1777 – James Cook is first European to visit Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island
1798 – Russia and Britain sign Second anti-French Coalition
1921 – Ottawa’s Harry Broadbent scores in 10-0 Senators blowout of the Montreal Canadiens; first in 16-game NHL record goal-scoring streak; Charlie Simmer’s 13 game streak (1979) is considered modern-day record
1943 – US President FDR appoints General Eisenhower Supreme Commander of the Allied forces
1948 – First US completely solar heated house is occupied (Dover, Mass)
1954 – Laos gains its independence
1960 – Dutch bishops question papacy values
1966 – USAF C144 military charter aircraft crashes near Binh Thai, Vietnam, killing 129
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)
2000 – The Texas 7 hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot during the robbery
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 23rd December 2023
619 – Boniface V begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1724 – Emperor Charles VI names Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria land guardian of the Austrian Netherlands
1834 – Joseph Hansom of London receives patent for Hansom cabs
1912 – 1st “Keystone Kops” film, entitled “Hoffmeyer’s Legacy”
1921 – Gangster Carlo Gambino enters the United States as an illegal immigrant on the SS Vincenzo Florio
1946 – University of Tennessee refuses to play Duquesne University after they suggested they may use a black player in their basketball game
1952 – Alain Bombard arrives in Barbados after 65 days at sea proving his theory that a shipwrecked person could survive with almost no provisions, despite having lost 25 kg (65 lbs) in weight
1960 – Jan De Quay’s Dutch government falls
1960 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia takes power
1975 – US Congress passes Metric Conversion Act
Historical Events for 22nd December 2023
1135 – Norman nobles recognize Stefanus van Blois as English king
1907 – Saint-Saëns’/Fokine’s ballet “Le Cygne” premieres in St Petersburg
1962 – Kinderman Place in the Bronx named
1962 – 1,000,000th NBA point scored
1963 – Oakland Raider Tom Flores passes for 6 touchdowns vs Houston (52-49)
1970 – Treblinka SS commander Franz Stangl sentenced to life imprisonment
1971 – USSR performs underground nuclear test
1976 – 35 Unification church couples wed in NYC
1978 – Thailand adopts constitution
2022 – “American life expectancy is now at its lowest in nearly two decades” – 76.4 years, according to new report by CDC, biggest factors in the fall among many, COVID-19 and drug overdoses
Historical Events for 21st December 2023
1872 – Phileas Fogg completes his round the world trip in 80 days, in Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eighty Days”
1919 – J. Edgar Hoover persuades US to deport 250 alien radicals, including anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman and her husband to Russia
1929 – Coco the Clown first appears for Bertram Mills Circus in Manchester, England
1942 – US Supreme court declares Nevada separation legal
1980 – Harold Carmichael ends NFL streak of 127 consecutive game receptions
1991 – 95 share in Madrid Spain $1.3 billion lottery (#47996)
1996 – Pakistan all out 67 to lose to Tasmania by an inning
2012 – Rapper Flavor Flav opens Flavor Flav’s Chicken and Ribs causal restaurant in Sterling Heights, Michigan – closes July 2013
2020 – Governor of California Gavin Newson says there are now no intensive care beds left in Southern California or the San Joaquin Valley
2022 – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Washington, DC, meets with US President Joe Biden at the White House, and addresses Congress
Historical Events for 20th December 2023
1192 – Richard the Lionhearted captured near Vienna by Leopold of Austria on his way home from the Third Crusade (released 1194)
1780 – Britain declares war on Holland
1894 – England beat Australia by 10 runs in the 1st six-day Test Cricket, Australia needed 177 to win, all out at 166 on 6th day
1920 – Bert Collins scores 104 on Test Cricket debut v England SCG
1922 – Polish parliament selects Stanislaw Wojcieckowski as president
1962 – Pop singing group the Osmond Brothers debut on “The Andy Williams Show”
1975 – Pope Paul VI names Johannes Willebrands Archbishop of Utrecht
1985 – Denis Potvin passes Bobby Orr as NHL defenseman scorer (916 points)
1987 – 76th Davis Cup: Sweden beats India in Gothenburg (5-0)
2022 – The ruling Taliban suspend university education for female students in Afghanistan, part of a wider crackdown on women’s rights in the country
Historical Events for 19th December 2023
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
1642 – 4 of Abel Tasman’s crew killed at Wharewharangi (Murderers) Bay by Māori; Tasman’s ships depart without landing
1675 – King Philip’s War: Combined colonial millitias stake massive attack against the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts, totally destroying the settlement and killing or displacing hundreds of non-combatant women and children
1870 – After 31 days at sea in a small boat, William Halford and 3 others reach the island of Kauai, Hawaii to seek help for the shipwrecked USS Saginaw. A capsize in the breakers meant only Halford survived.
