- 536 Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire
- 656 Battle of Kameel: Kalief Al ibn Abu Talib beats rebellion
- 730 Battle of Marj Ardabil, Turkic Khazar army led by Barjik defeats Umayyad force, with 20,000 killed including general al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah, whose head is mounted on a throne
- 1212 Frederick II (later also Holy Roman Emperor) crowned King of Germany in Mainz
- 1315 Swiss Woudsteden renews Eternal Covenant (Oath Society)
- 1425 Pope Martinus V forms University of Leuven
- 1570 The Geuzen (a confederacy of Calvinist Dutch nobles) under Herman de Ruyter occupies Loevestein
- 1625 Netherlands & England sign military treaty
- 1640 Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Mass colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin
- 1658 Dutch troops occupy harbor city Quilon (Coilan) India
- 1724 Colley Cibber's play "Caesar in Egypt" premieres in London
- 1738 Jews are expelled from Breslau Silesia
- 1747 Great Britain & Netherlands sign military treaty
- 1762 British parliament accepts Treaty of Paris
- 1783 First execution at Newgate Jail in London (now the site of the Central Criminal Court aka the Old Bailey), relocated from Tyburn (now the site of Marble Arch)
Event of Interest
1793 Noah Webster establishes New York's 1st daily newspaper, the "American Minerva"
- 1805 Comet 3D/1805 V1 (Biela) approaches within 0.0366 AUs of Earth
- 1824 Battle of Ayacucho (Candorcangui), Peru defeats Spain
- 1842 Mikhail Glinka's opera "Russlan and Ludmilla" premieres at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, in St. Petersburg, Russia
- 1851 1st Young Men's Christian Association in North America set up in Montreal
Historic Publication
1854 Alfred Tennyson's poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" is published in "The Examiner"
Palace of Westminster
1868 The first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
Event of Interest
1878 Joseph Pulitzer buys the St. Louis Dispatch for $2,500
Event of Interest
1889 US President Benjamin Harrison dedicates the Chicago Auditorium, designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, then largest building in the US
Event of Interest
1900 President Paul Kruger of South Africa's Transvaal & Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands have a triumphant procession
Music Premiere
1905 Richard Strauss' opera "Salome" premieres in Dresden
Music History
1907 Gustav Mahler departs Vienna for America
Sports History
1913 Heavyweight Jack Johnson-Jim Johnson fight to no decision in Paris
- 1913 John K Tener becomes president of baseball's National League
- 1917 British forces under General Allenby capture Jerusalem
- 1918 French troops occupies Mainz
- 1922 1st Australasian Championships Women's Tennis, Sydney: Margaret Molesworth wins inaugural title; beats fellow Australian Esna Boyd 6-3, 10-8
Sports History
1922 Australasian Championships Men's Tennis, Sydney: James Anderson wins 1st of 3 Australasian titles; beats fellow Australian Gerald Patterson 6-0, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
- 1922 Gabriel Narutowicz elected Polish president
- 1924 Michael Hainisch re-elected Austrian president
- 1924 Netherlands & Hungary trade treaty signed
Contract of Interest
1925 AL extends Ban Johnson's contract to 1935 & raise to $40,000
- 1925 Pro football a hit in NYC; Grange & Bears beat Giants before 73,000
- 1926 USGA legalizes steel shaft golf clubs
- 1931 Baseball cuts squad from 25 to 23 players & NL continues to prohibit uniform numbers
- 1931 Benn W Levy's "Springtime for Henry" premieres in NYC
- 1931 Japanese army attacks Chinese province of Jehol
- 1931 Spain becomes a republic
- 1933 CFL Grey Cup, Athletic Park, Sarnia: Toronto Argonauts edge Sarnia Imperials, 4-3 for their 3rd Championship
- 1933 Romania prohibits fascist Iron Guard
NFL Championship
1934 National Football League Championship, Polo Grounds, NYC: New York Giants defeat Chicago Bears, 30-13
Sports History
1936 England embarrasses Australia in the 1st Test in Brisbane; home side all out for 58 as England wins by 322 runs; Don Bradman out for a duck (0)
- 1938 1939 NFL Draft: Ki Aldrich from TCU first pick by Chicago Cardinals
