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- 1294 Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
- 1545 Council of Trent (19th ecumenical council) opens
- 1545 Council of Trent begins.
- 1577 Sir Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
- 1636 The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.
- 1642 Abel Janszoon Tasman reaches New Zealand.
- 1642 New Zealand discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman
- 1643 English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
- 1769 Dartmouth College in New Hampshire received its charter
- 1769 Dartmouth College is founded by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, with a Royal Charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal Governor John Wentworth.
- 1774 First incident of the Revolution-400 attack Fort William and Mary, NH
- 1816 Patent for a dry dock issued to John Adamson, Boston
- 1862 American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside.
- 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, Va; South beats North
- 1879 First federal fish hatching steamer launched (Wilmington Delaware)
- 1884 first performance of any of Richard Strauss's compositions in the United States (Symphony in F, New York Philharmonic)
- 1887 Visitor posting - Sgt Alvin C York was born who went on to win the medal of honor during world war 1 - USA
- 1895 Premiere of Gustav Mahler's Resurrection Symphony in Berlin.
- 1898 First passenger train over the newly reconstructed Victoria Railway Bridge, Montreal. The original 1859 tube had been replaced by a double track steel bridge.
- 1903 Italo Marcioni patents the ice cream cone (NJ)
- 1916 Avalanche kills 10,000 Austrian and Italian troops in 24 hrs in Tyrol
- 1918 US army of occupation crosses the Rhine, enters Germany
- 1918 Wilson, becomes first to make a foreign visit as president (France)
- 1919 Ross and Smith land in Australia from a flight from London
- 1920 F Pease's interferometer measures first stellar diameter (Betelgeuse)
- 1924 KOA-AM in Denver CO begins radio transmissions
- 1928 George Gershwin's "An American In Paris" premieres (New York NY)
- 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Japanese troops begin carrying out several weeks of raping and killing of civilians and suspected Chinese resistance after the fall of Nanjing.
- 1938 "Aryanization" decree is enacted, all Jewish property is transferred to Aryan possession.
- 1938 Los Angeles freezes at 28ø
- 1938 The Holocaust: 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen build the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.
- 1941 World War II: Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
- 1943 World War II: 710 Bombers of U.S. 8th Air Force attack Kiel, Germany. *1942 - Robert Volpe : Artist, Art Crime Detective d. 2006
- 1944 Japanese kamikaze crashes into US cruiser Nashville, kills 138
- 1947 Maine Turnpike opens to traffic
- 1949 Knesset votes to transfer Israel's capitol to Jerusalem
- 1949 The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.
- 1951 Future British PM Margaret Roberts Thatcher marries Denis Thatcher
- 1951 Margaret Thatcher (Roberts) marries Denis Thatcher at City Methodist in London.
- 1959 Archbishop Makarios becomes the first President of Cyprus.
- 1959 Archbishop Makarios elected first president of Cyprus
- 1962 Number one hit on UK music charts - Elvis Presley - Return To Sender
- 1963 Capitol records signs right of first refusal agreement with the Beatles
- 1964 In El Paso, TX, LBJ and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion diverting Rio Grande, to reshape US-Mexico border
- 1967 Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels
- 1967 San Diego, CA records snow at a zero elevation after temperatures plunge 19 degrees (F) in eight hours.
- 1968 Playland at the Beach reopens
- 1971 John Sinclair (sentence: 10 yrs, sold 2 marijuana joints) is freed
- 1972 An HC-1 Detachment Five SH-3G Sea King helicopter, stationed aboard Oriskany, rescued a VFP-63 pilot involved in operations in the Tonkin Gulf while on Yankee Station. This was the fifteenth pilot rescued by HC-1
- 1972 Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.
- 1973 Rael, leader of the Raelian Movement claims to meet an ET he says is named Yahweh, during an alleged UFO encounter in Puy de Lassolas, France.
- 1974 Malta becomes a republic
- 1976 Golden Gate Bridge District starts ferry service to Larkspur
- 1976 Longest non-stop passenger airflight (Sydney to San Francisco 13h14m)
- 1977 A DC-3 aircraft chartered from the Indianapolis-based National Jet crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff and boosters of the team.
- 1977 Entire University of Evansville basketball team, die in plane crash
- 1978 Susan B Anthony dollar, first US coin to honor a woman, issued
- 1978 The first Susan B. Anthony dollar enters circulation.
