Historic Event
1192 Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna
- 1448 Pope Nicholas V appoints Rudolf of Diepholt, Bishop of Utrecht, as cardinal
Historic Event
1522 Suleiman the Magnificent accepts surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle in Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
- 1585 English fleet & Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, reach Vlissingen
- 1600 Ottario Rinuccini and Giulio Caccini's opera "Euridice" published
- 1606 The English colonial expedition to America, consisting of the ships Discovery, Godspeed and Susan Constant, departs Blackwall, London to found Jamestown, Virginia
Historic Event
1626 Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Prince of Transylvania Gabor Bethlen sign Peace of Pressburg (Bratislava)
Historic Event
1699 Russian Tsar Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year changed from Sept 1 to Jan 1
Historic Event
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's army reaches the river Esk
- 1780 Britain declares war on Holland
Historic Event
1790 1st successful US cotton mill begins spinning yarn in Pawtucket, Rhode Island built by Samuel Slater based on Richard Arkwright's design
- 1803 French flag lowered in New Orleans to mark the formal transfer of the Louisiana Purchase from France to USA, purchased for $15M
Rumpelstiltskin
1812 "Grimm's Fairy Tales" or "Children's and Household Tales" by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm is first published
- 1820 Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men aged between 21 & 50
Theater Premiere
1823 Play "Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus" by Helmina von Chézy with incidental music by Franz Schubert premieres in Vienna
- 1830 Great Britain, France, Prussia, Austria and Russia recognize Belgium
- 1850 Hawaiian post office established
- 1860 South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth" and secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- 1861 Battle of Dranesville, VA
- 1862 -Dec 20th] Battle of Kelly's Ford, VA
- 1862 -Jan 3rd] Vicksburg campaign
Historic Event
1862 Confederate Army Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest occupies Trenton, Kentucky (US Civil War)
Historic Event
1879 Thomas Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park
- 1880 Battle at Bronker's Spruit, Transvaal: Farmers beat Britten
- 1880 NY's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as "Great White Way"
- 1883 Intl cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls
- 1891 Strongman Louis Cyr withstands pull of 4 horses
- 1892 Pneumatic automobile tire patented, Syracuse, NY
- 1893 1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia
- 1894 England beat Australia by 10 runs in the 1st six-day Test Cricket, Australia needed 177 to win, all out at 166 on 6th day
- 1900 Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft)
Boxing Title Fight
1905 'Philadelphia' Jack O'Brien wins the World Light Heavyweight boxing title after defending champion Bob Fitzsimmons of England retires in round 13 of 20 in San Francisco
Gallipoli: Guts, Glory and Defeat
1915 WWI: ANZAC troops complete their withdrawal from Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula
- 1917 A second nationwide referendum on military conscription is rejected by the Australian public
Historic Event
1918 Eugene O'Neill's "Moon of the Caribees" premieres in NYC
- 1918 The Allies turn their attention to Bolshevik expansion in the East, landing troops in Crimea and Latvia
- 1919 Canadian National Railways established (N America's longest, 50,000 KM)
- 1919 US House of Representatives restricts immigration
- 1920 Bert Collins scores 104 on Test Cricket debut v England SCG
Sports History
1921 AL votes to return to best-of-7 World Series, while NL votes best-of-9; Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis casts deciding vote for best-of-7
- 1922 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)
- 1922 Polish parliament selects Stanislaw Wojcieckowski as president
Coup d'état
1924 Adolf Hitler freed from jail early, having served only nine months of five-year sentence for "Beer Hall Putsch"
- 1925 National Football League Championship: Chicago Cardinals (11-2-1) win controversial first past the post title; Pottsville Maroons suspended after playing unsanctioned game
