- 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
- 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
- 1688 King James II's wife & son flee England for France
- 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"
Noah Webster
Historic Publication
1854 Alfred Tennyson's poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" is published in "The Examiner"
Alfred Tennyson
- 1856 The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
- 1861 Battle of Bird Creek, Indian Terr (High Shoal, Chusto-Talasah)
- 1861 American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
- 1868 1st British government of Gladstone forms
- 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.
- 1869 Noble Order of Knights of Labor founded, Philadelphia
- 1878 Joseph Pulitzer buys St Louis Dispatch for $2,500
- 1883 New Brunswick adopts Eastern Standard Time (until 1902)
- 1884 Levant Richardson patents ball-bearing skate
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
Louis Sullivan
Benjamin Harrison
- 1894 Roman Catholics win Parliamentary election in Belgium
- 1897 Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde in Paris.
- 1899 Boer War: During Siege of Ladysmith, Boers storm King's Post and Caesar's Camp - driven back
- 1900 President Paul Kruger of South Africa's Transvaal & Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands have a triumphant procession
- 1902 AL announces purchase of grounds for a stadium in NY
- 1903 Norwegian parliament votes unanimiously for female suffrage
- 1905 French Assembly National votes for separation of church & state
- 1906 NY American reports Belgian King Leopold II bribed US Senate commission on the Congo
- 1907 First Christmas Seals sold (Wilmington, Delaware, post office)
- 1907 Gustav Mahler departs Vienna
- 1908 The German Reichstag adopts a progressive social law restricting hours of factory work by young people and women
- 1909 1st US monoplane flown (Henry W Walden, Long Island, NY)
- 1910 French troops occupy Morrocan harbor city Agadir
- 1917 British forces under General Allenby capture Jerusalem
- 1918 French troops occupies Mainz
- 1922 Gabriel Narutowicz elected Polish president
- 1924 Netherlands & Hungary trade treaty signed
- 1924 Michael Hainisch re-elected Austrian president
- 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
- 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 Romania prohibits fascist Iron Guard
- 1935 Walter Liggett American newspaper editor and muckraker killed in gangland murder.
- 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
Amadeo Giannini
Event of Interest
1941 Adolf Hitler orders US ships to be torpedoed
Adolf Hitler
- 1948 UN General Assembly unanimously approves Convention on Genocide
- 1949 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts Indonesian sovereignty
- 1951 West German voters approve merger of 3 states to form Baden-Wurttemberg
- 1953 General Electric announces all Communist employees will be fired
- 1957 1st Japanese ambassador to Israel
- 1958 Robert H W Welch Jr & 11 other men meet in Indianapolis to form anti-Communist John Birch Society
- 1961 Tanganyika gains independence from Britain, takes name Tanzania
- 1962 "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" closes on Broadway
- 1962 Tanganyika becomes a republic within British Commonwealth
- 1965 Nikolai Podgorny replaces Anastas Mikoyan as president of Soviet Praesidium
Event of Interest
1967 Nicolae Ceaușescu becomes President of Romania (overthrown 1989)
Nicolae Ceausescu
- 1968 NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.
- 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 Sunningdale Agreement in Northern Ireland
- 1973 Arab oil ministers announce a further production cut of 5 percent for January for non-friendly countries
- 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 Jelena Bonner receives Andrei Sacharov's Nobel Prize
Event of Interest
1975 US President Gerald Ford signs $2.3 Bn loan authorization for NYC
Gerald Ford
- 1975 Iraq completes nationalization by taking over the BP, CFP, and Shell shares of the Basrah Petroleum Company
- 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
- 1983 Counselor to Ronald Regan, 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
- 1984 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1984 Iranian commandos end day hijack of Kuwaiti plane
- 1985 Phoenix, Arizona, gets 3" of snow
- 1987 Palestine uprising begin in Israeli-occupied West Bank
- 1988 The Michael Hughes Bridge in Sligo, Ireland is officially opened.
- 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
Lech Wałęsa
Operation Restore Hope
1992 Operation Restore Hope - US Marines land in Somalia
Learn More >>
- 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
- 2003 A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
- 2006 Moscow suffers its worst fire since 1977, killing 45 women in a drug rehabitational center.
Event of Interest
2008 The 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's election to the Presidency
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
- 2012 The Social Liberal Union Party and Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta win by a landslide in the parliamentary elections
- 2014 CIA Torture Report released, detailing the CIA's use of torture on detainees between 2001-2006
- 2015 Attack on Kandahar airport by Taliban forces kills at least 37 before Afghan forces retake control
- 2015 Amazon's best-selling book of the year is "Girl on a Train" by Paula Hawkins
Event of Interest
2015 German Chancellor Angela Merkel named Time Magazine's Person of the Year, for her handling of debt and refugee crises
Angela Merkel
Victory in Battle
2017 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declares victory over the Islamic State in Iraq, ending more than 3 years of convict
Haider al-Abadi
- 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 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
- 2018 Armenia's acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wins a snap election with 70.4% of the vote
December in History
![Real-life Tragedy for Theatrical Family]()
Real-life Tragedy for Theatrical Family
On this day a tragedy engulfed one of Britain’s noted theatrical families of the early 20th century.
December 8, 1926![Coronation Street, King of the Soaps]()
Coronation Street, King of the Soaps
Thought to have no great future when launched on this day, Coronation Street still reigns supreme
December 9, 1960![Marconi's Dream: Telegraphy Without Wires]()
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]()
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
