Mongol Siege of Kyiv
1240 Mongols led by Batu Khan occupy and destroy Kyiv after an 8 day siege; out of 50,000 people in the city only 2,000 survive
Historic Event
1273 Thomas Aquinas is thought to have a mystical experience in Naples, refuses to continue his work "I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me"
Historic Event
1424 Don Alfonso V of Aragon grants Barcelona the right to exclude Jews
- 1527 Pope Clemens VII flees to Orvieto
- 1534 Quito, Ecuador, founded by Spanish colonists on the ruins of an Inca city
- 1631 1st predicted transit of Venus (Kepler) is observed
- 1641 Don Francisco de Mello appointed land guardian of South Netherlands
- 1648 Pride's Purge: Thomas Pride prevents 96 presbyterians from sitting in English parliament
Historic Event
1723 Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI's Pragmatic Sanction with the Diet of Hungary recognizes the King's daughters as successors
Historic Event
1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's army retreats to Scotland
Historic Event
1825 US President John Quincy Adams suggests establishment of a national observatory
Music Premiere
1841 Robert Schumann's 4th Symphony in D premieres
Music Premiere
1846 Hector Berlioz's dramatic oratorio "La Damnation de Faust" premieres, conducted by the composer at the Opéra-Comique, Paris
Historic Event
1849 Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland for the 2nd and final time
Historic Event
1862 US President Abraham Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians
- 1864 Battle of Deveaux's Neck, South Carolina
- 1865 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery (except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,) [1]
- 1866 Chicago water supply tunnel 3,227 m into Lake Michigan completed
- 1873 1st international football game in US: Yale 2, Eton (England) 1 in New Haven, Connecticut
- 1875 44th Congress (1875-77) convenes
- 1876 1st crematorium in US begins operation, Washington, Pennsylvania
Election of Interest
1876 US Electoral College casts their votes in the disputed election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden; two sets of conflicting results are returned to Congress the next day
Music Recording
1877 Thomas Edison records himself reciting "Mary had a little lamb"
- 1877 Washington Post publishes 1st edition
- 1882 Atmosphere of Venus detected during transit
- 1884 Aluminum capstone set atop Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., making it the tallest human-built structure in the world (overtaking Cologne Cathedral)
- 1896 D T Suzuki found the awakening at Engakuji temple, in Kamakura
- 1897 London becomes the world's first city to host licenced taxicabs
- 1903 Sumatra Atjehs guerilla leader Panglima Polim surrenders
Historic Event
1904 Theodore Roosevelt confirms Monroe-doctrine (Roosevelt Corollary)
- 1906 The British grant Transvaal self-government
- 1907 Coal mine explosions in Monongah, West Virginia kills 361
- 1912 China votes for universal human rights
- 1913 White Sox beat Giants 9-4 in exhibition game in Tokyo
- 1914 German troops over run Lodz
- 1916 World War I: The Central Powers under General Mackensen capture Bucharest
- 1917 French munition ship "Mont Blanc" explodes in Halifax, Canada killing 1,700
- 1917 Taking advantage of the temporary relaxation of authority in Russia, Finland declares itself a republic, following the Ukraine on 20 November
Anglo-Irish Treaty
1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty signed; Ireland receives dominion status; partition creates Northern Ireland
Election of Interest
1921 Canada's Liberal Party and its leader Mackenzie King defeats Arthur Meighen's Conservative Party and Thomas Crerar' Progressive Party in general election, goes on to form a minority government
- 1922 1st constitution of Irish Free State comes into operation
- 1922 1st electric power line commercial carrier in US, Utica, NY
Radio Premiere
1923 1st US Presidential address broadcast on radio by President Calvin Coolidge
Historic Event
1933 Ban on James Joyce's "Ulysses" in US lifted
- 1938 117 Spanish knights under capt Piet Laros return to Netherlands
Treaty of Interest
1938 French/German non-attack treaty drawn (Ribbentrop-Bonnet Pact)
