401 - St Innocent I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
795 - Leo III succeeds pope Adrianus I
1135 - Norman nobles recognize Stefanus van Blois as English king
1216 - Pope Honorius III delegates degree "Religiosam vitam eligentibus"
1465 - Peace of St Truiden: Louis van Bourbon becomes bishop of Luik
1536 - English scholar Reginald Pole appointed cardinal
1596 - Ferryboat Meuniers crashes in Paris, 150 die
1642 - Pope Urbanus VIII publishes degree In eminente
1688 - Pro-James II, Earl of Danby occupies York
1689 - Heavy earthquake strikes Innsbruck
1715 - English pretender to the throne James III lands at Peterhead
1731 - Dutch people revolt against meat tax
1772 - Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny
1775 - Continental navy organized with 7 ships
1790 - Russian troops occupy Ismail on Turks
1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies.
1807 - Congress passes Embargo Act, to force peace between Britain & France
1810 - British frigate Minotaur sinks killing 480
1815 - Spaniards execute Mexican revolutionary priest Jose Maria Morelos
1832 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin reaches Barnevelts Islands
1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is called off at the last second.
1851 - The first freight train is operated inRoorkee , India
1862 - -Jan 2nd) Raid on Morgan's: Bardstown to Elizabethtown, KY
1870 - Jules Janssen, flys in a balloon in order to study a solar eclipse
1877 - "American Bicycling Journal" begins publishing (Boston, Mass)
1882 - 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison
1883 - August Strindberg's "Lycko-Pers Reja," premieres
1885 - Pope Leo XIII proclaims extraordinary jubilee
1885 - Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
1886 - 1st national accountants' society in US formed (NYC)
1888 - Heavyweight boxing champ John L Sullivan challenges Jake Kilrain
1890 - Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation betweenKingsport and Kentville , Nova Scotia
1894 - -23] Dutch coast hit by hurricane
1894 - Debussy's "Prélude à l'apres-midi d'un faune," premieres
1894 - United States Golf Association forms (NYC)
1894 - French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated)
1907 - Saint-Saëns/Fokines ballet "Le Cygne," premieres in St Petersburg
1910 - US postal savings stamps 1st issued
1915 - Federal Baseball League disolved
1915 - Organized baseball & Federal League sign a peace treaty at Cincinnati
1917 - Flanders declares it's independence, under Pieter Tack
1919 - Government of Ireland Act of Power (Home Rule for Ireland)
1919 - US deports 250 alien radicals, including anarchist Emma Goldman
1922 - Belgian parliament rejects Dutch university in Ghent
1923 - Bill Ponsford & Edgar Mayne make 456 opening stand for Vict
1924 - Babe Dye of NHL's Toronto St Patricks scores 5 goals beat Bruins 10-2
1924 - Philip Barry's "Youngest," premieres in NYC
1930 - 6 West europe lands signs Convention of Oslo
1934 - 1st flight from Netherland to Curacao (Christmas flight 1934)
1934 - Miss Theo Trowbridge sets female bowling record 702 pins in games
1935 - Yaeko Iwasaki, student of D S Harada Roshi, 1st awakening in Kamakura
1936 - 1st common carrier license issued by ICC, Scranton, Pa
1937 - Lincoln Tunnel (NYC) opens to traffic
1939 - 125 die in train wreck at Magdeburg Germany
1939 - Bradman scores 138 in South Australia's 7-821 v Queensland
1939 - Finnish counter offensive at Petsamo
1939 - 99 die in 2nd wreck at Friedrichshafen Germany
1940 - World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1941 - Japans invasion leader lands onLuzon , Philippines
1941 - Premier Winston Churchill arrives inWashington , DC
1941 - Tito establishes 1st Proletarian Brigade inYugoslavia
1941 - Winston Churchill arrives inWashington
1942 - World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
1943 - Manufacturers get permission to use synthetic rubber for baseball core
1943 - WEB Du Bois elected 1st black member, Natl Inst of Arts & Letters
1944 - Germans demand surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium
1944 - Sub Swordfish departs Pearl Harbor for Japan
1945 - Utrecht: Catholic People's party (KVP) established
1946 - "Bal Negre" closes at Belasco Theater NYC after 54 performances
1946 - Cleve Browns beat NY Yankees 14-9 in AAFC championship game
1947 - Italian constituent assembly adopts new constitution
1948 - KPIX TV channel 5 in San Francisco, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1950 - 2 self-propelled trains of Long Island RR collide, killing 77
1951 - Australia cricket all out 82 v West Indies at Adelaide
1952 - French govt of Pinay, resigns
1952 - WSBA (now WPMT) TV channel 43 in York, PA (IND) begins broadcasting
1953 - Jack Dunn III, owner of Balt Orioles in Intl League, turns name over to newly relocated St Louis Browns
1956 - "New Faces of 1956" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 221 perfs
1956 - Last British/French troops leave Egypt
1956 - Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.
