On This Day In History
December 4th
1534 Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent occupies Baghdad
1563 Council of Trent holds its last session, after 18 years. Last ecumenical council for more than 300 years.
1619 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish, England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God. Considered by many The First Thanksgiving in the Americas.
1791 Britain’s “The Observer” is first published, the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world
1829 Britain outlaws “suttee” in India, a Hindu practice where a widow burns herself to death on her husband’s funeral pyre
1918 US President Woodrow Wilson sails for Versailles Peace Conference in France
Did You Know?
Native Americans had just one migration from Siberia to the New World, at most 23,000 years ago, in research published in “Nature” and “Science”
Today in History in 2018
Would You Believe?
Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse‘s Le Bateau upside down for 47 days
Today in History in 1961
December 5th
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
1456 Earthquake strikes Naples; about 35,000 die
1848 US President James K. Polk triggers gold rush of 1849 by confirming a gold discovery in California
1933 Prohibition ends in the US when 21st Amendment to the US Constitution ratified, 18th Amendment repealed (5:32 PM EST)
1969 Four-node ARPANET network is established
Did You Know?
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
Today in History in 1717
Would You Believe?
Flight 19 the “Lost Squadron” of 5 torpedo bombers and 14 airmen is lost east of Florida in the supposed Bermuda Triangle
Today in History in 1945
December 6th
1240 Mongols led by Batu Khan occupy and destroy Kyiv after an 8 day siege; out of 50,000 people in the city only 2,000 survive
1865 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery (except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,)
1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty signed; Ireland receives dominion status; partition creates Northern Ireland
1998 Hugo Chávez is elected President of Venezuela
2006 NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars
Did You Know?
Aluminum capstone set atop Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., making it the tallest human-built structure in the world (overtaking Cologne Cathedral)
Today in History in 1884
Would You Believe?
Thomas Edison records himself reciting “Mary had a little lamb”
Today in History in 1877
December 7th
43 BC Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and politician is assassinated in Formiae
1909 Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry
1941 Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people
1965 Pope Paul VI & Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led to split of 2 churches in 1054
1988 6.9 earthquake in Spitak, Armenia kills 25,000-50,000 people and leaves up to 500,000 homeless
1988 PLO delegation lead by Yasser Arafat proclaims the State of Palestine, recognizing the existence of the State of Israel for the first time
Did You Know?
Bust of Queen Nefertiti found in El-Amarna, Egypt
Today in History in 1912
Would You Believe?
Richard Dodd returns a library book his great grandfather took out in 1823 from the University of Cincinnati
Today in History in 1968
December 8th
1863 Abraham Lincoln issues his Amnesty Proclamation and plan for Reconstruction of the South
1941 US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II
1941 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers “Day of Infamy” speech to US Congress a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor
1965 Pope Paul VI signs 2nd Vatican council
1966 US and USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space
2004 Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the Union of South American Nations
Did You Know?
Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his “Atoms for Peace” speech at the United Nations in New York
Today in History in 1953
Would You Believe?
Norman Mayer holds Washington Monument hostage, demanding an end to nuclear weapons. Is killed by police after 10 hrs (he had no explosives)
Today in History in 1982
December 9th
536 Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire
1212 Frederick II (later also Holy Roman Emperor) crowned King of Germany in Mainz
1968 In “The Mother of All Demos” Douglas Engelbart demonstrates the computer system NLS (oN-Line System) to a live audience in San Francisco. Shows for the first time, the mouse, word processing, windows, hypertext links, video conferencing, real-time collaboration, and other modern computing concepts. [1]
1990 Lech Wałęsa wins Poland’s 1st direct presidential election in Poland
1992 US Marines and allied nations launch an amphibious and airborne operation in Mogadishu, Somalia to restore order to the war-torn nation. Authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 794 passed on December 3.
Did You Know?
Alfred Tennyson‘s poem “Charge of the Light Brigade” is published in “The Examiner”
Today in History in 1854
Would You Believe?
The first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
Today in History in 1868
December 10th
1520 Martin Luther publicly burns papal edict demanding he recant
1684 Isaac Newton‘s derivation of Kepler’s laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley
1799 Metric system first adopted in France
1901 First Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant and peace activist Frederic Passy
1936 Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson
1964 Nobel Peace Prize presented to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Oslo, Norway