2000 – US Supreme Court releases its 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore, settling the recount dispute in Florida’s 2000 presidential election in George W. Bush’s favor and thus handing him the presidency over Al Gore
0627 – Battle of Nineveh: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II’s Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh.
0884 – France’s Carloman dies while hunting and is succeeded as king of the West Franks by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles III (the Fat), son of the late Louis the German
1098 – First Crusade: Massacre of Mara, Syria – Crusaders breach the town’s walls and massacre about 20,000 inhabitants. After finding themselves with insufficient food, they resort to cannibalism.
1279 – Discovery of a sarcophagus supposedly containing the body of Mary Magdalene in the crypt of the church of Saint-Maximin, southeastern France
1474 – Isabella crowns herself queen of Castile & Aragon
1479 – Jews are expelled from Schlettstadt Alsace by Emperor Frederick III
1524 – Pope Clement VII approves Organization of Jewish Community of Rome
1531 – Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego in Mexico City.
1694 – The Royal Society censures Edmond Halley for suggesting in a paper titled ‘Some considerations about the cause of the universal deluge’ that the story of Noah’s flood could be an account of a cometary impact
1777 – Rev Benjamin Russen executed at Tyburn, England for rape
1787 – Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1791 – The Bank of the United States, also known as the First Bank, opened for business in Philadelphia, PA.
1792 – In Vienna, 22-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven received one of his first lessons in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn.
1800 – Washington, DC, was established as the capital of the United States.
1812 – French invasion of Russia comes to an end.
1822 – Mexico officially recognized as an independent nation by US
1862 – USS Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River, becoming the first armored ship to be sunk by an electrically detonated mine.
1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black lawmaker to be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.
1896 – Guglielmo Marconi gave the first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London.
1900 – James Weldon Johnson’s poem “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, is set to music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson; the hymn becomes known as the Black national anthem
1901 – The first radio signal to cross the Atlantic was picked up near St. John’s Newfoundland, by inventor Guglielmo Marconi.
1906 – Oscar Straus, 1st Jewish US government member, appointed Secretary of Commerce
1911 – Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
1912 – The Mother’s Day International Association was incorporated with the purpose of furthering meaningful observations of Mother’s Day.
1913 – Hebrew language officially used to teach in Palestinian schools
1915 – President of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai announces his intention to reinstate the monarchy and proclaim himself Emperor of China
1917 – Father Edward Flanagan opened Boys Town in Nebraska. The farm village was for wayward boys. In 1979 it was opened to girls.
1925 – The “Motel Inn,” the first motel in the world, opened in San Luis Obispo, CA.
1937 – Japanese aircraft sank the U.S. gunboat “Panay” on China’s Yangtze River. Japan apologized for the attack, and paid $2.2 million in reparations.
1939 – Battle of Tolvajrvi – Finnish forces defeat those of the Soviet Union in their first major victory of the conflict.
1941 – German occupying army do a house search in Paris looking for Jews
1944 – Three Evacuation Squadrons (VE) were established in the Pacific from Air Sea Rescue Squadron
1946 – A United Nations committee voted to accept a six-block tract of Manhattan real estate to be the site of the UN’s headquarters. The land was offered as a gift by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
1947 – The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor.
1948 – Batang Kali Massacre – 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaysia allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
1951 – The U.S. Navy Department announced that the world’s first nuclear powered submarine would become the sixth ship to bear the name Nautilus.
1955 – British engineer Christopher Cockerell patented the first hovercraft.
1957 – US announces manufacture of Borazon (harder than diamond)
1963 – Kenya gained its independence from Britain.
1966 – US Supreme Courts votes 4-3 allowing Braves to move to Atlanta
1969 – Piazza Fontana bombing – A bomb exploded at the building of the National Agrarian Bank, Milan, Italy, killing 17 people and injuring 88.
1975 – Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to a charge of trying to kill U.S. President Ford in San Francisco the previous September.
1979 – Coup d’tat 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
1980 – US’s copyright law amended to include computer programs
1982 – 20,000 women encircled Greenham Common air base in Britain in protest against proposed cite of U.S. Cruise missiles there.
1983 – Car bombs were set off in front of the French and U.S. embassies in Kuwait City. Shiite extremists were responsible for the five deaths and 86 wounded. Total of five bombs went off in different locations.
1984 – In a telephone conversation with U.S. President Reagan, William J. Schroeder complained of a delay in his Social Security benefits. Schroeder received a check the following day.
1985 – 248 American soldiers and eight crewmembers were killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed in Gander, Newfoundland after takeoff.
1989 – Leona Helmsley was fined $7 million and sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion.
1991 – At the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in California, the first web server outside of Europe was installed.
1994 – The Brazilian Supreme Court acquitted former President Fernando Collor de Mello of corruption charges that had forced him to resign in 1992.
1995 – The U.S. Senate stopped a constitutional amendment giving Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of desecration against the American flag.
1997 – Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the international terrorist known as “Carlos the Jackal,” went on trial in Paris on charges of killing two French investigators and a Lebanese national. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
1998 – The House Judiciary Committee rejected censure, and approved the final article of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton. The case was submitted to the full House for a verdict.
2000 – US Supreme Court releases its 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore, settling the recount dispute in Florida’s 2000 presidential election in George W. Bush’s favor and thus handing him the presidency over Al Gore https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-bush-v-gore-anniversary
2001 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would implement minimum federal election standards and provide funding to help states modernize their voting systems.
2002 – North Korea announced that it would reactivate a nuclear power plant that U.S. officials believed was being used to develop weapons.
2006 – Peugeot produces its last car at the Ryton Plant signalling the end of mass car production in Coventry, formerly a major centre of the British motor industry.
2009 – The City of Houston becomes the most populous city in the United States to have an openly gay mayor.
2013 – The United States announces sanctions on the two dozen companies who assisted Iran with their nuclear program
2015 – First women ever elected in Saudi Arabia in municipal council elections
2016 – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte boasts he killed suspected criminals personally when mayor of Davao City
2018 – American Media Inc. publisher of “National Enquirer” admits paying hush money to mistresses of US President Donald Trump
2020 – Chinese leader Xi Jinping says the country will reduce its carbon intensity by 65% by 2030
2022 – The city of Richmond, Virginia, capital of the Confederacy during the US Civil War, removes its last Confederate statue, of Ambrose P. Hill
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