1957 - KWRB (now KFNE) TV channel 10 in Lander-Riverton, WY (ABC) begins
1958 - "Chipmunk Song" reaches #1
1958 - "Whoop-Up" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 56 performances
1958 - 2nd Dutch Beel govt forms
1959 - Continental League awards its last franchise to Dallas-Ft Worth
1959 - NY Ranger goalie Marcel Paille wears a customized mask
1961 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1962 - 1,000,000th NBA point scored
1962 - Harris County voters approve all-weather stadium for Houston Colt .45s
1962 - Kinderman Place in the Bronx named
1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1963 - Oakland Raider Tom Flores passes for 6 touchdowns vs Houston (52-49)
1963 - Official 30-day mourning period for Pres John F Kennedy ends
1963 - Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
1964 - Lockheed SR-71 spy aircraft reaches 3,530 kph (record for a jet)
1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.
1964 - First flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird).
1965 - Belgian govt shuts 6 coal mine
1965 - Director David Lean's "Dr Zhivago," premieres
1965 - Great-Britain sets maximum speed at 70 MPH
795 - Leo III succeeds pope Adrianus I
1135 - Norman nobles recognize Stefanus van Blois as English king
1216 - Pope Honorius III delegates degree "Religiosam vitam eligentibus"
1465 - Peace of St Truiden: Louis van Bourbon becomes bishop of Luik
1536 - English scholar Reginald Pole appointed cardinal
1596 - Ferryboat Meuniers crashes in Paris, 150 die
1642 - Pope Urbanus VIII publishes degree In eminente
1688 - Pro-James II, Earl of Danby occupies York
1689 - Heavy earthquake strikes Innsbruck
1715 - English pretender to the throne James III lands at Peterhead
1731 - Dutch people revolt against meat tax
1772 - Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny
1775 - Continental navy organized with 7 ships
1790 - Russian troops occupy Ismail on Turks
1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies.
1807 - Congress passes Embargo Act, to force peace between Britain & France
1810 - British frigate Minotaur sinks killing 480
1815 - Spaniards execute Mexican revolutionary priest Jose Maria Morelos
1832 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin reaches Barnevelts Islands
1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is called off at the last second.
