795 – Leo III begins his reign as Pope after his election the previous day
1862 – Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, MS (Chickasaw Bayou)
1924 – Albania is declared a dictatorship under Ahmed Beg Zofu
1945 – Arthur Laurent’s “Home of the Brave” premieres in NYC
1945 – The World Bank was created with the signing of an agreement by 28 nations.
1947 – 1st “Howdy Doody Show” (Puppet Playhouse), telecast on NBC
1951 – 40th Davis Cup: Australia beats USA in Sydney (3-2)
1954 – “Saint of Bleecker Street” opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 92 performances
1961 – Belgium and Congo resume diplomatic relations
1979 – Soap Opera “Knots Landing” premieres on CBS-TV
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 26th December 2019
1825 – Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar Nicholas I begins [O.S. 14 December]
1848 – 1st gold seekers arrive in Panama en route to San Francisco
1902 – Most knock downs in a fight, Oscar Nelson (5) and Christy Williams (42)
1918 – After spending Christmas with American troops in France, Wilson goes to London for preliminary discussions about the forthcoming peace conference
1941 – Winston Churchill becomes first British Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, warning that Axis would “stop at nothing”
1963 – “Double Dublin” opens at Little Theater NYC for 4 performances
1973 – Horror film “The Exorcist” based on book and screenplay by William Peter Blatty, starring Linda Blair, rated X, premieres – 1st horror film to be nominated for Best Picture
1988 – Anti African student rebellion in Nanjing, China
1988 – “Legs Diamond” opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 64 performances
1990 – Garry Kasparov beats Antatoly Karpov to retain chess championship
Historical Events for 25th December 2019
979 – Rotardus appointed as bishop of the kingdom
1769 – First Christian service in New Zealand; Mass is celebrated in Doubtless Bay by Father Paul-Antoine Léonard de Villefeix of the de Surville expedition
1814 – Reverend Samuel Marsden of the Church Missionary Society holds the first Christian service in New Zealand on land, at Rangihoua
1896 – “Stars and Stripes Forever” written by John Philip Sousa
1930 – Slinger Nitschke scores 142 SA v Qld at Adelaide before 5,422
1940 – Bradman out 1st ball for South Australia v Victoria before 6213
1968 – Frank Borman’s Christmas reading while orbiting the Moon
1973 – Arab oil ministers cancel January 5 percent production cut; Saudi Arabian oil minister promises 10 percent OPEC production rise
1976 – 6th Fiesta Bowl: #8 Oklahoma beats Wyoming, 41-7
2012 – 8 people are killed and thousands left homeless after two fires strike Manila, Philippines
Historical Events for 24th December 2019
1651 – Jan van Riebeeck departs for Cape of Good Hope to found 1st permanent European settlement
1814 – Treaty of Ghent signed, ending the War of 1812 between the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies
1818 – Christmas carol “Silent Night” composed by Franz Xaver Gruber is first sung at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria
1849 – First great fire of early San Francisco starts east side of the Plaza, first of great seven fires in 2 years
1927 – Test Cricket debut of Walter Hammond, who scored 51 and took 5-36 v S Af
1943 – Terence Rattigan’s “While the Sun Shines” premieres in London
1951 – 1st televised opera (Amahl and Night Visitor)
1984 – Palace coup in Mauritania
1989 – Charles Taylor enters Liberia to unseat President Samuel K Doe
1999 – Opening of St Peter’s Holy Door by Pope John Paul II in approach of 3rd millennium
Historical Events for 23rd December 2019
1823 – “Visit from St Nicholas” by C Moore published in Troy (NY) Sentinel
1862 – Union General Ben “Beast” Butler is proclaimed a “felon, outlaw and common enemy of mankind” by Jefferson Davis
1893 – Opera “Hansel und Gretel” by Engelbert Humperdinck and his sister Adelheid Wette premieres in Weimar, conducted by Richard Strauss
1919 – Alice H Parker patents gas heating furnace
1922 – BBC Radio began daily newscasts
1928 – NBC sets up a permanent, coast-to-coast radio network
1962 – Cuba starts returning US prisoners from Bay of Pigs invasion
1968 – 1st US case of space motion sickness
