December 10
1901:
Nobel Prizes first awarded.
The first Nobel Prizes were distributed on this day in 1901, the fifth anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who founded and endowed the awards through his will.
1996:
South African President Nelson Mandela signed a new constitution that completed a transition from a long period of white-minority rule (apartheid) to full-fledged democracy.
1982:
A treaty codifying the Law of the Sea was signed by 117 countries.
1948:
The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1898:
Representatives of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, concluding the Spanish-American War.
1891:
Nelly Sachs, a German Jewish poet and dramatist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, was born.
1850:
In the United States, following the Compromise of 1850, a Georgia state convention adopted the Georgia Platform in qualified support for the Union.
1835:
The social reform and literary movement Young Germany was identified collectively by that name in a resolution passed by the Diet of the German Confederation that demanded suppression of their writings.
1508:
Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I, Louis XII of France, and Ferdinand II of Aragon formed the League of Cambrai.
1041:
Michael V Calaphates ascended the throne of the Byzantine Empire following the death of Michael IV.
December 11
1936:
Abdication of King Edward VIII.
Edward VIII, failing to win acceptance for his desire to marry American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson, became the only British sovereign to voluntarily resign the crown, his abdication formally approved this day in 1936.
1998:
The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives recommended three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, adding a fourth article the following day, for actions taken in connection to his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
1994:
Russian troops invaded Chechnya in an effort to suppress a rebel Chechen government led by Dzhokhar Dudayev.
1941:
Adolf Hitler declared that Germany was at war with the United States following the Japanese attacks on the U.S., British, and Dutch positions in the Pacific and in East Asia.
1911:
Egyptian novelist and screenplay writer Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arabic writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Cairo.
1845:
The Sonderbund was formed by the seven Roman Catholic conservative Swiss cantons (Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and Valais) to oppose anti-Catholic measures by Protestant liberal cantons.
December 12
2000:
U.S. Supreme Court decision on the presidential election.
On this day in 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively awarded the presidency to George W. Bush, ruling that a fair recount of ballots in Florida could not be performed by the deadline for certifying the state's electors.
1964:
Kenya became a republic on the first anniversary of its independence from Britain.
1936:
Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek was seized by one of his own generals, Chang Hsüeh-liang, beginning the Sian Incident.
1915:
Popular American singer Frank Sinatra, who also achieved wide success as a motion-picture actor, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
1846:
New Granada (now Colombia and Panama) signed the Bidlack Treaty with the United States, granting U.S. right-of-way across the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for a guarantee of neutrality for the isthmus and the sovereignty of New Granada.
December 13
1642:
New Zealand sighted.
On this day in 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sighted South Island, New Zealand, and later, mistaking the strait north of the island for a bay, believed he had found the west coast of a hypothetical southern continent.
1937:
The Japanese Imperial Army seized Nanjing, China, during the Sino-Japanese War, leading to the Nanjing Massacre, in which up to 300,000 Chinese may have been killed.
1934:
British astronomer J.P.M. Prentice discovered Nova Herculis, one of the brightest novas of the 20th century.
1921:
The Four-Power Pact was signed during the Washington Conference by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and France, stipulating that all the signatories would be consulted in the event of a controversy between two of them over “any Pacific question.”
1913:
American boxer Archie Moore, the world light heavyweight boxing champion from 1952 to 1962, was born.
1862:
The Battle of Fredericksburg, a bloody engagement of the American Civil War in which Confederate troops were led to victory by General Robert E. Lee over the Union forces of General Ambrose Everett Burnside, was waged.
1784:
Samuel Johnson, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters for his biographies and essays, died in London.
1545:
The Council of Trent, the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic church, which helped revitalize the church in many parts of Europe after the Protestant Reformation, opened in Trent, Italy.
December 14
1911:
Roald Amundsen's arrival at the South Pole.
One of the greatest figures in the history of polar exploration was Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who left Norway for Antarctica in June 1910 and became on this day in 1911 the first person to reach the South Pole.
1960:
The convention establishing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was signed by 18 European countries, the United States, and Canada.
1895: George VI, who became king of the United Kingdom on December 11, 1936, following the abdication of the throne by his brother Edward VIII, was born.
