Assassination
1170 English Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket assassinated before the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral by four knights
Historic Event
1653 Dutch painter Jan Vermeer becomes a member of the Guild of Saint Luke for painters in Delft
Theater Premiere
1806 Thomas Dibdin's pantomime "Harlequin and Mother Goose" starring Joseph Grimaldi, in his most famous clown performance, opens at the Covent Garden Theatre, London
Trail of Tears
1835 Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States
- 1837 Canadian militia destroy Caroline, a US steamboat docked at Buffalo
- 1837 Steam-powered threshing machine patented in Winthrop, Maine
- 1841 King and Grand Duke Willem II installs Order of Eikenkroon
- 1845 Texas admitted as 28th state of the Union
- 1848 Gas lights 1st installed at White House (Polk's administration)
- 1851 1st American Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) chapter opened in Boston, Massachusetts
- 1852 Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants
Music Premiere
1857 Franz Liszt's symphonic poem "Die Hunnenschlacht" premieres in Weimar
- 1860 The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, HMS Warrior is launched
Victory in Battle
1862 Battle of Chichasaw Bayou: confederate armies defeat General William T. Sherman
Wounded Knee Massacre
1890 US 7th Cavalry massacre 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee, South Dakota
Music History
1902 Scot Joplin copyrights "The Entertainer" and several other piano rag compositions through the US Copyright Office
- 1903 French Equatorial Africa separates into Gabon, Chad and Ubangi-Shari
- 1906 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers beat New Glasgow (NS), 7-2 for 17-5 aggregate challenge series victory
- 1908 Patent granted for a 4-wheel automobile brake, Clintonville, Wisconsin
- 1911 Proclamation restores "Dei Gratia" from Canada's coins
- 1911 San Francisco Symphony forms
Election of Interest
1911 Sun Yat-sen elected 1st President of the Republic of China
Election of Interest
1921 Mackenzie King is sworn in as the 10th Prime Minister of Canada
Film Premiere
1932 Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers' 1st joint movie "Flying Down to Rio," directed by Thornton Freeland, premieres in NYC
Film Release
1933 "Sons of the Desert" film directed by William A. Seiter starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is released
- 1934 First collegiate basketball doubleheader is played at Madison Square Garden, NYC; New York University beats Notre Dame, 25-18; Westminster edges St. John's, 37-33
- 1934 Federico Garcia Lorca's "Yerma" premieres in Madrid
- 1934 Japan renounces Wash Naval Treaty of 1922 and London Treaty of 1930
- 1937 Constitution of Ireland (Irish: Bunreacht na hÉireann) is enacted and Irish free state is named Eire
'Hitler Will Have to Break Us or Lose the War'
1940 Worst German air raid on London as over 10,000 bombs including the 1st incendiary bombs are dropped on the city as part of the Blitz
- 1944 Belgian Walloon Nazi collaborator Léon Degrelle sentenced to death
Historic Event
1944 General Eisenhower's train returns to Versailles
NHL Record
1945 Montreal right wing Maurice Richard scores twice in Canadiens' 5-4 loss to Chicago Black Hawks to record his 100th NHL career goal; reaches mark in 145 games, then fastest in history; since broken by Mike Bossy, 100 goals in 129 games
- 1947 Ship carrying Jewish immigrants driven away from Palestine
- 1948 "Rape of Lucretia" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 23 performances
- 1948 Canada recognizes Israel
- 1948 US State Department announces work on placing objects into Earth orbit
- 1949 1st UHF television station operating regular basis Bridgeport, Connecticut
- 1949 Hungary nationalized its industries
- 1952 1st transistorized hearing aid offered for sale (Elmsford NY)
- 1954 Kingdom of Netherlands, with Netherlands & Netherlands Antilles as autonomous parts, comes into being
Music History
1955 Barbra Streisand's 1st recording "You'll Never Know" at age 13
- 1955 NHL officials wear new vertically striped black-and-white sweaters for the first time in Montreal Canadiens' 5-2 win over Toronto Maple Leafs
- 1957 National Football League Championship, Briggs Stadium, Detroit: Detroit Lions beat Cleveland Browns, 50-14; Lions score 2 touchdowns in each quarter
- 1958 TV soap "Young Dr Malone" debuts
- 1959 Saul Levitt's "Andersonville Trial" premieres in NYC
- 1962 Australian cricket batting champion Doug Walters makes 1st-class debut for NSW v Queensland in Sydney at just 17 years, 8 days; scores 50 in NSW 2nd innings
Sports History
