1945 – The so-called “Lost Squadron” disappeared. The five U.S. Navy Avenger bombers carrying 14 Navy flyers began a training mission at the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. They were never heard from again.
63 BC – Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations
633 – Visigothic King Sisenand convenes Fourth Council of Toledo at the church of Saint Leocadia in Toledo; all bishops of Hispania agree to establish seminaries in cathedral cities and implement educational standards
771 – Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks after the death of his brother Carloman
1349 – 500 Jews of Nuremberg massacred during Black Death riots
1496 – Jews are expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I
1560 – Charles IX succeeded as King of France on the death of Francis II.
1717 – English pirate Blackbeard ransacks the merchant sloop “Margaret” and keeps her captain, Henry Bostock prisoner for 8 hours before releasing him. Bostock later provides 1st record of Blackbeard’s appearance, and the source for his name
1766 – James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.
1776 – In Williamsburg, VA, at the College of William and Mary the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized.
1797 – Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris to command forces for the invasion of England.
1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte left his army as they were retreating from Russia.
1835 – Assault on Mexican-held San Antonio by Texan rebels
1848 – U.S. President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of ’49 by confirming the fact that gold had been discovered in California.
1872 – Ship the Mary Celeste is discovered mysteriously abandoned by her crew in the Atlantic Ocean
1893 – Electric car built at the Dixon Carriage works in Toronto, could go 15 miles between charges
1904 – The Russian fleet was destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur, during the Russo-Japanese War.
1908 – At the University of Pittsburgh, numerals were first used on football uniforms worn by college football players.
1912 – The Triple Alliance among Italy, Austria, and Germany (originally signed in 1882) is renewed for six years, beginning in 1914, a move inspired by instability in the Balkans
1913 – Britain outlawed the sending of arms to Ireland.
1932 – German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa making it possible for him to travel to the U.S.
1933 – Prohibition came to an end when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1934 – Fighting broke out between Italian and Ethiopian troops on the Somalian border.
1934 – The Soviet Union executed 66 people charged with plotting against Joseph Stalin’s government.
1936 – The Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a republic of the Soviet Union.
1941 – US aircraft carrier Lexington and 5 heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor
1944 – During World War II, Allied troops took Ravenna, Italy.
1945 – The so-called “Lost Squadron” disappeared. The five U.S. Navy Avenger bombers carrying 14 Navy flyers began a training mission at the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. They were never heard from again.
1946 – US President Harry Truman creates Committee on Civil Rights by Exec Order #9808
1952 – Great Smog of London (England): Killer fog creeps in, as still winds and cold temperatures cause pollution fueled by coal smoke to stagnate; lasting 4 days, over 8,000 deaths attributed to conditions
1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO.
1955 – Montgomery Improvement Association formed by Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Edgar Nixon to support the Montgomery bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama
1956 – British and French forces began a withdrawal from Egypt during the Suez War.
1961 – United Nations forces launched an attack in Katanga, the Congo, near Elizabethville.
1962 – The U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to cooperate in the peaceful uses of outer space.
1971 – The Soviet Union, at United Nations Security Council, vetoed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in hostilities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
1974 – Final episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus airs on BBC TV
1977 – Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen due to peaceful relations with Israel.
1978 – The American space probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet.
1979 – Sonia Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church due to her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
1983 – In west Beirut, Lebanon, more than a dozen people were killed when a car bomb shattered a nine-story apartment building.
1983 – The video arcade game “NFL Football” was unveiled in Chicago. It was the first video arcade game to be licensed by the National Football League.
1984 – Iran’s official news agency quoted the hijackers of a Kuwaiti jetliner parked at Tehran airport as saying they would blow up the plane unless Kuwait released 14 imprisoned extremists.
1986 – The Soviet Union said it would continue to abide by the SALT II treaty limits on nuclear weapons. This was despite the decision by the U.S. to exceed them.
1988 – Jim Bakker and former aide Richard Dortch were indicted by a federal grand jury in North Carolina on fraud and conspiracy charges.
1989 – Israeli soldiers killed five heavily armed Arab guerrillas who crossed the border from Egypt. The guerrillas were allegedly going to launch a terrorist attack commemorating the anniversary of the Palestinian uprising.
1989 – East Germany’s former leaders were placed under house arrest.
1990 – British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie appears in public for 1st time in 2 years after Iran called for his assassination
1992 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia’s Congress.
1998 – James P. Hoffa became the head of the Teamsters union, 23 years after his father was the head. His father disappeared and was presumed dead.
2001 – In Germany, Afghan leaders signed a pact to create a temporary administration for post-Taliban Afghanistan. Two women were included in the cabinet structure. Hamid Karzai and his Cabinet were planned to take over power in Afghanistan on December 22.
2005 – UK’s Civil Partnership Act of 2004 came into force almost a year after it was passed.
2007 – Westroads Mall massacre: A gunman opens fire with a semi-automatic rifle at an Omaha, Nebraska mall, killing eight people before taking his own life.
2010 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft became the longest-operating spacecraft ever sent to Mars. The Odyssey entered orbit around Mars on October 23, 2001.
2013 – 52 people are killed and 167 are injured in a militant attack on a defense ministry compound in Sana’a, Yemen
2014 – NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) debuted when it was launched for a four hour test flight. It landed on target in the Pacific Ocean.
2017 – Democratic representative John Conyers resigns from US Congress after allegations of sexual harassment
2018 – Wisconsin Republican senate passes bills restricting power of new Democratic governor Tony Evers
2019 – National strike in France; more than 800,000 people in 100 cities protest against proposed pension reform
2019 – WHO says 142,000 people died of the measles around the world in 2018, nearly 20,000 more than in 2017
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
