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
Category: Historical Events
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
Historical Events for 8th December 2025
1914 – Battle of the Falkland Island: British Royal Navy destroys a German battle squadron
1952 – First TV acknowledgment of a pregnancy in the “I Love Lucy” episode “Lucy is Enceinte,” which incorporates Lucy’s real-life pregnancy into the storyline
1961 – Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 78 points in a 151-147 triple-overtime defeat to the LA Lakers at Philadelphia Civic Center, the third-highest individual game total in NBA history
1982 – “Sophie’s Choice”, directed by Alan J. Pakula and based on William Styton’s 1979 novel of the same name, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, is released (Academy Awards Best Actress 1983)
2004 – Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the Union of South American Nations
2019 – Sanna Marin becomes Finland’s youngest-ever Prime Minister at the age of 34
2022 – Iran announces first known execution of a protester from recent anti-government unrest, after convicting a man in a revolutionary court of “moharebeh” (enmity against God)
2024 – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resigns and flees to Moscow after rebel forces sweep into the capital city of Damascus
Historical Events for 7th December 2025
1937 – Russian chess player Alexander Alekhine recaptures his final world title from Dutch grand master Max Euwe by a large margin (+10−4=11)
1941 – Japanese Emperor Hirohito signs a declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire
1966 – A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.
1973 – Orioles sell pitcher Eddie Watt to the Phillies
1988 – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Spitak, Armenia, kills 25,000 to 50,000 people and leaves up to 500,000 homeless
2006 – A Tornado strikes Kensal Green in northwest London, seriously damaging around 150 properties
2018 – Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is elected the new leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party, replacing Angela Merkel
2024 – Restored Notre Dame Cathedral re-opens after the 2019 fire with a VIP ceremony attended by world leaders in Paris, France
Historical Events for 6th December 2025
1723 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI’s Pragmatic Sanction with the Diet of Hungary recognizes the King’s daughters as successors
1862 – US President Abraham Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians
1903 – Sumatra Atjehs guerilla leader Panglima Polim surrenders
1914 – German troops over run Lodz
1922 – 1st electric power line commercial carrier in US, Utica, NY
1973 – Bahrain’s constitution goes into effect
1984 – Helena Suková snaps Martina Navratilova’s 74-match winning streak 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the semi finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne; ends Navratilova’s hopes of completing the Grand Slam
2022 – Donald Trump’s real estate company Trump Organization convicted of tax fraud in New York
Historical Events for 5th December 2025
1832 – Andrew Jackson re-elected US President after defeating Henry Clay
1859 – Dion Boucicault’s stage melodrama “The Octaroon” opens at The Winter Garden Theatre, NYC
1892 – Anti-semite Hermann Ahlwardt elected to Germany’s Reichstag
1928 – England defeats Australia by record 675 runs at Brisbane
1945 – Dutch Special Council of Annulment affirms death sentence of radio presenter Max Blokzijl for broadcasting Nazi propaganda
1960 – Ghana drops diplomatic relations with Belgium
1983 – LA Dodger pitcher Steve Howe is suspended for 1 year for cocaine use
2019 – Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announces articles of impeachment against US President Donald Trump will be drawn up for abuse of power