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.
1408 – Order of the Dragon: The Order of the Dragon was first created on December 12, 1408 by Emperor Sigismund, then King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje following the battle for possession of Bosnia.
1479 – Jews are expelled from Schlettstadt Alsace by Emperor Frederick III
1524 – Pope Clement VII approves Organization of Jewish Community of Rome
1745 – John Jay, New York, NY, American statesman, 1st US Chief Justice, Born
1777 – Reverend Benjamin Russen, executed at Tyburn England for rape
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.
1791 – Bank of US opens
1800 – Washington DC established as capital of US
1812 – French invasion of Russia comes to an end.
1821 – Gustave Flaubert, France, novelist (Madame Bovary) Born
1822 – Mexico officially recognized as an independent nation by US
1849 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, American businessman and horse breeder (d. 1920) was birthed.
1862 – J. Bruce Ismay, English businessman (d. 1937) was birthed.
1863 – Edvard Munch, Løten, Norway, painter/print maker (The Scream), (d. 1944)
1881 – Harry Warner, Polish-American businessman, co-founded Warner Bros. (d. 1958) was birthed.
1889 – Robert Browning, English poet (Ring & Book), dies at 77
1893 – Edward G Robinson, [Goldenberg], Romania, actor (10 Commandments) Born
1897 – Belo Horizonte, the first planned city of Brazil, is founded.
1900 – Sammy Davis, Sr., American actor and dancer (d. 1988) was born.
1903 – Roger Casement completes report about abuses in Belgian Congo
1906 – Oscar Straus, 1st Jewish US government member, appointed Secretary of Commerce
1914 – The largest one-day percentage drop in the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 24.39%.
1915 – Frank Sinatra, American singer, actor, and producer (d. 1998) was born.
1917 – In Nebraska, Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.
1923 – Bob Barker, American game show host and producer was born.
1924 – Ed Koch, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 105th Mayor of New York City (d. 2013) was born.
1925 – Arthur Heinman coins term “motel”; opens Motel Inn, San Luis Obispo
1927 – Robert Noyce, American inventor and businessman, co-invented the microchip and co-founded the Intel Corporation (d. 1990) was born.
1935 – Lebensborn Project, a Nazi reproduction program, is founded by Heinrich Himmler.
1940 – Dionne Warwick, East Orange NJ, singer (Solid Gold, Way to San Jose) Born
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.
1943 – Dickey Betts, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Allman Brothers Band) was born.
1943 – Grover Washington Jr, jazz artist (Mr Magic) Born
1946 – Clive Bunker, English drummer (Jethro Tull, Electric Sun, Solstice, and Aviator) was born.
1946 – UN accepts 6 Manhattan blocks as a gift from John D. Rockefeller Jr
1947 – United Mine Workers union withdrew from AFL
1948 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali massacre – 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaya allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
1949 – Bill Nighy, English actor and singer was born.
1950 – Paula Ackerman, the first woman appointed to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leads the congregation in her first services.
1953 – Bruce Kulick, American guitarist and songwriter (Kiss, Grand Funk Railroad, Blackjack, Union, and Eric Singer Project) was born.
1953 – Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A rocket plane
1955 – 1st prototype of hovercraft patented by British engineer Christoper Cockerell
1956 – Beginning of the Irish Republican Army’s “Border Campaign”.
1959 – UN Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space is established
1961 – Martin Luther King Jr. & 700 demonstrators arrested in Albany Ga
1963 – Frank Sinatra Jr returned after being kidnapped
1966 – Ronald (Raygunn) Swiney – American hardcore guitarist, Poet revolutionary…. Born
1966 – US Supreme Courts votes 4-3 allowing Braves to move to Atlanta
1972 – Hank Williams III, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Assjack, Superjoint Ritual, and Arson Anthem) was born.
1975 – Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to trying to kill US President Gerald Ford
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.
1982 – $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in NYC
1985 – Ian Stewart, Scottish keyboardist/road mgr (Rolling Stones), dies at 47
1985 – 248 US soldiers & 8 crew members die in Arrow Air charter crash
1988 – PLO leader Yasi Arafat accepts Israel’s right to exist
1988 – Sandra Miller of Queens sues Mike Tyson for sexual harassment
1991 – The Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.
1992 – 6.8-7.5 earthquake strikes Flores Island (tsunami kills 3,000)
1995 – Amendment to make it illegal to physically desecrate the flag turned down by senate 63-36 (need 2/3 vote)
1997 – Carlos the Jackal, “professional revolutionary”, goes on trial in Paris
1997 – SWAT team shoots John E Armstrong in Fla, freeing 2 young hostages
1997 – TWA 800 hearings end
1997 – Fed judge sentences Autumn Jackson, who claims to be Bill Cosby’s daughter, to 26 months for trying to extort $40 million from him
1999 – Joseph Heller, American author (Catch 22) (b. 1923) Dies
2000 – The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore.
2001 – Winona Ryder is arrested on shoplifting charges in Beverly Hills, California
2003 – Keiko, orca (killer whale), star of Free Willy (b. 1976) Dies
2006 – Peter Boyle, American actor, dies of multiple myeloma at 71
2007 – Ike Turner, American singer, former husband of Tina Turner (b. 1931) Dies
2012 – North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2, using an Unha-3 carrier rocket.