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- 0533 Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.
- 0687 St Sergius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 1167 Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
- 1256 Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
- 1467 Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
- 1612 Simon Marius, is first to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
- 1785 King George IV of England marries his mistress, Maria Fitzherbert.
- 1791 The Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution) becomes law, following ratification by the state of Virginia.
- 1791 The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature.
- 1792 The first US life insurance policy is issued in Philadelphia
- 1794 Revolutionary Tribunal abolished in France
- 1810 Irish magazine in US, the Shamrock, is firstpublished
- 1816 Charles Stanhope, a British earl, invented two early mechanical calculators, as well as a printing press, a microscope lens, and various other scientific devices.
- 1836 Patent Office burns in Washington DC
- 1854 First street-cleaning machine in US first used in Philadelphia
- 1854 Philadelphia residents were amazed as the first street cleaning machine was put into operation.
- 1859 GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of Sun
- 1864 In the Battle of Nashville, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John B. Hood.
- 1868 Shogunate rebels found Ezo Republic in Hokkaid.
- 1874 David Kalakaua, king of the Sandwich Islands chain in the South Pacific and first regining king to visit the US, is received at the White House by US president Ulysses S. Grant.
- 1886 Turbulence reigned over Wall Street on this day in 1886, as a record 1.2 million shares changed hands in a day of frantic trading.
- 1890 North American Indian, Sitting Bull, died on 15 December 1890. His bones were laid to rest in North Dakota, but a business group wanted him moved to a 'more natural' site in South Dakota. Their campaign was rejected so they stole the bones, and they now reside in Sitting Bull Park, South Dakota.
- 1890 Sitting Bull, a leader of the Sioux Indian nation, is killed in South Dakota by Indian police for resisting arrest.
- 1891 James Naismith a Canadian invents basketball
- 1891 James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.
- 1896 Herman Hollerith, inventor of the tabulating machine used in the 1890 U.S. census, was saved from financial ruin when the Russian government contracted his tabulating machine for their census
- 1913 Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1914 After being closed for over four months, the NYSE got back into the swing of things on this day in 1914, albeit with a tight set of trading restrictions designed to prevent fiscal disaster
- 1914 Battle of Lodz ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
- 1914 Gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine, Kysh, Japan, 687 killed. This accident is the worst coal mine disaster in Japanese history.
- 1914 World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
- 1915 World War I: Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig replaces John French, 1st Earl of Ypres as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.
- 1916 French defeat Germans in WW I Battle of Verdun
- 1917 Moldavian Republic declares independence from Russia
- 1917 World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Bolshevik government and the Central Powers.
- 1925 First road with a depressed trough (Texas) opened to traffic
- 1927 Ed Hickman kidnaps child he later beheads
- 1938 Groundbreaking begins for Jefferson Memorial in Wash DC
- 1939 Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1939 The commercial manufacture of nylon yarn, Seaford, Delaware
- 1939 The world premiere of the movie Gone With the Wind is held in Atlanta, GA.
- 1939 World premiere of "Gone With The Wind" in Atlanta GA
- 1941 A musical standard was recorded this day on Victor Records. Lena Horne sang the torch classic that became her signature: Stormy Weather.
- 1941 Annihilation of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine: at temperatures of -15 degrees C below zero near the Rogan works, 8 km away from Kharkiv in "Drobitsky Ravine" (Drobitsky Yar), over 15 000 Jews are shot.
- 1941 USS Swordfish becomes first US sub to sink a Japanese ship
- 1942 Massachusetts issues first US vehicular license plate tabs
- 1942 The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued the first plastic license-plate tabs.
- 1944 A single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller vanishes over the English Channel while en route to Paris.
- 1944 Glenn Miller presumed dead after his plane disappeared over the English Channel
- 1945 John J "Cardinal" O'Connor, ordained as a priest
- 1945 Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as state religion of Japan.
- 1948 A New York grand jury indicted former State Department employee Alger Hiss for perjury. The charge stemmed from a congressional investigation of Communist subversion and espionage in the government.
- 1950 NYC's Port Authority opens
- 1954 Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter was featured on Walt Disney’s TV series for the first time. Crockett was played by Fess Parker.
- 1954 Netherlands Antilles becomes co-equal part of Kingdom of Netherlands
- 1959 Everly Brothers record "Let It Be Me"
- 1960 King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda Mara de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragn in Brussels.
- 1960 Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the U.S. President-Elect, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier.
- 1961 Adolf Eichmann convicted of crimes against humanity in Israel
- 1961 In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
- 1962 Vaughn Meader's "The first Family," album goes #1 and stays #1 for 12 wks
- 1964 Canada adopts maple leaf flag
- 1965 3rd cyclone of year kills another 10,000 at mouths of Ganges River, Bangladesh
- 1965 Gemini 6 launched; makes first rendezvous in space (with Gemini 7)
- 1965 Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7.
- 1965 In the first raid on a major North Vietnamese industrial target, U.S. Air Force planes destroy a thermal power plant at Uong Bi, l4 miles north of Haiphong. The plant reportedly supplied about 15 percent of North Vietnam's total electric power production.
- 1966 Audouin Dollfus discovers 10th satellite of Saturn, Janus
- 1966 One of the greatest names in children’s television and movie production died on this day. Walt (Walter Elias) Disney died in Burbank, California. Mr. Disney was 65 years old.
