- 473 The future Zeno I is named associate emperor by Emperor Leo I
- 1183 Battle of Mizushima: Japanese Taira clan defeat the Minamoto
- 1278 680 Jews arrested (293 hanged) in England for counterfeiting coins
- 1292 (O.S.) John Balliol becomes King of Scots
Event of Interest
1491 Anne of Brittany becomes engaged to King Charles VIII of France
- 1511 England, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire sign anti-French covenant The Treaty of Westminster
Event of Interest
1555 William I of Orange becomes member of Council of State
Event of Interest
1558 Elizabeth I aged 25, ascends the English throne upon death of her half sister, Queen "Bloody" Mary
- 1558 The independence of the Church of England is re-established upon ascension of Elizabeth I to the throne
Event of Interest
1603 English explorer, writer and courtier Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason
- 1636 Brazilian general Henrique Dias wins a decisive battle against the Dutch in Brazil
- 1659 Peace of the Pyrenees is signed between France and Spain
- 1734 Printer John Zenger, arrested for libel against NY colonial governor William Cosby; later acquitted
- 1774 First City Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry formed at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, one of the oldest US military units still in service
- 1785 Church of England organizes in New England
- 1798 Beginning of a 5 day New England Blizzard that covers thousands of houses and kills hundreds
- 1800 Congress holds its 1st session in Washington, D.C. in an incomplete Capitol Building
- 1800 U.S. Congress meets for the first time in the newly built Capitol in Washington, D.C., which had been established by The Residence Act of July 16, 1790
- 1812 Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Krasnoi during Napoleon's retreat from Moscow
- 1827 The Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York
- 1831 Ecuador and Venezuela separated from Greater Colombia
Oberto
1839 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio" premieres at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan
Event of Interest
1855 David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe
Event of Interest
1862 Union General Ambrose Burnside marches north out of Washington, D.C., to begin the Fredericksburg campaign
- 1863 -Dec 4th) Battle of Knoxville, Tennessee
Event of Interest
1863 Abraham Lincoln begins 1st draft of his Gettysburg Address
- 1866 Opera "Mignon" by Ambroise Thomas premieres at the Opéra-Comique in Paris, Francce
- 1869 Englishman James Moore wins 1st bicycle race, racing 13K Paris to Rouen
- 1869 Suez Canal in Egypt opens, linking Mediterranean and Red seas
- 1873 Rival cities of Buda & Pest unite to form the capital of Hungary
- 1874 Emigrant ship Cospatrick catches fire & sinks off Auckland, New Zealand
- 1875 American Theosophical Society founded by Mme Blavatsky & Colonel Olcott
Music Premiere
1876 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's patriotic Slavonic March makes its premiere in Moscow to a warm reception
- 1877 Russia launches a surprise night attack that overruns Turkish forces at Kars, Armenia
The Sorcerer
1877 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "The Sorcerer" premieres at the Opera Comique, London
Sports History
1884 Cops arrest boxer John L. Sullivan in his 2nd round for being "cruel"
- 1885 The Serbian Army, with Russian support, invades Bulgaria
- 1888 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky' conducts the premiere of his 5th Symphony at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Russia
- 1889 Union Pacific begins daily through service, Chicago-Portland & San Francisco
- 1894 Daily Racing Form founded
Event of Interest
1894 Serial killer H. H. Holmes is arrested in Boston after being tracked there from Philadelphia by the Pinkertons
- 1903 Dahomey (Benin) becomes a French protectorate
- 1903 In the Treaty of Petropolis, Bolivia cedes the territory of Arce to Brazil; Bolivia gains rail and water outlets in the east
- 1905 The Eulsa Treaty is signed between Japan and Korea
- 1913 1st US dental hygienists course forms, Bridgeport, Connecticut
- 1913 The first ship sails through the Panama Canal, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
- 1914 US declares Panama Canal Zone neutral
Event of Interest
1917 Vladimir Lenin defends "temporary" removal of freedom of the press
- 1918 German troops evacuate Brussels
- 1918 Social Democratic Party becomes Communistc Party Holland: CPH
End of the Ottoman Empire
1922 The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, is expelled to Malta on a British warship
Event of Interest
1929 Nikolai Bukharin is expelled from the Soviet Politburo amidst a power struggle with Joseph Stalin
- 1929 Pascual Ortiz Rubio elected president of Mexico
Sweet & Low
1930 Musical "Sweet & Low" with Fanny Brice premieres in NYC
Event of Interest
1931 Charles Lindbergh inaugurates Pan Am service from Cuba to South America in the Sikorsky flying boat "American Clipper"
- 1932 German government of von Papen resigns
- 1933 Marx brothers film "Duck Soup" directed by Leo McCarey and starring the Marx Brothers is released in the US
- 1933 United States recognizes Soviet Union, opens trade
- 1936 Edgar Bergen and dummy Charlie McCarthy become an overnight success on radio
- 1937 Britain's Lord Halifax visits Germany, beginning of appeasement
- 1938 Italy passes its own version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws
- 1939 German U-boat torpedoes passenger ship
Very Warm for May