- 1926 Sidney Howard's "Silver Cord" premieres in NYC
Sports History
1926 St. Louis Cardinals trade future Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Rogers Hornsby to NY Giants for Frankie Frisch & Jimmy Ring; concerns over Hornsby's gambling
- 1928 1st international dogsled mail leaves Minot, Maine for Montreal, Quebec
- 1928 Ethel Barrymore Theater opens at 243 W 47th St NYC
- 1929 Heinie Wagner replaces Bill Carrigan as Red Sox manager
- 1929 Mount Davidson dedicated as a San Francisco city park
- 1930 Cricketer Learie Constantine scores 100 runs in 52 mins West Indies v Tasmania (10x4, 1x6, 1x5)
- 1932 50 year old Australian cricket Test spinner Bert Ironmonger captures 7-13 as Queensland dismissed for 74; Victoria wins by an innings & 139 runs in Melbourne
- 1933 Bolivia & Paraguay sign cease fire
- 1935 Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Ad Catholici Sacerdotii on the importance of priestly celibacy
- 1937 Australian cricket spin bowler Bill O'Reilly takes career best 9-41 for NSW in a Sheffield Shield match against South Australia at Adelaide Oval
- 1938 Boston Bruins rookie goalie Frankie Brimsek records his 3rd straight shutout with a 3-0 win over the New York Americans, making it his incredible sixth shutout in his first 8 NHL games
- 1939 Radio Australia begins overseas shortwave service
Sports History
1940 Connie Mack acquires controlling interest in the Athletics for $42,000
- 1941 Free France under adm Muselier occupies St-Pierre et Miquelon
- 1941 Japanese troops land on Mindanao, Philippines
- 1941 World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
- 1942 1st Japanese bombing of Calcutta
- 1943 "Internationale" is no longer used as USSR National Anthem
- 1944 Archbishop De Young & bishop Huibers condemn black market
- 1944 Battle of Bastogne: Nazis surround 101st Airborne (NUTS!)
- 1944 Bishop forbids membership of non Catholic unions
Historic Event
1944 Terence Rattigan's "O Mistress Mine" premieres in London
- 1945 Rationing of auto tires ends in US
Film Premiere
1946 Christmas classic "It's a Wonderful Life" film, directed by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore premieres in New York
Music Premiere
1946 Darius Milhaud's 2nd Symphony, premieres with the Boston Symphony conducted by the composer; the work was commissioned as a memorial to the wife of group's music director Serge Koussevitzky
- 1948 Second Chamber accept 2nd Police Action in Indonesia
Music History
1949 Maurice Ravel and John Cranko's ballet "Beauty And The Beast" premieres
Film Premiere
1950 "Harvey" starring James Stewart premieres in New York
- 1951 Walter Zinn's Experimental Breeder Reactor I, the first nuclear reactor to produce electric power, goes live at the Argonne National Laboratory, USA
- 1952 KHQ TV channel 6 in Spokane, WA (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1953 KID (now KIDK) TV channel 3 in Idaho Falls, ID (CBS) 1st broadcasting
- 1953 KWTV TV channel 9 in Oklahoma City, OK (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales
- 1956 Military coup under colonel Simbolon in Sumatra
- 1956 Montgomery, Alabama removes race-based seat assignments on its buses
Music History
1957 Elvis Presley receives his draft notice to join the US Army for national service
Television Debut
1962 Pop singing group the Osmond Brothers television debut on Andy Williams Show
Film Release
1963 "Contempt" film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Brigitte Bardot and Jack Palance, is released
- 1963 Berlin Wall opens for 1st time to West Berliners
- 1963 Massemba-Debate elected President of Congo-Brazzaville
- 1963 Trial against 21 camp guards of Auschwitz begins
- 1964 Levi Eshkol forms 12th Israeli government
- 1966 NBA awards Seattle Supersonics a franchise for 1967-68 season
- 1966 Nuclear Planning Group forms in Brussels
- 1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1967 474,300 US soldiers in Vietnam
- 1967 Ian Anderson and Glenn Cornick form rock group "Jethro Tull" in Blackpool, England
- 1968 Learie Constantine becomes UK's first person of African descent to be named a life peer (to sit in the House of Lords) in the Crown's New Year's Honours list [1]
- 1968 The People's Democracy (PD) announce that its members will undertake a protest march from Belfast to Derry beginning 1 January 1969