- 1967 Beatles release "Christmas Time is Here Again"
- 1967 The Silver Bridge across the Ohio River collapsed during rush hour. Dozens of cars fell into the icy water. Forty-six people lost their lives in the accident, and many others were injured.
- 1969 City status given by Prince Charles to the town of Swansea - United Kingdom
- 1969 Visitor posting - Beverly Louise Hinkle was born in Chicago, IL. She didn't keep this name long. She was addopted and became Peri Savery. I have Rottsunds! - USA
- 1969 San Francisco Fire Department replaces leather helmets with plastic ones
- 1970 Ferryboat capsized in Korean Strait drowning 261
- 1970 Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election.
- 1970 Soviet Venera 7 is first spacecraft to land on another planet (Venus)
- 1970 Visitor posting - Dmitri Bogatyrev was born in Moscow Russia
- 1970 Visitor posting - Petra Wagner born in Schwabisch Gmund, Germany on December 15 , 1970
- 1971 Visitor posting - Juan's birthday - US
- 1971 Visitor posting - John Christopher Powell was born at Berea Hospital in Berea, KY - USA
- 1973 John Paul Getty III, grandson of J. Paul Getty, American billionaire is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10, 1973
- 1973 Number one hit on UK music charts - Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
- 1973 Pirates of Caribbean opens at Disneyland
- 1975 Pink Floyd releases the album Wish You Were Here in the US and UK.
- 1976 Argo Merchant tanker off Massachusetts' SE coast, spills 7.6 m gallons of crude when the ship runs aground
- 1976 Samoa becomes a member of the UN.
- 1978 President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and cutoff all relations with Taiwan
- 1979 Deposed Shah of Iran leaves US for Panama
- 1979 Number one hit on UK music charts - Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall
- 1979 Visitor posting - Melandie Bliss Simerly was borned! - USA
- 1979 World Court in Hague rules Iran should release all US hostages
- 1982 Roy Williams, Teamsters pres, and 4 others convicted of bribery
- 1982 Spain reopens border with Gibraltar
- 1983 Columbia flies to Kennedy Space Center via El Paso, Kelly AFB
- 1984 Number one hit on UK music charts - Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas
- 1984 USSR launches Vega 1 for rendezvous with Halley's Comet
- 1985 Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielson wed
- 1986 CIA director William Casey suffers a cerebral seizure
- 1986 Carnegie Hall reopens after a $50 million facelift
- 1988 James Brown becomes inmate #155413 at the State Park Correctional Institute in South Carolina after several committed crimes.
- 1988 Lori Davis of Long Island sues Mike Tyson for grabbing her buttocks
- 1990 Rocker Rod Stewart marries super model Rachel Hunter
- 1992 Visitor posting - Erin Fleischer was born - USA
- 1992 Visitor posting - Chelsea R. was born! - USA
- 1993 Downing Street Declaration on Northern Ireland issued
- 1993 GATT Uruguay Round completed
- 1993 History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
- 1993 Visitor posting - Happy B-day Jared, I love you - USA
- 1994 Diane Modahl banned from Athletics for Drug Use, in the UK
- 1994 Palau becomes a member of the UN.
- 1994 The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released.
- 1994 Visitor posting - Bethany was born
- 1995 The European Communities Court of Justice hands down the "Bosman ruling", giving EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one UEFA Federation to another.
- 1995 The New York Stock Exchange charged into the record books on this day. The Big Board posted a new mark for trading volume, as 652.8 million shares changed hands, topping the old mark of 608.2 million shares
- 1997 A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85.
- 2001 The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.
- 2005 Argentina's president Nstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.
- 2005 Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
- 2005 Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of gays and lesbians being entitled to marry.
- 2005 The 2005 Atlantic Power Outage began.
- 2005 The 43rd known Mersenne prime is discovered by Dr. Curtis Cooper & Dr. Steven Boone of USA, participants of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search distributed computing project. The prime number is 2nd largest known prime and has more than nine million digits.
- 2006 First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
- 2008 Visitor posting - Kara and Paul-Kara starts liking paul
- 2009 Canadian sports medicine specialist Anthony Galea, who helped Tiger Woods recover from knee surgery, is accused of providing top athletes with performance-enhancing drugs.
- 2009 Chile receives an official invitation to become a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
- 2009 Evacuations begin in the Albay province of the Philippines as the Mayon Volcano oozes lava, with an eruption possible.
- 2009 Israel condemns the issuing of a war crimes arrest warrant in the United Kingdom for former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
- 2009 Nauru recognizes the independence of Abkhazia and establishes formal diplomatic relations in exchange for aid from Russia.
- 2009 The Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' widebody passenger airliner takes its maiden flight, travelling from Paine Field to Boeing Field, in Washington State, U.S.A.
- 2009 Two protesters are killed and several injured at a demonstration in opposition to the banning of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party in Turkey.
- 2009 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish hosts urge countries on to compromise to salvage agreement on a new U.N. pact aimed at averting dangerous climate change and global warming. P:GW
- 2009 Visitor posting - Brad turns 13 - USA
- 2009 Visitor posting - Montice Monroe's 15th Birthday! Happy Birthday T!! - USA
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