1666 The French Academy of Sciences, founded by Louis XIV with Jean-Baptiste Colbert first meets in the Kings Library
1731 Dutch people revolt against meat tax
1772 Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny
1807 US Congress passes Embargo Act and President Thomas Jefferson signs into law. Prohibits American ships from trading in foreign ports, as result of involvement in hostilities between France and Britain
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
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.”
1882 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison
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 officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated)
1905 Arrest of St Petersburg Soviet members leads to an uprising of Moscow workers and fighting in the street
1917 In the NHL’s first official week of play, 3 players score hat tricks in the same game, for the same team; Corb Denneny, Reg Noble, & Harry Meeking each score 3 for the Toronto Arenas in an 11-4 win over the Ottawa Senators
1956 Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity at Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Columbus, Ohio
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.
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
1975 US President Gerald Ford signs the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA)
1984 Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 black muggers on NYC subway train https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-bernhard-goetz-subway-shooting
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.
2010 Repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy”, a 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the US military, signed into law by President Barack Obama
2016 Ebola vaccine VSV-EBOV is found to be 70-100% effective in a study published in The Lancet, becoming the world’s first proven vaccine against Ebola
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
