- 627 Battle at Nineveh: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius beats Sassanid forces during Byzantine-Sassanid War
- 1098 1st Crusaders capture & plunder Mara Syria
- 1408 Order of the Dragon: The Order of the Dragon was first created on December 12, 1408 by Emperor Sigismund, then King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje following the battle for possession of Bosnia.
- 1474 Isabella crowns herself queen of Castile & Aragon
- 1479 Jews are expelled from Schlettstadt Alsace by Emperor Frederick III
- 1524 Pope Clement VII approves Organization of Jewish Community of Rome
- 1653 English "Barebones" Parliament ends
- 1677 Brandenburgs army occupies Stettin
Event of Interest
1694 The Royal Society censures Edmond Halley for suggesting in a paper titled 'Some considerations about the cause of the universal deluge' that the story of Noah's flood could be an account of a cometary impact
Edmond Halley
Constitution of the United States
1787 Pennsylvania becomes 2nd state to ratify US constitution
More >>
- 1791 Bank of North America opens at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia
- 1800 Washington, D.C., established as the capital of the United States of America
- 1812 French invasion of Russia comes to an end.
- 1822 Mexico officially recognized as an independent nation by US
- 1858 1st Canadian coins circulated (1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent & 20 cent)
- 1862 Battle of Dumfries, Virginia
- 1862 Naval Engagement at Yazoo River, MS (USS CAIRO torpedoed)
- 1870 Joseph Rainey (South Carolina) becomes 1st African American to serve in US House of Representatives
- 1871 Jules Janssen discovers dark lines in solar corona spectrum
Event of Interest
1874 Hawaii King David Kalakaua is 1st king to visit the US as guest of Ulysses S. Grant at 1st US state dinner at the White House
Ulysses S. Grant
Historic Communication
1901 Guglielmo Marconi sends the first transatlantic radio signal, from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland, Canada
Guglielmo Marconi
- 1903 Roger Casement completes report about abuses in Belgian Congo
- 1904 CMS McClellan's "Leah Kleschna" premieres in NYC
- 1906 Oscar Straus, 1st Jewish US government member, appointed Secretary of Commerce
- 1911 Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
- 1913 Hebrew language officially used to teach in Palestinian schools
- 1914 The largest one-day percentage drop in the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 24.39%
- 1915 1st all-metal aircraft (Junkers J-1) test flown at Dessau, Germany
- 1915 Aristide Briand forms French war government
- 1915 Russian troops overrun Hamadan, Persia
- 1917 French troop train derails in French Alps killing 543
- 1917 Rev Edward Flanagan forms Boys Town outside Omaha, Nebraska
- 1920 Maurice Ravels ballet "La Valse" premieres in Paris
- 1924 Spanish troops leave Morocco
- 1925 Arthur Heinman coins term "motel"; opens Motel Inn, San Luis Obispo
- 1925 Last Qajar Shah of Iran deposed; Rezā Shāh Pahlavi takes over
Declaration of War
1936 Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek declares war on Japan
Chiang Kai-shek
- 1937 Japanese aircraft shell & sink US gunboat Panay on Yangtze River in China. (Japan apologized & eventually paid US $2.2M in reparations)
- 1939 Russ Indigirka capsizes in blizzard off Japanese coast; 750 die
- 1940 British troops conquer Sidi el-Barrani
- 1941 European reservists on Java mobilize
- 1941 German occupying army do a house search in Paris looking for Jews
- 1941 Soviet 20th army recaptures Soljetsjnogorsk
- 1942 German offensive in South Western Stalingrad
- 1942 A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland, kills 100 people
- 1945 Special Court of justice convicts Dutch Nazi leader Mussert to death
- 1946 Ice plant collapses, shearing a tenement building & burying 38
- 1946 'Tide' detergent introduced
Event of Interest
1946 UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr
John D. Rockefeller Jr
- 1947 United Mine Workers union withdrew from AFL
- 1948 Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali Massacre - 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaysia allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
- 1949 AL votes 7-1 rejecting legalizing the spitball
- 1950 Baseball owners vote to drop 4-year old bonus & high school rule
- 1952 Dallas Texans (former Boston Yanks) play last game, last original team
- 1953 Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A rocket plane
- 1955 1st prototype of hovercraft patented by British engineer Christoper Cockerell
- 1956 Commencement of the Irish Republican Army's Border Campaign.
