Murder of Interest
1642 4 of Abel Tasman's crew killed at Wharewharangi (Murderers) Bay by Māori; Tasman's ships depart without landing
Abel Tasman
Event of Interest
1732 Benjamin Franklin under the name Richard Saunders begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanack"
Benjamin Franklin
Historic Publication
1776 Thomas Paine publishes his 1st "American Crisis" essay beginning"These are the times that try men's souls" (date disputed)
Thomas Paine
- 1777 Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for the winter
Event of Interest
1783 William Pitt the Younger becomes the youngest ever British Prime Minister at age 24
William Pitt the Younger
Event of Interest
1828 Report by US Vice President John C. Calhoun defending the rights of states to nullify federal laws is presented to the South Carolina legislature but it takes no action
John C. Calhoun
Event of Interest
1835 HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard arrives in New Zealand
Charles Darwin
- 1842 US recognizes independence of Hawaii
Historic Publication
1843 "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is published, 6,000 copies sold
Charles Dickens
- 1854 Allen Wilson of Conn patents sewing machine to sew curving seams
- 1859 Grading started for Market Street RR in San Francisco
- 1861 Battle of Black Water (American Civil War)
- 1862 Skirmish at Jackson, Salem Church, Tennessee (80 casualties)
- 1871 Albert L Jones of New York City patents corrugated paper
- 1881 Opera "Hérodiade" by Jules Massenet is produced in Brussels
- 1884 Italy recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State
- 1887 Jake Kilrain & Jem Smith fight 106 round bare knuckle draw
Historic Expedition
1888 Henry Morton Stanley's expedition reaches Fort Bodo, East-Africa
Henry Morton Stanley
Event of Interest
1900 General Horatio Kitchener offers protections to all Boers who will surrender and asks the Dutch community of Pretoria to convey this offer, leaders in the field refuse to surrender
Horatio Kitchener
- 1903 Williamsburg suspension bridge opens between Brooklyn and Manhattan
- 1904 Dawson City hockey team begins 9 day walk to get a boat to Seattle to catch a train to Ottawa to play in Stanley Cup on Jan 13 1905
- 1907 239 workers died in a coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania
- 1910 1st US city ordinance requiring white & black residential areas in Baltimore
- 1910 Rayon 1st commercially produced in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania
- 1913 Jack Johnson fights Jim Johnson to a draw in 10 rounds for heavyweight boxing title
- 1916 Suriname Bauxite Company forms in Paramaribo
- 1917 1st NHL game played on artificial ice in Toronto
- 1917 Quebec Bulldogs play their 1st professional hockey game
- 1918 Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column (NY Globe)
- 1919 American Meteorological Society found
- 1920 1st US indoor curling rink opens (Brookline, Mass)
- 1920 King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I of Greece and a plebiscite.
- 1922 Theresa Vaughn, 24, confesses in court in Sheffield, England, to being married 61 times over 5 years in 50 cities in three countries
- 1924 Test Cricket debut of Bill Ponsford, who scored 110 in 1st innings
- 1924 The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.
- 1926 National Football League Championship: Frankford Yellow Jackets (14-1-2) win first past the post title
- 1927 National Football League Championship: New York Giants (11-1-1) win first past the post title
- 1928 1st autogyro flight in US
Event of Interest
1930 James Weldon Johnson resigns as executive secretary of NAACP
James Weldon Johnson
Donald Bradman
- 1931 Joseph A Lyons (C) becomes premier of Australia
- 1932 British Broadcasting Corp begins transmitting overseas
- 1933 Electric Home & Farm Authority Inc, authorized
- 1934 Japan agrees to naval treaty of 1922 & 1930
- 1939 Russian air & ground attack against Finnish positions near Summa
- 1941 German submarine U-574 sinks
Event of Interest
1941 Adolf Hitler takes complete command of German Army
Adolf Hitler
- 1941 US Office of Censorship created to control info pertaining to WW II
- 1942 Robert Stroud "Birdman of Alcatraz" is transferred to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
- 1943 Military coup in Bolivia
- 1945 Austrian Republic re-establishes
