- 0794 Church at Lindisfarne, England destroyed by Vikings
- 0871 Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army.
- 1198 Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III
- 1214 Earl Ferrand of Flanders drops ties with France
- 1297 Monaco gains its independence.
- 1499 Louis XII of France after papal divorce marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany to keep the duchy for the crown
- 1558 French troops under duke de Guise occupy Calais
- 1598 Genoa Italy expels Jews
- 1642 Astronomer Galileo Galilei dies in Arcetri, Italy at age 77.
- 1656 Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
- 1675 First American commercial corporation chartered (New York Fishing Co)
- 1675 The New York Fishing Company becomes the first corporation to be chartered in the U.S.
- 1679 Explorer and fur trader Cavalier de La Salle reaches Niagara Falls; one of his boats is wrecked on Lake Ontario on this day.
- 1705 Georg F Händels first opera "Almira," premieres in Hamburg
- 1716 Dutch gang leader "Sjako" arrested
- 1734 Premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
- 1745 England, Austria, Netherlands & Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance
- 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
- 1760 Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 AUs of Earth
- 1790 George Washington delivers first "State of the Union" address
- 1798 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
- 1800 Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi
- 1800 Wild Boy of Aveyron discovered in southern France
- 1806 Cape Colony becomes a British colony.
- 1806 Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105' blue whale in Oregon
- 1811 Unsuccessful slave revolt led by Charles Deslandes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
- 1815 Andrew Jackson's troops defeat the British at Chalmette in the Battle of New Orleans.
- 1815 Battle of New Orleans-War of 1812 ended 12/24/1814 but nobody knew
- 1815 War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans - Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
- 1821 Confederate Gen. James Longstreet is born. - USA
- 1833 Boston Academy of Music, first US music school, established
- 1835 US national debt is 0 for the first and only time.
- 1838 Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
- 1838 Edward Theller 1804-1859 fires on Fort Malden from vessel 'Anne', while Thomas Sutherland occupies Bois Blanc Island; US sympathizers of rebels called Hunter's Lodges.
- 1838 Rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out
- 1838 The first telegraph message sent using dots & dashes, New Jersey
- 1842 Dutch King Willem II charters Technical College Delft
- 1847 Battle of San Gabriel (Navy, Marines, Army defeat Mexicans in CA)
- 1848 Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia
- 1853 The first US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Washington
- 1856 Dr. John Veatch discovers Borax (hydrated sodium borate), Tuscan Springs CA, still popular as a hand and laundry cleaner in the 1950s and 1960s.
- 1863 American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield
- 1867 African American men granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia.
- 1867 Legislation gives suffrage to DC blacks, despite President Johnson's veto
- 1870 US mint at Carson City NV begins issuing coins
- 1877 Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory).
- 1878 Secret meeting of King Leopold II's agent & Henry Morton Stanley
- 1884 Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz
- 1889 Dr Herman Hollerith receives first US patent for a tabulating machine (1st Computer)
- 1892 A hundred workers die in a mine explosion in McAlister, Oklahoma.
- 1894 Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
- 1900 The Boers attack the British in Ladysmith, South Africa, but the British hold fast.
- 1901 New South Wales score 918 all out vs South Australia in 560 minutes
- 1901 The first American Bowling Congress tournament begins in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1904 Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
- 1906 A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, kills 20 people due to the excavation of clay along the Hudson River.
- 1908 A train collision occurs in the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City killing 17 people, injuring 38 and leading to increased demand for electric trains.
- 1908 Subway transit service between Brooklyn and Manhattan begins.
- 1912 The African National Congress was founded.
- 1916 World War I: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli.
- 1917 Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy
- 1917 Canadian actress Mary Pickford, born Gladys Smith in Toronto, stars in a new silent film, Pride of the Clan
- 1918 Mississippi becomes first state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition)
- 1918 President Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after WWI
- 1920 The Czechoslovak Hussite Church was founded by Dr. Karel Farsk.
- 1922 The Social Democratic Youth League of Norway is founded.
- 1923 Larry Storch, comedian, actor: F Troop was born
- 1923 Typography strike in Amsterdam
- 1926 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud becomes king of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia
- 1929 The first telephone connection between Netherlands & West-Indies
- 1930 Belgium Princess Marie-José marries Italian's crown prince Umberto
- 1932 Ratification of present San Francisco City Charter
- 1935 Citizen are jailed for failing to salute in Strazsund, Germany.
- 1935 Spectrophotometer patented, AC Hardy
- 1937 -50ºF (-45.6ºC), San Jacinto NV (state record)
- 1937 Shirley Bassey, singer: James Bond themes: Goldfinger, Diamond’s Are Forever was born
- 1938 Bradman scores 107 for South Australia vs Queensland (1st innings)
- 1940 Great Britain begins the rationing of meat, butter, and sugar to help the war effort during WWII.
- 1940 World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
- 1941 British Air Marshal Richard Peirse resigns
- 1941 Federal Minister Ian Mackenzie announces that the RCMP will be registering all Japanese Canadians in British Columbia; a national security matter under the War Measures Act. They are later moved inland to detention camps.
- 1947 General George Marshall becomes Secretary of State
- 1947 Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game
- 1948 A.G.L. 'Andy' McNaughton 1887-1966 appointed permanent delegate to United Nations, and Canada's representative on UN Security Council.
- 1948 Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
- 1951 Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow is rediscovered in Bermuda
- 1952 Jordan adopts constitution
- 1953 René Mayer forms French government
- 1954 Elvis Presley pays $4 to a Memphis studio & records his first two songs, "Casual Love" & "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"
- 1954 First Alberta crude oil reaches Ontario through pipeline from Edmonton.