1799:
George Washington, the first president of the United States of America, died at Mount Vernon in Virginia.
1568:
The Casket Letters, found to be damaging to the career of Mary, Queen of Scots, were produced at Westminster before a body of English commissioners appointed by Queen Elizabeth I.
867:
Adrian II was elected Roman Catholic pope.
December 15
1939:
Premiere of Gone with the Wind.
Starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, the film Gone with the Wind—a romantic tale of the American South during the Civil War adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell—premiered this day in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1939.
1997:
The U.S. Department of Defense ordered that all 1.4 million Americans in its service be inoculated against anthrax, a potential weapon of biological warfare.
1997:
Janet Rosenberg Jagan was elected president of Guyana, becoming the first elected female president in South America and the first white president of Guyana.
1989:
Antigovernment demonstrations erupted in Timișoara, Romania, beginning the revolution that toppled the communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu from power a few days afterward.
1948:
Former U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss was indicted on two charges of perjury for lying about his dealings with Whittaker Chambers, who accused him of membership in a communist espionage ring.
1892:
J. Paul Getty, the American oil billionaire, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1890: The Teton Dakota Indian chief Sitting Bull was killed by U.S. troops on the Grand River in South Dakota.
1791:
The first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution—the Bill of Rights, which is a collection of mutually reinforcing guarantees of individual rights and limitations on federal and state governments—were adopted as a single unit.
December 16
1773:
Boston Tea Party.
On this day in 1773, in what is known as the Boston Tea Party, American colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians threw 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company into Boston Harbor to protest a tax on tea.
1944:
In World War II, German forces attempted to push through Allied lines in the Ardennes, beginning the Battle of the Bulge.
1838:
Voortrekkers killed 3,000 Zulu at the Battle of Blood River in South Africa.
1653:
British soldier and statesman Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England.
1631:
More than 3,000 people were killed by a major eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
882:
Marinus I became pope after the death (possibly murder) of John VIII.
December 17
1903:
Flight of the Wright brothers.
On this day in 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful sustained flights in an airplane—Orville first, gliding 120 feet (36.6 metres) through the air in 12 seconds.
1992:
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the United States.
1910:
American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Sy Oliver was born in Battle Creek, Michigan.
1892:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker was first presented at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.
1853:
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, one of the great figures of the English theatre and the most successful actor-manager of his time, was born in London.
1843:
English novelist Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol.
1807:
With Napoleon's decree of Milan, all neutral countries and allies of France were forbidden to trade with Britain.
December 18
1865:
Slavery abolished in the United States.
On this day in 1865, by proclamation of the U.S. secretary of state, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing slavery, officially entered into force, having been ratified by the requisite states on December 6.
1997:
Kim Dae Jung was elected president of South Korea, the first opposition leader in that country's history to win that position.
1917:
German General Erich Ludendorff ordered the consolidation of the country's leading motion-picture studios to form UFA (Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft).
1913:
Willy Brandt, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1964 to 1987, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1969 to 1974, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1971, was born.
1912:
The discovery of fossil remains of Piltdown man, an extinct human species, was announced at a meeting of the Geological Society of London, but the remains were later proved to be a fraud.
1886:
American baseball player Ty Cobb, an excellent hitter and base runner, was born in Narrows, Georgia.
1787:
New Jersey became the third state admitted to the United States when it ratified the U.S. Constitution.
1737:
Famed Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari died in Cremona.
December 19
1998:
Articles of impeachment approved against U.S. President Bill Clinton.
On this day in 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice, though Clinton was acquitted by the Senate the following month.
1974:
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States.
1966:
The United Nations General Assembly endorsed the Outer Space Treaty, an international treaty binding the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes.
1946:
The Viet Minh, founded by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh, began the First Indochina War against France.
1910:
Jean Genet, a French criminal and social outcast turned writer who, as a dramatist, became a leading figure in the avant-garde theatre, especially the Theatre of the Absurd, was born.
1777:
During the American Revolution, General George Washington led 11,000 regulars to take up winter quarters at Valley Forge on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Philadelphia.