1939 Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical "Very Warm for May", featuring June Allyson, Eve Arden, and Vera-Ellen, and directed by Vincente Minnelli opens at the Alvin Theatre, NYC; runs for 59 performances, inspiring 9-year old audience member Stephen Sondheim's love for musical theater
- 1939 The Rome-Rio de Janeiro air connection created
- 1940 Green Bay Packers become 1st NFL team to travel by plane
- 1941 Virgil Thomson's 2nd Symphony, premieres
- 1945 "Girl from Nantucket" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC after 12 performances
- 1945 New world air speed record 606 mph (975 kph) set by HJ Wilson of RAF
- 1947 The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
- 1948 Britain's House of Commons votes to nationalize steel industry
- 1951 Britain reports development of the world's first nuclear-powered heating system
- 1953 St Louis Browns officially become the Baltimore Baseball Club Inc
- 1953 The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland are evacuated to the mainland
- 1953 United States joins the United Nations in condemning Israel's raid on Jordan on October 4, 1953
Sports History
1959 SF Giants future Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Willie McCovey wins NL Rookie of Year
Little Me
1962 Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh's musical "Little Me" opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theater, NYC; runs for 257 performances
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh, Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1964 British Labour Party installs weapon embargo against South Africa
- 1965 General Meeting of UN refuses admittance of People's Republic of China
- 1965 The NVA ambushes American troops of the 7th Cavalry at Landing Zone Albany in the la Drang Valley, almost wiping them out
- 1965 William Eckert is unanimously elected commissioner of baseball
- 1966 Leonids meteor shower peaks (150,000+ per hour)
- 1967 Beatles Ltd & Apple Music Ltd swap names
Music History
1967 Davy Jones of the Monkees opens a boutique, Zilch I, in Greenwich Village, New York
- 1967 French author Régis Debray sentenced to 30 years in Bolivia
- 1967 Surveyor 6 becomes 1st man-made object to lift off Moon
- 1968 "Heidi Game", NBC cuts to show "Heidi" and misses Raider's rally to beat Jets, 43-32
- 1968 Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator George Papadopoulos
Zorba
1968 John Kander and Fred Ebbs' musical "Zorba" opens at Imperial Theater New York City for 305 performances
Historic Invention
1970 Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse
Music Recording
1970 Elton John performs a live studio concert broadcast for WABC in New York City, later released as his 11-17-70 album
- 1970 Russia lands Lunokhod 1 unmanned remote-controlled vehicle on Moon
- 1973 Greek regime attacks students with tanks, 100s killed
- 1973 Teri Garr plays new nurse, Lt Suzanne Marquetten, on "The Sniper" episode of TV series M*A*S*H
Event of Interest
1973 US President Richard Nixon tells AP "...people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook"
- 1974 Aliança Operário-Camponesa (Worker-Peasant Alliance) founded in Portugal as a front of PCP(m-l).
- 1974 Bonnie Bryant becomes the only left-handed player in history to win an LPGA Tour event; scores a 3-stroke victory in the Bill Branch Golf Classic in Fort Myers, Florida
- 1974 Union of Banana Exporting Countries (UPEB) forms
- 1976 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
- 1977 Bernard Pomerance's "Elephant Man" premieres in London
Event of Interest
1977 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat formally accepts invitation to visit Israel
- 1977 Miss World Contest - Miss UK wears $9,500 platinum bikini
Salem's Lot
1979 "Salem's Lot", American two-part miniseries based on the horror novel of the same name by Stephen King, premieres in the United States
Event of Interest
1979 Ayatollah Khomeini frees most black & female US hostages
- 1979 Daniel Okrent sketches out 1st draft rules for Rotisserie Baseball on a flight to Austin, TX
- 1979 NY Stars (WBL) home opener at Madison Square Garden in NYC
Double Fantasy
1980 Geffen Records releases John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album "Double Fantasy"
9 to 5 and Odd Jobs
1980 RCA-Victor Records releases "9 to 5 and Odd Jobs", the 23rd studio album by country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton
- 1980 WHHM Television in Washington, D.C., becomes the first African-American public-broadcasting television station
- 1981 "1st" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 37 performances
- 1981 NBA NY Knick Bill Cartwright, ties record of 19 of 19 free throws
Event of Interest
1982 Dale Murphy wins NL MVP
- 1983 "La Tragedie de Carmen" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 187 performances
Yentl
1983 Film "Yentl" produced, directed and starring Barbra Streisand and Mandy Patinkin premieres, based on play and story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
- 1983 Harm Wiersma retains checkers world championship
- 1983 Philadelphia Flyers win 13th straight NHL game
- 1984 Golden State Warrior Purvis Short scores career high 59 points though team loses to NJ Nets 124-110
- 1984 Islanders score 20 assists against Rangers
Sports History
1985 35th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Darrell Waltrip wins
Music Premiere
1985 David Diamond's 9th Symphony, dedicated to Dmitri Mitropoulos, premieres with the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein
- 1985 Howard Stern begins broadcasting on 92.3 WXRK FM New York, N.Y.