- 1945 Jean Giraudoux' "La Folle de Chaillot" premieres in Paris
- 1946 Noel Cowards musical "Pacific 1860" premieres in London
Event of Interest
1946 War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh
- 1947 1948 NFL Draft: Harry Gilmer from University of Alabama first pick by Washington Redskins
- 1948 2nd political action of Java/Sumatra
- 1948 8th largest snowfall in NYC history (15.3")
- 1948 Cleveland Browns beats Buffalo Bills 49-7 in AAFC championship game
- 1948 National Football League Championship, Shribe Park, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Eagles shutout Chicago Cardinals, 7-0 in a snowstorm, 'the Philly Blizzard'
- 1949 Luxury passenger ship Aquitania demolished in Gareloch, Scotland
- 1949 WJW TV channel 8 in Cleveland, Ohio (CBS) begins broadcasting
Event of Interest
1950 General Eisenhower named NATO commander
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Event of Interest
1950 Tibet's Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion
Tenzin Gyatso
- 1951 Nazi General Christiansen leaves Netherlands
- 1952 Queen Juliana unveals statue "Docker"
- 1953 KFYR TV channel 5 in Bismarck, ND (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1955 Carl Perkins records "Blue Suede Shoes"
- 1957 "Music Man" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 1375 performances
- 1958 1st radio broadcast from space, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower Christmas message "to all mankind, America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere"
- 1959 1st Liberty Bowl game-Penn State beats Alabama 7-0
- 1960 Fire aboard USS Constellation, under construction at Brooklyn (50 die)
Music Recording
1960 Frank Sinatra's 1st session with Reprise Records (Ring-A-Ding-Ding)
Frank Sinatra
- 1960 Mercury-Redstone 1A reaches 210 km in test flight
- 1962 Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia & Nyasaland
- 1962 Street signs in Golden Gate Park approved by Park Commission
- 1962 Transit 5A1, 1st operational navigational satellite, launched
- 1964 "Gertrud", Danish film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, starring Nina Pens Rode, Bendt Rothe and Ebbe Rode, is released in France
Election of Interest
1965 French President De Gaulle re-elected (Mitterrand gets 45%)
Francois Mitterrand
- 1967 Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt is officially presumed dead.
- 1968 WCWB (now WMGT) TV channel 41 in Macon, GA (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1969 Beatle's 7th Christmas album is released
- 1971 "Inner City" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 97 performances
- 1971 CBS airs "Homecoming A Christmas Story," (introducing the Waltons)
- 1971 NASA launches Intelsat 4 F-3 for COMSAT Corp
A Clockwork Orange
1971 Stanley Kubrick's X-rated film "A Clockwork Orange" based on the book by Anthony Burgess and starring Malcolm McDowell premieres
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Film Premier
1974 "The Man with the Golden Gun", 9th James Bond film, starring Roger Moore, Britt Ekland and Christopher Lee, premieres in London
Roger Moore
Christopher Lee
- 1974 Dave Kryskow scores Washington Capitals 1st NHL shorthanded goal
Event of Interest
1974 Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States
Nelson Rockefeller
- 1975 John Paul Stevens becomes a US Supreme Court Justice
Event of Interest
1975 Ron Wood joined The Rolling Stones
Charlie Watts
Event of Interest
1976 Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev receives his 5th Order of Lenin
Leonid Brezhnev
Event of Interest
1978 Indira Gandhi ambushed in India
Indira Gandhi
Film Release
1979 "Kramer vs Kramer" directed by Robert Benton and starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep is released (Best Picture 1980)
Dustin Hoffman
Meryl Streep
Film Release
1980 "Raging Bull", directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro as boxer Jake LaMotta and Cathy Moriarty as his wife, is released in the United States
- 1981 Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee, Cornwall, lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.
- 1981 Romuald Spasowski, Polish ambassador to the United States defects to show support for the Solidarity movement amid a crackdown
- 1983 The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro.