- 1938 State of California uses gas chamber instead of hanging for 2nd time in a week: Wesley Eudy and Fred Barnes executed for roles in Folsom Prison escape attempt resulting in murder of warden and guard (San Quentin State Prison, Marin County)
- 1939 1940 NFL Draft: George Cafego from University of Tennessee first pick by Chicago Cardinals
- 1939 CFL Grey Cup, Landsdowne Park, Ottawa: Winnipeg Blue Bombers claim 2nd title; defeat Ottawa Rough Riders, 8-7
- 1939 Pianist and statesman Ignacy Paderewski becomes Chief of National Council of Poland (government in exile)
- 1939 Russian air raid on Helsinki
- 1940 British assault on Benghazi, Libya: first major allied offensive in North Africa
- 1940 Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa are deported to Mauritius
- 1940 South Australia all out for 47 v NSW, O'Reilly 5-11
- 1941 1st US WW II bombing mission in Far East, Luzon, Philippines
Event of Interest
1941 300 Montgomery, San Francisco opens as new Bank of America HQ
- 1941 7th Heisman Trophy Award: Bruce Smith, Minnesota (HB)
Event of Interest
1941 Adolf Hitler orders US ships to be torpedoed
- 1941 China declares war on Japan, Germany & Italy
- 1941 Citizen Register reports "Hostile planes reported nearing Westchester"
- 1947 Menahem Presser (19) makes his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist in Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, under Eugene Ormandy's direction (NYC)
- 1948 UN General Assembly unanimously approves Convention on Genocide
- 1949 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts Indonesian sovereignty
- 1949 NFL merges with AAFC; Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers & Baltimore Colts join league intact, other teams in New York and Los Angeles are merged with existing units
- 1951 West German voters approve merger of 3 states to form Baden-Wurttemberg
- 1952 Great Smog of London (England): Wind resumes, lifting city's worst smog after 4 days; over 8,000 deaths attributed to conditions; clean air legislation enacted in its wake [1] [2]
- 1953 General Electric announces all Communist employees will be fired
- 1953 Montreal Canadiens (106) & Toronto Maple Leafs (98) combine for 204 penalty minutes
Appointment of Interest
1954 Dmitri Shostakovich appointed honored guest of Royal Swedish Academy of Music
- 1957 1st Japanese ambassador to Israel
- 1958 Robert W. Welch Jr and 11 other men meet in Indianapolis to form the conservative and anti-Communist John Birch Society
- 1960 1st broadcast of "Coronation Street" on British ITV
- 1961 "From the Second City" closes at Royale Theater NYC after 87 performances
- 1961 "Let It Ride" closes at Eugene O'Neill Theater NYC after 68 performances
- 1961 Tanganyika gains independence from Britain, takes name Tanzania - with Ukuru (Freedom) Torch lit on the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro
- 1962 "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" closes on Broadway
- 1962 Tanganyika becomes a republic within British Commonwealth
Music Recording
1964 John Coltrane's Quartet records their greatest work "A Love Supreme" at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Television Premiere
1965 "A Charlie Brown Christmas", the first Peanuts animated special premieres on CBS in the US
Sports History
1965 Frank Robinson is traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Baltimore Orioles
- 1965 Nikolai Podgorny replaces Anastas Mikoyan as president of Soviet Praesidium
Music Concert
1967 Jim Morrison arrested on stage for disturbing the peace at the New Haven Arena, Connecticut, making him the 1st rock star to be taken into custody during a performance
Event of Interest
1967 Nicolae Ceaușescu becomes President of Romania (overthrown in 1989)
Historic Invention
1968 In “The Mother of All Demos" Douglas Engelbart demonstrates the computer system NLS (oN-Line System) to a live audience in San Francisco. Shows for the first time, the mouse, word processing, windows, hypertext links, video conferencing, real-time collaboration, and other modern computing concepts. [1]
- 1968 KRNE TV channel 12 in Merriman, NB (PBS) begins broadcasting
Film & TV History
1968 Terence O'Neill, Northern Ireland Prime Minister, makes a television appeal for moderate opinion in what became known as the 'Ulster stands at the Crossroads' speech
- 1968 The Derry Citizen's Action Committee (DCAC) calls for a halt to all marches and protests for a period of one month