- 1981 General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares [[martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
- 1981 Polish government declares martial law, arrests Solidarity activists
- 1981 Visitor posting - Casey Painter was born - USA
- 1983 Martha Layne Collins inaugurated as Kentucky's first female governor
- 1983 The Denver Nuggets and the Detroit Pistons play in the highest scoring NBA game in history, with the Pistons winning 186-184 in triple overtime. In addition to most points in a game, this game also set the record for most field goals made (136), and most assists (93).
- 1984 Artificial heart recipient William Schroeder suffers first stroke
- 1988 Arafat addresses UN in Geneva
- 1989 Forced repatriation of Vietnamese in Hong Kong
- 1989 The last issue of Gnistan (The Spark), the organ of the Solidaritetspartiet, is published in Sweden.
- 1990 President De Klerk of S Africa meets with Mandela to talk of end of apartheid
- 1991 Both Koreas sign an accord calling for reconciliation
- 1991 New York assembly speaker Mel Miller is convicted of federal mail fraud
- 1993 Hubble Space Telescope repaired
- 1996 Kofi Annan is elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations.
- 1996 Visitor posting - December 13 1996 Ellen Louise Curry Born to Michael and Julie Anne Curry
- 1998 Ottawa Central Railway, a subsidiary of RailLink's Quebec Railway Corporation, commences operation over the CN Beachburg subdivision between Ottawa and Pembroke, ON as well as the Walkley line in Ottawa. The Ottawa Central also received running rights over the Alexandria subdivision between Ottawa and Coteau.
- 1999 Visitor posting - December 13 1999 Ellen Louise Curry is born to Julie and Michael Curry
- 2000 American Vice President Al Gore delivers his concession speech effectively ending his hopes of becoming the 43rd President of the United States.
- 2000 The "Texas 7" escape from the John Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas and go on a robbery spree, during which police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot and killed.
- 2001 the Indian Parliament Sansad is attacked by terrorists. 15 people are killed, including all the terrorists.
- 2002 Enlargement of the European Union: The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.
- 2003 Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit (see Operation Red Dawn).
- 2003 In the most-attended basketball game in history, 78,129 watch Michigan State University lose 79-74 to the University of Kentucky at Ford Field.
- 2004 Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest, after being sued under accusations over 9 kidnapping actions and manslaughter. The house arrest is lifted the same day on appeal.
- 2006 The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin, announced as extinct.
- 2007 The Mitchell Report is publicly released listing the names 88 Major League Baseball players that have presumably used anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Notable players to be named include Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada.
- 2009 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to support British forces deployed as part of the International Security Assistance Force and to hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
- 2009 Campaigners in Copenhagen criticise "heavy handed" tactics by Danish police after 968 people are arrested as a result of protests surrounding the United Nations Climate Change Conference
- 2009 Chinese President Hu Jintao opens the Kazakhstan–China oil pipeline connecting central Asia to China.
- 2009 Danish police arrest 200 protesters heading for Copenhagen harbour, on the second day of demonstrations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
- 2009 Edmonton, Alberta - Canada was the coldest place in the WORLD early this morning...even beating the Arctic! -47C without wind chill. Around-63C with wind chill. Global warming is bullshit!
- 2009 Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair states in an interview that he would have gone to war in Iraq even if he had known that it had no weapons of mass destruction.
- 2009 Global consulting firm Accenture and multinational corporation Procter & Gamble end their endorsement deals with golfer Tiger Woods following a marital infidelity controversy.
- 2009 India successfully test fires its nuclear-capable "Dhanush" missile off the Orissa coast.
- 2009 Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei accuses the pro-reform opposition of breaking the law after state television allegedly showed opposition supporters destroying images of founder Ruhollah Khomeini.
- 2009 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is hit in the face and knocked to the ground after a political rally in Milan.
- 2009 Joe McElderry wins the sixth series of the UK version of ITV's The X Factor produced by FremantleMedia's talkbackTHAMES and Simon Cowell's Syco TV. This meant that Cheryl Cole was the first mentor to win two consecutive series.
- 2009 Leaders of north and south Sudan reach a deal on a referendum for the south's independence in 2011.
- 2009 Over 100 suspected Islamic militants break into a prison in the Philippine city of Isabela, freeing at least 31 inmates and killing two, including a prison guard.
- 2009 The Sarejevo-Belgrade rail link resumes between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia after 18 years.
- 2009 Violence erupts in Turkey after the Constitutional Court of Turkey bans the Democratic Society Party over its alleged terrorist links.
- 2009 Voters in Chile go to the polls in presidential and parliamentary elections.
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