Treaty of Interest
1984 Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration to transfer Hong Kong back to China in 1997
Margaret Thatcher
Event of Interest
1984 Wayne Gretzky, 23, is 18th & youngest NHL-er to score 1,000 points
Wayne Gretzky
Event of Interest
1984 Scotty Bowman wins his 691st regular season game, the most wins by any coach in NHL history
Scotty Bowman
Event of Interest
1986 USSR frees dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile
Andrei Sakharov
- 1986 Jack Morris agrees to salary arbitration with former team Tigers & accuses owners of collusion against free agency
- 1986 Michael Sergio, who parachuted into Shea Stadium during game 6 of the World Series, sentenced to 100 hrs of community service & fined $500
- 1986 OPEC reaches an accord that would cut production by 7 percent for the first six months of 1987 and would raise prices immediately toward a target world oil price of $18 per barrel
Film Release
1986 "Platoon" directed by Oliver Stone and starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1987)
Charlie Sheen
- 1987 Bruins' Linseman & Blues' Doug Gilmore score goals, 2 seconds apart
- 1988 NASA unveils plans for lunar colony & manned missions to Mars
- 1988 Oklahoma's College football team gets 3 year probation
- 1988 Unexploded WW II bomb found in Frankfurt, Germany-5,000 evacuated
- 1989 American Airlines purchases Eastern Airline's Latin American route
Event of Interest
1989 Larry Bird (Celtics) begins NBA free throw streak of 71 games
Larry Bird
Event of Interest
1991 Boris Yeltsin takes control of the Kremlin
Boris Yeltsin
- 1991 NY Yankee pitcher Steve Howe arrested for cocaine possession
- 1993 "Red Shoes" closes at Gershwin Theater NYC after 5 performances
- 1994 Rolls-Royce announces its future cars will feature V12 engine which will be produced by BMW
- 1996 "Once Upon a Matress" opens at Broadhurst NYC for 187 performances
- 1997 MTV drops video "Smack My Bitch Up" by Prodigy
Impeachment Trial of Bill Clinton
1998 US House of Representatives votes to impeach President Bill Clinton, forwarding the articles of impeachment to the Senate for a trial
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- 2000 The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist attack a Nationalist Movement Party office in Istanbul, killing one person and injuring three.
- 2000 Ballon d'Or: Real Madrid's Portuguese midfielder Luís Figo is named best football player in Europe ahead of Juventus midfielder Zinedine Zidane and Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko
- 2001 A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia.
- 2001 Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots - Riots erupt in Buenos Aires after Domingo Cavallo's corralito measures restrict the withdrawal of cash from bank deposits.
Film Release
2001 "The Fellowship of the Ring", 1st Lord of the Rings film is released. Makes US$47 million US opening weekend, $871 million total worldwide.
Liv Tyler
J. R. R. Tolkien
- 2007 The Lakotah people, a Native American tribe, proclaim independence and withdraw all their treaties with the United States. Establish the Republic of Lakotah, as a separate country.
Event of Interest
2008 Chanda Kochhar is named as the successor of K. V. Kamath to the post of CEO and Managing Director of ICICI Bank
Chanda Kochhar
- 2009 Former Welsh and Lions captain Gareth Thomas is the first international rugby player to reveal he is gay
- 2010 "Miracle at the New Meadowlands", Philadelphia Eagles trail New York Giants by 21 points with eight minutes to play, before scoring 4 touchdowns in final 7 minutes, including dramatic walk-off punt returned for a touchdown by DeSean Jackson
- 2012 UBS bank is fined $1.5 billion for its role in manipulating the Libor rate
- 2012 Park Geun-hye wins the South Korean presidential election to become the nation’s first female president
- 2013 81 people are injured after part of the ceiling caved in at London's Apollo Theatre
- 2014 The Guardian newspaper calls 2014 'The year the people stood up'
- 2015 Third Democratic presidential candidates debate, broadcast by ABC, held in Goffstown, New Hampshire
- 2016 At least 48 people die after drinking bath lotion in Irkutsk, Siberia, thinking it contained alcohol
- 2016 Russian ambassador to Turkey shot dead at an art gallery in Ankara by Turkish gunman
- 2016 Truck driven into a Christmas market in Berlin kills 12, injures 48
Election of Interest
2016 US electoral collage votes 304 to 227 to nominate Donald Trump for President over the objections of seven faithless electors
Donald Trump
- 2018 First use of a drone to deliver vaccines - to island of Erromango, Vanuatu, by Unicef
- 2018 Drones flying over Gatwick airport, England, causes delays and cancellations for 800 flights and 110,000 people
- 2018 US President Donald Trump announces victory over the Islamic State and planned withdrawal of US troops from Syria
- 2018 Houston Rockets set NBA single-game record with 26 three-pointers in 136-118 victory over Washington Wizards; 8 players hit from deep as Rockets shoot 26-of-55 (47.3%); James Harden leads charge, shooting 6-of-11 on 3s
December in History
Melodrama at Theatre Leaves Actor Dead
One of England’s most popular actors arrived at the stage door on this day to prepare for another performance. He would never make it to the stage.
December 16, 1897Bowled Over by William and Harry
The royal princes are the latest celebrities to favour headgear that was introduced on this day
December 17, 1849The Face that Launched a Thousand Quips...
The greatest and most famous clown of them all, and by whose name, Joey, all circus clowns became known, was born on this day, December 18, 1778.
December 18, 1778'Good Sport' in The Trenches
Prime Minister's son, Raymond Asquith tells his wife of life and death on the battlefront in World War I on this day in 1915.
December 21, 1915
