1572 – Spanish troops begin siege of Haarlem
1688 – King James II captured in Kent, after trying to flee to France upon the arrival of William of Orange
1941 – Japanese occupy Guam
1941 – Axis powers Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declare war against the United States
1970 – Start of the 1st Test match at the WACA, Australia v England
1987 – Test debut of Carl Hooper, WI v India at Bombay
1993 – 59th Heisman Trophy Award: Charlie Ward, Florida State (QB)
2017 – Six wildfires in Southern California now cover area larger than New York City and Boston combined
Author: gil7
Today in History for 11th December 2025
Historical Events
1477 – Duchess Maria of Burgundy ends the ‘Great Privilege’ in states of The Netherlands
1948 – WMC TV channel 5 in Memphis, Tennessee (NBC) begins broadcasting
1969 – Libya adopts constitution
1993 – 59th Heisman Trophy Award: Charlie Ward, Florida State (QB)
2000 – 66th Heisman Trophy Award: Chris Weinke, Florida State (QB)
Famous Birthdays
1882 – Max Born, German physicist (quantum mechanics, Nobel 1954), born in Breslau, Germany (d. 1970)
1954 – Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson, Icelandic rock guitarist (Dense Time), and electronic engineer, born in Reykjavík, Iceland
1966 – Terry Sharpe, Irish rocker (The Adventures, Starjets-Starjets), born in Belfast, Northern Ireland
1987 – Natalia Gordienko, Moldovan singer and dancer, born in Chișinău, Moldova
1988 – Tim Southee, New Zealand cricketer, born in Whangarei, New Zealand
Famous Deaths
1582 – Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Spanish noble and diplomat (governor of the Netherlands (1567–1573)), dies at about 75
1884 – Samuel Greene, American naval commander inboard USS Monitor during the Battle of Hampton Roads, commits suicide at 45
1938 – Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist and internationalist (Nobel Peace Prize 1921), dies at 69
1968 – Nadine Riga, American actress, dies of cerebral hemorrhage at 59
2024 – Mamiya Michio, Japanese composer (Narukami; Grave of the Fireflies), dies at 95
Famous Deaths for 10th December 2025
1508 – René II, Duke of Lorraine, dies at 57
1736 – António Manoel de Vilhena, Portuguese ruler of Malta (b. 1663)
1910 – Pablo Hernandez Salces, Spanish composer, dies at 76
1946 – Walter Johnson, American Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher (3 x Triple Crown of Pitching; World Series 1924; AL MVP 1913, 24; Washington Senators), dies from a brain tumour at 59
1959 – Charles Jones, West Indian cricket batsman (4 Tests), dies at 57
1968 – Thomas Merton, French-American Catholic writer and Trappist monk (7 Story Mountain), accidentally electrocuted by an electric fan at 53
1992 – Bernard Reichel, Swiss composer, dies at 91
2005 – Richard Pryor, American Emmy and 5X Grammy Award-winning comedian (Live on the Sunset Strip), actor (Silver Streak; Stir Crazy), and screenwriter (Blazing Saddles), dies of a heart attack at 65
2022 – Grant Wahl, American sports journalist (CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports), dies from a heart attack covering FIFA World Cup at 48
2024 – Michael Cole, American actor (The Mod Squad – “Pete”), dies at 84
Historical Events for 10th December 2025
1688 – King James II flees London
1768 – The first of 100 weekly “numbers” of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which are bound into three volumes in 1771, is published in Edinburgh, Scotland
1913 – Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore becomes the first non-European to be presented with the Nobel Prize for Literature for “Gitanjali”
1939 – KNVB celebrates 50th anniversary
1954 – Linus Pauling wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its applications
1963 – Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta receive the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the technology of high polymers
1971 – West German Chancellor Willy Brandt receives the Nobel Peace Prize
1994 – 60th Heisman Trophy Award: Rashaan Salaam, Colorado (RB)
Today in History for 10th December 2025
Historical Events
1718 – Laurence Eusden is appointed British Poet Laureate under George I
1899 – Delta Sigma Phi fraternity founded at City College of New York, to spread “the principles of friendship and brotherhood among college men, without respect to race or creed.”
1946 – German/Swiss novelist Hermann Hesse wins the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style”
1958 – The first domestic passenger jet flight using a Boeing 707, with National Airlines flying a leased Pan Am 707 from New York to Miami
1981 – The United Nations General Assembly approves Pakistan’s proposal for establishing nuclear free-zone in South Asia.
