640 – John IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1515 – Thomas Wolsey appointed Lord Chancellor of England
1893 – Henry Ford completes his first useful petrol / gasoline fuelled engine
1953 – Wellington-Auckland (NZ) express train swept away in flood kills 166
1954 – Laos gains its independence
1954 – Council for the Protection of Children forms in Netherlands
1967 – Pirate Radio Pegasus starts broadcasting off New Zealand
1986 – French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released
1994 – Four Muslim fundamentalists capture Air France pilot in Algiers
2000 – The Texas 7 hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot during the robbery
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 23rd December 2020
1862 – Union General Ben “Beast” Butler is proclaimed a “felon, outlaw and common enemy of mankind” by Jefferson Davis
1888 – Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear with a razor, after argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, and sends to a prostitute for safe keeping
1922 – BBC Radio began daily newscasts
1930 – Police Bureau of Criminal Alien Investigation started in NYC
1970 – French author Régis Debray freed in Bolivia
1970 – A Protestant man is shot dead at his home in Belfast, North Ireland
1974 – “Good News” opens at St James Theater NYC for 16 performances
1991 – NY Daily News publisher Kevin Maxwell resigns
1997 – Ballon d’Or: Barcelona/Inter’s Brazilian striker Ronaldo wins his first of 2 best football player in Europe awards ahead of Real Madrid forward Predrag Mijatović and Juventus midfielder Zinedine Zidane
2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
Historical Events for 22nd December 2020
1772 – Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny
1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan
1936 – 1st common carrier license issued by ICC, Scranton, Pa
1946 – Cleveland Browns beat NY Yankees 14-9 in AAFC championship game
1959 – NY Ranger goalie Marcel Paille wears a customized mask
1969 – Pete Marovich sets NCAA record of hitting 30 of 31 foul shots
1977 – 36 die as grain elevator at Continental Grain Company plant explodes
1985 – 74th Davis Cup: Sweden beats Germany in Munich (3-2)
1990 – Paul Coffey becomes the second NHL defenceman to record 1000 points, doing so in a record-breaking 770 games
2012 – 6 people are killed by a car bomb in Damascus
Historical Events for 21st December 2020
1650 – Johan de Witt installed as Dutch pension advisor of Dordrecht
1894 – Mackenzie Bowell becomes the 5th Prime Minister of Canada
1909 – Unitversity of Copenhagen rejects American Explorer Frederick A Cook’s claim that he was 1st to North Pole
1946 – “If the Shoe Fits” closes at Century Theater NYC after 20 performances
1970 – WUTV TV channel 29 in Buffalo, NY (IND) begins broadcasting
1975 – Davis Cup Men’s Tennis, Stockholm, Sweden: Home town hero Björn Borg beats Czech Jan Kodeš 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 to give Sweden unassailable 3-1 lead; ends 3-2
1984 – USSR launches Vega 2 for fly-by of Halley’s Come
1995 – Martina Ertl of Germany wins her 3rd giant slalom world cup
2005 – Civil Partnership Act comes into force in the UK, with Elton John and David Furnish one of the first couples to form a same-sex civil union
2016 – Carl Icahn is announced as Special Advisor to the President on Regulatory Reform, under President Donald Trump
Historical Events for 20th December 2020
1669 – 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection and sentenced to flogging, branding and slavery
1862 – -Jan 3rd] Vicksburg campaign
1918 – Eugene O’Neill’s “Moon of the Caribees” premieres in NYC
1920 – Bert Collins scores 104 on Test Cricket debut v England SCG
1956 – Military coup under colonel Simbolon in Sumatra
1970 – Edward Gierek succeeds Wladyslaw Gomulka as Poland’s communist party leader
1971 – First preview issue of “Ms” magazine is published in the US launched by Gloria Steinem
1984 – 33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in Yale library
1989 – US troops invade Panama and oust Manuel Noriega, but don’t catch him
2005 – New York City’s Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike over pension and wage increases, shutting down all subway and bus services for three days