- 1968 The Zodiac Killer murders teenagers Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday while on their first date together in Vallejo, California [1]
#1 in the Charts
1969 Peter, Paul & Mary's cover of John Denver's song "Leaving On A Jet Plane" reaches #1
- 1970 Edward Gierek succeeds Wladyslaw Gomulka as Poland's communist party leader
Historic Publication
1971 First preview issue of "Ms" magazine is published in the US launched by Gloria Steinem
- 1971 Pakistan president Yahya Khan resigns
- 1972 Five civilians (four Catholics, one Protestant) killed in gun attack on the Top of the Hill Bar in Derry, North Ireland
Film & TV History
1972 Neil Simons "Sunshine Boys" premieres in NYC
Sports History
1973 AL president Joe Cronin refuses to allow Dick Williams to manage Yankees
- 1973 Dutch Antillean government of Evertsz forms
Sports History
1973 Montreal Canadien Henri Richard scores his 1,000th NHL point
Film Release
1974 "The Godfather Part II", directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1975)
- 1974 Ethiopia becomes socialist one-party state
Album Release
1974 George Harrison releases "Dark Horse", his fifth studio album in UK
- 1975 Joe Walsh recruited to join Eagles
Historic Event
1976 Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin resigns
- 1976 Richard Adler and Will Holt's musical "Music Is", based on William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", opens at St James Theater, NYC; runs for 8 performances
- 1977 1st Space walk made by Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Grechko during Salyut 6 EO-1 mission
- 1977 RAF -terrorist Knut Folkerts sentenced to 20 years
Historic Event
1978 H. R. Haldeman, Nixon's White House Chief of Staff released from jail
- 1979 Garry Sherman and Peter Udell's musical "Comin' Uptown", based on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", and starring Gregory Hines, opens at Winter Garden Theater, NYC; runs for 45 performances
- 1979 Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Behn Wilson scores with 4:08 remaining in regulation to earn a 1-1 tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins and equal NHL record for longest undefeated streak of 28 games; go on to break record and extend to 35 games
- 1980 USSR formally announces death of Alexei Kosygin
- 1981 Browns set team records for most fumbles (9) & most turnovers (10)
- 1981 Harry Krieger and Tom Eyen's musical "Dreamgirls" opens at Imperial Theater, NYC; runs for 1522 performances, wins 6 Tony, 5 Drama Desk, and 2 Grammy Awards
- 1981 Winnipeg left wing Doug Smail sets NHL record by scoring just 4 seconds into Jets' 5-4 win over the St Louis Blues; fastest goal from opening face-off to back of net in history; later tied by Bryan Trottier and Alex Mogilny
- 1983 El Salvador adopts constitution
Sports History
1983 Guy Lafleur, Montreal Canadiens, becomes 10th NHLer to score 500 goals
- 1983 NY Islanders score their most goals (11) vs Pitts Penguins
Historic Event
1983 PLO chairman Yasser Arafat & 4,000 loyalists evacuate Lebanon
- 1984 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Sports History
1985 Denis Potvin passes Bobby Orr as NHL defenseman scorer (916 points)
- 1985 Position of American Poet Laureate established (Robert Warren is 1st)
- 1985 Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC
- 1986 White teenagers beat blacks in New York City's Howard Beach
- 1987 76th Davis Cup: Sweden beats India in Gothenburg (5-0)
- 1987 Dona Paz ferry sinks after crash with oil tanker Vector in Philippine waters, 4,386 die in world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster
Film Premiere
1988 "Working Girl" premieres directed by Mike Nicols, starring Melanie Griffin, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver
- 1988 Animal rights terrorists fire-bomb Harrod's department store, London
- 1988 NBC signs lease to stay in NYC, 33 more years
- 1988 Premier Ranasinghe Premadasa elected President of Sri Lanka
- 1989 Premier Lubbers sees CDA-party leader Elco Brinkman as successor
Historic Event
1989 US troops invade Panama & oust Manuel Noriega, but don't catch him
- 1990 Pentagon warns Saddam that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15
- 1990 Robert F X Sillerman purchases WAFL NY-NJ Knights for $11 million
Historic Event
1990 Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns
