1773 – A skirmish at Grass Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound results in the deaths of two Māori and nine members of James Cook’s expedition, New Zealand
1961 – For second consecutive year, AP names Wilma Rudolph female athlete of year
1991 – DeForest Kelly (Dr McCoy on Star Trek) gets a star in Hollywood
1996 – The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring “Ebonics” a language or dialect
2002 – Governor of California Gray Davis announces the state faces a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier
2012 – Six health workers dispensing polio vaccinations are gunned down in Pakistan
2020 – International body Covax, established to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to low and middle income countries, announces deals with vaccine manufacturers and method for countries to share excess vaccines
2022 – Cinderella’s glass slipper is a witty literary joke by Charles Perrault, poking fun at French King Louis XIV’s love of shoes and Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, according to Scottish professor Genevieve Warwick
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 17th December 2025
1938 – Utrecht Central Station destroyed by fire
1989 – Brazil elects conservative Fernando Collor de Mello as president
1992 – “A Christmas Carol” opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 22 performances
2007 – Republic of Lakotah asserts independence from the United States
2013 – Angela Merkel is elected Chancellor of Germany for a third term
2015 – Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals is arrested on fraud charges in New York by the FBI
2019 – Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf sentenced to death in absentia for high treason
2021 – Discovery of the first true millipede (Eumillipes persephone) with 1,000 legs found down a drill hole in Western Australia is published in “Scientific Reports”
Historical Events for 16th December 2025
1767 – Van Ritter von Glucks opera “Alceste” premieres
1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
1838 – Battle of Blood River: Zulu impis defeated by Voortrekkers in South Africa (Great Trek)
1850 – Ships the Charlotte-Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand
1897 – 1st submarine with an internal combustion engine demonstrated
1940 – WWII: British air raid on Mannheim, Germany
1989 – Protest breaks out in Timişoara in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor, László Tőkés.
2012 – Corinthians defeat Chelsea 1-0 to win the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup
Historical Events for 15th December 2025
1791 – First US law school is established at the University of Pennsylvania
1914 – Serbian troops retake Belgrade in Austria-Hungary
1969 – San Francisco Fire Department replaces leather helmets with plastic ones
1980 – ZBZ Sangha registered after 5 yrs of administrative hassles in Warsaw
1986 – CIA director William J. Casey suffers a cerebral seizure
1993 – Y-12 crashes at Phonesavanh, Laos: 18 killed
2024 – Five members of the “Bali Nine”, arresting for smuggling drugs out of Indonesia in 2005, return to Australia after serving nearly 20 years in prison
2024 – More than 50 people are killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes as the death toll for Palestinians killed in the Israel-Gaza War surpasses 45,000
Historical Events for 14th December 2025
1575 – Polish Parliament selects Istvan Bathory as king of Poland
1702 – The Forty-seven Ronin (leaderless samurai), under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master in Japan
1977 – Test Cricket debut of Pakistan spin bowling great Abdul Qadir v England in 1st Test at Lahore
1983 – Biographical drama film “Silkwood”, directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher premieres
1984 – Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from Monday Night Football
1993 – Muslim fundamentalists murder 12 Croats and Bosnians in Algeria
1997 – Revival of Arthur Miller’s dramatic play “A View From the Bridge”, starring Anthony LaPaglia, Allison Janney, and Brittany Murphy. opens at the Criterion Theater, NYC; runs for 239 performance, wins 2 Tony and 4 Drama Desk Awards
2017 – The Walt Disney Company buys most of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion
Historical Events for 13th December 2025
1294 – Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months, hoping to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit
1570 – Sweden and Denmark signs Peace of Stettin
1643 – English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
1895 – First complete performance of Gustav Mahler’s 2nd Symphony (“Resurrection”), in Berlin, Germany, conducted by the composer
1979 – Strikes against price increases in Gdańsk, Poland
1982 – Australian Open Men’s Tennis: South African Johan Kriek wins 2nd straight Australian title; repeats previous year’s win over American Steve Denton 6-3, 6-3, 6-2
1990 – Revival of Leigh, Charlap, Styne, Comden and Green’s musical “Peter Pan”, starring Cathy Rigby, opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theater, NYC; runs for 45 performances
2023 – COP28 in Dubai ends with agreement from 190 counties to begin “transitioning away from fossil fuels”, a compromise but still the first to directly address an end to fossil fuels
Historical Events for 12th December 2025
1822 – Mexico officially recognized as an independent nation by US
1932 – USSR and China resume diplomatic relations
1955 – The first prototype of the hovercraft is patented by British engineer Christoper Cockerell
1961 – Nazi German army officer Adolf Eichmann is found guilty of war crimes in Israel
1963 – Kenya (formerly British East Africa) declares independence from the United Kingdom
1982 – $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in NYC
1988 – PLO leader Yasi Arafat accepts Israel’s right to exist
2016 – Ballon d’Or: Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo claims award for the 4th time; record winning margin of 429 from Lionel Messi
Historical Events for 11th December 2025
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
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)
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