1962 British driver Graham Hill wins the South African Grand Prix at Prince George Circuit in a BRM; takes out his first F1 World Drivers Championship by 12 points from Scotsman Jim Clark
- 1963 National Football League Championship, Wrigley Field, Chicago: Chicago Bears beat New York Giants, 14-10; Giants 3rd consecutive championship defeat; played in temperatures under 10 °F (−12 °C)
Film Premiere
1965 "Thunderball", 4th James Bond film starring Sean Connery and Claudine Auger premieres in Tokyo, Japan
- 1965 CBS purchases NFL TV rights for 1966-68 at $18.8 million per year
Music Single
1965 The Supremes release single "My World is Empty Without You"
- 1966 Pirate Radio Phoenix, 1st transmission (Worcester, Massachusetts)
- 1967 Star Trek's "Trouble With Tribbles" 1st airs
- 1967 Turkish-Cypriot government forms in Cyprus
- 1968 NFL Championship, Cleveland Municipal Stadium: Baltimore Colts shutout Cleveland Browns, 34-0
- 1968 Israeli commandos destroy 13 Lebanese airplanes
Sports History
1968 AFL Championship, Shea Stadium, NYC: New York Jets beat Oakland Raiders 27-23; Joe Namath 3 TD passes sparks Jets to win
- 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act (United States) signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon
Football Awards
1970 Ballon d'Or: Bayern Munich striker Gerd Müller wins award for best European football player ahead of West Ham United defender Bobby Moore and Cagliari forward Luigi Riva
- 1972 Eastern Tristar Jumbo Jet crashes near Everglades killing 101
- 1972 Life magazine ceases publication
- 1972 Test Cricket debut of Jeff Thomson and Max Walker v Pakistan at MCG
- 1972 President of Sinn Féin Ruairi O Bradaigh is arrested and held under new legislation in Republic of Ireland
- 1972 "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" film written and directed by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinski premieres in West Germany
- 1974 Murray Schisgal's "All Over Town" premieres in NYC
- 1974 AFC Championship, Oakland Coliseum: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Oakland Raiders, 24-13
- 1974 NFC Championship, Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington: Minnesota Vikings beat Los Angeles Rams, 14-10
- 1975 11 killed, 75 hurt by terrorist bomb at LaGuardia Airport in NYC
- 1977 Ronald Ribman's "Cold Storage" premieres in NYC
Historic Event
1978 Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi asks Shapour Bahktiar to form a civilian government
- 1978 Spain constitution goes into effect
- 1978 Test Cricket debut of Allan Robert Border, v England at the MCG
- 1979 Red Army beats NY Islanders 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum
- 1980 Shuttle STS-1 moves from Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) to Launch Complex 39A
- 1981 Ballon d'Or: German 1-2-3 with Bayern Munich forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge taking title of Europe's best football player for the 2nd straight year; beats teammate Paul Breitner and Barcelona midfielder Bernd Schuster
Music History
1982 Bob Marley postage stamp issued in Jamaica
- 1982 American college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant ends his career with University of Alabama (323 wins)
Sports History
1983 Indian cricket opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar scores an unbeaten 236 in drawn 6th Test v West Indies at Chennai; his 4th Test double century and 30th century, surpassing Don Bradman's record of 29
- 1983 Graeme Yallop completes 268 v Pakistan at cricket MCG
- 1983 US formally notifies UNESCO that it will withdraw from the organization on the Jan 1, 1985, in protest over perceived anti-Western bias, efforts to restrict press freedom and wasteful management methods
- 1984 5th United Negro College Fund
- 1984 Blues took 27 shots against Islanders in 1 period
Election of Interest
1984 Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi claims victory in parliamentary elections
Sports History
1984 Wayne Gretzky scores his NHL career 32nd hat trick & adds 3 assists in Edmonton's 6-3 win over Detroit Red Wings for his 100th point in just 35 games; 2nd fastest in history - recorded 100 points in 34 games in 1983
- 1987 Ballon d'Or: Milan's Dutch midfielder Ruud Gullit wins best football player in Europe award ahead of Paulo Futre (Porto/Atlético Madrid) and Real Madrid striker Emilio Butragueño
- 1988 Soviet Red Army Team edges NY Islanders, 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum
- 1988 Victorian Post Office Museum in Australia closes
- 1988 Toronto’s Ed Olczyk and Gary Leeman score goals just 4 seconds apart in the 3rd period, tying the NHL record for fastest 2 goals by one team; Leafs beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-5.
