1984 – New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway. Goetz claimed they were about to rob him.
1536 – English scholar Reginald Pole appointed cardinal
1590 – Army of Moroccan Pasha Ahmad al-Mansur begins its epic 135 day crossing of the Saharan desert on his way to defeat the Songhai Empire
1666 – The French Academy of Sciences, founded by Louis XIV with Jean-Baptiste Colbert first meets in the Kings Library
1715 – James Stuart, the “Old Pretender”, landed at Petershead after his exile in France.
1731 – Dutch people revolt against meat tax
1772 – Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny
1775 – A Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.
1790 – Supposedly impenetrable Turkish fortress of Izmail stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92)
1807 – The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe.
1814 – Samuel Marsden of the Church Missionary Society arrives in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand to establish the country’s first mission station; Sheep, cattle, horses and poultry are introduced
1849 – The execution of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky by firing squad is called off at the last second
1864 – During the American Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to U.S. President Lincoln from Georgia. The message read, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”
1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan
1891 – First asteroid discovered through astrophotography, 323 Brucia was discovered by Max Wolf and was named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patron of astronomy.
1894 – French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.
1905 – Arrest of St Petersburg Soviet members leads to an uprising of Moscow workers and fighting in the street
1910 – U.S. Postal savings stamps were issued for the first time. They were discontinued in 1914.
1930 – Convention of Economic Rapprochement/Oslo Agreesments signed between some European countries in response to the Great Depression
1937 – Lincoln Tunnel opens, The 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) long tunnel passes under the Hudson River and connects New Jersey to New York City.
1941 – Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C. for a wartime conference
1956 – Colo, the first gorilla to be born in captivity, was born at the Columbus, Ohio zoo.
1956 – The last British and French forces evacuated Egypt.
1961 – James Davis became the first U.S. soldier to die in Vietnam, while U.S. involvement was still limited to the provision of military advisers.
1964 – American comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity
1964 – First flight of the US aircraft Lockheed SR-71, reaches 3,530 kph (record for a jet)
1973 – OPEC Gulf Six decides to raise the posted price of marker crude from $5.12 to $11.65 per barrel effective January 1, 1974
1974 – Iraq announces plans to increase its oil production capaci
1974 – Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb home of former UK Prime Minister, Edward Heath, just before announcing Christmas ceasefire
1975 – US President Gerald Ford signs the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA)
1981 – Argentine general Leopoldo Galtieri sworn in as military dictator and President of Argentina
1984 – New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway. Goetz claimed they were about to rob him.
1988 – 2 robbers wearing police uniforms rob armored truck of $3 M in NJ
1989 – Romania’s hard-line Communist ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown in a popular uprising.
1990 – Lech Walesa was sworn in as Poland’s first popularly elected president.
1990 – Iraq announces it will never give up Kuwait
1990 – Israeli ferry capsizes killing 21 US servicemen
1991 – The body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found along a highway in Lebanon.
1996 – A car bomb exploded in Belfast, injuring a known IRA supporter. Police suspected that Protestant loyalists were responsible for the attack.
1997 – Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces.
1998 – A unit of RJR Nabsico pled guilty to attempting to smuggle cigarettes into Canada.
2001 – Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
2001 – Thirty Afghans, including two women, were sworn in as part of the new interim government in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was the head of the post-Taliban government.
2010 – Don’t ask don’t tell was repealed, President Obama signed the repeal of the don’t ask, don’t tell policy that governed the recruitment and service of LGBTQ members in the United States military. The policy was put in place by the Clinton Administration in 1994.
2018 – Partial shutdown of US federal government begins
2018 – Tsunami hits Indonesia’s Sunda Strait killing over 400 after part of the Anak Krakatoa volcano slips into the sea
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
