1492 – 1st Spanish settlement La Navidad (modern Môle-Saint-Nicolas) in New World founded, by Columbus
1620 – Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, MA
1620 – Elizabeth Báthory’s crimes are uncovered.
1666 – Guru Gobind Singh, Tenth Guru of Sikhism, founder and General of Khalsa Army, social reformist and poet(d. 1708) Born
1716 – Thomas Gray, English poet (Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard) Born
1738 – Thomas Nelson, merchant, signer of Declaration of Independence – Born
1773 – Expulsion of tea ships from Philadelphia
1776 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army attacks and successfully defeats a garrison of Hessian mercenaries.
1790 – Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.
1799 – Four thousand people attend George Washington’s funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
1811 – A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.
1825 – Advocates of liberalism in Russia rise up against Czar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist revolt in Saint Petersburg.
1846 – Trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevadas and without food, members of the Donner Party resort to cannibalism.
1860 – Major Robert Anderson, under cover of darkness, concentrated his small force at Ft Sumter
1861 – American Civil War: The Trent Affair: Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and United Kingdom.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.
1862 – 38 Santee Sioux Indians hanged in Mankato Minnesota, due to their uprising (Largest Mass hanging in US History)
1862 – Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
1877 – Socialist Labor Party of North America holds 1st national convention
1891 – Henry Miller, Manhattan, New York, author/artist (Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, Nexus, plexus, Sexus), (d. 1980) Born
1893 – Mao Zedong, Chinese general and politician, 1st President of the People’s Republic of China (d. 1976) was birthed
1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
1900 – A relief crew arrives at the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles of Scotland, UK, only to find the previous crew has disappeared without a trace.
1917 – US Federal government took over operation of American railroads for duration of WW I
1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee, allegedly establishing the Curse of the Bambino superstition.
1921 – John Severin, Jersey City, New Jersey, comic book artist (Hulk, Mad Magazine), (d. 2012) Born
1931 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian and educator, created the Dewey Decimal Classification (b. 1851) was born.
1933 – US forswears armed intervention in Western Hemisphere
1933 – FM radio is patented.
1935 – Abdul “Duke” Fakir, American singer (Four Tops) was born.
1939 – [Harvey] Phil Spector, record producer (Wall of Sound) Born
1941 – Winston Churchill becomes first British Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, warning that Axis would “stop at nothing”
1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
1942 – Gray Davis, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 37th Governor of California was birthed
1944 – World War II: George S. Patton’s Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.
1944 – Tennessee Williams’ play “Glass Menagerie” premieres in Chicago
1946 – Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas opens (start of an era)
1947 – Carlton Fisk, Vermont, all star catcher (Red Sox, White Sox) Born
1948 – Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.
1954 – Peter Woods, rocker (Romeo Void-Girl in Trouble) Born
1963 – The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.
1963 – Lars Ulrich, Danish-American drummer, songwriter, and producer (Metallica) was born.
1966 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
1966 – Jimi Hendrix writes “Purple Haze” backstage at the Upper Cut Club
1966 – Jay Yuenger, American guitarist and producer (White Zombie) was born.
1970 – James Mercer, American musician (The Shins) Born
1971 - Jared Leto, Bossier City, Louisiana, American actor (My So Called Life, Requiem for a Dream) Born
1972 – Vietnam War: As part of Operation Linebacker II, 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history.
1972 – Harry S. Truman, American colonel and politician, 33rd President of the United States (b. 1884) died.
1974 - Jack Benny, comedian (Jack Benny Show), dies at 80
1976 – The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist) is founded.
1978 - India's former PM, Indira Gandhi, released from jail
1982 – Time’s Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.
1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union.
1991 – Jack Ruby’s gun sells for $220,000 in auction
1996 – Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado.
1998 – Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.
1999 – Curtis Mayfield, American musician (b. 1942) Dies
2004 – A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000.
2004 – Reggie White, American football player, dies at 43
2005 – Boxing Day shooting on a busy shopping street in Toronto.
2006 – Gerald Ford, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 38th President of the United States (b. 1913) died.
2010 – Teena Marie, American singer and composer (b. 1956) Dies
2012 – China opens the world’s longest high speed rail route from Beijing to Guangzhou