- 401 St. Innocent I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1135 Norman nobles recognize Stefanus van Blois as English king
- 1216 Pope Honorius III delegates degree "Religiosam vitam eligentibus"
- 1465 Peace of St Truiden: Louis van Bourbon becomes bishop of Liège
- 1536 English scholar Reginald Pole appointed cardinal
- 1596 Ferryboat Meuniers crashes in Paris, 150 die
- 1642 Pope Urbanus VIII publishes degree In eminente
- 1666 The French Academy of Sciences, founded by Louis XIV with Jean-Baptiste Colbert first meets in the Kings Library
- 1688 Pro-James II, Earl of Danby occupies York
- 1689 Heavy earthquake strikes Innsbruck
- 1715 English pretender to the throne James III lands at Peterhead
- 1731 Dutch people revolt against meat tax
- 1772 Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny
- 1775 Continental navy organized with 7 ships
- 1790 Supposedly impenetrable Turkish fortress of Izmail stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92)
Event of Interest
1807 US Congress passes Embargo Act and President Thomas Jefferson signs into law. Prohibits American ships from trading in foreign ports, as result of involvement in hostilities between France and Britain
Thomas Jefferson
Event of Interest
1849 The execution of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky by firing squad is called off at the last second
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Thomas Edison's Phonograph
1877 Thomas Edison's phonograph is announced by Scientific American
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Event of Interest
1882 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
- 1883 August Strindberg's "Lycko-Pers Reja" premieres
- 1885 Pope Leo XIII proclaims extraordinary jubilee
- 1885 Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan
- 1886 1st national accountants' society in US formed (NYC)
- 1890 Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kingsport and Kentville, Nova Scotia.
- 1894 -23] Dutch coast hit by hurricane
- 1894 French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated)
- 1905 Arrest of St Petersburg Soviet members leads to an uprising of Moscow workers and fighting in the street
- 1907 Saint-Saëns'/Fokine's ballet "Le Cygne" premieres in St Petersburg
- 1910 US postal savings stamps 1st issued
- 1917 Flanders declares its independence, under Pieter Tack
- 1919 US deports 250 alien radicals, including anarchist Emma Goldman
- 1922 Belgian parliament rejects Dutch university in Ghent
- 1923 Bill Ponsford & Edgar Mayne make 456 opening stand for Vict
- 1924 Philip Barry's "Youngest" premieres in NYC
- 1930 Convention of Economic Rapprochement/Oslo Agreesments signed between some European countries in response to the Great Depression
Event of Interest
1931 Retrospective show of Mexican artist Diego Rivera opens at The Museum of Modern Art in New York
Diego Rivera
- 1934 1st flight from Netherland to Curacao (Christmas flight 1934)
- 1934 Miss Theo Trowbridge sets female bowling record 702 pins in games
- 1935 Yaeko Iwasaki, student of D S Harada Roshi, 1st awakening in Kamakura
- 1936 1st common carrier license issued by ICC, Scranton, Pa
- 1937 Lincoln Tunnel (NYC) opens to traffic
- 1939 125 die in train wreck at Magdeburg Germany
- 1939 Finnish counter offensive at Petsamo
- 1939 99 die in 2nd wreck at Friedrichshafen Germany
- 1940 World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
- 1941 Japans invasion leader lands on Luzon, Philippines
Josip Broz Tito
Conference of Interest
1941 Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C. for a wartime conference
Winston Churchill
Historic Invention
1942 World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon
Adolf Hitler
- 1944 Germans demand surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium
- 1944 Sub Swordfish departs Pearl Harbor for Japan
- 1945 Utrecht: Catholic People's party (KVP) established
- 1947 Italian constituent assembly adopts new constitution
- 1950 2 self-propelled trains of Long Island RR collide, killing 77
- 1952 French government of Pinay, resigns
- 1956 Last British & French troops leave Egypt
- 1956 Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity at Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Columbus, Ohio
- 1958 2nd Dutch Beel government forms
- 1959 Continental League awards its last franchise to Dallas-Fort Worth
- 1961 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1962 Harris County voters approve all-weather stadium for Houston Colt .45s
- 1962 Kinderman Place in the Bronx named
- 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
- 1963 Oakland Raider Tom Flores passes for 6 touchdowns vs Houston (52-49)
Event of Interest
1963 Official 30-day mourning period for President John F. Kennedy ends
John F. Kennedy
- 1963 Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives
- 1964 First flight of the US aircraft Lockheed SR-71, reaches 3,530 kph (record for a jet)
- 1965 Belgian government shuts 6 coal mines