- 1957 Maj Adrian Drew flies 1,943 kph in F-101 Voodoo
- 1957 US announces manufacture of Borazon (harder than diamond)
- 1957 Willem J Kolff and his team at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic removed the heart from a dog and replaced it with a pneumatic pump which kept the dog alive for 90 minutes, proving the viability of the artificial heart
- 1958 Dutch social democratic party-ministers/premier Drees dismissed
- 1958 Fergie Gupte takes 9-102 with leggies v W Indies at Kanpur
- 1959 UN Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space is established
'The Banality of Evil'
1961 Adolf Eichmann is found guilty of war crimes in Israel
More >>
- 1961 Amateur radio satellite Oscar 1 launched with military Discoverer 36
Event of Interest
1961 Martin Luther King Jr. & 700 demonstrators are arrested in Albany, Georgia
Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
Event of Interest
1963 Argentina asks for extradition of ex-President Juan Perón
Juan Perón
- 1963 Frank Sinatra Jr returned after being kidnapped
- 1963 Kenya (formerly British East Africa) declares independence from UK
- 1965 Doug Walters makes maiden Test ton in 1st Test, goes on to 155
- 1965 Vivian Beaumont Theater opens at 65th St & Amsterdam Ave NYC
- 1967 US launches Pioneer 8 into solar orbit
- 1968 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1968 Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O'Neill receives overwhelming support from Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs) at Stormont
- 1969 Bomb attack on bank in Milan, 14 killed
- 1969 Strategia della tensione: Piazza Fontana bombing - The offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, are bombed.
- 1970 Polish government proclaims price rise
- 1970 Small Astronomy Satellite Explorer 42 launched to study X-rays
- 1970 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1975 Gas stove explodes & starts fire killing 138 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Event of Interest
1975 Sara Jane Moore pleds guilty to trying to kill US President Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
- 1976 QB Joe Namath last game as a NY Jet
- 1979 Gold hits record $462.50 an ounce
- 1979 President of Pakistan, Zia-ul-Haq, confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam.
- 1980 US's copyright law amended to include computer programs
- 1980 Apple makes its initial public offering on the US stock market - 28 years later it would become the first US company valued at over $1 trillion
- 1981 Gambia & Senegal sign agreement to be known as Senegambia in Feb 1982
- 1982 $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in NYC
- 1982 The "Snowplow Game": when a snowstorm holds a New England vs Miami game scoreless, Mark Henderson, a convict on work release, on Patriots coach Ron Meyer order, clears the path for John Smith's attempt, which wins the game for the Patriots, 3-0
- 1983 A truck bomb explodes at US Embassy in Kuwait
- 1983 5th ACE Cable Awards: The VII International Tchaikovsky Competition by Robert Dalrymple and Ken Locker
- 1985 248 US soldiers & 8 crew members die in Arrow Air charter crash
- 1985 DC-8 crashes near Gander, Newfoundland; 258 die
- 1985 NASA launches space vehicle S-207
- 1986 Russian Tupolev-134 crashes in East Berlin, 70 killed
- 1986 South African journalist and activist Zwelakhe Sisulu arrested at John Vorster Square
- 1987 Rollermania at Madison Square Garden, Eastern Express beats Midwest Pioneers
- 1988 3 trains collide in London, 40 die
- 1988 NYC Subway system adds new stations (Z line)
- 1988 PLO leader Yasi Arafat accepts Israel's right to exist
- 1990 US accuses Iraq of dragging its feet on dates for talks
- 1990 US ambassador to Kuwait, Nathaniel Howell, leaves Kuwait
- 1991 Orion Pictures filed Chapter 11 for bankruptcy protection
- 1991 Tampa Bay Bucaneer Dexter Manley, retires after failing drug test
- 1991 Abuja replaces Lagos as the capital city of Nigeria
- 1992 6.8-7.5 earthquake strikes Flores Island (tsunami kills 3,000)
