This Day in History

December 4th

771: Austrasian king Carloman I dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne king of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.

1110: The Kingdom of Jerusalem captures Sidon.

1259: Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.

1563: The final session of the Council of Trent is held. (It had opened on December 13, 1545.)

1619: Thirty-eight colonists arrive at Berkeley Hundred, Virginia. The group's charter proclaims that the day "be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."

1676: Battle of Lund: A Danish army under the command of King Christian V engages the Swedish army commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt.

1745: Charles Edward Stuart's army reaches Derby, its furthest point during the Second Jacobite Rising.

1783: At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington bids farewell to his officers.

1786: Mission Santa Barbara is dedicated (on the feast day of Saint Barbara).

1791: The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.

1829: In the face of fierce local opposition, British Governor-General Lord William Bentinck issues a regulation declaring that anyone who abets suttee in Bengal is guilty of culpable homicide.

1861: The 109 Electors of the several states of the Confederate States of America unanimously elect Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander H. Stephens as Vice President.

1864: American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General William T.
Sherman's campaign destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Atlantic Ocean from Atlanta.

1865: North Carolina ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed soon by Georgia, and U.S. slaves were legally free within 2 weeks.

1867: Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange).

1872: The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the Canadian brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged.

1875: Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison; he is later recaptured in Spain.

1881: The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.

1893: First Matabele War: A patrol of 34 British South Africa Company soldiers is ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors on the Shangani River in Matabeleland.

1906: Alpha Phi Alpha the first black intercollegiate Greek lettered fraternity was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

1909: In Canadian football, the First Grey Cup game is played. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club, 26–6.

1909: The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, the oldest surviving professional hockey franchise in the world, is founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.

1918: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.

1939: World War II: HMS Nelson is struck by a mine (laid by U-31) off the Scottish coast and is laid up for repairs until August 1940.

1942: World War II: Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign ends.

1943: World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.

1943: World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment in the United States.

1945: By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations. (The UN had been established on October 24, 1945.)

1949: Sir Duncan George Stewart was fatally stabbed by Rosli Dhobi, a member leader of the Rukun 13, in Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia during the British crown colony era in that state.

1954: The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida.

1956: The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio for the first and last time.

1965: The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under this new name.

1967: Vietnam War: U.S. and South Vietnamese forces engage Viet Cong troops in the Mekong Delta.

1969: Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.

1971: The Indian Navy attacks the Pakistan Navy and Karachi.

1971: The PNB Ghazi, a submarine belonging to the Pakistan Navy, sinks during the course of the Indo-Pakistani Naval War of 1971.

1977: Jean-Bédel Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire.

1977: Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjong Kupang, Johor, killing 100.

1978: Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco's first female mayor.

1979: The Hastie fire in Hull kills three schoolboys and eventually leads police to arrest Bruce George Peter Lee.

1981: South Africa grants independence to the Ciskei "homeland" (not recognized by any government outside South Africa).

1982: The People's Republic of China adopts its current constitution.

1984: Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers kill 107–150 civilians in Mannar.

1991: Terry A. Anderson is released after seven years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut; he is the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.

1991: Pan American World Airways ceases its operations after 64 years.

1992: Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 U.S. troops to Somalia in Northeast Africa.

1998: The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.

2005: Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the government to allow universal and equal suffrage.

2006: Six black youths assault a white teenager in Jena, Louisiana.

2014: Islamic insurgents kill three state police at a traffic circle before taking an empty school and a "press house" in Grozny. Ten state forces die with 28 injured in gun battles ending with ten insurgents killed.

2015: A firebomb is thrown into a restaurant in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, killing 17 people.

2017: The Lamborghini Urus is the world's fastest SUV. Reaching speeds of 190 miles per hour.

2017The Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan has been imploded, after a day of failure to be imploded. It is about 30 miles from Detroit, Michigan. It first opened on August 23, 1975.

2017: The Winklevoss twins are the first Bitcoin billionaires. They are known for suing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea from their social website ConnectU during 2004, which is now social media site Facebook.