- 1939 5th Heisman Trophy Award: Nile Kinnick, Iowa (HB)
Music Premiere
1939 Cole Porter's musical "Du Barry Was A Lady" opens at 46th Street Theatre, NYC; runs 408 performances
- 1940 Gestapo arrest German resistance fighter/poster artist Helen Ernst
Historic Event
1940 Pietro Badoglio resigns as viceroy of Ethiopia
- 1941 Dutch & British pilots see Japanese invasion fleet at Singapore
- 1941 NYC Council agrees to build Idlewild (Kennedy) Airport in Queens
Historic Event
1942 Queen Wilhelmina announces Dutch Commonwealth
- 1942 RAF bombs Philips factory (150 die)
- 1944 US 95th Infantry division reaches Westwall
Historic Event
1947 The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated by President Harry S. Truman
Historic Event
1954 Simone de Beauvoir receives the Prix Goncourt prize in French literature
- 1955 New York psychologist Joyce Brothers wins "$64,000 Question" with topic of boxing
- 1956 Against the background of the Soviet invasion of Hungary the nations square off at the Melbourne Olympics in a famous water polo match; game called off with Hungary leading 4-0 and near riot halted by police; Hungary goes on to win gold medal
- 1956 Australian swimmer David Theile sets world record 1:02.2 to win the 100m backstroke gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics
- 1956 Australian women's 4 × 100m freestyle relay team of Dawn Fraser, Faith Leech, Sandra Morgan & Lorraine Crapp swim world record 4:17.1 and beat powerful US team to win the gold medal at the Melbourne Olympics
- 1956 German WWII prisoner of war Helmut Bantz and Soviet gymnast Valentin Muratov tie for the vault gold medal with 18.85 points at the Melbourne Olympics
Music Premiere
1956 Harold Karr and Matt Dubey's musical "Happy Hunting", starring Ethel Merman and Fernando Lamas, opens at Majestic Theater, NYC; runs for 412 performances
Historic Event
1956 Nelson Mandela & 156 others arrested for political activities in South Africa
- 1956 Randhir Singh Gentle scores the winner as India beats Pakistan, 1-0 in the Melbourne Olympics field hockey final to win it's 6th consecutive gold medal in the sport
- 1956 Soviet gymnast Viktor Chukarin follows his parallel bars gold medal with the individual all-round title and teams gold at the Melbourne Olympics
- 1957 1st US attempt to launch a satellite fails-Vanguard rocket blows up
- 1957 AFL-CIO votes to expel Teamsters (readmitted in October 1987)
Davis Cup
1957 Gardnar Mulloy becomes oldest American to win a Davis Cup tennis match at age 44 years, 14 days; teams with Vic Seixas to give US a match-clinching, 3-0 lead over the Philippines in the Inter Zone 1st round in Adelaide, Australia
- 1957 Indonesia begins nationalizing Dutch possessions
- 1957 Roger Sessions' 3rd Symphony premieres in Boston with Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony
- 1958 US lunar probe Pioneer 3 reaches 107,269 km, falls back
- 1960 MLB American League grants American entertainer and businessman Gene Autry a franchise: Los Angeles Angels
Heisman Trophy
1961 27th Heisman Trophy Award: Ernie Davis, Syracuse (HB) (1st African American to win)
- 1962 US abandons Skybolt ballistic missile program
Music History
1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson confers Presidential Medal of Freedom on 31 recipients selected by JFK, including: contralto Marian Anderson; diplomat Ralph Bunche; cellist Pablo Casals; Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter; labor leader George Meaney; architect Mies van der Rohe; pianist Rudolf Serkin; writers E. B. White and Thorton Wilder; and painter Andrew Wyeth; as well as posthumously to JFK himself, and Pope John XXIII
- 1963 Test Cricket debut of Graeme Pollock at the Gabba
- 1963 The Beatles begin a tradition of releasing a Christmas record for fan club members
- 1964 "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" 1st airs on TV
- 1964 KTVR TV channel 13 in La Grande, OR (PBS) begins broadcasting
Historic Event
1964 President Antonio Segni of Italy resigns
- 1965 2 trucks crash into a crowd of dancers in Sotouboua Togo, kills 125
- 1965 Pakistan's Islamic Ideology Advisory Committee recommends that Islamic Studies be made a compulsory subject for Muslim students from primary to graduate level.