- 1965 Great Britain sets national maximum road speed at 70 miles per hour
- 1965 Radio Mil (Domincan Republic) transmitter blown up
- 1970 Treblinka SS commander Franz Stangl sentenced to life imprisonment
- 1971 UN General Assembly ratifies former Austrian President Kurt Waldheim as Secretary-General
- 1971 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1972 6.25 earthquake strikes Managua Nicaragua, 12,000+ killed
- 1973 OPEC Gulf Six decides to raise the posted price of marker crude from $5.12 to $11.65 per barrel effective January 1, 1974
- 1974 2nd cease-fire between IRA & British; lasts until approx April 1975
- 1974 Referenda in Comoros-3 islands for independence, 1 stays French
Event of Interest
1974 Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb home of former UK Prime Minister, Edward Heath, just before announcing Christmas ceasefire
Edward Heath
- 1974 Iraq announces plans to increase its oil production capacity
Event of Interest
1975 US President Gerald Ford signs the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA)
Gerald Ford
Event of Interest
1980 US President-elect Ronald Reagan appoints J Kirkpatrick (UN) & James Watt (Interior)
Ronald Reagan
Meeting of Interest
1983 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meets with PLO leader Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Hosni Mubarak
- 1984 Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 black muggers on NYC subway train
- 1985 STS 51-L vehicle moves to Launch Pad 39B
- 1987 Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx overdoses from heroin
- 1988 2 robbers wearing police uniforms rob armored truck of $3 M in NJ
- 1988 South Africa signs accord granting independence to South West Africa
- 1988 Tug hits oil barge, spreads 231,000 gal on 300 mi of WA & BC coast
Event of Interest
1989 After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
- 1989 Chad adopts its Constitution
- 1989 Cold wave: -4°F in Oklahoma City, -6°F in Tulsa, -12°F in Pittsburgh, 18°F in Denver, -23°F in KC Mo, -42°F in Scottsbluff Nebraska, -47°F in Hardin Mont & -60°F in Black Hills South Dakota
- 1990 Iraq announces it will never give up Kuwait
- 1990 Israeli ferry capsizes killing 21 US servicemen
Election of Interest
1990 Lech Wałęsa sworn in as Poland's 1st popularly elected president
Lech Wałęsa
- 1992 Libyan MIG-23UB attacks Boeing 727 at Souk al-Sabt, 158 die
- 1994 Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi resigns
- 1997 Merck baldness pill for men approved by FDA
- 1997 Nancy Kerrigan & Tonya Harding pre-record a show to air on FOX on Feb 5
- 1997 Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces.
- 1999 The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (Zaragoza) another van loaded by ETA with 750 kg of explosives (see related event on December 21, 1999).
- 2000 On This Day launched as HistoryOrb.com
- 2001 Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
- 2001 Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
- 2003 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits near San Simeon, California.
- 2006 Australian archaeologist Sue O'Connor finds first evidence of modern humans in Jerimalai cave, near Lene Hara cave in East Timor
Event of Interest
2010 Repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell policy", a 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the US military, signed into law by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
- 2012 6 people are killed by a car bomb in Damascus
- 2012 8 people are killed by a suicide bomber in Peshawar, Pakistan
- 2016 Ebola vaccine VSV-EBOV is found to be 70-100% effective in a study published in The Lancet, becoming the world's first proven vaccine against Ebola
- 2017 UN Security Council votes 15 to 0 for additional sanctions on North Korea, including measures to slash the country's petrol imports by up to 90%
- 2018 Partial shutdown of US federal government begins
- 2018 Tsunami hits Indonesia's Sunda Strait killing over 400 after part of Anak Krakatau volcano slips into the sea
December in History
![The Face that Launched a Thousand Quips...]()
The Face that Launched a Thousand Quips...
The greatest and most famous clown of them all, and by whose name, Joey, all circus clowns became known, was born on this day, December 18, 1778.
December 18, 1778!['Good Sport' in The Trenches]()
'Good Sport' in The Trenches
Prime Minister's son, Raymond Asquith tells his wife of life and death on the battlefront in World War I on this day in 1915.
December 21, 1915![Business a Rocky Road for Hansom Cab Pioneer]()
Business a Rocky Road for Hansom Cab Pioneer
Architect and inventor Joseph Hansom was a man of vision who somehow found it impossible to turn his great ideas into money-making ventures.
December 23, 1834![The Day Murdoch Spoilt the Queen's Christmas]()
The Day Murdoch Spoilt the Queen's Christmas
Queen Elizabeth II made the first live Christmas Day broadcast of her reign on December 25, 1952. Forty years later a pre-recorded message would be leaked.
December 25, 1952