1973 – 6 Persian Gulf nations double their oil prices
2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
Historical Events for 22nd December 2019
1465 – Peace of St Truiden: Louis van Bourbon becomes bishop of Liège
1688 – Pro-James II, Earl of Danby occupies York
1851 – The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
1940 – World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1946 – Cleveland Browns beat NY Yankees 14-9 in AAFC championship game
1947 – Italian constituent assembly adopts new constitution
1958 – 2nd Dutch Beel government forms
1962 – 1,000,000th NBA point scored
1985 – 74th Davis Cup: Sweden beats Germany in Munich (3-2)
1996 – Steelers’ Kordell Stewart runs quarterback record 80 yds for TD
Historical Events for 21st December 2019
1620 – 102 Mayflower Pilgrims and about 30 crew land at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts [OS=Dec 11]
1914 – 2,800 African miners strike at the Van Rhyn Deep mines in a bid to redress some of their grievances
1937 – O’Reilly completes 14-98 for cricket match, NSW v South Aust
1948 – 1949 NFL Draft: University of Pennsylvania linebacker/center Chuck Bednarik is selected first by Philadelphia Eagles
1949 – Dutch 1st Chamber accept sovereignty of Indonesia
1962 – Angolin leaves Comecon
1970 – WUTV TV channel 29 in Buffalo, NY (IND) begins broadcasting
1979 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1993 – “The Sign” single released in the US by Ace of Base (Billboard Song of the Year 1994)
1995 – Martina Ertl of Germany wins her 3rd giant slalom world cup
Historical Events for 20th December 2019
1900 – Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft)
1906 – Venezuela (under vice-pres Gomez) attacks Dutch fleet
1920 – Bob Hope becomes an American citizen
1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers” in Kunming, China.
1948 – Second Chamber accept 2nd Police Action in Indonesia
1973 – AL pres Joe Cronin refuses to allow Dick Williams to manage Yankees
1985 – Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC
2006 – A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
2012 – Intercontinental Exchange purchases the New York Stock Exchange, the largest in the world, for $8 billion
2017 – Lady Gaga signs Las Vegas residency deal for $75m at MGM Park Theatre
Historical Events for 19th December 2019
1945 – Austrian Republic re-establishes
1948 – National Football League Championship, Shribe Park, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Eagles shutout Chicago Cardinals, 7-0 in a snowstorm, ‘the Philly Blizzard’
1948 – 2nd political action of Java/Sumatra
1950 – Tibet’s Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion
1958 – 1st radio broadcast from space, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower Christmas message “to all mankind, America’s wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere”
1962 – Street signs in Golden Gate Park approved by Park Commission
1964 – “Gertrud”, Danish film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, starring Nina Pens Rode, Bendt Rothe and Ebbe Rode, is released in France
1971 – Stanley Kubrick’s X-rated film “A Clockwork Orange” based on the book by Anthony Burgess and starring Malcolm McDowell premieres
1988 – Oklahoma’s College football team gets 3 year probation
2000 – Ballon d’Or: Real Madrid’s Portuguese midfielder Luís Figo is named best football player in Europe ahead of Juventus midfielder Zinedine Zidane and Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko
Historical Events for 18th December 2019
1890 – Lugards expedition to Meng and Kampala, Uganda
1912 – Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is supposedly found in the Piltdown Gravel Pit, by Charles Dawson.
1948 – Indonesia begins its 2nd political election
1953 – KMID TV channel 2 in Midland and Odessa, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
1964 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1971 – 1st Candlelight Processional at the EPCOT Center, Disney World
1978 – USSR performs underground nuclear test
1978 – France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
1992 – FCC vote 4-1 to allow Infinity to purchase Cook Inlet stations
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