2017: The Thomas Fire started near Santa Paula and became the largest wildfire in modern California history after burning 440 square miles (281,893 acres; 114,078 ha) in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

December 6th

963 – Pope Leo VIII is appointed to the office of Protonotary and begins his papacy as antipope of Rome.

1060 – Béla I is crowned king of Hungary.

1240 – Mongol invasion of Rus': Kiev under Daniel of Galicia and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.

1534 – The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar.

1648 – Colonel Thomas Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order for the King's trial to go ahead; came to be known as "Pride's Purge".

1704 – Battle of Chamkaur: During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army.

1745 – Charles Edward Stuart's army begins retreat during the second Jacobite Rising.

1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia.

1846 – American and Californio forces clash at the Battle of San Pasqual

1865 – Georgia ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1877 – The first edition of The Washington Post is published.

1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., is completed.

1897 – London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.

1904 – Theodore Roosevelt articulated his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the U.S. would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.

1907 – A coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia, kills 362 workers.

1912 – The Nefertiti Bust is discovered.

1916 – World War I: The Central Powers capture Bucharest.

1917 – Finland declares independence from Soviet Russia.

1917 – Halifax Explosion: A munitions explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia kills more than 1,900 people in the largest artificial explosion up to that time.

1917 – World War I: USS Jacob Jones is the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it is torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53.

1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London by British and Irish representatives.

1922 – One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.

1928 – The government of Colombia sends military forces to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.

1933 – U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene.

1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada declare war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War. Camp X opens in Canada to begin training Allied Secret Agents for the War.

1947 – The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.

1953 – Vladimir Nabokov completes his controversial novel Lolita.

1956 – A violent water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

1957 – Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.

1967 – Adrian Kantrowitz performs the first human heart transplant in the United States.

1969 – Altamont Free Concert: At a free concert performed by the Rolling Stones, eighteen-year old Meredith Hunter is stabbed to death by Hells Angels security guards.

1971 – Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India, initiating the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

1973 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3.)

1975 – The Troubles: Fleeing from the police, a Provisional IRA unit takes a British couple hostage in their flat on Balcombe Street, London, beginning a six-day siege.

1977 – South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.

1978 – Spain ratifies the Spanish Constitution of 1978 in a referendum.

1982 – The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombs a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland, killing eleven soldiers and six civilians.

1989 – The École Polytechnique massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.

1991 – Yugoslav Wars: In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city for seven months.

1992 – The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, is demolished, leading to widespread riots causing the death of over 1,500 people.

1997 – A Russian Antonov An-124 Ruslan cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.

1998 – in Venezuela, Hugo Chávez is victorious in presidential elections.

2005 – An Iranian Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashes into a ten-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran, killing all 84 on board and 44 more on the ground.

2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

2015 – Venezuelan elections are held. For the first time in 17 years the United Socialist Party of Venezuela loses its majority in parliament.

2017 – Donald Trump's administration officially announces the recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

December 8th

395 – Later Yan is defeated by its former vassal Northern Wei at the Battle of Canhe Slope.

757 – Du Fu returns to Chang'an as a member of Emperor Xuanzong's court, after having escaped the city during the An Lushan Rebellion.

877 – Louis the Stammerer (son of Charles the Bald) is crowned king of the West Frankish Kingdom at Compiègne.

1432 – The first battle between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis is fought near the town of Oszmiana (Ashmyany), launching the most active phase of the Lithuanian Civil War.

1504 – Ahmad ibn Abi Jum'ah penned his Oran fatwa, arguing for the relaxation of Islamic law requirements for the forcibly converted Muslims in Spain.

1660 – A woman (either Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall) appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare's play Othello.

1813 – Premiere of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free of Original Sin.

1864 – Pope Pius IX promulgates the encylical Quanta cura and its appendix, the Syllabus of Errors, outlining the authority of the Catholic Church and condemning various liberal ideas.

1907 – King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.

1912 – Leaders of the German Empire hold an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out.

