Events 1 - 200 of 214
- 406 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia
- 535 Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year
- 765 Coffin of Ho-tse Shen-hui interred in a stupa built in China
- 870 Skirmish at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
- 1229 James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (Palma) consummating Christian conquest of the island of Majorca
- 1492 100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily
- 1502 Cesare Borgia (son of pope Alexander VI) occupies Urbino
Freedom of Religious Conscience
1564 William I of Orange demands freedom of religious conscience for his subjects in dramatic speech to the Council of State
Treaty of Mikulov
1621 Hungarian King Bethlen Gabor and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II sign the Treaty of Mikulov, ending war between them
- 1669 France & Brandenburg sign secret treaty
- 1670 France & England sign Boyne-treaty
- 1680 De Italiaanse Opera (The Italian Opera) theater opens on the Leidsegracht in Amsterdam with "La Fatiche d'Ercole per Deianira" by PA Ziani
- 1687 1st Huguenots depart France to Cape of Good Hope
- 1695 A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar
1700 Frisia and Groningen adopt Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is 1/12/1701
- 1703 Genroku earthquake off the coast of Japan, near Edo (modern-day Tokyo), kills thousands and triggers a large tsunami killing thousands more
English Army Commander Fired
1711 John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, fired as English army commander
Earth's Wobble Discovery
1744 English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth's nutation motion or wobble
Battle of Quebec
1775 Battle of Quebec: American Continental Army led by Richard Montgomery is defeated trying to take the British stronghold of Quebec City in the American Revolutionary War, General Montgomery is killed and Benedict Arnold is injured
- 1776 Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors
- 1779 British fleet beat Dutch Merchant vessels
- 1781 Bank of North America, 1st US bank opens
- 1783 Import of African slaves banned by all of the Northern US states
- 1805 End of French Republican calendar; France returns to Gregorianism
- 1841 Alabama becomes 1st state to license dental surgeons
Ottawa Becomes Capital
1857 Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada
West Virginia Admitted to Union
1862 President Abraham Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia to the Union
- 1862 Skirmish at Parker Cross Roads, Tennessee
- 1862 Union ironclad ship "Monitor" sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
- 1870 J D Schneiter patents rocket mail in France, (not done)
- 1879 Cornerstone laid for Honolulu's Iolani Palace (only royal palace in US)
- 1879 Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp
- 1897 Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898)
- 1901 In the first election under their new constitution, Cuba elects a Congress and their first president, Tomas Estrada Palma
- 1904 First New Year's Eve celebration held in Times Square, New York City
- 1906 French, British and Italian treaty concerning rights on Abyssinia
- 1907 For 1st time, a ball drops at Times Square to signal the New Year
Mahler Conducts Met Opera
1907 Gustav Mahler conducts the Metropolitan Opera, in New York City
- 1910 US tobacco industry produced 9 billion cigarettes in 1910
Marie Curie's Second Nobel Prize
1911 Marie Curie receives her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her work with radioactivity
- 1917 Dutch Social-democratic trade union NVV counts 159,450 members
- 1920 Victorian all-rounder Roy Park makes Test cricket debut for Australia v England in 2nd Test in Melbourne; bowled by Harry Howell for a first ball 'golden duck' in his first and only Test innings
- 1921 Last San Francisco firehorses retired
- 1923 1st transatlantic radio broadcast of a voice, Pittsburgh-Manchester
- 1923 BBC begins using Big Ben chime ID
- 1923 Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy's musical "Kid Boots," premieres in New York City
- 1930 Pontifical encyclical Casti connubii against mixed marriages
- 1930 US tobacco industry produced 123 billion cigarettes in 1930
- 1931 City of Paris accepts donation of the writings gathered by feminist publisher Marguerite Durand and establishes a library (Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand) for the collection
- 1932 John P O'Brien sworn-in as mayor of NYC
- 1934 Helen Richey becomes 1st woman to pilot an airmail transport
- 1935 Charles Darrow patents the board game Monopoly, goes on to be the 1st millionaire game designer
- 1935 CPH becomes Dutch Communist Party
- 1938 Daniel Sternefeld conducts premiere of his ballet "Pierlala" at the Royal Flemish Opera of Antwerp; choreographer Wladimir Karnetzky also danced the title role
- 1938 Dr R N Harger's "drunkometer", 1st breath test, introduced in Indiana
- 1938 Dutch national debt hits ƒ3,986,629,805.70
- 1939 Dutch national debt hits ƒ4,218,553,180.99
- 1941 Young Park (2) in the Bronx named in honor of Samuel Young
- 1942 Battle of the Barents Sea between British Navy and German Kriegsmarine off North Cape, Norway
- 1944 48 people die in a train accident in Ogden, Utah
- 1944 Japanese army evacuates harbor city Akyab
- 1944 World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.
