
- 1958 Indonesian parliament accepts nationalisation of Dutch businesses
- 1959 State of emergency in Cyprus ends
- 1961 Dutchman Anton Geesink becomes 1st non-Japanese judo world champion
George Blanda
1961 George Blanda of Houston Oilers kicks 55-yard field goal
- 1961 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1962 1963 NFL Draft: Terry Baker from Oregon State first pick by Los Angeles Rams
- 1962 Edith Sampson sworn-in as 1st Black female judge in the state of Illinois
- 1962 Pravda criticizes western art
- 1964 KHQL (now KCAN) TV channel 8 in Albion, NB (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1964 Police arrests 800 sit-in students at University of California at Berkeley
- 1965 "Rubber Soul", the sixth studio album by the Beatles, is released in the United Kingdom
- 1965 The Beatles begin final UK concert tour in Glasgow, Scotland
- 1965 USSR launches Luna 8; it crashes on the Moon
- 1966 Television pop group "The Monkees" make their live concert debut at the Honolulu International Centre Arena, in Hawaii
- 1966 US performs underground nuclear test at Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Bob Marley
1967 Assassination attempt made on Bob Marley and others during concert rehearsals in Jamaica
- 1967 Australian Derek Clayton runs world marathon record 2:09:36.4 at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan
- 1967 Final run of "20th Century Limited" famed NY-Chicago luxury train
First Human Heart Transplant
1967 First human heart transplant performed in South Africa by Dr. Christiaan Barnard on Louis Washkansky
Sukarno Under Arrest
1967 Fomrer Indonesian president Sukarno placed under house arrest
Elvis' Comeback Special
1968 Elvis Presley's Comeback Special airs on NBC, his 1st live performance in seven years, re-launching his singing career
- 1968 MLB Rules Committee adopts a series of changes designed to increase amount of offensive run production; decreases strike zone size and lowers height of pitcher's mound from 15" to 10"; changes are successful
- 1970 Claude Ruel resigns as coach of the NHL Montreal Canadiens; replacement Al MacNeil leads Habs to a Stanley Cup championship 5 months later
- 1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1971 India invades West Pakistan claiming hundreds of lives and starting the full scale Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
- 1972 Convair 990A charter crashes in Tenerife Canary Island, 155 die
- 1973 Pioneer 10 passes Jupiter (1st fly-by of an outer planet) [Dec 4-GMT]
- 1975 Laos falls to communist forces; Lao People's Democratic Rep proclaimed
- 1976 Patrick J Hillery elected President of Ireland
- 1979 11 members of the audience trampled to death during a stampede to claim unreserved seats for a concert by The Who at The Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, Ohio
- 1979 45th Heisman Trophy Award: Charles White, Southern California (RB)
- 1979 Christies auctions a thimble for a record $18,400
- 1979 Iran accepts constitution
- 1979 Shadow Traffic begins broadcasting in the New York City metropolitan area.
Don Sutton
1980 Don Sutton, the winningest pitcher in Los Angeles Dodgers history, signs a 4-year contract with Houston; Astros career shortened by a patellar fracture; returns to Dodgers in 1988 after stints with 3 other MLB clubs
- 1980 NY Federal jury finds Reps Thompson D-NJ & Murphy, D-NY, guilty
- 1981 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Frances
1982 "Frances", film depicting life of actress Frances Farmer and starring Jessica Lange, first released in the US
- 1982 35.7 cm rainfall at Big Fork, Arkansas (state record)
- 1982 77°F highest December temperature ever recorded in Cleveland, Ohio
Leonard vs. Benitez
1982 After losing his world welterweight boxing titles to Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns wins WBC Super Welterweight crown in a majority points decision over Wilfred Benitez at Superdome, New Orleans
- 1983 49th Heisman Trophy Award: Mike Rozier, Nebraska (RB)
- 1983 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
Do They Know It's Christmas
1984 "Do They Know It's Christmas" single written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure and sung by an all-star cast under the banner of Band Aid is released in the UK
- 1984 Bhopal disaster: A Union Carbide pesticide plant leaks 45 tons of methyl isocyanate and other toxic compounds in Bhopal, India, officially killing 2,259 - other estimates are as high as 16,000 (including later deaths) and over half a million injured
- 1985 23rd Shuttle Mission (61-B)-Atlantis 2-lands at Edwards AFB
Sri Lanka Dismissed for 55
1986 Chasing the West Indies 248/5, Sri Lanka is sensationally dismissed for just 55 in cricket's Champions Trophy in Sharjah; Windies pace bowler Courtney Walsh takes 5 for 1 in 4.3 overs
- 1988 54th Heisman Trophy Award: Barry Sanders, Oklahoma State (RB)
- 1988 NY Lotto pays $45 million to twelve winner (#s are 1-8-13-18-28-48)
Cold War Over
1989 Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush, declare the Cold War over
Stefan Edberg
1989 Stefan Edberg of Sweden claims his first and only ATP Masters Grand Prix tennis title with a 4–6, 7–6, 6–3, 6–1 win over defending champion Boris Becker at Madison Square Garden, NYC
- 1991 Muslim Shi'ites in Beirut, Lebanon release US political hostage Alann Steen [1]
- 1991 White House Chief of Staff John Sununu resigns