- 1970 Dutch Antilles: government of Petronia falls
- 1970 OPEC meeting in Caracas establishes 55 percent as minimum tax rate and demands that posted prices be changed to reflect changes in foreign exchange rates
- 1971 Lewis F. Powell Jr. appointed to US Supreme Court
- 1973 "Pajama Game" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 65 performances
- 1973 Arab oil ministers announce a further production cut of 5 percent for January for non-friendly countries
- 1973 NFL St. Louis Cardinal Jim Bakken kicks 6 field goals vs Atlanta Falcons
- 1973 Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland
- 1974 Dow Jones index hits 570.01
- 1974 Jack Brisco beats Giant Baba in Tokyo, to become NWA wrestling champ
- 1974 Johnson Grigsby freed after 66 years in jail in Indiana
- 1975 Iraq completes nationalization by taking over the BP, CFP, and Shell shares of the Basrah Petroleum Company
Event of Interest
1975 US President Gerald Ford signs $2.3 Bn loan authorization for NYC
Nobel Prize
1975 Yelena Bonner accepts Soviet dissident Andrei Sacharov's Nobel Prize in Oslo
- 1978 1st game of Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL), Chicago Hustle vs Milwaukee Does
- 1978 Pioneer Venus 2 drops 5 probes into atmosphere of Venus
- 1980 61°F in Boston at 1 AM
- 1981 Porn star John Holmes charged with Laurel Canyon murders
- 1982 World Boxing Council first to reduce the length of championship fights from 15 to 12 rounds, and allows referees to order standing 8-count for fighters in trouble
Event of Interest
1983 Counselor to Ronald Reagan, Edwin Meese says people go to soup kitchens "because food is free & that's easier than paying for it"
- 1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Australian Men's Tennis Open
1984 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Sweden's Mats Wilander wins 2nd straight Australian title; beats Kevin Curren of South Africa 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-2
- 1984 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1984 Iranian commandos end 5-day hijacking of Kuwaiti plane
Sports History
1984 LA Ram Eric Dickerson rushes 215 yards for season record 2,105 yards
- 1984 Senior PGA Championship, PGA National GC: Australian Peter Thomson wins his lone Champions Tour major title by 3 strokes from Don January
Event of Interest
1985 Argentinian Junta leaders Jorge Rafael Videla and Emilio Eduardo Massera sentenced to life imprisonment for human rights violations in Buenos Aires
- 1985 Phoenix, Arizona, gets 3" of snow
Sports History
1985 SF 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice begins NFL streak of 274 consecutive games with a reception in a 27-20 loss to LA Rams at Candlestick Park
Sports History
1987 Larry Bird ends streak of 59 consecutive free throws
- 1987 Palestine uprising begin in Israeli-occupied West Bank
- 1988 NY Yankees sign 12-year television contract with MSG for $500M
- 1988 Premiere of fact based crime drama film "Mississippi Burning"
- 1988 The Michael Hughes Bridge in Sligo, Ireland is officially opened.
- 1989 "Les Miserables" opens at Princess Theatre, Melbourne
- 1990 23rd NAACP Image Awards: "Coming to America" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
- 1990 Gunda Niemann skates ladies world record 3k ladies (4:10.80)
- 1990 Houston scores most points against Cleveland, Oilers 58, Browns 14
Election of Interest
1990 Lech Wałęsa wins Poland's 1st direct presidential election in Poland
- 1990 NFL NY Giant Otis Anderson becomes 8th to rush for 10,000th yard
Billboard Music Awards
1991 2nd Billboard Music Awards: Michael Jackson, Billy Ray Cyrus, Boyz II Men & U2 win
Billboard Music Awards
1992 3rd Billboard Music Awards: Whitney Houston, Garth Brooks & Dr. Dre win
- 1992 Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott apologizes for racist remarks
- 1992 NHL NJ Devils organization announces that it will change its colors to black, red, & white for the 1992-93 season
- 1992 Sri Lanka's third-ever Test Cricket victory (v NZ by 9 wkts)
Operation Restore Hope
1992 US Marines and allied nations launch an amphibious and airborne operation in Mogadishu, Somalia to restore order to the war-torn nation. Authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 794 passed on December 3.