1851 - The first freight train is operated in
1862 - -Jan 2nd) Raid on Morgan's: Bardstown to Elizabethtown, KY
1870 - Jules Janssen, flys in a balloon in order to study a solar eclipse
1877 - "American Bicycling Journal" begins publishing (Boston, Mass)
1882 - 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison
1883 - August Strindberg's "Lycko-Pers Reja," premieres
1885 - Pope Leo XIII proclaims extraordinary jubilee
1885 - Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
1886 - 1st national accountants' society in US formed (NYC)
1888 - Heavyweight boxing champ John L Sullivan challenges Jake Kilrain
1890 - Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between
1894 - -23] Dutch coast hit by hurricane
1894 - Debussy's "Prélude à l'apres-midi d'un faune," premieres
1894 - United States Golf Association forms (NYC)
1894 - French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated)
1907 - Saint-Saëns/Fokines ballet "Le Cygne," premieres in St Petersburg
1910 - US postal savings stamps 1st issued
1915 - Federal Baseball League disolved
1915 - Organized baseball & Federal League sign a peace treaty at Cincinnati
1917 - Flanders declares it's independence, under Pieter Tack
1919 - Government of Ireland Act of Power (Home Rule for Ireland)
1919 - US deports 250 alien radicals, including anarchist Emma Goldman
1922 - Belgian parliament rejects Dutch university in Ghent
1923 - Bill Ponsford & Edgar Mayne make 456 opening stand for Vict
1924 - Babe Dye of NHL's Toronto St Patricks scores 5 goals beat Bruins 10-2
1924 - Philip Barry's "Youngest," premieres in NYC
1930 - 6 West europe lands signs Convention of Oslo
1934 - 1st flight from Netherland to Curacao (Christmas flight 1934)
1934 - Miss Theo Trowbridge sets female bowling record 702 pins in games
1935 - Yaeko Iwasaki, student of D S Harada Roshi, 1st awakening in Kamakura
1936 - 1st common carrier license issued by ICC, Scranton, Pa
1937 - Lincoln Tunnel (NYC) opens to traffic
1939 - 125 die in train wreck at Magdeburg Germany
1939 - Bradman scores 138 in South Australia's 7-821 v Queensland
1939 - Finnish counter offensive at Petsamo
1939 - 99 die in 2nd wreck at Friedrichshafen Germany
1940 - World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1941 - Japans invasion leader lands on
1941 - Premier Winston Churchill arrives in
1941 - Tito establishes 1st Proletarian Brigade in
1941 - Winston Churchill arrives in
1942 - World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
1943 - Manufacturers get permission to use synthetic rubber for baseball core
1943 - WEB Du Bois elected 1st black member, Natl Inst of Arts & Letters
1944 - Germans demand surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium
1944 - Sub Swordfish departs Pearl Harbor for Japan
1945 - Utrecht: Catholic People's party (KVP) established
1946 - "Bal Negre" closes at Belasco Theater NYC after 54 performances
1946 - Cleve Browns beat NY Yankees 14-9 in AAFC championship game
1947 - Italian constituent assembly adopts new constitution
1948 - KPIX TV channel 5 in San Francisco, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1950 - 2 self-propelled trains of Long Island RR collide, killing 77
1951 - Australia cricket all out 82 v West Indies at Adelaide
1952 - French govt of Pinay, resigns
1952 - WSBA (now WPMT) TV channel 43 in York, PA (IND) begins broadcasting
1953 - Jack Dunn III, owner of Balt Orioles in Intl League, turns name over to newly relocated St Louis Browns
1956 - "New Faces of 1956" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 221 perfs
1956 - Last British/French troops leave Egypt
1956 - Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.
1957 - KWRB (now KFNE) TV channel 10 in Lander-Riverton, WY (ABC) begins
1958 - "Chipmunk Song" reaches #1
1958 - "Whoop-Up" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 56 performances
1958 - 2nd Dutch Beel govt forms
1959 - Continental League awards its last franchise to Dallas-Ft Worth
1959 - NY Ranger goalie Marcel Paille wears a customized mask
1961 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1962 - 1,000,000th NBA point scored
1962 - Harris County voters approve all-weather stadium for Houston Colt .45s
1962 - Kinderman Place in the Bronx named
1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1963 - Oakland Raider Tom Flores passes for 6 touchdowns vs Houston (52-49)
1963 - Official 30-day mourning period for Pres John F Kennedy ends
1963 - Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
1964 - Lockheed SR-71 spy aircraft reaches 3,530 kph (record for a jet)
1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.
1964 - First flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird).