1914 – World War I: A squadron of Britain's Royal Navy defeats the Imperial German East Asia Squadron in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

1922 – Northern Ireland ceases to be part of the Irish Free State.

1927 – The Brookings Institution, one of the United States' oldest think tanks, is founded through the merger of three organizations that had been created by philanthropist Robert S. Brookings.

1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares December 7 to be "a date which will live in infamy", after which the U.S. declares war on Japan.

1941 – World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Shanghai International Settlement, Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies. (See December 7 for the concurrent attack on Pearl Harbor in the Western Hemisphere.)

1943 – World War II: The German 117th Jäger Division destroys the monastery of Mega Spilaio in Greece and executes 22 monks and visitors as part of reprisals that culminated a few days later with the Massacre of Kalavryta.

1953 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.

1955 – The Flag of Europe is adopted by Council of Europe.

1962 – Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days.

1963 – Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board.

1966 – The Greek ship SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.

1969 – Olympic Airways Flight 954 strikes a mountain outside of Keratea, Greece, killing 90 people in the worst crash of a Douglas DC-6 in history.

1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Navy launches an attack on West Pakistan's port city of Karachi.

1972 – United Airlines Flight 553, a Boeing 737, crashes after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 45. This is the first-ever loss of a Boeing 737.

1974 – A plebiscite results in the abolition of monarchy in Greece.

1980 – Former Beatle John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.

1985 – The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union in South Asia is established.

1987 – Cold War: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the White House.

1987 – An Israeli army tank transporter kills four Palestinian refugees and injures seven others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the Israel–Gaza Strip border, which has been cited as one of the events which sparked the First Intifada.

1988 – A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing 5 people and injuring 50 others.

1991 – The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1998 – Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.

2004 – The Cusco Declaration is signed in Cusco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.

2009 – Bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kill 127 people and injure 448 others.

2010 – With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.

2010 – The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km.

2013 – Riots break out in Singapore after a fatal accident in Little India.

2013 – Metallica performs a show in Antarctica, making them the first band to perform on all 7 continents.

2016 – Syrian Army starts final phase of the attack and progress has been made in the district of, "Sheikh Said" and preparing to storm the neighborhood "Sukkari" in East of Aleppo.

December 10th

220 – Emperor Xian of Han abdicates the throne to Cao Pi ending the Han dynasty and establish the Kingdom of Wei.

1041 – The son of Empress Zoë of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.

1317 – The "Nyköping Banquet" - King Birger of Sweden treacherously seizes his two brothers Valdemar, Duke of Finland and Eric, Duke of Södermanland, who were subsequently starved to death in the dungeon of Nyköping Castle.

1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.

1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.

1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.

1652 – Defeat at the Battle of Dungeness causes the Commonwealth of England to reform its navy.

1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter.

1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley.

1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.

1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.

1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.

1861 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.

1861 – Forces led by Nguyễn Trung Trực, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance.

1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.

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.

1877 – Russo-Turkish War: The Russian Army captures Plevna after a 5-month siege. The garrison of 25,000 surviving Turks surrenders. The Russian victory is decisive for the outcome of the war and the Liberation of Bulgaria.

1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.

1896 – Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi premieres in Paris. A riot breaks out at the end of the performance.

1898 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.

1901 – The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

1902 – The opening of the reservoir of the Aswan Dam in Egypt.

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.

1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected.

1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1932 – Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy.

1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.

1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya.

1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines: Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on Luzon.

1942 – World War II: Government of Poland in exile send Raczyński's Note (the first official report on the Holocaust) to 26 governments who signed the Declaration by United Nations.

1948 – The Human Rights Convention is signed by the United Nations.

1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.

1953 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in literature.

1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.

1963 – An assassination attempt on the British High Commissioner in Aden kills two people and wounds dozens more.

1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.

1978 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.

1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín.

1984 – United Nations General Assembly recognizes the Convention against Torture.

1989 – Mongolian Revolution: At the country's first open pro-democracy public demonstration, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Union.

1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.