Famous Birthdays
1588 – Isaac Beeckman, Dutch scientist and philosopher, born in Middelburg, Netherlands (d. 1637)
1897 – Karl H. Waggerl, Austria writer (Power of Love), born in Bad Gastein, Austria (d. 1973)
1925 – Jean Byron [Imogene Audette Burkhart], American actress (The Patty Duke Show), born in Paducah, Kentucky (d. 2006)
1941 – Fionnula Flanagan, Irish actress (Rich Man Poor Man), born in Dublin, Ireland
1974 – Meg White, American drummer (The White Stripes), born in Grosse Point Farms, Michigan
Famous Deaths
1917 – Mackenzie Bowell, 5th Prime Minister of Canada (1894-96), dies of pneumonia at 93
1951 – Algernon Blackwood, English novelist (The Willows), dies at 82
1992 – Dan Maskell, English tennis commentator (b. 1908)
1997 – Gershon Kingsley [Götz Ksinski], German-American composer, electronic music pioneer, and Moog synthesizer player (Popcorn), dies at 97
1999 – Lex Goudsmit, Dutch actor (Fiddler on the Roof, Thomas en Senior op het spoor van Brute Berend), dies at 86
Famous Deaths for 9th December 2025
1603 – William Watson, English conspirator (b. 1559)
1819 – Ann C Coleman, American socialite and fiancée of lawyer and future US President James Buchanan, dies of a laudanum overdose at 23
1966 – Yury Alexandrovich Shaporin, Russian-Ukrainian Soviet composer, dies at 79
1975 – Frank Signorelli, American swing jazz pianist (Original Dixieland Jazz Band; Joe Venuti’s Blue Four), and songwriter (Stairway to the Stars), dies at 74
1982 – Fritz Usinger, German writer (Song Against Death), dies at 87
2001 – Michael Carver, British soldier (b. 1915)
2002 – Stan Rice, American painter, educator, and poet (b. 1942)
2012 – Patrick Moore, English astronomer, author and TV presenter (The Sky at Night), dies from an infection at 89
2014 – Mary Ann Mobley, American model and actress (Miss America 1959, Diff’rent Strokes), dies from breast cancer at 77
2018 – (Arie) “Aat” Veldhoen, Dutch visual artist, dies at 84
Historical Events for 9th December 2025
1640 – Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Mass colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin
1824 – Battle of Ayacucho (Candorcangui), Peru defeats Spain
1907 – First Christmas Seals sold (Wilmington, Delaware, post office)
1967 – Nicolae Ceaușescu becomes President of Romania (overthrown in 1989)
1978 – First game of Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL): Chicago Hustle vs. Milwaukee Does
1990 – 23rd NAACP Image Awards: “Coming to America” wins Outstanding Motion Picture
2012 – The Social Liberal Union Party and Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta win by a landslide in the parliamentary elections
2019 – Chilean Air Force plane lost on flight to Antarctica with presumed loss of 38 lives
Today in History for 9th December 2025
Historical Events
1974 – Howard Cosell briefly interviews rocker John Lennon, and Frank Gifford chats with California governor Ronald Reagan, during halftime of Monday Night Football broadcast from the Coliseum in Los Angeles, California
1988 – Premiere of fact based crime drama film “Mississippi Burning”
2016 – South Korean MPs vote to impeach President Park Geun-hye
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”
2023 – 89th Heisman Trophy Award: Jayden Daniels, LSU (QB)
Famous Birthdays
1787 – John Dobson, English architect, born in High Chirton, North Shields, England (d. 1865)
1902 – Rab Butler, British politician who favoured appeasement, born in Attock Serai, British India (d. 1982)
1904 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist (1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, work with split-brain research), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1994)
1965 – Brad Savage, American actor (Red Dawn), born in Livonia, Michigan
1974 – Wendy Dillinger, American female soccer player and coach, born in St. Charles County, Missouri
Famous Deaths
1674 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman, lawyer, chief advisor to Charles I, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II, dies at 65
1775 – Pietro Gnocchi, Italian sacred music composer, choir director Brescia Cathedral, 1723-33 and 1762-75), priest, historian, and geographer, dies at 86
2004 – David Brudnoy, American radio personality (b. 1940)
2014 – José Feghali, Brazilian concert pianist (Van Cliburn Gold Medalist, 1985), takes his own life at 53
2023 – Frank Wycheck, American football tight end (Pro Bowl 1998, 99, 2000; Washington Redskins, Houston/Tennessee Oilers-Titans), dies after a fall at 52
Famous Deaths for 8th December 2025
644 – Omar I, 2nd Caliph of Islam (634-44), oversaw conquest of Persia and Egypt, murdered at 59 or 60
1680 – Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, English politician (b. 1606)
1768 – Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary and painter, dies at 66
1963 – Field Marshal Sarit Dhanarajata, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1908)
1982 – André Kamperveen, Suriname footballer, politician, administrator, and pro-democracy advocate murdered by the military at 58
1992 – William Shawn, American magazine editor (New Yorker, 1952-87), dies at 85
1993 – Carlotta Monti [Montijo], American actress and memoirist (W. C. Fields and Me), dies of Alzheimer’s disease at 86
2015 – Mattiwilda Dobbs, American soprano, dies at 90
2016 – Florence Finch, Filipino-American war hero who fought against the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II, dies at 101
2018 – Evelyn Berezin, American computer pioneer, invented first word processor, dies at 93
Historical Events for 8th December 2025
1914 – Battle of the Falkland Island: British Royal Navy destroys a German battle squadron
1952 – First TV acknowledgment of a pregnancy in the “I Love Lucy” episode “Lucy is Enceinte,” which incorporates Lucy’s real-life pregnancy into the storyline
1961 – Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 78 points in a 151-147 triple-overtime defeat to the LA Lakers at Philadelphia Civic Center, the third-highest individual game total in NBA history
1982 – “Sophie’s Choice”, directed by Alan J. Pakula and based on William Styton’s 1979 novel of the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, is released (Academy Awards Best Actress 1983)
2004 – Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the Union of South American Nations
2019 – Sanna Marin becomes Finland’s youngest-ever Prime Minister at the age of 34
2022 – Iran announces first known execution of a protester from recent anti-government unrest, after convicting a man in a revolutionary court of “moharebeh” (enmity against God)
2024 – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resigns and flees to Moscow after rebel forces sweep into the capital city of Damascus