- 1989 Jane Pauley says goodbye to NBC's "Today" show
Historic Event
1989 Václav Havel is selected to be president of Czechoslovakia by the Federal Assembly shortly after the Velvet Revolution
- 1989 Wayne Gretzky and Martina Navratilova, named athletes of decade by the Associated Press
- 1989 Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
Theatrical Finale
1991 "A Christmas Carol", starring Patrick Stewart, in a one-man show, closes at Eugene O'Neill Theater, NYC, after a limited run of 14 performances
- 1991 12th United Negro College Fund "Parade of Stars" telethon, hosted by Lou Rawls airs from Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood, and The Apollo Theatre in Harlem, NYC
Historic Event
1991 Boeing 747-200F freight plane of China Airlines crashes into mountain shortly after takeoff from Chiang Kai-shek International Airportat Taipei, Taiwan, killing 5-member crew
- 1992 Governor Cuomo grants Jean Harris (Scarsdale Diet Dr killer) clemency
Music History
1993 Courtney Love sues doctors for leaking news of her methadone treatment
Sports History
1994 Shane Warne takes a hat-trick v England at cricket MCG
- 1996 "Dreams & Nightmares" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC
- 1996 "Skylight" closes at Royale Theater NYC after
- 1996 "Taking Sides" closes at Atkinson Theater NYC
- 1997 Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu
- 1997 Orville Lynn Majors, 36, arrested for many deaths under his care
- 1997 Russia signs agreement to build a $3B nuclear power plant in China
- 1997 Cricket Women's World Cup: Australia defeats New Zealand by 5 wickets
- 1998 Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over a million people
- 2001 Mesa Redonda shopping center fire, Lima, Peru, at least 291 killed.
- 2003 50th National Film Awards (India): "Mondo Meyer Upakhyan" wins the Golden Lotus
- 2007 American boxer Steve Cunningham defends his IBF cruiserweight title for the first time with a 12th-round TKO of local favourite Marco Huck in Bielefeld, Germany
- 2012 200 people are executed by the Syrian army in Homs
- 2012 21 security personnel are killed by Pakistani Taliban near Peshawar
- 2012 5 people are killed in a Tupolev Tu-204 plane crash in Moscow
- 2013 Chaparrastique volcano erupts in El Salvador
- 2013 16 people are killed and 40 are wounded by a suicide bomb attack at Volgograd-1 railway station, Russia
- 2013 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says barrel bombs on Aleppo have killed 517 people since 15th December
Sports History
2013 7-time world F1 motor racing champion Michael Schumacher suffers a serious head injury in a ski accident in the French Alps; his condition still remains unclear
- 2015 Ebola epidemic in Guinea declared over by WHO, 2,500 died over 2 years
Historic Event
2016 US President Barack Obama retaliates against Russia for hacking American computer systems and trying to influence the 2016 presidential election by ejecting 35 Russian spies and imposing sanctions
- 2018 40 militants killed in Giza and El-Arish by Egyptian police after attack on a tourist bus the day before killed four
- 2018 85th Orange Bowl: #1 Alabama beats #4 Oklahoma, 45-34
- 2018 Record lowest temperature of -111C registered by American satellite Noaa-20 in the western Pacific at top of large storm [1]
- 2020 Milwaukee Bucks break NBA record for most 3-pointers made by a team in a single game with 29 in a dominant 144-97 victory over the Heat in Miami