- 1992 The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo
- 1992 UN Security Council passes Resolution 794 authorizing US led allied forces to intervene in war-torn Somalia to restore order and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered
- 1995 England cricket wicket keeper Jack Russell dismisses Clive Eksteen with his record 11th catch in 2nd Test v South Africa in Johannesburg
- 1995 Naeem Akhtar takes 10-28 for Rawalpindi B against Peshawar
- 1995 Northwestern South Carolina begins using new area code 864
- 1997 "1776" opens at Gershwin Theater NYC
- 1997 Golden State Warriors terminates guard Latrell Sprewell's four-year, $32 million NBA contract for attacking coach P.J. Carlesimo
- 1999 NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere
- 1999 Ottawa Senators' right wing Kevin Dineen becomes 5th player in NHL history to score 300 career goals and record 2,000 penalty minutes; picks up a misconduct penalty in 7-4 loss to NJ Devils
- 1999 Worcester cold storage and warehouse fire in Worcester, Massachusetts claims lives of 6 firefighters
Gustavo Kuerten
2000 French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil wins the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup for the only time; beats Andre Agassi 6–4, 6–4, 6–4 in the final in Lisbon, Portugal
Event of Interest
2004 Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela is extradited to the United States
- 2005 XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.
- 2007 Devastating winter storms cause Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, closing 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days, resulting in at least eight deaths and billions of dollars of damage
Contract of Interest
2009 Patrick Kane signs a five-year, $31.5 million contract extension with the Chicago Blackhawks
- 2014 Australian Rugby star David Pocock is arrested after protesting against a coal mine under construction in an Australian national forest
- 2014 Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot dead unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, resigns
- 2014 Protests erupt in cities across the US after a grand jury decides not to charge the New York City police officer who killed Eric Garner with a choke-hold
- 2015 US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announces all combat roles in US armed forced will be opened to women
- 2016 US army decides it will not allow an oil pipeline to be built in North Dakota, after months of protests by The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
- 2017 First pizza party in space held by astronauts of the International Space Station
- 2018 7-year old Ryan of Ryan Toysreview is the year's highest-paid YouTube star earning $22 million
Ballon d'Or
2018 Ballon d'Or: Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modrić wins; first time since 2007 that either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't win award; Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg is inaugural women's winner
Attenborough's Dire Warning
2018 David Attenborough warns collapse of civilisation and the natural world on the horizon at UN climate summit in Poland
- 2018 Dutch court in Arnhem rejects man's request to legally be recognised 20 years younger
NATO Marks 70
2019 70th anniversary of NATO marked by gathering in London of world leaders and reception by Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace
Google Founders Step Down
2019 Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announce they are stepping down from roles at parent company Alphabet, Sundar Pichai to become head of both
Harris Ends Presidential Campaign
2019 Kamala Harris ends her campaign to be the Democratic candidate for president
Spotify's Most Streamed
2019 Spotify say Drake the most streamed star of the 2010s with 28 billion streams, Ed Sheeran's "Shape Of You" most streamed track with 2.4 billion streams
Leaders Discuss Trump
2019 World leaders discussing US President Donald Trump in unflattering terms at NATO reception caught on camera and goes viral
- 2020 AT&T Inc’s Warner Bros studio announces all its 2021 movies will stream online the same day they appear in theatres because of the pandemic
- 2020 “I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation,” warns Dr. Robert Redfield, head of US CDC about the months ahead with COVID-19
- 2022 FBI investigate a targeted attack on two electricity substations in North Carolina which closes schools and leaves around 40,000 without power for days [1]
- 2022 Former US President Donald Trump calls in a Truth Social post for the "termination" of all rules, including the US Constitution, to overturn the 2020 election, which he again falsely claims that he won. [1]
- 2022 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, Las Vegas, Nevada: two-time defending champions Team Europe dominate US, 11-7; MVP: Joshua Filler (Germany)
- 2023 Indonesia's Mount Marapi, on island of Sumatra, erupts 3km into the air, killing 23 people [1]
- 2023 Israeli ground forces begin offensive in southern Gaza, north of Khan Younis after a seven-day ceasefire expires [1]
Kennedy Center Honors
2023 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony held for pop singer Dionne Warwick, singer-songwriter Barry Gibb, comic-actor Billy Crystal, operatic soprano Renée Fleming, and singer-actress Queen Latifah, in Washington D.C.