- 1993 "My Fair Lady" opens at Virginia Theater NYC for 165 performances
- 1993 Ivory Coast Premier Ouattara resigns
- 1994 5m meteor 1994 XM1 passes within 100,000 km of Earth
- 1994 US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after comments about masturbation
- 1995 61st Heisman Trophy Award: Eddie George, Ohio State (RB)
- 1995 The Messel Pit in Germany inscribed on UNECO's World Heritage List as the world richest fossil site for Eocene period (57-36 million years ago) [1]
Film Premiere
1997 "Tomorrow Never Dies", 18th James Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh, premieres in London
- 2000 Tottenham defender Ledley King scores fastest goal in English Premier League history when he nets after 9.82 seconds in 3-3 draw at Bradford City
Film Premiere
2002 "Star Trek: Nemesis" film directed by Stuart Baird, and starring Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes premieres
Billboard Music Awards
2002 13th Billboard Music Awards: Nelly, Nickelback & Eminem win
- 2003 "Peter Pan" live action adventure film adaptation of the 1904 play and 1911 by J.M. Barrie premieres in London; flops at the box office
- 2003 A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
Film & TV History
2004 Mary-Kate Olsen pledges that woman sewing garments for her company in Bangladesh will be afforded legal maternity leave
Film Release
2005 "Brokeback Mountain" film released, directed by Ang Lee, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, based on story by Annie Proulx
- 2006 72nd Heisman Trophy Award: Troy Smith, Ohio State (QB)
- 2006 Moscow suffers its worst fire since 1977, killing 45 women in a drug rehabitational center.
Event of Interest
2008 Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for a number of alleged crimes, including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama
- 2012 13 people are killed and 10 are injured after a bus rolls of a cliff and falls 100 meters in Taiwan
- 2012 6 people are killed and 41 are injured after a bus plunges 30 metres down a gorge in Guatemala
- 2012 Incumbent Ghanaian president John Mahama wins the general election amidst allegations of fraud
Sports History
2012 Juan Manuel Márquez knocks out Manny Pacquiao in round six for the WBO light welterweight title
- 2012 The Social Liberal Union Party and Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta win by a landslide in the parliamentary elections
Sports History
2013 Mike Ditka's #89 jersey is retired by the Chicago Bears
- 2013 MLB pitcher Roy Halladay announces his retirement due to persistent back injury
- 2014 CIA Torture Report released, detailing the CIA's use of torture on detainees between 2001-2006
- 2015 Amazon's best-selling book of the year is "Girl on a Train" by Paula Hawkins
- 2015 Attack on Kandahar airport by Taliban forces kills at least 37 before Afghan forces retake control
Event of Interest
2015 German Chancellor Angela Merkel named Time Magazine's Person of the Year, for her handling of debt and refugee crises
- 2016 Ghanaian Presidential election won by Nana Akufo-Addo of the opposition New Patriotic Party
- 2016 Mosconi Cup nine-ball pool, London, England: Europe wins 7th consecutive title convincingly beating US, 11-3; MVP: Albin Ouschan (Austria)
Event of Interest
2016 South Korean MPs vote to impeach President Park Geun-hye
Film Premiere
2017 "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" directed by Rian Johnson, starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Adam Driver premieres in Los Angeles
- 2017 83rd Heisman Trophy Award: Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma (QB)
- 2017 Funeral for French rock star Johnny Hallyday draws hundreds of thousands onto Paris streets
Victory in Battle
2017 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declares victory over the Islamic State in Iraq, ending more than 3 years of conflict
- 2017 Same-sex marriage is legalized in Australia after being signed into law by the Governor General
- 2018 Armenia's acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wins a snap election with 70.4% of the vote
- 2018 Copa Libertadores Final, Madrid: River Plate beats Boca Juniors 3-1 in extra time (aggregate 5-3); Juan Quintero's stunning extra-time strike helps River come from a goal down to record historic victory over 10-man Boca
- 2018 New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady breaks Peyton Manning's record for most touchdown passes in NFL history; moves to 582 with 3 TD passes during 34-33 defeat by Miami Dolphins; record includes TDs thrown in regular season & post-season
- 2018 Tens of thousands march on Delhi, India, to demand Hindi temple be built on contentious religious site in Ayodhya
- 2018 Winter storm hits US south east killing three, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, cancelling over 1,000 flights