- 1990 The world's first website and server go live at CERN
Film Premiere
1991 "Father of the Bride" film comedy starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, and Martin Short, premieres; film is a re-make of 1950 vehicle for Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor
- 1991 Missouri court sentences Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the "honor killing" of their teenaged daughter Palestina in St. Louis; he dies of diabetes complications before execution, she dies of natural causes while in prison
- 1991 NHL approves expansion teams Tampa Lightning & Ottawa Senators
Leadership Contest
1991 Paul Keating becomes Prime Minister of Australia after rolling Bob Hawke for leadership of the Labor party
- 1992 Northwest & KLM introduce a new joint logo "Worldwide Reliability"
Election of Interest
1992 Slobodan Milošević re-elected president of Serbia
- 1994 Ballon d'Or: FC Barcelona's Bulgarian forward Hristo Stoichkov is named Europe's best football player ahead of Juventus striker Roberto Baggio and Milan defender Paolo Maldini
- 1995 American Flight 965 crashes into a mountain in Buga, Colombia, 159 die, 5 survive
- 1995 NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia
- 1995 Revival of Phillip Hayes Dean's drama "Paul Robeson" opens at Longacre Theater, NYC; runs for 14 performances
- 1996 First part of the new building for the National Library of France inaugurated in Paris, designed by Dominique Perrault [1]
Film Release
1996 Horror film classic "Scream", starring Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, is released
Film Release
2002 "Gangs of New York", starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz, is released
- 2002 US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
Album Release
2005 Geffen Records releases "The Breakthrough", the 7th studio album by Mary J. Blige; it wins 3 Grammy Awrds, and sells over 3 million copies
- 2005 New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike over pension and wage increases, shutting down all subway and bus services for three days
- 2005 The first same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated
- 2005 US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
- 2006 A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
Historic Event
2007 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
- 2007 Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque completed (begun 1994), becoming the largest mosque in Abu Dhabi
Historic Event
2007 The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.
Swine Flu Pandemic
2009 US President Barack Obama receives his vaccine jab against swine flu
- 2012 Apple is denied a patent for mobile pinch-to-zoom gestures by the US patent authorities
- 2012 Intercontinental Exchange purchases the New York Stock Exchange, the largest in the world, for $8 billion
- 2014 Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley kills 2 NYPD officers in Brooklyn, New York, supposedly in revenge for the killing of Eric Garner, before killing himself
- 2015 Landslide from construction waste in Shenzhen, China leaves 74 dead or missing and buries 30 buildings
- 2017 European Commission triggers first step of its article 7 procedure issuing Poland with formal warning of risk to voting rights
- 2017 US House and Senate pass $1.5 trillion tax and jobs bill, the biggest tax overhaul for decades
- 2018 New figures show average US male weighs 198 pounds and stands 5 feet 9 inches, women 171 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches
Historic Event
2018 US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis announces his resignation after disagreements with President Donald Trump
- 2019 Landmark climate justice case as Dutch Supreme Court upholds 2013 decision brought by Urgenda Foundation against Dutch government for not reducing carbon dioxide emissions
- 2019 Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana granted US federal recognition, providing the right to certain legal and government benefits
- 2019 United States Space Force founded, an armed forces branch dedicated to space warfare
- 2020 European countries begin closing their borders to the UK after news of a faster-spreading variant of COVID-19 across London and the south-east
- 2021 First Hong Kong legislative elections with only 'patriot' candidates allowed to stand has low turnout of 30%