- 1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
- 1968 Baseball dismisses Commissioner William Eckert after 3 years
- 1968 PBA National Championship won by Wayne Zahn
- 1968 WKID (WSCV) TV channel 51 in Fort Lauderdale, FL (IND) 1st broadcast
Music Concert
1969 300,000 attend Altamont free concert in California, featuring The Rolling Stones. Marred by violence and four deaths.
Musical Finale
1969 Oscar Brown, Jr's musical "Buck White", starring Muhammad Ali, closes at George Abbott Theatre, NYC, after 7 performances
- 1969 USSR performs nuclear test
- 1970 Cleveland Cavaliers 1st NBA home victory, beating Buffalo Braves 108-106
- 1971 A woman dies trying to salvage property from the Salvation Army Citadel in Belfast after bomb which started a large fire in an adjoining building
- 1971 Lewis Franklin Powell confirmed as US Supreme Court justice
- 1973 Bahrain's constitution goes into effect
Election of Interest
1973 Gerald Ford sworn-in as first unelected Vice President, succeeds Spiro Agnew who resigned over corruption allegations
- 1973 NL votes to move San Diego Padres to Washington, D.C. (doesn't happen)
Music Single
1974 George Harrison releases single "Ding Dong, Ding Dong"
- 1975 41st Heisman Trophy Award: Archie Griffin, Ohio State (RB)
- 1975 Balcombe Street Siege: for 6 days, four Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers hold two hostages at an apartment in London, England
Historic Event
1976 Dutch war criminal Pieter Menten arrested in Zurich, Switzerland
Sports History
1981 PGA Seniors' Championship Men's Golf, Turnberry Isle CC: Miller Barber wins his first of 5 Champions Tour major titles by 2 strokes from Arnold Palmer
- 1981 Rob de Castella of Australia sets Marathon record at 2:08:18
- 1982 Droppin Well bombing: 11 British soldiers and 6 civilians are killed by an Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) time bomb at the Droppin’ Well Bar in Ballykelly, County Londonderry
- 1983 A bomb planted on a bus in Jerusalem explodes, kills 6 Israelis
- 1984 France performs nuclear test
Sports History
1984 Helena Suková snaps Martina Navratilova's 74-match winning streak 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the semi finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne; ends Navratilova's hopes of completing the Grand Slam
- 1984 Hijackers aboard Kuwaiti jetliner kill 2nd hostage
- 1986 52nd Heisman Trophy Award: Vinny Testaverde, Miami Fla (QB)
- 1986 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- 1987 3 satanist Missouri teenagers bludgeon comrade to death for "fun"
- 1987 Christa Rothenburger skates female world record 500m (39.39 sec)
- 1988 Agnes Neil Williams purchases Baltimore Orioles for $70 million Eli Jacobs becomes CEO of Baltimore Orioles
- 1988 Carlos Andres Perez re-elected president of Venezuela
- 1988 Merv Hughes takes 13 wickets v WI at the WACA but Australia lose
- 1988 Milwaukee Bucks win their 1,000th NBA game (2nd fastest)
- 1988 Nelson Mandela is transferred to Victor Vester Prison, Capetown
- 1988 STS-27 Atlantis lands in California after secret mission
Meeting of Interest
1988 Yasser Arafat meets prominent American Jews in Stockholm, Sweden
Historic Event
1990 Saddam Hussein announces release of all foreign hostages
- 1990 Shoeless Joe Jackson's signature sells, at aucton, for $23,100
- 1991 "Les Miserables" opens at Circustheater, Scheveningen
- 1991 "Star Trek VI-Undiscovered Country" premieres
- 1992 300,000 hindus destroy mosque of Babri India, 4 die
- 1992 81st Davis Cup: USA beats Switzerland in Fort Worth (3-1)
- 1992 Davis Cup Tennis, Ft. Worth, Texas: Jim Courier defeats Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to give the US a 3-1 victory
NFL Record
1992 San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice catches NFL record 101st touchdown in a 27-3 win over Miami Dolphins at Candlestick Park
Agreement of Interest
1992 San Francisco Giants sign record $43million USD pact with Pirates MLB outfielder Barry Bonds
Music History
1995 Michael Jackson collapses while rehearsing for an HBO special
