1978 – Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl. Bauman had intercepted an Ohio pass.
0987 – French King Hugo Capet crowns his son Robert the compassionate king
1460 – At the Battle of Wakefield, in England’s Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated and killed by the Lancastrians.
1610 – Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory arrested at Csejte Castle on suspicion of killing and torturing hundreds of young girls and women
1621 – English King James I tears out Protestation of Parliament page from the records, objecting to parliament commenting on foreign marriage alliance
1809 – Wearing masks at balls forbidden in Boston
1835 – After gold discovery in GA, Cherokees forced to move across Mississippi River
1853 – The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
1862 – USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
1880 – The Transvaal was declared a republic. Paul Kruger became its first president.
1887 – A petition to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays was handed to the home secretary.
1896 – Filipino nationalist José Rizal is executed by firing squad in Manila by the Spanish
1903 – About 600 people died when fire broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, IL.
1905 – Former Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated near his home in Caldwell, Idaho
1907 – Abraham Mills’ Mills Committee declares baseball was invented in 1839 by future American Civil War general Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York; widely disproven, now known as ‘the Doubleday myth’
1911 – Sun Yat-sen is elected as the first president of the Republic of China.
1919 – Lincoln’s Inn, in London, admitted the first female bar student.
1922 – Creation of the USSR formally proclaimed in Moscow from the Bolshoi Theatre, organized as a union (U) of Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian and Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR).
1924 – Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.
1927 – The first subway in the Orient was dedicated in Tokyo, Japan.
1935 – Italian bombers destroyed a Sweedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.
1936 – The United Auto Workers union staged its first sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI
1940 – California’s first freeway was officially opened. It was the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.
1941 – In an emotional speech to the Canadian Parliament Winston Churchill states Britain will never surrender to “Hitler and his Nazi gang” and that “they have asked for total war. Let us make sure they get it”. Afterwards Yousef Karsh captures him in his famous photograph, “The Roaring Lion”.
1944 – King George II of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne
1947 – King Michael of Romania abdicated in favor of a Communist Republic. He claimed he was forced from his throne.
1952 – Tuskegee Institute reports 1952 as first yr in 71 with no lynchings in US
1953 – The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.
1965 – Ferdinand Marcos inaugurated as President of the Philippines
1972 – President Nixon halts bombing of North Vietnam & announces peace talks
1978 – Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl. Bauman had intercepted an Ohio pass.
1980 – “The Wonderful World of Disney” was cancelled by NBC after more than 25 years on the TV. It was the longest-running series in prime-time television history.
1986 – US begins Military exercises in Honduras
1988 – Oliver North subpoenas US Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush as defense witnesses for his upcoming trial
1993 – Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.
1996 – About 250,000 striking workers shut down vital services across Israel in protests against budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
1997 – More than 400 people were massacred in four villages in the single worst incident during Algeria’s insurgency.
2000 – Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
2003 – U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself and his office from the Plame affair.
2006 – Saddam Hussein executed – The deposed president of Iraq was hanged after he was found guilty of crimes against humanity. Hussein was the fifth president of Iraq and came to power after a coup in 1968.
2011 – Samoa and Tokelau skipped December 30 – The South Pacific Ocean Islands changed their time zone and move west of the international dateline to align their time zone with their major trading partners, Australia and New Zealand. In doing so, they skipped December 30 and moved directly from December 29 to December 31
2012 – 19 people are killed by a suicide bomber in Balochistan, Pakistan
2016 – A ceasefire organised by Russia, Iran and Turkey between Syria’s government and opposition groups takes effect
2020 – Argentina is the first major Latin American country to legalize abortion (signed into law 14 Jan 2021)
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
