0401 St Anastasius I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1055 Seldjuken under Toghril Beg occupy Baghdad
1154 King Henry II of England crowned
1551 Dutch west coast hit by hurricane
1562 Battle at Dreux: Anne de Montmorency & huguenots under Condé captured
1686 Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Defoe)
1688 King James II’s wife & son flee to France
1696 Jean-François Regnard’s “Le Joueur” premieres in Paris
1732 Benjamin Franklin (under the name Richard Saunders) begins publication of “Poor Richard’s Almanack”
1776 Thomas Paine published his 1st “American Crisis” essay, in which he wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls”
1777 Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge PA for the winter
1783 English government of Pitt Jr forms
1788 Chinese troops occupy capital Thang Long Vietnam
1795 1st state appropriation of money for road building, Kentucky
1823 Georgia passes 1st US state birth registration law
1828 South Carolina declares the right of states to nullify federal laws
1835 HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin approaches New Zealand
1842 US recognizes independence of Hawaii
1843 Charles Dickens publishes “A Christmas Carol” in England
1854 Allen Wilson of Connecticut patents sewing machine to sew curving seams
1859 Grading started for Market Street RR
1861 Battle of Black Water
1862 Skirmish at Jackson/Salem Church TN (80 casualties)
1867 Victims of “Angola Horror” burned to death (Angola NY)
1871 Albert L Jones (New York NY), patents corrugated paper
1881 Jules Massenet’s opera “Hérodiade” is produced (Brussels)
1884 Italy recognizes King Leopold II’s Congo Free State
1887 Jake Kilrain & Jem Smith fight 106 round bare knuckle draw
1888 Stanley’s expedition reaches Fort Bodo, East-Africa
1889 Bishop Museum founded in Hawaii
1890 Start of Sherlock Holmes “The Adventure of The Beryl Coronet” (BG)
1891 1st Negro Catholic priest ordained in US, Charles Uncles, Baltimore
1891 Canadian Rugby Union forms
1894 Cricket day 5 1T Australia vs England England 437 all out, Australia need 177 are 2-113
1903 Williamsburg suspension bridge opens between Brooklyn & Manhattan
1904 The Dawson City (Yukon) hockey team begins 9 day walk to get a boat to Seattle to catch a train to Ottawa to play in the Stanley Cup on January 13 1905
1907 239 workers die in a coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek PA
1907 Gas explosion at Jacobs Creek PA coal mine kills 239
1910 1st city ordinance requiring white & black residential areas (Baltimore)
1910 Rayon 1st commercially produced, Marcus Hook PA
1913 Jack Johnson fights Jim Johnson to a draw in 10 for hw boxing title
1916 Suriname Bauxite Company forms in Paramaribo
1917 1st NHL game played on artificial ice (Toronto)
1917 Québec Bulldogs play their 1st professional hockey game
1918 Robert Ripley began his “Believe It or Not” column (New York Globe)
1919 American Meteorological Society found
1920 1st US indoor curling rink opens (Brookline MA)
1922 Mrs Theres Vaughn, 24, confessed in court to being married 62 times
1924 Test Cricket debut of Bill Ponsford, who scored 110 in 1st innings
1928 1st autogiro (predecessor of helicopter) flight in US
1930 James Weldon Johnson resigns as executive secretary of NAACP
1931 Bradman scores 112 Australia vs South Africa at cricket SCG
1931 Joseph A Lyons © becomes premier of Australia
1932 British Broadcasting Corp begins transmitting overseas
1933 Electric Home & Farm Authority Inc, authorized
1934 Japan agress to fleet treaty of 1922 & 1930
1939 Russian air & ground attack against Finnish positions near Summa
1941 German submarine U-574 sinks
1941 Hitler takes complete command of German Army
1941 US Office of Censorship created to control info pertaining to WWII
1943 Military coup in Bolivia
1945 Austrian Republic re-establishes
1945 Jean Giraudoux’ “La Folle de Chaillot” premieres in Paris
1946 War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
1946 Noël Coward’s musical “Pacific 1860” premieres in London
1948 8th largest snowfall in NYC history (15.3")
1948 Cleveland Browns beats Buffalo Bills 49-7 in AAFC championship game
1948 Philadelphia Eagles shutout Chicago Cardinals 7-0 in NFL championship game
1948 2nd political action of Java/Sumatra
1949 Luxury passenger ship Aquitania demolished in Garelock Scotland
1949 WJW TV channel 8 in Cleveland OH (CBS) begins broadcasting
1950 General Eisenhower named NATO commander
1950 Tibet’s Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion
1951 Nazi General Christiansen leaves Netherlands
1952 Queen Juliana unveals statue “Docker”