Election of Interest
1998 Hugo Chávez is elected President of Venezuela
Historic Event
2000 Great Court of the British Museum redesigned with the largest covered courtyard in Europe by Foster & Partners opened by Queen Elizabeth II [1]
- 2001 The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador
Film Premiere
2002 "Adaptation" directed by Spike Jonze, starring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep premieres
Billboard Music Awards
2005 16th Billboard Music Awards: Green Day, 50 Cent, and Mariah Carey win
- 2005 Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China
- 2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars
Film & TV History
2008 American pin-up model Bettie Page (85) is hospitalized in critical condition after suffering a heart attack
- 2009 98th Davis Cup: Spain beats Czech Republic in Barcelona (5-0)
Theatrical Finale
2009 Final Broadway performance of "A Steady Rain", starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig
Historic Event
2010 Record price for a printed book when a first edition of "The Birds of America" by John James Audubon auctioned at Sotheby's, London, England, for £7,321,250
Historic Event
2013 Pope Francis gives his ascent to a proposal to create a permanent post on the Pontifical Commission on cases of sin and sexual abuse of minors
- 2017 "Supermassive" most distant black hole discovery announced by astronomers in journal "Nature", 13 billion light-years away, 800 x bigger than the Sun
Historic Event
2017 Andrej Babiš is sworn as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
- 2017 Brazilian drug lord Rogério da Silva arrested in Rio
- 2017 Britain's top Brexit negotiator David Davis admits there has been "no systematic impact assessment" on effects of Brexit
- 2017 Skirball wildfire near Los Angeles closes the Interstate 405 as thousands forced to evacuate
- 2017 Starbucks opens its largest cafe in the world in Shanghai, 30,000 square-feet, 1/2 size of a football field
- 2017 Time Magazine names their Person of the Year "The Silence Breakers", people who came forward to report sexual misconduct
Historic Event
2017 US President Donald Trump officially recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital, announcing plans to move US embassy there
- 2018 Luxembourg is the first country to make all public transport free
- 2018 Oldest-known plague sample found in 4,900-year-old remains of 20-year old woman in Gökhem, southern Sweden published in "Cell"
- 2018 Senegal's new Museum of Black Civilisations is opened in Dakar by President Macky Sall
Sports History
2018 Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry explodes for franchise-record 238 yards & 4 touchdowns in 30-9 win v Jacksonville Jaguars in Nashville; 99-yard TD run ties Dallas Cowboys HOF RB Tony Dorsett's longest run in NFL history
- 2020 Japanese space capsule Hayabusa-2 lands safely back on earth in Australia, carrying first significant rock samples from an asteroid, the Ryugu
- 2020 US President Donald Trump orders about 700 troops withdrawn from Somalia
Historic Event
2021 Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years (later reduced to two) for inciting public unrest and breaching Covid-19 protocols [1]
- 2021 New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announces a COVID-19 mandate for all private employers effective December 27, to combat Omicron, 1st in the country
- 2022 Argentine Vice-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner found guilty of fraud, sentenced to six years in prison and banned from holding office [1]
- 2022 Donald Trump's real estate company Trump Organization convicted of tax fraud in New York [1]
- 2022 Indonesia passes a new criminal code outlawing sex outside marriage, even for foreigners [1]
Film Premiere
2022 James Cameron's sci-fi film sequel "Avatar: The Way of Water" starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña premieres in London
- 2022 The 1,574th - and last - Boeing 747 jumbo jet rolls off of production line in Everett, Washington [1]