Historical Events for 19th December 2020
1055 – Seldjuken under Toghril Beg occupy Baghdad
1686 – Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Daniel Defoe)
1777 – Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for the winter
1928 – 1st autogyro flight in US
1945 – Austrian Republic re-establishes
1951 – Nazi General Christiansen leaves Netherlands
1978 – Indira Gandhi ambushed in India
1986 – Michael Sergio, who parachuted into Shea Stadium during game 6 of the World Series, sentenced to 100 hrs of community service and fined $500
1986 – “Platoon” directed by Oliver Stone and starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1987)
2014 – The Guardian newspaper calls 2014 ‘The year the people stood up’
Historical Events for 18th December 2020
1832 – HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard reaches Tierra del Fuego for the first time
1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
1961 – Britain’s EMI Records originally rejects the Beatles
1964 – “The Pink Panther” cartoon series premieres (Pink Phink)
1970 – Polish uprising fails
1977 – Dutch Antilles: premier Boy Rozendal points independence off
1987 – Ivan F Boesky sentenced to 3 years for insider trading
1988 – Seattle Seahawks win their 1st ever division title with 9-7 record
1989 – “I Love Lucy” Christmas episode, shown for 1st time in over 30 years
2019 – US House of Representatives votes to impeach President Donald Trump for abuse of power (230-197) and obstruction of Congress (229-198)
Historical Events for 17th December 2020
1792 – Opening of 1st legislative assembly of Lower Canada in Quebec city
1914 – Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities
1924 – 1st US diesel electric locomotive enters service, Bronx, NY
1957 – The largest trade in NHL history at the time in terms of quantity; Chicago Black Hawks move Nick Mickoski, Jack McIntyre, Bob Bailey and Hec Lalonde to Detroit Red Wings for Earl Reibel, Billy Dea, Bill Dineen and Lorne Ferguson
1978 – OPEC raises oil prices by 18% and agrees on a 14.5% petroleum price increase for 1979, to be implemented quarterly
1988 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1992 – Gen Suwa finds tooth of 4.4 million year old Australopithecus ramidus
2005 – Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong
2012 – 17 people are killed and 70 are injured by a blast in a market in the Khyber Agency, Pakistan
2015 – Libyan warring political factions sign a UN-brokered deal to form a unified government
Historical Events for 16th December 2020
1908 – 1st credit union in US forms (Manchester NH)
1926 – Kenesaw Mountain Landis renewed 7-years as baseball commissioner
1927 – Australian cricket’s batting maestro Don Bradman makes his 1st-class debut for NSW v South Australia at the Adelaide Oval finishing Day 1 on 65 not out
1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the state decoration and civil order of merit, Cross of Honour of the German Mother
1950 – Child star Shirley Temple announces her retirement from films aged 22
1951 – NBC premiere of “Dragnet” in black and white
1967 – “Playtime”, French film directed by Jacques Tati, starring himself, is released
1978 – Ronald Reagan denounces President Jimmy Carter’s recognition of People’s Republic of China
1979 – “An American Christmas Carol” directed by Eric Till starring Henry Winkler premieres in the US
1981 – Dutch Van Agt’s 2nd government falls
Historical Events for 15th December 2020
1612 – German Astronomer Simon Marius is 1st to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
1791 – 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania
1863 – Skirmish at Bean’s Station, Tennessee (Knoxville Campaign)
1864 – Battle of Nashville, Tennessee
1864 – Raid on Stoneman: Abingdon and Glade Springs, Virginia
1874 – 1st reigning king to visit US is the King of Hawaii, received by President Grant
1919 – Fiume (Rijeka) declares it’s Independence
1939 – “Gone With the Wind”, drama film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, premieres in Atlanta (Best Picture 1940, inflation not adjusted highest-grossing film of all time)
1941 – North Africa: allied assault up Italians Gazala-posing
1980 – Premier Queddei troops conquers Chad capital N’djamena