December 20
1999:
Macau made an administrative region of China.
On this day in 1999, 12 years after an agreement was reached between China and Portugal, several centuries of Portuguese rule ended in Macau when it became a special administrative region under Chinese sovereignty.
1989:
The United States launched Operation Just Cause, a military invasion of Panama, the initial attack focusing primarily on the Panama City headquarters of leader Manuel Noriega.
1974:
Ethiopia was declared a socialist state under the leadership of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
1971:
Pakistani President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan transferred power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
1960:
The Vietnamese National Liberation Front was formed, with the purpose of effecting the reunification of North and South Vietnam.
1860:
Following Abraham Lincoln's election as U.S. president, South Carolina became the first U.S. state to secede from the Union.
1841:
French educator Ferdinand-蒬ouard Buisson, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1927 (jointly with the German pacifist Ludwig Quidde), was born.
December 21
1898:
Radium discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie.
On this day in 1898, having recently discovered polonium, future Nobel Prize winners Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive chemical element radium, a silvery white metal that would be used to treat cancer.
1988:
Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, apparently because of a terrorist bombing; in 2003 the government of Libya accepted responsibility for the explosion and in 2004 agreed to compensate the families of the victims.
1968:
Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral) and eventually completed 10 lunar orbits.
1958:
Charles de Gaulle was elected president of the French Fifth Republic.
1913:
The New York World published the first modern crossword puzzle.
1864:
General William Tecumseh Sherman captured Savannah, Georgia, during his “March to the Sea” in the American Civil War.
1845: The Battle of Fīroz Shāh began between British and Sikh forces during the First Sikh War.
1804:
Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman and novelist who was twice prime minister (1868, 1874–80), was born.
December 22
1894:
Alfred Dreyfus sentenced to life in prison.
On this day in 1894, on the basis of specious evidence and anti-Semitism, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to life in prison for treason, sparking a controversy that divided France for 12 years.
1990:
The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was promulgated, granting such classic civil rights as freedom of speech, religion, information, and association, as well as guaranteeing the equality of nationalities.
1989:
Nicolae Ceaușescu was ousted after 24 years of dictatorial rule in Romania.
1989:
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was reopened, signifying the reunion of East and West Germany.
1941:
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Washington, D.C., to discuss World War II.
1856:
Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. secretary of state from 1925 to 1929 who negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928—a multilateral agreement designed to prohibit war as an instrument of national policy—and won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1929, was born.
1481:
The member states of the Swiss Confederation concluded the Diet of Stans, an agreement whereby civil war was averted.
1216:
The Dominican order was sanctioned by Pope Honorius III.
December 23
1995:
Aleksander Kwaśniewski inaugurated as Polish president.
Aleksander Kwaśniewski, formerly an apparatchik of Poland's ruling communist party, was sworn in as the country's president this day in 1995, having narrowly defeated Lech Wałęsa, Poland's first postcommunist president.
2001:
Argentina announced the suspension of payments on its external debt—the biggest debt default in history to date.
1968:
Eighty-two crewmen of the USS Pueblo were released after being held in captivity for 11 months by North Korea, which claimed the U.S. Navy intelligence ship had crossed into its waters.
1941:
Early in World War II, invading Japanese forces defeated U.S. troops at the Battle of Wake Island.
1913:
With the signing of the Federal Reserve Act by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, the Federal Reserve System came into being.
1876:
The first comprehensive constitution of the Ottoman Empire went into effect, giving the sultan full executive power.
1805:
Joseph Smith, an American prophet whose writings, along with the Bible, provide the theological foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Mormon denominations, was born.
1783:
Before the Continental Congress, George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army.
December 24
1814:
Treaty of Ghent.
On this day in 1814, the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium, ending the War of 1812, marking a decline of American dependence on Europe, and stimulating a sense of U.S. nationalism.
1997:
Japanese actor Mifune Toshirō, known internationally for his energetic, flamboyant portrayals of samurai characters, especially in films directed by Kurosawa Akira, died near Tokyo.
1951:
Idris I, head of the Sanūsīyah (an Islamic Sufi brotherhood), was proclaimed king of an independent United Kingdom of Libya.