1965 - Belgian govt shuts 6 coal mine
1965 - Director David Lean's "Dr Zhivago," premieres
1965 - Great-Britain sets maximum speed at 70 MPH
1965 - Radio Mil (Domincan Republic) transmitter blown up
1966 - WCVW TV channel 57 in Richmond, VA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1968 - Julie Nixon weds Dwight David Eisenhower
1969 - Pete Marovich sets NCAA record of hitting 30 of 31 foul shots
1970 - Treblinka SS commander Franz Stangl sentenced to life imprisonment
1971 - KUAC TV channel 9 in Fairbanks/College, AK (PBS) begins broadcasting
1971 - UN General Assembly ratifies Kurt Waldheim as secretary-General
1971 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1972 - 6.25 earthquake strikes Managua Nicaragua, 12,000+ killed
1974 - 2nd cease-fire between IRA & British; lasts until approx April 1975
1974 - Phil Esposito, Boston, became 6th NHLer to score 500 goals
1974 - Referenda in Comoros-3 islands for independence, 1 stays French
1974 - Ted Heath's house is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.
1976 - "Your Arm's Too Short..." opens at Lyceum NYC for 429 perfs
1976 - 35 Unification church couples wed in NYC
1976 - German DR banishes singer Nina Hagen
1977 - 36 die as grain elevator at Continental Grain Company plant explodes
1978 - Kenny Jones becomes The Who's new drummer
1978 - Thailand adopts constitution
1980 - Cardinals release outfielder Bobby Bonds
1980 - Pres-elect Reagan appoints J Kirkpatrick (UN) & James Watt (Interior)
1981 - Argentine general Leopoldo Galtieri sworn in as president
1981 - Belgium's 5th govt of Martens forms
1982 - William Mastrosimones "Extremities," premieres in NYC
1983 - Egyptian president Mubarak meets with PLO leader Yasser Arafat
1983 - Islanders score 3 shorthanded goals against Caps
1984 - Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 black muggers on NYC subway train
1984 - Madonna's "Like a Virgin," single goes #1 for 6 weeks
1984 - Test Cricket debut of Craig McDermott, v WI at the MCG
1985 - "Wind in the Willows" closes at Nederlander Theater NYC after 4 perfs
1985 - 74th Davis Cup: Sweden beats Germany in Munich (3-2)
1985 - STS 51-L vehicle moves to Launch Pad 39B
1986 - India score 7-676 v Sri Lanka at Kanpur in Cricket
1987 - Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx overdoses from Heroin
1988 - 2 robbers wearing police uniforms rob armored truck of $3 M in NJ
1988 - South Africa signs accord granting independence to South West Africa
1988 - Tug hits oil barge, spreads 231,000 gal on 300 mi of WA & BC coast
1988 - Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.
1989 - After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Nicolea Ceausescu
1989 - Chad adopts its Constitution
1989 - Cold wave: -4°F in Oklahoma City, -6°F in Tulsa, -12°F in Pitts
1989 - -18°F in Denver, -23°F in KC Mo, -42°F in Scottsbluff Nebraska -47°F in Hardin Mont & -60°F in Black Hills South Dakota
1990 - Iraq announces it will never give up Kuwait
1990 - Israeli ferry capsizes killing 21 US servicemen
1990 - Lech Walesa sworn in as Poland's 1st popularly elected president
1992 - Libyan MIG-23UB attacks Boeing 727 at Souk al-Sabt, 158 die
1994 - "Christmas Carol" opens at Richard Rodgers Theater NYC for 18 perfs
1994 - Italian govt of Berlusconi resigns
1995 - David Cone signs $19.5 million 3 year contract with NY Yankees
1996 - Steelers' Kordell Stewart runs quarterback record 80 yds for TD
1996 - Wendy's Three Tour Golf Challenge
1996 - Zimbabwe & England draw Bulawayo Test Cricket with Eng need 1 to win
1997 - Hunter Tylo awarded $4 million in Melrose Place breach of contract
1997 - Merck baldness pill for men approved by FDA
1997 - Nancy Kerring & Tonya Harding pre-record a show to air on FOX on Feb 5
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.
1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (Zaragoza ) another van loaded by ETA with 750 kg of explosives (see related event on December 21, 1999).
2000 - Pop singer Madonna and film director Guy Ritchie marry in Scotland
2001 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan NorthernAlliance , hands over power in Afghanistan
2001 - Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
2002 - Joe Strummer, lead singer of the British punk band The Clash, dies at age 50
2003 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits near San Simeon, California.