Bradman's 1st Post-war Century
1945 Before the biggest Adelaide Oval crowd of the season, batting maestro Don Bradman scores his first post-WWII century; 112 for South Australia v Australian Services
United Nations Charter
1945 Ratification of United Nations Charter completed
- 1946 French troops leave Lebanon
Truman Proclaims WWII Over
1946 US President Harry Truman officially proclaims end of WW II
Shoemaker and Culmone Tied
1950 American thoroughbred jockeys Bill Shoemaker and Joe Culmone end the year tied, leading the nation with record 388 wins
- 1951 1st battery to convert radioactive energy to electricity announced
Nardico vs. LaMotta
1952 Danny Nardico stops former world middleweight champion Jake LaMotta in 7 rounds in a light heavyweight non-title bout in Coral Gables, Florida; LaMotta is knocked down for the only time in his career, his corner stopping fight after the round
- 1953 Bill Shoemaker shatters record, riding 485 winners in a year
- 1953 Hulan Jack sworn in as Manhattan Borough president
- 1953 WFBC (now WYFF) TV channel 4 in G'ville-Spartanburg, SC (NBC) begins
General Motors First to $1 Billion
1955 The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over $1 billion USD in a year.
Event of Interest
1957 AAU awards Bobby Morrow, James Sullivan Memorial Trophy
- 1958 Bill Shoemaker 1st jockey to win national riding championship 4X
Batista To Flee
1958 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista tells his Cabinet he is fleeing the country
- 1958 International Geophyscial Year ends
- 1961 Failed coup by Syrian group in Lebanon
- 1961 Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $12 billion
- 1961 The Beach Boys play their debut gig under that name
- 1962 "Match Game" debuts on NBC with host Gene Rayburn
- 1962 American Basketball League announces suspension of operation
- 1962 Dutch leave New Guinea
- 1962 Katanga becomes part of Democratic Republic of Congo
- 1962 Ohio ends suit against Reds when they agree to stay in Cin for 10 yrs
- 1963 Dear Abby show premieres on CBS radio (runs 11 years)
Garcia, Weir Play for First Time
1963 Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead play music together for the 1st time at Dana Morgan's Music Store in Palo Alto, California
#1 in the Charts
1966 The Monkees single "I'm a Believer", written by Neil Diamond, hits #1 and stays there for 7 weeks
- 1966 Toboggan Chutes begin operation in Cleveland Metroparks
- 1967 1st NBA game at Great Western Forum, LA Lakers beat Houston 147-118
Raiders Beat Oilers
1967 AFL Championship, Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland: Oakland Raiders beat Houston Oilers 40-7; George Blanda 4 field goals for Raiders in club's 1st AFL Championship
Evel Knievel Fails Jump
1967 Evel Knievel fails in his attempt to jump the Caesar's Palace Fountain, Las Vegas, breaking his pelvis, femur, wrist, hip and both ankles
McCartney Files Beatles Lawsuit
1970 Paul McCartney files a lawsuit to dissolve The Beatles in a dispute over Allen Klein's management of the group
- 1970 President Allende nationalizes Chilean coal mines
Eisenhower Dollar Coin
1970 US Congress authorizes Eisenhower dollar coin
- 1970 Would have been start of Aust/Eng Test Cricket at MCG, washed out
- 1971 Edmund Compton, then Northern Ireland Ombudsman, is replaced by John Benn
- 1971 KAID TV channel 4 in Boise, ID (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1971 Lt Gen Robert E Cushman, Jr, USMC, ends term as deputy director of CIA
- 1972 Leap second day; also in 1973-79, 1987
Martin McGuinness Arrested
1972 Martin McGuinness is arrested and held under the new Republic of Ireland legislation
Johan Cruyff Honored
1973 Johan Cruyff chosen European Football Player of theYear
- 1974 Ballon d'Or: Ajax forward Johan Cruyff wins back-to-back awards, and his 3rd overall, for best European football player ahead of Bayern Munich defender Franz Beckenbauer and Legia Warsaw midfielder Kazimierz Deyna
- 1974 Gold legal in US, Franklin Mint strikes Panama's Gold 100 balboa coin
Buckingham, Nicks Join Fleetwood Mac
1974 Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood Mac
- 1974 New York Yankees sign Cy Young Award winner Jim "Catfish" Hunter for 5 years for a record $3.75 million from the Oakland A's
- 1974 Popular Electronics displays Altair 8800 computer
- 1976 The Cars played their 1st gig
- 1976 TV soap "Somerset" ends 6 year run
- 1977 Amir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah becomes leader of Kuwait
- 1977 Cambodia drops diplomatic relations with Vietnam
- 1977 Donald Woods, a banned anti-Apartheid white editor flees South Africa
- 1977 Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is imprisoned for co-writing a play critical of the Kenyan government
- 1977 WFAT (Brooklyn New York pirate radio station) begins broadcasting on 1620 AM
- 1978 CIA director, Admiral Stansfield Turner retires from the Navy
- 1978 Iran shah names Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister
- 1978 Taiwan's final day of diplomatic relations with US
- 1978 The Runaways' band's last ever concert at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California
- 1978 Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California closes after 556 concerts; Final show is the Grateful Dead, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and The Blues Brothers; program lasts for over 8 hours, with the Grateful Dead playing for nearly 6 hours; concert broadcast on local PBS TV station KQED, and simulcast by radio station KSAN-FM, after the show, the crowd was treated to a hot, buffet-style breakfast.