1994 – Rwandan genocide: Maurice Baril, military advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, recommends that UNAMIR stand down.

1995 – The Israeli army withdraws from Nablus pursuant to the terms of Oslo Accord.

1996 – The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela.

2014 – Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein was killed after the suppression of a demonstration by Israeli forces in the village (Turmus'ayya) in Ramallah.

2016 – Two explosions outside a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, kill 38 people and injure 166 others.

December 12th

627 – Battle of Nineveh: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh.

884 – King Carloman II dies after a hunting accident. He is succeeded by his cousin, emperor Charles the Fat, who for the last time reunites the Frankish Empire.

1098 – First Crusade: Siege of Ma'arrat al-Numan: Crusaders breach the town's walls and massacre about 20,000 inhabitants. After finding themselves with insufficient food, they reportedly resort to cannibalism.

1388 – Mary of Enghien sells the lordship of Argos and Nauplia to the Republic of Venice.

1408 – The Order of the Dragon, a monarchical chivalric order, is created by Sigismund of Luxembourg, then king of Hungary.

1781 – American Revolutionary War: Second Battle of Ushant: A British fleet led by HMS Victory defeats a French fleet.

1787 – Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, five days after Delaware became the first.

1862 – American Civil War: USS Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River, becoming the first armored ship to be sunk by a controlled mine.

1866 – Oaks explosion: The worst mining disaster in England kills 361 miners and rescuers.

1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman, the first being Hiram Revels.

1897 – Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, is founded.

1901 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal (the letter "S" [***] in Morse Code), at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.

1911 – Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.

1911 – King George V of the United Kingdom and Mary of Teck are enthroned as Emperor and Empress of India.

1915 – President of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai, announces his intention to reinstate the monarchy and proclaim himself Emperor of China.

1917 – In Nebraska, Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.

1918 – The Flag of Estonia is raised atop the Pikk Hermann for the first time.

1925 – The Majlis of Iran votes to crown Reza Khan as the new Shah of Iran, starting the Pahlavi dynasty.

1935 – Lebensborn Project, a Nazi reproduction program, is founded by Heinrich Himmler.

1936 – Xi'an Incident: The Generalissimo of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.

1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: USS Panay incident: Japanese aircraft bomb and sink U.S. gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze river in China.

1939 – Winter War: Battle of Tolvajärvi: Finnish forces defeat those of the Soviet Union in their first major victory of the conflict.

1939 – HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.

1940 – World War II: Approximately 70 people are killed in the Marples Hotel, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield, as a result of a German air raid.

1941 – World War II: Fifty-four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Philippines. Jesús Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off; César Basa is killed.

1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan.

1941 – Adolf Hitler declares the imminent extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery.

1942 – World War II: German troops begin Operation Winter Storm, an attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad.

1946 – A fire at an ice plant in Hudson Heights, Manhattan spreads to an adjacent tenement, killing 37 people.

1946 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 13 relating to acceptance of Siam to United Nations is adopted.

1948 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali massacre: Fourteen members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaya allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.

1950 – Paula Ackerman, the first woman appointed to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leads the congregation in her first services.

1956 – Beginning of the Irish Republican Army's "Border Campaign".

1956 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 121 relating to acceptance of Japan to United Nations is adopted.

1963 – Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

1964 – Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first President of the Republic of Kenya.

1969 – Years of Lead: Piazza Fontana bombing: The offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, are bombed.

1979 – Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung-hee.

1979 – President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam.

1979 – The unrecognised state of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia returns to British control and resumes using the name Southern Rhodesia.

1979 – The 8.2 Mw Tumaco earthquake shakes Colombia and Ecuador with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 300–600, and generating a large tsunami.

1983 – The Australian Labor government led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating floats the Australian dollar.

1984 – Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya becomes the third president of Mauritania after a coup d'état against Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla while the latter is attending a summit.

1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8, crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing all 256 people on board, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.

1988 – The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains—one of the worst train crashes in the United Kingdom.

1991 – The Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.

2000 – The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore.

