1278 – 680 Jews arrested (293 hanged) in England for counterfeiting coins
1511 – Henry VIII of England concluded the Treaty of Westminster—a pledge of mutual aid against the French—with Ferdinand II of Aragon.
1558 – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.
1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician (d. 1868) Born
1796 – Catherine the Great [Catherine II], Empress of Russia (1762-96), dies of a stroke at 67
1800 – Congress held 1st session in Wash DC in incomplete Capitol building
1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.)
1855 – David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia-Zimbabwe.
1856 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins – Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee, under siege.
1869 – Suez Canal (Egypt) opens, links Mediterranean & Red seas
1871 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
1876 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Slavonic March” is given its premiere performance in Moscow, Russia.
1894 – Daily Racing Form founded
1894 – Serial killer H. H. Holmes is arrested in Boston after being tracked there from Philadelphia by the Pinkertons
1914 – US declares Panama Canal Zone neutral
1917 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (Baiser, Thinker), dies at 77
1917 – Lenin defends “temporary” removal of freedom of the press
1918 – Social Democratic Party becomes Communist Party Holland: CPH
1920 – Turkish newspapers criticized the U.S., saying the United States was spreading “propaganda” against the country. Furthermore, American relief workers and missionaries were accused of attempting to start a war between the U.S. and Turkey.
1928 – Boston Garden officially opens
1928 – Notre Dame finally lost a football game after nearly 25 years
1931 – Following the Stock Market crash in 1929 and the start of the Great Depression Studies revealed that prices of consumer goods had dropped an estimated 17 percent from the previous year. Studies were conducted for the previous year from October to October. This study was done by the Department of Labor.
1933 – United States recognizes Soviet Union, opens trade
1938 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist was born.
1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. In addition, all Czech universities are shut down and over 1200 Czech students sent to concentration camps.
Since this event, International Students’ Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic.
1942 – Martin Scorsese, Queens, New York, director (Raging Bull, The Departed) Born
1944 – Gene Clark, American singer-songwriter (The Byrds, The New Christy Minstrels, and Dillard & Clark) (d. 1991) was born.
1944 – Danny DeVito, American actor, director, and producer was born.
1944 – Lorne Michaels, Canadian-American screenwriter and producer, created Saturday Night Live was born.
1944 – Tom Seaver, Fresno, California, American MLB pitcher (NY Met, 300 game winner, Cy Young ’69 ’73 ’75) Born
1945 – Elvin Hayes, Rayville Louisiana, NBA star (San Diego, Houston, Baltimore) Born
1947 – The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
1948 – Britain’s House of Commons votes to nationalize steel industry
1948 – Howard Dean, American physician and politician, 79th Governor of Vermont was birthed
1948 – East Bay Ray, American guitarist (Dead Kennedys) was born.
1949 – John Boehner, American businessman and politician, 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives was birthed.
1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama.
1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland are evacuated to the mainland.
1953 – The United States join the UN in condemning Israel’s raid on Jordon on October 4, 1953
1957 – Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft.
1959 – De Beers firm of South Africa announces synthetic diamond (So why do we still need “Blood Diamonds”?)
1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region. (Then the Dulles Bros helped kill him – allegedly)
1964 – Susan Rice, American academic and politician, 24th United States National Security Advisor was birthed.
1966 – Richard Fortus, American guitarist (Fake Guns N’ Roses and Love Spit Love) was born.
1966 – Jeff Buckley, musician – Born
1966 – Daisy Fuentes, model/MTV veejay (America’s Funniest Videos) Born
1967 – Ronnie Devoe, Boston, vocals (New Edition, Bell Div Devoe-Candy Girl) Born
1967 – Surveyor 6 becomes 1st man-made object to lift off Moon
1967 – Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson tells the nation that, while much remained to be done, “We are inflicting greater losses than we’re taking…We are making progress.”
1969 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
1970 – Paul Allender, English guitarist and songwriter (Cradle of Filth and The Blood Divine) was born.
1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre.
1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells AP “…people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook”
1973 – Marshal Law was called upon to help curb student rioting violence occurring throughout the nation of Greece. Furthermore, a curfew was implemented in the city of Athens-where 300 were injured and 24 people were killed. Students were demonstrating in an effort to overthrow the dictatorial rule of the military government which had abolished civil rights and dissolved political opposition parties. A crowd of 10,000 people in Athens alone had attended these student-lead revolutionary crusades. Literally, these events nearly caused this city to shut down.
1977 – Egyptian Pres Sadat formally accepts invitation to visit Israel
1979 – Ayatollah Khomeini frees most black & female US hostages
1980 – Clifford Robert Olson begins his reign of terror when he abducts and kills 12-year-old Christine Weller. Between November 1980 and August 1981 he murders 11 children. He is caught and pleads guilty to the murders and is given 11 concurrent life sentences in 1982.
1980 – John Lennon releases “Double Fantasy” album in UK (Assasinated less than a month later)
1982 – Duk Koo Kim dies from injuries sustained during a 14-round match against Ray Mancini in Las Vegas, prompting reforms in the sport of boxing.
1983 – Christopher Paolini, American author was born.
1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
1990 – David Crosby breaks his left leg, ankle and shoulder in a motorcycle accident in Los Angles, CA
1991 – 1st TV condom ad aired (FOX- TV)
1991 – NFL / Detroit Lion Mike Utley is paralyzed in a game vs LA Rams
1992 – Dateline NBC airs a demonstration show General Motors trucks, blowing up on impact, later revealed NBC rigged test
1993 – United States House of Representatives passes resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement after greater authority in trade negotiations was granted to President George Bush in 1991.
1997 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre (The police then kill the assailants).
1998 – Esther Rolle, American actress (All in the Family / Jeffersons) (b. 1920)
2003 – Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as the governor of California .
2003 – Ex-soldier John Muhammad is found guilty of one of a series of sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in October 2002. Police charged that Muhammad and his 17-year-old accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, killed 10 people and wounded three others during a three-week killing spree. On 9th March 2004 he was sentenced to death .
2003 – Britney Spears, at 21 years old, becomes the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2004 – Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion USD and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.
2008 – George Stephen Morrison, American admiral and father of The Doors’ lead singer Jim Morrison. Dies
2011 – Police arrested many Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City after they tried to march on the New York Stock Exchange. The march was supposed to go on as planned only two days after police cleared out their campground in Zuccotti Park. Police clashed with protesters and were accused of brutality, but several police officers were also injured.
2013 – 50 people are killed after a Boeing 737 aircraft crashes in Kazan, Russia
2013 – The owner of over a thousand pieces of artwork believed to be stolen by the Nazis during World War II said that he will not voluntarily give up the art. Cornelius Gurlitt inherited the artwork from his father who had been an art dealer.