1924 – School in Babb’s Switch, Oklahoma, catches fire, 36 die
1963 – Greeks and Turks riot in Cyprus
1973 – Ferryboat capsized off coast of Equador, drowning 200
1974 – The Sporting News bestows St Louis Cardinals outfielder Lou Brock their MLB Player of the Year Award
1977 – “Ghost to the Post”, Raiders tight end Dave Casper (“The Ghost”) catches a 42-yard reception to set up the Raiders’ tying field goal near the end of regulation (Raiders win in OT)
1984 – Palace coup in Mauritania
1989 – Charles Taylor starts the First Liberian Civil War when he enters the country at the head of the guerrilla group National Patriotic Front of Liberia to overthrow President Samuel Doe
1991 – Ballon d’Or: Marseille forward Jean-Pierre Papin is named Europe’s best football player; first from the French League to win the trophy
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 23rd December 2025
1815 – “Emma” novel by Jane Austen is published by John Murray in London
1941 – Japan begins assault on Rangoon, Burma
1962 – AFL Championship, Jeppesen Stadium, Houston: Dallas Texans beat Houston Oilers, 20-17; Tommy Brooker lands winning 25-yard field goal in overtime
1966 – Britain’s rock TV show “Ready Steady Go” last program
1970 – USSR performs nuclear test
1990 – Comedy “Lettice and Lovage” closes at Barrymore Theater, NYC after 284 performances
1997 – Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson is quickest to reach 500 wins (682 games)
2016 – United Nations Security Council adopts a landmark resolution demanding a halt to all Israeli settlement in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. Resolution 2334 was moved by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela and passed 14-0 with a US abstention.
Historical Events for 22nd December 2025
1890 – Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kingsport and Kentville, Nova Scotia.
1894 – Claude Debussy’s first orchestral masterpiece “Prélude à l’apres-midi d’un faune” premieres in Paris
1930 – Convention of Economic Rapprochement/Oslo Agreesments signed between some European countries in response to the Great Depression
1940 – World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon
2017 – UN Security Council votes 15 to 0 for additional sanctions on North Korea, including measures to slash the country’s petrol imports by up to 90%
2018 – Partial shutdown of US federal government begins
2022 – US Drug Enforcement Administration says it seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every American, more than 379 million doses
Historical Events for 21st December 2025
1864 – US Civil War: General Sherman’s Union Army captures Savannah, Georgia, which surrenders to him, at the end of his March To the Sea Campaign
1933 – Dried human blood serum is first prepared at the University of Pennsylvania
1951 – Pioneering telenovela “Sua Vida Me Pertence” premieres in Brazil
1958 – Charles de Gaulle wins a seven-year term as the first President of the Fifth Republic of France
1962 – Angolin leaves Comecon
1966 – USSR launches Luna 13; soft-landed in Oceanus Procellarum
1990 – Steve and Mark Waugh complete 464* partnership for NSW v WA
2020 – Hawaiian vocalist Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s official music video for his rendition of Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” reaches a billion views on YouTube
Historical Events for 20th December 2025
1448 – Pope Nicholas V appoints Rudolf of Diepholt, Bishop of Utrecht, as cardinal
1823 – Play “Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus” by Helmina von Chézy with incidental music by Franz Schubert premieres in Vienna
1915 – WWI: ANZAC troops complete their withdrawal from Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula
1941 – Free France under adm Muselier occupies St-Pierre et Miquelon
1985 – Denis Potvin passes Bobby Orr as NHL defenseman scorer (916 points)
1991 – “Father of the Bride” film comedy starring Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, and Martin Short, premieres; film is a re-make of 1950 vehicle for Spencer Tracy and ELizabeth Taylor
1999 – Portugal returns Macau to China
2018 – New figures show average US male weighs 198 pounds and stands 5 feet 9 inches, women 171 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches
Historical Events for 19th December 2025
1487 – Opening ceremony of the sixth Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) 4,000 prisoners of war are sacrificed to Aztec gods over four days
1910 – Rayon 1st commercially produced in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania
1934 – Japan agrees to naval treaty of 1922 and 1930
1975 – The Red Hand Commandos, a very secretive Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, explode a no-warning car bomb in Dundalk, killing 2 civilians and wounding 20
1981 – Romuald Spasowski, Polish ambassador to the United States defects to show support for the Solidarity movement amid a crackdown
1983 – The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro
2004 – World’s largest indoor water park Tropical Islands Resort, opens in the Aerium, an old airship hanger, in the world’s largest free-standing hall, south of Berlin, Germany
2018 – Houston Rockets set NBA single-game record with 26 three-pointers in 136-118 victory over Washington Wizards; 8 players hit from deep as Rockets shoot 26-of-55 (47.3%); James Harden leads charge, shooting 6-of-11 on 3s
Historical Events for 18th December 2025
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
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