1943:
General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II.
1942:
Admiral Fran鏾is Darlan, a leading figure in Marshal Philippe Pétain's Vichy government, was assassinated in Algiers.
1822:
English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold, a literary and social critic noted especially for his Classical attacks on the contemporary tastes and manners of the “Barbarians” (the aristocracy), the “Philistines” (the commercial middle class), and the “Populace,” was born.
December 25
Today:
Christmas celebrated worldwide.
Though the precise origin of the date is unclear, Christmas, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, is celebrated on this day, having been first identified as the date of Jesus' birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221.
1991:
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned the presidency of the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist at the end of the year.
1979:
The Soviet Union began its occupation of Afghanistan during the Afghan War.
1977:
Charlie Chaplin, the British comedic actor and director who is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in motion-picture history, died in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.
1776:
During the American Revolution, General George Washington crossed the Delaware River and surprised the British at Trenton, New Jersey.
1066:
William I was crowned king of England, formally completing the Norman Conquest.
800:
Charlemagne, king of the Franks, became the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
December 26
2004:
Indian Ocean tsunami.
On this day in 2004, a large earthquake shook the Indian Ocean floor west of the island of Sumatra, triggering a devastating tsunami that swamped coastal areas from Thailand to Africa and killed more than 200,000 people.
Today:
Boxing Day is celebrated as a public holiday in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
1943:
The German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was sunk by the British battleship Duke of York during World War II.
1893:
Mao Zedong, chairman of the People's Republic of China, was born.
1805:
Napoleon enforced harsh penalties on Austria with the signing of the Treaty of Pressburg.
1647:
Charles I and the Scots reached a secret agreement, whereby the Scots offered to support the king's restoration to power in return for his acceptance of Presbyterianism in Scotland and its establishment in England for three years.
December 27
1949:
Dutch transfer of Indonesian sovereignty .
On this day in 1949, four years after nationalist revolutionary leader Sukarno had declared Indonesia's independence, formal sovereignty over the country was transferred from the Dutch to the United States of Indonesia.
1978:
Houari Boumedienne, president of Algeria, died at age 51.
1932:
The internal passport system, previously denounced by Vladimir Ilich Lenin as one of the worst stigmas of tsarist backwardness and despotism, was reinstated in the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin.
1831:
Charles Darwin set sail on the HMS Beagle, beginning the voyage on which he would formulate his theory of evolution.
1801:
After conquering Italy, Napoleon established the Republic of Lucca.
1512:
Ferdinand II issued the Laws of Burgos to “regulate the relations” between Spaniards and Indians in Spain's American colonies.
December 28
1065:
Westminster Abbey opened.
The original Westminster Abbey, located in London, was consecrated and opened this day in 1065 by Edward the Confessor and became the site of coronations and other ceremonies of national significance in England.
1934:
Spanish sculptor Pablo Gargallo, known for his figures sculpted from iron and other metals, died.
1923:
Gustave Eiffel, designer of the famous Eiffel Tower, died in Paris.
1895:
The first public demonstration of the Cinématographe, an early motion-picture apparatus designed by the Lumière brothers, took place at the Grand Café in Paris.
1734:
The outlaw Rob Roy, known as the Scottish Robin Hood, died.
1694:
Mary II, who became queen of England in 1689, died of smallpox in London at age 32.
December 29
1845:
U.S. annexation of Texas approved.
The annexation of the Republic of Texas by the United States, approved by the U.S. Congress this day in 1845, sparked the Mexican War because land between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River was disputed territory.
1895:
Leander Starr Jameson launched an abortive raid into the Transvaal to overthrow the Boer government of Paul Kruger.
1890:
U.S. troops under Colonel James W. Forsyth massacred more than 200 Sioux Indians in the Battle of Wounded Knee.
1865:
Abolitionist crusader William Lloyd Garrison published the last issue of The Liberator.
1808:
Andrew Johnson, 17th U.S. president and the first ever to be impeached, was born.
1743:
Hyacinthe Rigaud, one of the most prolific and successful French portrait painters of the Baroque period, died in Paris.
1170:
Knights of King Henry II of England killed the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in the cathedral.