1968 – The crew of the U.S. Navy ship, Pueblo, was released by North Korea. The Captain of the Pueblo, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, and 82 of his crew were held for 11 months after the ship was seized by North Korea because of suspected spying by the Americans.
0438 – The Theodosian Code of Roman laws proclaimed in the Western Empire (first law reforms since 295)
0962 – Byzantine-Arab Wars: Under future Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, Byzantine troops storm the city of Aleppo, recovering the tattered tunic of John the Baptist
1482 – The Peace of Atrecht (now Arras) concluded between Louis XI of France and Maximilian of Austria, ending the War of the Burgundian Succession
1569 – St Philip of Moscow martyred by Ivan the Terrible
1588 – “The Day of the Dagger” Henry, Duke of Guise, leader of the Catholic League is assassinated by the bodyguards of King Henry III at the Château de Blois
1672 – Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, a satellite of Saturn
1688 – King James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch flees to France from William of Orange
1690 – English astronomer John Flamsteed observes Uranus without realizing it’s undiscovered
1751 – France sets plan to tax clergymen
1776 – Continental Congress negotiates a war loan of $181,500 from France
1783 – George Washington returned home to Mount Vernon, after the disbanding of his army following the Revolutionary War.
1788 – Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
1823 – The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement C. Moore (” ‘Twas the night before Christmas…”) was published.
1834 – English architect Joseph Hansom patented his ‘safety cab’, better known as the Hansom cab.
1852 – The Theatre of Celestial John opened on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, CA. It was the first Chinese theatre in the U.S.
1856 – Ralph Collier was issued a U.S. patent for the first rotary egg beater with rotating parts.
1862 – Union General Ben “”Beast”” Butler is proclaimed a “”felon, outlaw & common enemy of mankind”” by Jefferson Davis
1867 – First self-made millionairess (Sarah Breedlove-hair straightener)
1888 – Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.
1900 – As American forces defeat Filipino insurgents and impose civil authority, some Filipinos form a Federal Party with a platform recognizing US sovereignty
1907 – First all-steel passenger railroad coach completed, Altoona, Pa
1912 – Indian revolutionary underground in Bengal and Punjab, headed by Rash Behari Bose attempt to assassinate Viceroy of India Lord Hardinge, by throwing homemade bomb into Viceroys’s Howdah (elephant carriage) during ceremonial procession in Delhi. Although wounded, the Viceroy survives. Investigations lead to the Delhi conspiracy trial.
1913 – The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.
1919 – The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief and had 515 beds.
1920 – Government of Ireland Act / Home Rule Act passed partitioning Ireland
1922 – The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.
1930 – Police Bureau of Criminal Alien Investigation started in New York NY
1933 – Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe sentenced to death for setting the German Reichstag on fire
1941 – During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.
1942 – Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of the traditional Christmas shows.
1946 – University of Tennessee refuses to play Duquesne University after they suggested they may use a black player in their basketball game
1947 – John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain and William Shockley invented the transistor.
1948 – Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo. They had been found guilty of crimes against humanity.
1951 – A National Football League (NFL) championship game was televised nationally for the first time. The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 24-17. The DuMont Network had paid $75,000 for the rights to the game.
1952 – Alain Bombard arrives in Barbados after 65 days at sea proving his theory that a shipwrecked person could survive with almost no provisions, despite having lost 25 kg (65 lbs) in weight
1953 – Soviet secret police chief Lavrenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.
1954 – The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts
1961 – Fidel Castro announces Cuba will release 1,113 prisoners from failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion for $62M worth of food & medical supplies
1962 – Cuba starts returning US prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion
1968 – The crew of the U.S. Navy ship, Pueblo, was released by North Korea. The Captain of the Pueblo, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, and 82 of his crew were held for 11 months after the ship was seized by North Korea because of suspected spying by the Americans.
1970 – In New York, the topping out ceremony for original One World Trade Center (North Tower) took place. The South Tower’s ceremony took place on July 19, 1971.
1972 – The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second play that was dubbed the “Immaculate Reception.” Pittsburgh’s Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran it in for the winning touchdown.
1975 – Metric Conversion Act signed by U.S. President Gerald Ford
1979 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.
1981 – NASA approved a plan to continue the Voyager II spacecraft on a trajectory that would take it within 66,000 miles of Uranus on July 24, 1986.
1983 – Journal Science publishes first report on nuclear winter
1986 – The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1987 – Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. She was recaptured two days later.
1989 – Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were captured as they were attempting to flee their country.
1990 – Elections in Yugoslavia ended, leaving four of its six republics with non-Communist governments.
1994 – Organized crime boss Whitey Bulger goes into hiding
1995 – The bodies of 16 members of the Solar Temple religious sect were found in a clearing near Grenoble, France. 14 were presumed shot by two people who then committed suicide.
1997 – Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.
1998 – Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.
2002 – A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat
2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234
2005 – Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead
2012 – 200 civilians are killed by Syrian government warplanes in Helfaya, Syria
2016 – United Nations Security Council adopts a landmark resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. Resolution 2334 was moved by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela and passed 14-0 with a US abstention.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
