1922 – First living person is depicted on a U.S. coin when Governor Thomas Kilby appears on the Alabama Centennial half dollar
1945 – Admiral Chester Nimitz begins planning assaults on Okinawa and Iwo Jima in Japan
1947 – First opening session of Congress is televised; it does not happen again until 1977
1961 – US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
1991 – 8 Iraqi embassy officials are expelled from the UK
1994 – 35-foot-tall Chief Wahoo, trademark of Indians on top of Stadium since 1962, is taken down, to be moved to Jacob’s Field
1998 – American “Hee Haw” banjo player Grandpa Jones suffers a stroke
2002 – College Football, 4th BCS National Championship, Rose Bowl, Pasadena: #1 Miami beats #2 Nebraska, 37-14, at 88th Rose Bowl
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 2nd January 2026
366 – The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers and invade the Roman Empire
1958 – Dmitri Shostakovich’ 2nd Piano Concerto has US premiere, with Leonard Bernstein as soloist and conductor of the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie hall in NYCs in NY
1967 – 33rd Sugar Bowl: #6 Alabama beats #3 Nebraska, 34-7
1969 – Once influential daily sports newspaper, ‘Soviet Sport’ declares Czech super-star distance runner Emil Zatopek a “public enemy” after he supports democratic wing of the Communist Party at start of the Prague Spring
1972 – “Rothschilds” closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 505 performances
1989 – 75th Rose Bowl: #11 Michigan beats #5 Southern California, 22-14
1996 – 25th Fiesta Bowl: #1 Nebraska beats #2 Florida, 62-24
2022 – Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigns in a televised address amid political deadlock after a rejection of his deal with the military by pro-democracy forces
Historical Events for 1st January 2026
1932 – United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth
1945 – German air raid on allied airports at Eindhoven/Saint-Trond/Brussels
1962 – 28th Orange Bowl: #4 LSU beats #7 Colorado, 25-7
1963 – 29th Orange Bowl: #5 Alabama beats #8 Oklahoma, 17-0
1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned from broadcast media in the US
1990 – 19th Fiesta Bowl: #5 Florida State beats #6 Nebraska, 41-17
1990 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) implements “SYNDEX,” granting independent stations more rights over cable TV outlets for exclusive syndicated programs
2000 – Opening of the Holy Doors of Santa Maria Maggiore by Pope John Paul II in Rome to celebrate the new millennium
Historical Events for 31st December 2025
870 – Skirmish at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beats a section of the Viking Great Heathen Army, camped at Reading
1911 – Marie Curie receives her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her work with radioactivity
1923 – BBC begins using Big Ben’s chimes as an interval signal
1957 – Amateur Athletic Union awards American sprinter Bobby Morrow the James E. Sullivan Award
1975 – 42nd Sugar Bowl: #3 Alabama beats #7 Penn State, 13-6
1986 – Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 97
1996 – 63rd Orange Bowl: #6 Nebraska beats #10 Virginia Tech, 41-21
1997 – 27th Fiesta Bowl: #10 Kansas State beats #14 Syracuse, 35-18
Historical Events for 30th December 2025
1621 – English King James I tears the Protestation of Parliament from the records, objecting to Parliament commenting on a foreign marriage alliance
1672 – Baron Karl Rabenhaupt occupies Coevorden, Netherlands
1896 – Stanley Cup, Granite Rink, Winnipeg, Manitoba: Ernie McLea scores a hat-trick as Montreal Victorias beat Winnipeg Victorias, 6-5; first SC Challenge game played outside of Montreal
1917 – -37°F (-38°C) in Lewisburg, WV (state record)
1953 – Queen Elizabeth II visits the Tūrangawaewae marae in New Zealand, home of the Māori Kīngitanga movement
1973 – AFC Championship, Miami Orange Bowl: Miami Dolphins beat Oakland Raiders, 27-10
1979 – English Progressive rock group, Emerson, Lake and Palmer break up
1997 – In the worst incident in Algeria’s insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people are killed from four villages.
Historical Events for 29th December 2025
1911 – Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty
1944 – Belgian Walloon Nazi collaborator Léon Degrelle sentenced to death
1955 – NHL officials wear new vertically striped black-and-white sweaters for the first time in Montreal Canadiens’ 5-2 win over Toronto Maple Leafs
1957 – National Football League Championship, Briggs Stadium, Detroit: Detroit Lions beat Cleveland Browns, 50-14; Lions score 2 touchdowns in each quarter
1965 – The Supremes release single “My World is Empty Without You”
1992 – Governor Cuomo grants Jean Harris (Scarsdale Diet Dr killer) clemency
1994 – Australian cricket’s spin king Shane Warne dismisses England’s Phil DeFreitas, Darren Gough and Devon Malcolm for a famous hat-trick in 2nd Test win in Melbourne
1998 – Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over a million people
Historical Events for 28th December 2025
1915 – Today the British Cabinet recognizes the true nature of the war by deciding to institute compulsory military service, with single men to be conscripted before married ones
1926 – Imperial Airways begins mail and passenger service from England to India
1949 – 20th Century Fox announces it will produce TV programs
1953 – WLBT TV channel 3 in Jackson, Mississippi (NBC) begins broadcasting
1964 – Premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s cantata “The Execution of Stepan Razin”
1984 – Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress party wins the general election in India
1994 – American country singer Tammy Wynette admitted to the hospital with bile duct infection
2019 – Jihadist fundamentalist group al-Shabaab sets off a truck bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing at least 84 people and wounding over 150
Historical Events for 27th December 2025
1703 – England and Portugal sign Methuen-Asiento-trade agreement
1939 – 1st American skimobiles (North Conway, NH)
1943 – France transfers most of her powers in Lebanon to Lebanese government
1960 – France performs nuclear test
1960 – 1961 NFL Draft: Tommy Mason from University of Tulane first pick by Minnesota Vikings
1986 – Musical “Les Misérables” opens in the US at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
1996 – Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram air base which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul.
2001 – The People’s Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States.
Historical Events for 26th December 2025
1825 – Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar Nicholas I begins [O.S. 14 December]
1877 – Socialist Labor Party of North America holds 1st national convention
1878 – 1st US store to install electric lights, Philadelphia
1972 – Ballon d’Or: Bayern Munich defender Franz Beckenbauer wins award for best European football player ahead of tied fellow German duo of Gerd Müller and Günter Netzer
1976 – AFC Championship, Oakland Coliseum: Oakland Raiders beat Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-7
1988 – Anti African student rebellion in Nanjing, China
1990 – Senior Professional Baseball Association folds
1991 – Militant Sikhs kill 55 and wounds 70 in India
Historical Events for 25th December 2025
1000 – Monarch Istvan crowned king of Hungary
1688 – British King James II lands in Ambleteuse, France
1899 – Shelling on besieged Ladysmith during the Boer War includes one shell containing a plum pudding
1921 – Last major Potlatch (ceremony) by Chief Daniel Cranmer (Kwakwaka’wakw) from Alert Bay, British Columbia. Twenty-six people arrested, their masks and regalia sold by Canadian government.
1930 – Tasmania all out 280, WI 2-139 at Hobart Crowd 2,500
1942 – Soviet artillery and tank battle on German armies at Stalingrad
1973 – Arab oil ministers cancel January 5 percent production cut; Saudi Arabian oil minister promises 10 percent OPEC production rise
1997 – For 1st time US movie box office receipts pass $6 billion