2001 – Prime Minister of Vietnam Phan Văn Khải announces the decision on upgrading the Phong Nha–Kẻ Bàng nature reserve to a national park, providing information on projects for the conservation and development of the park and revised maps.

2012 – North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2, using an Unha-3 carrier rocket.

2015 – Paris Agreement relating to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is adopted.

2017 – Doug Jones wins the 2017 US Senate special election in Alabama, becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama since 1992.

December 14th

557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.

835 – Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspires to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot is foiled.

1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.

1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of only one week on the death of her father, James V of Scotland.

1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.

1780 – Founding Father Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York.

1782 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km (1.2 mi).

1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.

1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.

1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.

1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends.

1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.

1900 – Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.

1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.

1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1907 – The Thomas W. Lawson, the largest ever ship without a heat engine, runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.

1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.

1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.

1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class ship, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.

1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.

1918 – Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated.

1918 – The 1918 United Kingdom general election occurred, the first where women were permitted to vote.

1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.

1940 – Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.

1941 – World War II: Japan signs a treaty of alliance with Thailand.

1948 – Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann are granted a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game.

1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.

1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility.

1960 – Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.

1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

1963 – The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.

1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.

1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies.

1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.

1981 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratifies the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the occupied Golan Heights.

1985 – Wilma Mankiller takes office as the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

1992 – War in Abkhazia: Siege of Tkvarcheli: A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli is shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.

1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.

1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1998 – Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.

1999 – Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.

2003 – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.

2004 – The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.

2008 – Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.

2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

2013 – A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.

2017 – The Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal net neutrality with a 3-2 majority.

2017 – The Walt Disney Company announces that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion.

December 16th

714 – Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the Merovingian palace, dies at Jupille (modern Belgium). He is succeeded by his infant grandson Theudoald while his wife Plectrude holds actual power in the Frankish Kingdom.

755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Tang dynasty of China.

1431 – Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.

1497 – Vasco da Gama passes the Great Fish River, where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

1575 – An earthquake with an estimated of 8.5Mw  strikes Valdivia, Chile.

1598 – Seven-Year War: Battle of Noryang: The final battle of the Seven-Year War is fought between the China and the Korean allied forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive allied forces victory.

1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.

1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kołobrzeg.

1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.

1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.

1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.

1838 – Great Trek: Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

1843 – The discovery of octonions by John T. Graves, who denoted them with a boldface O, was announced to his mathematician friend William Hamilton, discoverer of quaternions, in a letter on this date.

1850 – The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.

1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville: Major General George Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.

1880 – Outbreak of the First Boer War between the Boer South African Republic and the British Empire.

1883 – Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.

1901 – Beatrix Potter privately publishes The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It goes on to sell over 45 million copies worldwide.

1903 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to guests.

1907 – The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.

1912 – First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.

1914 – World War I: Admiral Franz von Hipper commands a raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.

1918 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic; it is dissolved in 1919.

1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake of 8.5Mw , rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.

1922 – President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.

1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a 200-strong posse, following a botched bank robbery, in Clinton, Indiana.

1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.

1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honour of the German Mother.

1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak.

1941 – World War II: The Japanese super-battleship IJN Yamato is commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy and transfers the title of Flagship from IJN Nagato.

1942 – The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.

1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.

1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight in support of communist North Korea.

1960 – A United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over Staten Island, New York and crash, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and six more on the ground.

1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.

1968 – Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.

1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India.

1971 – The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence, which is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.

1978 – Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.

1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.

1985 – Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of New York's Gambino crime family.

1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.

1989 – U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr.

1991 – Kazakhstan declares independence from the Soviet Union.

2000 – The December 2000 Tuscaloosa tornado, an F4 tornado, kills 11 and injures over 125 others in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Damages from the tornado totaled $35 million. Sixteen other tornadoes also touched down, with an additional fatality occurring in Geneva.

2013 – A bus falls from an elevated highway in the Philippines capital Manila killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.

2014 – Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 145 people, mostly schoolchildren.