- 1992 Japanese crown prince Naruhito announces engagement to Masaka Owada
Event of Interest
1995 Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres addresses both houses of the US Congress
Shimon Peres
- 1995 Amendment to make it illegal to physically desecrate the flag turned down by senate 63-36 (need 2/3 vote)
- 1996 Assassination attempt on Uday (Iraqi's heir to Sadam Hussain)
- 1997 Carlos the Jackal, "professional revolutionary", goes on trial in Paris
- 1997 Florida releases Alex Arias, the last original Marlin
- 1997 Japanese train builders (Maglev) claim world speed record at 332 MPH
- 1997 SWAT team shoots John E Armstrong in Fla, freeing 2 young hostages
- 1997 TWA 800 hearings end
- 2000 United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore
Election of Interest
2003 Paul Martin becomes Prime Minister of Canada after resignation of Jean Chretien
Paul Martin
Jean Chretien
- 2006 Peugeot produces its last car at the Ryton Plant signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry, formerly a major centre of the British motor industry.
- 2008 Andrei Klepach, a deputy economics minister of Russia, states that Russia has entered the recession, with two quarters of contraction expected, meaning Russia will fall short of reaching the 6.8% growth forecast for 2008
- 2013 The United States announces sanctions on the two dozen companies who assisted Iran with their nuclear program
- 2014 UN climate change talks in Peru continue past scheduled time as negotiations continue to stall
- 2014 Over 200 pro-democracy activists arrested in Hong Kong
- 2015 COP21 climate change summit in Paris reaches a deal between 195 countries to limit the rise in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels
- 2015 First women ever elected in Saudi Arabia in municipal council elections
- 2016 Paolo Gentiloni is sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy, succeeding Matteo Renzi
- 2016 Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte boasts he killed susected criminals personally when mayor of Davao City
- 2017 Australian shopping mall firm Westfield is bought by French property company Unibail-Rodamco for $15.7 billion
- 2017 Democrat Doug Jones defeats Republican Roy Moore for Alabama Senate seat in upset win marked by allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore
Event of Interest
2018 Michael Cohen, former lawyer for US President Donald Trump sentenced to three years in prison for campaign-finance violations and tax fraud
Donald Trump
- 2018 China built 88 out of world's 143 skyscrapers in 2018 more than any country ever (buildings over 200 meters/656 ft)
- 2018 American Media Inc. publisher of "National Enquirer" admits paying hush money to mistresses of US President Donald Trump
- 2018 Seven mass graves in former Islamic State area discovered containing hundreds of bodies, some tortured, near Albu Kamal, eastern Syria
- 2018 Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev compete complex spacewalk to fix hole in Soyuz spacecraft
- 2018 British Prime Minister Theresa May survives 200-117 no-confidence vote from own Conservative Party
December in History
Marconi's Dream: Telegraphy Without Wires
Italian radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi's career received a big boost on this day with backing from the British Post Office.
December 11, 1896
A King Salutes Remarkable Woman Soldier
Whether she went to war out of love or duty, Phoebe Hessel, who died on this day, led a remarkable life on and off the battlefield.
December 12, 1821
Great Balls of Fire! The 'Bride' is 13
Jerry Lee Lewis leapt to fame declaring there was ‘A Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’. His fans were certainly shaken when told of his 13-year-old ‘bride’.
December 13, 1957
Heartbreak and Tragedy for Captain Scott
Beaten to the South Pole by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen on this day, only despair and death awaited British explorer Captain Robert Scott.
December 14, 1911