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
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
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.
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
1880 – Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Electric Light Company of Europe.
1888 – Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.
1893 – The Engelbert Humperdinck opera “Hansel und Gretel” was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.
1900 – As American forces defeat Filipino insurgents and impose civil authority, some Filipinos form a Federal Party with a platform recognizing US sovereignty
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.
1922 – The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.
1930 – Police Bureau of Criminal Alien Investigation started in NYC
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.
1943 – “Hansel and Gretel,” the opera, was televised on New York’s WRBG. It was the first complete opera to be televised.
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.
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
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.
1971 – US President Richard Nixon commutes remaining 8 years of Teamsters labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa’s 13-year jail term for bribery and fraud
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.
1972 – 16 plane crash survivors rescued from Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 after 72 days on the Andean Mountains, after only surviving through cannibalism
1975 – Metric Conversion Act signed by U.S. President Gerald Ford, The act made the metric system the preferred system of weights and measures in the United States. Today, the metric system is predominantly only used by scientists and academics in the U.S. Common people tend to follow the customary units that were developed before American Independence. The U.S. is 1 of 3 countries in the world that do not use the metric system. Liberia and Myanmar are the other two.
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.
1982 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces it has identified dangerous levels of dioxin in the soil of Times Beach, Missouri.
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.
1994 – Organized crime boss Whitey Bulger goes into hiding, The convicted murderer stayed out of sight for 16 years causing great embarrassment to the American Federal Bureau of Investigations. He was finally arrested in 2011.
1995 – A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children’s school.
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.
1997 – US Agriculture Department estimates it costs $149,820 to raise a child to 18
1998 – Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.
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