- 1980 A Jewish owned hotel in Nairobi Kenya is bombed killing 18
- 1980 After being struck by an orange thrown from the crowd West Indian fast bowler Sylvester Clarke knocks out a spectator with a brick during 4th Test against Pakistan in Multan
Springteen's River Tour
1980 Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band's "The River Tour" concert at Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, New York) clocks in at almost 4 hours
- 1980 NY Islanders greatest shutout margin (9-0) vs Chicago Black Hawks
- 1980 Senegal president Leopold Senghor resigns
- 1981 CNN Headline News cable TV channel debuts in US
- 1981 Lt Jerry Rawlings becomes head of Ghana, suspends constitution
- 1981 Netherlands unemployment stands at record 475,000
- 1982 CBS Mystery Theater final episode on radio after 8 years
- 1982 NBC radio cancels almost all of its network daily features
- 1982 TV soap "Doctors" ends 19 year run
- 1983 Brunei gains complete independence from Britain
- 1983 Jose Happart installed as mayor of Voeren, Belgium
- 1983 Nigeria's National Assembly dissolves after military coup
Nigeria's Shagari Overthrown
1983 President Shagari of Nigeria is overthrown in a military coup and Major General Muhammadu Buhari is installed as Head of State
- 1984 Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his arm in a car crash
- 1984 NYC subway gunman Bernhard Goetz surrenders to police in NH
- 1984 Test Cricket debut of Mohammad Azharuddin, v England at Calcutta
- 1984 US leaves UNESCO
- 1986 Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 97
- 1986 Russian TU-144 flies for 1st time faster than sound
- 1986 WIS-AM in Columbia SC changes call letters to WVOC (now WOMG)
The 1988 Fog Bowl
1988 "The Fog Bowl", a heavy, dense fog rolls over Soldier Field in Chicago during second quarter of the Bears vs Eagles NFC Divisional Playoff Game, cuts visibility to 15-20 yards (Bears win 20-12)
Lemieux's Famous Five
1988 Pittsburgh NHL center Mario Lemieux accounts for all his team's goals in Penguins 8-6 win over the NJ Devils; famously scores 5 goals, each in a different way: even strength, power play, shorthanded, penalty shot and empty net; also 3 assists
Desormeaux's Win Record
1989 Jockey Kent Desormeaux sets record with 598 wins in a year
- 1990 Iraq begins a military draft of 17-year-olds
- 1990 Sci-Fi Channel on cable TV begins transmitting
- 1990 United Somali Congress seizes Presidential Palace
- 1991 CPN, Communist Party of Netherland - last day of existence
- 1991 Daniel R. McCarthy elected NY Yankee managing general partner
- 1991 Dow Jones closes at record high 3168.83
- 1991 J. Donald Crump resigns as CFL Commissioner
Streisand's 1st Concert in 20 Years
1993 Barbra Streisand performs her 1st public concert in 20 years before a sell-out crows of over 25,000 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
- 1994 1st snowless December in Baltimore Maryland
- 1994 Anti Apartheid Group of Netherlands (AABN) disbands
Music Concert
1994 Largest free concert in the world occurs when Rod Stewart performs in front of four million people at Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [1]
- 1994 This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively.
- 1995 Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his "Calvin & Hobbes" comic strip after 10 years, believing he had achieved all he could in the medium
- 1995 Matthew Elliott scores separate cricket century same day for Victoria
- 1997 72 year-old Marv Levy retires as coach of the NFL Buffalo Bills after 12 seasons, including 4 consecutive losing Super Bowl appearances
- 1997 Buffalo's Czech NHL goalie Dominik Hasek stops 36 shots for his 27th career shutout in Sabres' 3-0 win over Ottawa Senators; his 6th shutout in month of December; first since George Hainsworth in 1928-29 to achieve the feat
- 1997 Microsoft buys Hotmail email service for $400 million and re-launches it as MSN Hotmail
- 1997 More Swedes died than were born in 1997, 1st time since 1809
- 1997 Orlando Hernandez, half-brother of pitcher Livan, defects from Cuba
- 1997 South African & US surgeons separate Zambian Siamese twins joined at the head
- 1998 Exchange rates between the euro and legacy currencies in the Eurozone become fixed.
- 1998 US movie box office hits record $6.24 billion for year
Yeltsin Resigns
1999 Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as acting President
- 1999 Control of Panama Canal reverts to Panama
- 2004 Official opening of Taipei 101, then the tallest skyscraper in the world, at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet)
Dimon Heads Morgan Chase
2005 Jamie Dimon named as CEO of JPMorgan Chase
- 2006 The final contest at the old Lansdowne Road Stadium in Dublin is a rugby match with Leinster beating Ulster 20-12 in a Celtic League game
- 2007 Bocaue Fire. Seven people injured when a fire razed several fireworks stores in the Municipality of Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines.
- 2007 The Massive Big Dig construction project in Boston, Massachusetts ends.
- 2014 36 die and 47 are wounded during a stampede of New Year revellers on Shanghai's Bund riverfront
