1892 – The Nutcracker makes it debut in St. Petersburg, Russia, The two-part ballet was inspired by German author Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann’s novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Even though the ballet’s score was composed by the famous Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, it did not get good reviews. It was only in the mid-20th century, that The Nutcracker gained popularity among theater goers, especially during Christmas time in the United States.
218 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal’s Carthaginian army heavily defeat Roman forces on Italian soil
1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire “Yuan” (元 yuán), marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China
1603 – First fleet of the Dutch East India Company under Admiral Steven van der Haghen departs for the East-Indies
1621 – English parliament accept unanimously, Protestation
1719 – Thomas Fleet publishes “Mother Goose’s Melodies For Children” in Boston, Massachusetts
1774 – Empress Maria Theresa expels Jews from Prague, Bohemia and Moravia
1777 – 1st US national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating British General Burgoyne’s surrender
1787 – New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1796 – The “Monitor,” of Baltimore, MD, was published as the first Sunday newspaper.
1862 – The first orthopedic hospital was organized in New York City. It was called the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled.
1865 – 1st US cattle importation law passed
1865 – U.S. Secretary of State William Seward issued a statement verifying the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment abolished slavery with the declaration: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
1867 – Around 49 victims of “Angola Horror” train wreck burn to death in Angola, New York
1878 – John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires, is executed in Pennsylvania
1892 – The Nutcracker makes it debut in St. Petersburg, Russia, The two-part ballet was inspired by German author Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann’s novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Even though the ballet’s score was composed by the famous Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, it did not get good reviews. It was only in the mid-20th century, that The Nutcracker gained popularity among theater goers, especially during Christmas time in the United States.
1902 – British parliament passes the Education Act, which will come to be regarded as the most important legislation of Arthur Balfour’s government
1903 – The Panama Canal Zone was acquired ‘in perpetuity’ by the U.S. for an annual rent.
1912 – The discovery of the Piltdown Man in East Sussex was announced. It was proved to be a hoax in 1953.
1915 – U.S. President Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.
1916 – Battle of Verdun, longest of World War I, officially ends in German defeat after nine months of fighting and almost 1 million total casualties
1935 – A $1 silver certificate was issued for the first time in the U.S.
1936 – Su-Lin, the first giant panda to come to the U.S. from China, arrived in San Francisco, CA. The bear was sold to the Brookfield Zoo for $8,750.
1940 – Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation “Barbarossa” was launched in June 1941.
1944 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but also stated that undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained.
1950 – NATO foreign ministers approved plans to defend Western Europe, including the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary.
1956 – Israeli flag hoisted on Mount Sinai
1956 – Japan was admitted to the United Nations.
1957 – The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania went online. It was the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States. It was taken out of service in 1982.
1958 – World’s first communication satellite launched, A product of a highly secretive project, SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment) was launched aboard the Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Once in orbit, it relayed the first message sent to Earth from space – a short statement by American President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1966 – Saturn’s Moon, Epimetheus, discovered, One of Saturn’s 150 natural satellites or moons, Epimetheus shares its orbit with another moon, Janus. Saturn’s largest moon is Titan, which is the only natural satellite in the Solar System with an atmosphere.
1969 – Britain’s Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.
1970 – Divorce became legal in Italy.
1972 – The United States began the heaviest bombing of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The attack ended 12 days later.
1973 – The IRA launched its Christmas bombing campaign in London.
1987 – Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street’s biggest insider-trading scandal. He only served about two years of the sentence.
1991 – General Motors announces closing of 21 plants
1996 – During a press conference, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Maleki states that Iran supports the free flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, but reserves the option of closing off the shipping route if it is threatened
1996 – Despite a U.N. truce, factional fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, broke out in which at least 300 fighters and civilians were killed.
1998 – The U.S. House of Representatives began the debate on the four articles of impeachment concerning U.S. President Bill Clinton. It was only the second time in U.S. history that process had begun.
1998 – South Carolina proceeded with the U.S.’ 500th execution since capital punishment was restored.
1999 – After living atop an ancient redwood in Humboldt County, CA, for two years, environmental activist Julia “Butterfly” Hill came down, ending her anti-logging protest.
2001 – Mark Oliver Gebel, a Ringling Bros. Circus star, went on trial for animal abuse. The charges stemmed from an incident with an elephant that was marching too slowly into a circus performance on August 25, 2001. He was acquitted on December 21, 2001.
2002 – Governor of California Gray Davis announces the state faces a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier
2009 – General Motors announced that it would shut down its Saab brand.
2009 – A Paris court ruled that Google was breaking French law with its policy of digitizing books and fined the company a $14,300-a-day fine until it rids its search engine of the literary extracts.
2012 – 6 health workers dispensing polio vaccinations are gunned down in Pakistan
2012 – Canadian police begin arresting 17 people for ‘the Great Maple Syrup Heist’, for stealing 3,000 tonnes from a storage facility in Quebec
2018 – Meteor explodes in huge fireball over the Bering Sea with 10 times the energy of Hiroshima atomic bomb, 2nd largest in last 30 yrs
2018 – Nevada becomes the first US state with a female-majority legislature with new appointments taking it to 51%
2019 – US House of Representatives votes to impeach President Donald Trump for abuse of power (230-197) and obstruction of Congress (229-198)
2020 – US Vice President Mike Pence receives the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine live on TV
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