- 1955 Visitor posting - Demetra is born
- 1956 Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog," single goes to #1 & stays #1 for a record 11 weeks (for a single)
- 1956 Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
- 1957 Jackie Robinson announces that he is retiring from baseball.
- 1958 Bobby Fisher wins the U.S. Chess Championship at age 14.
- 1958 Cuban revolutionary forces capture Havana
- 1959 Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as President of France's 5th Republic
- 1959 Conquest of Cuba by Fidel Castro is completed with the conquest of Santiago de Cuba.
- 1961 In France, a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.
- 1962 Dutch express train crashes into slow commuter train, 91 die (Netherlands)
- 1962 Golfer Jack Nicklaus, 21, first pro appearance, he came in 50th
- 1962 Harmelen train disaster kills 93 people in The Netherlands.
- 1962 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time (National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.).
- 1963 "Mona Lisa," on loan, unveiled in America's National Gallery of Art
- 1964 European Parliament accept Mansholt Plan
- 1964 President Lyndon B Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
- 1965 NBC TV debuts the weekly rock 'n roll TV dance show Hullabaloo.
- 1965 Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
- 1966 Beatles' "Rubber Soul," album goes #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks
- 1966 Georges Pompidou appointed French premier
- 1966 Who & the Kinks perform on the last "Shindig" TV show on ABC
- 1968 Jacques Cousteau's first undersea special on US network TV
- 1971 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island CA
- 1971 Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota established
- 1972 Number one hit on UK music charts - New Seekers - I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing
- 1973 Greg Chappell's best Test bowling, 5-61 vs Pakistan at SCG
- 1973 Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris
- 1973 Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
- 1973 USSR launches Luna 21 for Moon landing
- 1973 Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
- 1974 Gold hits record $126.50 an ounce in London
- 1974 Loch Ness Monster photographed?
- 1974 Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York
- 1975 Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States who did not succeed her husband.
- 1975 Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate's John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
- 1976 Franklin Mint strikes first gold coins for Netherlands Antilles
- 1978 Israel's Cabinet votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai
- 1979 512 die as oil tanker Bantry Bay blows up
- 1979 Argentina & Chile sign Beagle Canal accord
- 1979 The NBC game show Password Plus premieres, hosted by Allen Ludden.
- 1979 The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland (The Betelgeuse incident).
- 1979 Today Show gets a new theme song
- 1979 Vietnamese troops overtook Khmer Rouge & occupy Phnom Penh
- 1981 India all out 63 in one-day international vs Australia
- 1982 AT& T agrees to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies
- 1982 AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
- 1982 American Telephone & Telegraph agrees to be broken up in settlement of an anti-trust suit filed in 1974.
- 1982 Justice Department withdraws antitrust suit against IBM, pending since 1969
- 1985 Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet
- 1986 President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US
- 1987 The Dow Jones industrial average closes at over 2000 points for the first time.
- 1988 Dow Jones down 140.58 points
- 1988 Hewlett-Packard introduces the HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator
- 1989 Beginning of Japanese Heisei era.
- 1989 Boeing 737-400 crashes in England, 46 die
- 1989 Kegworth air disaster kills 47 people in Leicestershire, England.
- 1989 Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
- 1990 Canada formally joins the Organization of American States (OAS) as its 33rd member.
- 1991 Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins & Rod Carew elected to Hall of Fame
- 1992 US President George Bush gets ill & vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap during Japanese tour
- 1993 Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp goes on sale
- 1993 NBC offers "Tonight Show" to David Letterman
- 1993 Visitor posting - Allison Herrera was born - USA
- 1994 Rintje Ritsma skates world record 1500m (1 51.60)
- 1994 Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He will stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
- 1994 Visitor posting - Birth of Marvel Velez
- 1995 "Guys & Dolls" closes at Martin Beck Theater New York City NY after 1143 performances
- 1995 Visitor posting - Ciaran Burns is born
- 1996 An Antonov 32 cargo turboprop powered plane crashes into the central market in Kinshasa, Zaire killing more than 350 people.
- 1996 Blizzard buries eastern US causing at least 50 deaths
- 1996 Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin announces he is quitting federal politics to run for the job of provincial Liberal leader and Premier of Newfoundland, only to return and get a plum government posting
- 1996 For first time in 25 years no one is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1997 Visitor posting - Shontay Williams was born - USA
- 1998 National Defence deploys 4,000 soldiers to help Hydro-Quebec with the worst ice storm damage; 1.3 million households will lose power in Eastern Ontario and Quebec.
- 1998 Roseanne files for divorce from 3rd husband Ben Thomas
- 1998 Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
- 1999 RailAmerica Inc. takes over the operation of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway from CP. The new company, known as E&N Railway Company (1998) Ltd, purchased the line between Port Alberni and Nanaimo and leased the section from Victoria to Nanaimo.
- 2000 Winning Lines, a worldiwde national lottery game show, premieres on CBS and is hosted by Dick Clark.
- 2004 RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, was christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
- 2006 A magnitude 6.9 earthquake epicentered just off the Greek island of Kythira hits much of the country and is felt throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea.
- 2006 Exercise Northstar V, a large scale civil defence exercise, is held in Singapore and contains 4 MRT Stations and Toa Payoh Bus Interchange.
- 2008 Visitor posting - Oscar and Joanna's Year together:) [our date!]
- 2011 Visitor posting - Justin and Julia Perkins get married - USA
More historical events added daily - keep checking back