1965 – Charlie Brown Christmas makes airs for the first time on television, The popular animated musical special about Christmas was based on Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip called Peanuts. The special was critically acclaimed as a telling commentary on the loss of the spirit of Christmas among Americans. It is now screened every year at Christmas time around the world.
730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil, Turkic Khazar army led by Barjik defeats Umayyad force, with 20,000 killed including general al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah, whose head is mounted on a throne
1625 – The Treaty of the Hague was signed by England and the Netherlands. The agreement was to subsidize Christian IV of Denmark in his campaign in Germany.
1640 – Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Mass colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin
1688 – King James II’s wife and son flee England for France
1738 – Jews are expelled from Breslau Silesia
1783 – The first executions at Newgate Prison took place.
1793 – “The American Minerva” was published for the first time. It was the first daily newspaper in New York City and was founded by Noah Webster.
1803 – The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President.
1851 – 1st Young Men’s Christian Association in North America set up in Montreal
1854 – Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” was published in England.
1861 – American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
1863 – Auguste Vaillant, a French anarchist, bombed the French Chamber of Deputies. No one was hurt in the attack, but Vaillant was sentenced and executed for his actions.
1889 – US President Benjamin Harrison dedicates the Chicago Auditorium, designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, then largest building in the US
1903 – Norwegian parliament votes unanimiously for female suffrage
1905 – French Assembly National votes for separation of church & state
1907 – Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, in the Wilmington, DE, post office.
1914 – The Edison Phonograph Works was destroyed by fire.
1917 – Turkish troops surrendered Jerusalem to British troops led by Viscount Allenby.
1933 – Romania prohibits fascist Iron Guard
1935 – Walter Liggett American newspaper editor and muckraker killed in gangland murder.
1938 – State of California uses gas chamber instead of hanging for 2nd time in a week: Wesley Eudy and Fred Barnes executed for roles in Folsom Prison escape attempt resulting in murder of warden and guard (San Quentin State Prison, Marin County)
1940 – British assault on Benghazi, Libya: first major allied offensive in North Africa
1940 – Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa are deported to Mauritius
1952 – Great Smog of London (England): Wind resumes, lifting city’s worst smog after 4 days; over 8,000 deaths attributed to conditions; clean air legislation enacted in its wake
1953 – General Electric announces all Communist employees will be fired
1958 – In Indianapolis, IN, Robert H.W. Welch Jr. and 11 other men met to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society.
1960 – Sperry Rand Corporation unveiled a new computer known as “Univac 1107.”
1961 – Tanganyika gains independence from Britain, takes name Tanzania – with Ukuru (Freedom) Torch lit on the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro
1965 – Charlie Brown Christmas makes airs for the first time on television, The popular animated musical special about Christmas was based on Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip called Peanuts. The special was critically acclaimed as a telling commentary on the loss of the spirit of Christmas among Americans. It is now screened every year at Christmas time around the world.
1967 – Nicolae Ceaușescu becomes President of Romania (overthrown in 1989)
1970 – OPEC meeting in Caracas establishes 55 percent as minimum tax rate and demands that posted prices be changed to reflect changes in foreign exchange rates
1975 – U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.
1973 – Arab oil ministers announce a further production cut of 5 percent for January for non-friendly countries
1979 – Smallpox declared eradicated, The World Health Organization officially certified that after a number of concentrated vaccination campaigns around the world smallpox had been eradicated. Only two infectious diseases have been completely eradicated in history; the other is Rinderpest, which is an infectious disease of cattle that was eradicated in 2011.
1983 – Counselor to Ronald Reagan, Edwin Meese says people go to soup kitchens “because food is free & that’s easier than paying for it”
1985 – In Argentina, five former military junta members received sentences in prison for their roles in the “dirty war” in which nearly 9,000 people had “disappeared.”
1990 – Lech Walesa won Poland’s first direct presidential election in the country’s history.
1990 – Slobodan Milosovic was elected president in Serbia’s first free elections in 50 years.
1992 – Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation.
1992 – Clair George, former CIA spy chief, was convicted of lying to the U.S. Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. U.S. President George H.W. Bush later pardoned George.
1993 – The U.S. Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos that were marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.
1993 – At Princeton University in New Jersey, scientists produced a controlled fusion reaction equivalent to 3 million watts.
1994 – US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after comments about masturbation
1996 – UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali approved a deal allowing Iraq to resume its exports of oil and easing the UN trade embargo imposed on Iraq in 1990.
1999 – The U.S. announced that it was expelling a Russian diplomat that had been caught gathering information with an eavesdropping device at the U.S. State Department.
2003 – A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
2008 – Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for a number of alleged crimes, including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama
2014 – CIA Torture Report released, detailing the CIA’s use of torture on detainees between 2001-2006
2015 – Attack on Kandahar airport by Taliban forces kills at least 37 before Afghan forces retake control
2017 – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declares victory over the Islamic State in Iraq, ending more than 3 years of conflict
2018 – Tens of thousands march on Delhi, India, to demand Hindi temple be built on contentious religious site in Ayodhya
2019 – US officials “deliberately misled” the public on progress of the Afghanistan war, hid that it was a lost cause, according to The Washington Post analysis of the “Afghanistan Papers”
2021 – More than 40 camels disqualified from the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival beauty contest after Botox injections and other cosmetic enhancements were discovered [1]
2021 – Truck with a trailer carrying 150 migrants crashes in Chiapas, Mexico, killing 54
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