- 1985 NBC's premiere of controversial TV thriller "Hostage Flight"
- 1985 NY Jets best offensive production beating Tampa Bay 62-28
- 1986 "Oh Coward!" opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC for 56 performances
- 1987 George Bell is 1st Blue Jay ever to win the AL MVP
- 1988 Linda Petursdottir of Iceland, 18, crowned 38th Miss World
- 1988 Neil Simon's "Rumors" premieres in NYC
- 1989 Bret Saberhagen signs record $2,966,667 per year KC Royal contract
- 1989 Student demonstration in Prague put down by riot police, leading to an uprising (the Velvet Revolution) that will topple the communist government on Dec. 29
- 1990 American singer David Crosby breaks his left leg, ankle and shoulder in a motorcycle accident in Los Angeles, California
- 1991 1st TV condom ad aired (FOX- TV)
Sports History
1991 41st NASCAR Sprint Cup: Dale Earnhardt wins
- 1991 Detroit Lion Mike Utley is paralized in a game vs LA Rams
Sports History
1991 In an all-American final Pete Sampras wins his first of 5 ATP Tour World Championship tennis titles with a 3–6, 7–6, 6–3, 6–4 victory over Jim Courier in Frankfurt, Germany
- 1991 Revival of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's musical "Brigadoon" closes at New York State Theater, NYC, after 12 performances
- 1992 "Gypsy Passion" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 55 performances
- 1992 "The Bodyguard" movie soundtrack is released by Arista Records (Billboard Album of the Year 1993)
- 1992 Blue Jay Nigel Wilson is 1st pick of Marlins in expansion draft
- 1992 Dateline NBC airs a demonstration show General Motors trucks, blowing up on impact, later revealed NBC rigged test
- 1992 Erling Kagge begins successful exploration at South pole
- 1993 "Grand Night For Singing" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 52 performances
- 1993 Antonov AN-124 flies in South Iran against mountain: 17 killed
Coup d'état
1993 General Sani Abacha leads a military coup against Ernest Shonekan's transitional administration and returns the Nigerian government to military control
- 1993 US House of Representatives approve Nafta
- 1994 3rd Germany government of Kohl forms
Sunset Boulevard
1994 Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black and Christopher Hampton's musical "Sunset Boulevard" opens at Minskoff Theater, NYC; runs for 977 performances, wins 7 Tony Awards
- 1994 Irish government of Reynolds resigns
- 1996 "Present Laughter" opens at Walter Kerr Theater NYC
- 1996 Time White and T. Assebework discover the first fossils of 2.5 million year old Australopithecus garhi, an ancestor on the human family tree, in Bouri, Middle Awash, Ethiopia
- 1997 In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre (The police then kill the assailants).
Hockey Hall of Fame
1997 Mario Lemieux enters NHL Hall of Fame
#1's
1998 Mariah Carey releases album "#1's"
- 1998 Tori Amos release a compilation of her videos, "Tori Amos: The Complete Collection: 1992-1998"
Music History
1998 Whitney Houston releases "My Love is Your Love"
- 2000 A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills 7, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.
Event of Interest
2000 Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as President of Peru
- 2002 54th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Tony Stewart wins
Sports History
2002 Australian Leyton Hewitt scores back-to-back season-ending Tennis Masters Cup titles with a classic 7–5, 7–5, 2–6, 2–6, 6–4 victory over Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero in Shanghai, China
Music History
2003 Britney Spears, at 21 years old, becomes the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- 2004 Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion USD and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.
Rent
2005 Film adaptation of Joanthan Larson's musical "Rent", starring Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs, premieres at Ziegfeld Theater, NYC
- 2005 Italy's choice of national anthem, "Il Canto degli Italiani", becomes official in law for the first time, almost 60 years after it was provisionally chosen following the birth of the republic.
- 2006 Official naming of element 111, Roentgenium (Rg).
Twilight
2008 "Twilight", based on the book by Stephenie Meyer, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, premieres in Los Angeles
- 2008 Japan, the world's second-biggest economy, slides into its first recession in seven years
- 2012 50 schoolchildren and a bus driver are killed after a train collides with a school bus in Manfalut, Egypt
- 2013 102nd Davis Cup: Czech Republic beats Serbia in Belgrade (3-2)
- 2013 50 people are killed after a Boeing 737 aircraft crashes in Kazan, Russia
- 2013 Abdulla Yameen becomes the President of the Maldives
Sports History
2013 German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel wins record 8th consecutive Formula 1 race with victory in United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas
- 2013 Giorgi Margvelashvili becomes the President of Georgia
- 2013 Jimmie Johnson wins the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the sixth time
- 2014 The Church of England adopts legislation enabling the appointment of female bishops
Film & TV History
2015 Actor Charlie Sheen confirms that he is HIV-positive