1953 KFYR TV channel 5 in Bismarck ND (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
1955 Carl Perkins records “Blue Suede Shoes”
1957 “The Music Man”, starring Robert Preston, opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 1375 performances
1958 1st radio broadcast from space (recorded Christmas message by President Eisenhower: “To all mankind, America’s wish for Peace on Earth & Good Will to Men Everywhere”)
1959 1st Liberty Bowl game-Penn State beats Alabama 7-0
1960 Fire aboard USS Constellation, under construction in Brooklyn (50 die)
1960 Mercury-Redstone 1A reaches 210 km in test flight
1960 Frank Sinatra’s 1st session with Reprise Records (Ring-A-Ding-Ding)
1961 British government begins decimal coin system
1961 Indonesian President Sukarno proclaims general mobilization
1962 Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia & Nyasaland
1962 Street signs in Golden Gate Park approved by Park Commission
1962 Transit 5A1, 1st operational navigational satellite, launched
1963 Zanzibar becomes independent from UK
1965 French President De Gaulle re-elected (Mitterrand gets 45%)
1968 WCWB (now WMGT) TV channel 41 in Macon GA (NBC) begins broadcasting
1969 Beatle’s 7th Christmas album is released
1971 NASA launches Intelsat 4 F-3 for COMSAT Corp
1971 “Inner City” opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 97 performances
1971 CBS airs “Homecoming - A Christmas Story” (introducing the Waltons)
1971 Stanley Kubrick’s X-rated “A Clockwork Orange” premieres
1972 Apollo 17 (last of Apollo Moon landing series) returns to Earth
1973 “Molly” closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 68 performances
1973 Grenada adopts constitution
1974 Dave Kryskow scores Washington Capitals 1st NHL shorthanded goal
1974 Nelson A Rockefeller sworn-in as the 41st Vice-President
1974 “The Man With the Golden Gun” premieres in US
1975 John Paul Stevens becomes a Supreme Court Justice
1975 Ron Wood joined the Rolling Stones
1976 Jo Ann Washam/Chi Chi Rodriguez win Pepsi-Cola Mixed Team Golf Championship
1976 John Lever takes 7-46 in 1st Test Cricket innings, vs India Delhi
1976 Piper Cherokee crashes into Baltimore Memorial Stadium upper stands, 10 minutes after Colts lose 40-14 to Steelers; No one seriously hurt
1976 President Brezhnev receives his 5th Lenin order
1977 Dutch government of Van Agt/Wiegel forms
1978 France performs nuclear test
1978 Indira Gandhi ambushed in India
1980 Anguilla becomes a British dependency separate from St Kitts
1980 Iran requests $24 billion in US guarantees to free hostages
1980 Mutual Broadcasting cancels Sears Radio Theater
1984 Fire at the Wilberg Mine in central Utah killed 27 people
1984 Scotty Bowman becomes NHL’s all time winningest coach
1984 China People’s Republic performs nuclear test at Lop Nor People’s Rebublic of China
1984 China People’s Republic Premier Zhao Ziyang & Margaret Thatcher sign Hong Kong Treaty
1984 UK signs agreement with China to return Hong Kong to China in 1997
1984 Wayne Gretzky, 23, is 18th & youngest NHL-er to score 1,000 points
1985 STS 61-C scrubbed at T -13 seconds because of SRB auxiliary power problem
1985 “Wind in the Willows” opens at Nederlander Theater NYC for 4 performances
1985 Mary Lund is 1st woman to receive a Jarvik VII artificial heart
1986 USSR frees dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile
1986 Jack Morris agrees to salary arbitration with former team Tigers & accuses owners of collusion against free agency
1986 Michael Sergio, who parachuted into Shea Stadium during game 6 of the World Series, sentenced to 100 hours of community service & fined $500
1987 Bruins’ Linseman & Blues’ Doug Gilmore score goals, 2 seconds apart
1987 Gari Kasparov becomes world chess champion
1988 NASA unveils plans for lunar colony & manned missions to Mars
1988 Oklahoma’s College football team gets 3 year probation
1988 Unexploded WWII bomb found in Frankfurt, Germany-5,000 evacuated
1989 American Airlines purchases Eastern Airline’s Latin American route
1989 Larry Bird (Celtics) begins NBA free throw streak of 71 games
1991 Boris Yeltsin takes control of Kremlin
1991 New York Yankee pitcher Steve Howe arrested for cocaine possession
1991 “Christmas Carol” opens at Eugene O'Neill Theater NYC for 14 performances
1993 “Red Shoes” closes at Gershwin Theater NYC after 5 performances
1993 Guinee General Lansana re-elected president
1995 Queen Elizabeth askes Prince Charles & Diana to divorce
1996 “Once Upon a Matress” opens at Broadhurst NYC for 187 performances
1997 MTV drops video “Smack My Bitch Up” by Prodigy