1974 – “The Man with the Golden Gun”, 9th James Bond film, starring Roger Moore, Britt Ekland and Christopher Lee, premieres in London
1975 – British guitarist Ron Wood joins the Rolling Stones
1980 – Comedy film “9 to 5” starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin is released
2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots – Riots erupt in Buenos Aires after Domingo Cavallo’s corralito measures restrict the withdrawal of cash from bank deposits.
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
2007 – The Lakotah people, a Native American tribe, proclaim independence and withdraw all their treaties with the United States. Establish the Republic of Lakotah, as a separate country.
Historical Events for 18th December 2023
1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the US constitution
1865 – 1st US cattle importation law passed
1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
1916 – Battle of Verdun, longest of World War I, officially ends in German defeat after nine months of fighting and almost 1 million total casualties
1963 – Ron Clarke runs world record 10k (28:15.6)
1971 – Three members of the Irish Republican Army die when the bomb they were transporting explodes prematurely in King Street, Magherafelt, County Derry.
1979 – Stuntman Stanley Barrett unofficially breaks the land speed record and the sound barrier in his three-wheeled vehicle the Budweiser Rocket (739.666 mph or Mach 1.01). The speed was never officially recorded and the attempt remains controversial.
1989 – “I Love Lucy” Christmas episode, shown for 1st time in over 30 years
1989 – Athol Fugard’s “My Children, My Africa” premieres in NYC
2012 – Canadian police begin arresting 17 people for ‘the Great Maple Syrup Heist’, for stealing 3,000 tonnes from a storage facility in Quebec
Historical Events for 17th December 2023
1526 – Ferdinand of Austria chosen as King of Bohemia
1895 – George Brownell patents a machine to make paper twine (Mass)
1920 – British Empire receives League of Nations mandate over Nauru
1944 – San Francisco M-Ocean View streetcar resumes service and is extended to Market St
1965 – British government proclaims ends oil-embargo against Rhodesia
1970 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1971 – “Diamonds are Forever”, 7th James Bond film, last starring Sean Conner, also starring Jill St. John is 1st released in West Germany
1971 – Cease fire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir
1988 – NY Islanders break 12 game losing streak, beat Devils 5-2
2017 – Sebastián Piñera wins Chile’s presidential election run-off, returning to office after 4 years
Historical Events for 16th December 2023
1922 – NSW all out for 786 against South Australia Cricket
1924 – Hiram Bingham is elected as a Republican to serve in the US Senate forcing him to resign as Governor of Connecticut after serving only one day in office, the shortest term of any Connecticut Governor
1928 – National Football League Championship: Providence Steam Roller (8-1-2) win first past the post title
1944 – German V-2 strikes Antwerp bioscope (638 kill)
1948 – “Lend an Ear” opens at National Theater NYC for 460 performances
1972 – Miami Dolphins become 1st undefeated NFL team (14-0-0)
1995 – The official adoption of the name “Euro”
2012 – A gang rape of a woman on a bus in India that resulted in her death leads to national and international outrage
2012 – Corinthians defeat Chelsea 1-0 to win the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup
2020 – China blocks imports of coal, from Australia, the world’s second biggest market for the world’s biggest coal exporter
Historical Events for 15th December 2023
1894 – Day 2 of first cricket test between Australia and England, Australia 586 runs (Gregory 201) England 3-130
1929 – National Football League Championship: Green Bay Packers (12-0-1) win first past the post title
1936 – KVL-AM in Seattle Washington changes call letters to KEEN (now KING)
1946 – Giants Filchock and Hapes suspended by NFL, didn’t report bribe attempt
1952 – KHON TV channel 2 in Honolulu, HI (NBC) begins broadcasting
1973 – Pirates of Caribbean ride opens at Disneyland
1986 – 150 killed during race riot in Karachi
1994 – Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard stage drama “A Tuna Christmas” opens at Booth Theate,r NYC; runs for 20 performances
1995 – The European Communities Court of Justice hands down the “Bosman ruling”, giving EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one UEFA Federation to another.
2021 – COVID-19 Omicron variant called “probably the most significant threat” of the pandemic by head of UK Health Security Agency, warning of “staggering” growth in next few days