1966 - WCVW TV channel 57 in Richmond, VA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1968 - Julie Nixon weds Dwight David Eisenhower
1969 - Pete Marovich sets NCAA record of hitting 30 of 31 foul shots
1970 - Treblinka SS commander Franz Stangl sentenced to life imprisonment
1971 - KUAC TV channel 9 in Fairbanks/College, AK (PBS) begins broadcasting
1971 - UN General Assembly ratifies Kurt Waldheim as secretary-General
1971 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1972 - 6.25 earthquake strikes Managua Nicaragua, 12,000+ killed
1974 - 2nd cease-fire between IRA & British; lasts until approx April 1975
1974 - Phil Esposito, Boston, became 6th NHLer to score 500 goals
1974 - Referenda in Comoros-3 islands for independence, 1 stays French
1974 - Ted Heath's house is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.
1976 - "Your Arm's Too Short..." opens at Lyceum NYC for 429 perfs
1976 - 35 Unification church couples wed in NYC
1976 - German DR banishes singer Nina Hagen
1977 - 36 die as grain elevator at Continental Grain Company plant explodes
1978 - Kenny Jones becomes The Who's new drummer
1978 - Thailand adopts constitution
1980 - Cardinals release outfielder Bobby Bonds
1980 - Pres-elect Reagan appoints J Kirkpatrick (UN) & James Watt (Interior)
1981 - Argentine general Leopoldo Galtieri sworn in as president
1981 - Belgium's 5th govt of Martens forms
1982 - William Mastrosimones "Extremities," premieres in NYC
1983 - Egyptian president Mubarak meets with PLO leader Yasser Arafat
1983 - Islanders score 3 shorthanded goals against Caps
1984 - Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 black muggers on NYC subway train
1984 - Madonna's "Like a Virgin," single goes #1 for 6 weeks
1984 - Test Cricket debut of Craig McDermott, v WI at the MCG
1985 - "Wind in the Willows" closes at Nederlander Theater NYC after 4 perfs
1985 - 74th Davis Cup: Sweden beats Germany in Munich (3-2)
1985 - STS 51-L vehicle moves to Launch Pad 39B
1986 - India score 7-676 v Sri Lanka at Kanpur in Cricket
1987 - Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx overdoses from Heroin
1988 - 2 robbers wearing police uniforms rob armored truck of $3 M in NJ
1988 - South Africa signs accord granting independence to South West Africa
1988 - Tug hits oil barge, spreads 231,000 gal on 300 mi of WA & BC coast
1988 - Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.
1989 - After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Nicolea Ceausescu
1989 - Chad adopts its Constitution
1989 - Cold wave: -4°F in Oklahoma City, -6°F in Tulsa, -12°F in Pitts
1989 - -18°F in Denver, -23°F in KC Mo, -42°F in Scottsbluff Nebraska -47°F in Hardin Mont & -60°F in Black Hills South Dakota
1990 - Iraq announces it will never give up Kuwait
1990 - Israeli ferry capsizes killing 21 US servicemen
1990 - Lech Walesa sworn in as Poland's 1st popularly elected president
1992 - Libyan MIG-23UB attacks Boeing 727 at Souk al-Sabt, 158 die
1994 - "Christmas Carol" opens at Richard Rodgers Theater NYC for 18 perfs
1994 - Italian govt of Berlusconi resigns
1995 - David Cone signs $19.5 million 3 year contract with NY Yankees
1996 - Steelers' Kordell Stewart runs quarterback record 80 yds for TD
1996 - Wendy's Three Tour Golf Challenge
1996 - Zimbabwe & England draw Bulawayo Test Cricket with Eng need 1 to win
1997 - Hunter Tylo awarded $4 million in Melrose Place breach of contract
1997 - Merck baldness pill for men approved by FDA
1997 - Nancy Kerring & Tonya Harding pre-record a show to air on FOX on Feb 5
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.
1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (
2000 - Pop singer Madonna and film director Guy Ritchie marry in Scotland
2001 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern
2001 - Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
2002 - Joe Strummer, lead singer of the British punk band The Clash, dies at age 50
2003 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits near San Simeon, California.
