872 – John VIII elected as Catholic Pope
1793 – 1st state road authorized, Frankfort, Kentucky, to Cincinnati
1903 – The Wright brothers attempt to fly the Wright Flyer for the first time at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1945 – Elmer Rice’s play “Dream Girl” premieres in NYC
1957 – Frank Loesser’s musical “The Most Happy Fella”, based on Sidney Howard’s 1924 stage drama “They Knew What They Wanted”, closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 678 performances
1964 – Michael Brown meets Renee Fladen, then writes “Walk Away Renee”
1967 – DNA created in a test tube
1991 – 57th Heisman Trophy Award: Desmond Howard, Michigan (WR)
1996 – 12th Soap Opera Digest Awards – Days of Our Lives wins
2020 – Russia revealed to have been behind massive cyberattack on US government agencies and private companies since the Spring
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 13th December 2023
1668 – Jean Racine’s tragic play “Britannicus” premieres in Paris
1889 – Belgium rules on women and child labor law
1920 – Netherland breaks contact with Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia and Slavia
1967 – United Soccer Association and National Pro Soccer League merge into NASL
1975 – West Indian cricket opener Roy Fredericks smashes 169 in 2nd Test win v Australia in Perth; hundred in 71 balls
1989 – The last issue of Gnistan (The Spark), the organ of the Solidaritetspartiet, is published in Sweden
1990 – Heavy earthquake strikes Sicily, 18 die
1993 – Fire in textile factory in Fuzjou China, 60 killed
1994 – “The Hits” 2nd compilation album by Garth Brooks is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1995)
2021 – 70th Miss Universe Contest won by Miss India’s Harnaaz Sandhu in Eilat, Israel
Historical Events for 12th December 2023
1769 – Pope Clement XIV proclaims a universal jubilee
1871 – Jules Janssen discovers dark lines in solar corona spectrum
1878 – Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch”
1915 – Aristide Briand forms French war government
1965 – Doug Walters makes maiden Test ton in 1st Test, goes on to 155
1965 – Chicago halfback Gale Sayers ties NFL record for most touchdowns in a game with 6 in 61–20 victory over San Francisco 49ers at Wrigley Field
1979 – Gold hits record $462.50 an ounce
1992 – 58th Heisman Trophy Award: Gino Torretta, U of Miami (QB)
2017 – Democrat Doug Jones defeats Republican Roy Moore for Alabama Senate seat in upset win marked by allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore
2019 – British General Election won by Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party in landslide win with 80 seat majority. Scottish National Party also wins 48 of 59 seats in Scotland.
Historical Events for 11th December 2023
1665 – “Messiah” Sjabtai Tswi festival in Smyrna
1862 – Battle of Fredricksburg in Virginia begins between Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside
1909 – Canadian Football exhibition game played in Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, Hamilton Tigers beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 11-6 before 15,000
1926 – Leo O’Connor is unbeaten on 143 as Queensland wins their first Sheffield Shield match by 5 wickets vs NSW at the Sydney Cricket Ground
1947 – Bob Hilliard and Sigman’s musical “Angel in the Wings” opens at Coronet Theater NYC for 308 performances
1981 – Wash Capitals biggest margin of victory (9) beating Toronto 11-2
1990 – 13 die in 83 vehicle accident in Chattanooga Tn I-75, due to fog
2016 – Kyrgyzstan votes in a referendum to change the constitution to give the government more power
2019 – Militants attack army base in Ates, Niger, killing at least 71. Islamic State claim responsibility.
2022 – Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s musical “Some Like It Hot”, based on the 1959 feature film comedy, opens at the Shubert Theatre, NYC; garners 13 Tony Award nominations
Historical Events for 10th December 2023
1899 – -15] British “Black Week” due to defeats in South Africa
1911 – Belgium poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck is presented in absentia with the Nobel Prize for Literature
1926 – 1st radio broadcast in the Sprinfield area (WCBS)
1941 – Japanese troops overrun Guam
1942 – An early report of the Holocaust prepared by the Polish government-in-exile, using information obtained by Witold Pilecki, is addressed to UN member states
1956 – Establishment of The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA (from Portuguese: Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola), left-wing party that has ruled since independence from Portugal
1980 – Soyuz T-3 returns to Earth
1983 – Raul Alfonsin inaugurated as Argentina’s 1st civilian president
1988 – Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine presented to Gertrude B. Elion, George H. Hitchings and James W. Black for development of new drugs
2016 – Terrorist bomb attacks outside a stadium in Istanbul kill 38 and injure 166
Historical Events for 9th December 2023
1854 – Alfred Tennyson’s poem “Charge of the Light Brigade” is published in “The Examiner”
1899 – Boer War: During Siege of Ladysmith, Boers storm King’s Post and Caesar’s Camp – driven back
1907 – Gustav Mahler departs Vienna for America
1951 – West German voters approve merger of 3 states to form Baden-Wurttemberg
1968 – The Derry Citizen’s Action Committee (DCAC) calls for a halt to all marches and protests for a period of one month
1974 – Dow Jones index hits 570.01
1985 – SF 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice begins NFL streak of 274 consecutive games with a reception in a 27-20 loss to LA Rams at Candlestick Park
1990 – Houston scores most points against Cleveland, Oilers 58, Browns 14
2006 – Jigme Singye Wangchuk, King of Bhutan abdicates the throne
2018 – Winter storm hits US south east killing three, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, cancelling over 1,000 flights
Historical Events for 8th December 2023
1941 – US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II
1955 – Black Ealing comedy “The Ladykillers”, directed by Alexander Mackendrick and starring Alec Guinness is released in the UK
1961 – Larry Costello scores 32 consecutive pts without a miss (NBA rec)
1970 – Head of the Catholic Church in Ireland Cardinal William Conway publishes a pamphlet on the topic of segregation in education in Northern Ireland
1973 – Romanian tennis star Ilie Năstase wins his 3rd consecutive season-ending ATP Masters Grand Prix title with a 6–3, 7–5, 4–6, 6–3 win over Dutchman Tom Okker in Boston, Massachusetts
1978 – Commencement of the 1st day/night World Series Cricket supertest at VFL Park, Melbourne
1982 – “Herman Van Veen: All of Him” opens at Ambassador NYC for 6 performances
1987 – US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles
1992 – Spacecraft Galileo makes its second and closest flyby of Earth at a minimum distance of 305 km for a gravity assist on its way to Jupiter
2019 – Vienna State Opera stages its first show by a female composer in 150 years – Olga Neuwirth’s opera, “Orlando”
Historical Events for 7th December 2023
1876 – NY Mutuals and Philadelphia A’s expelled from NL for not completing sked
1889 – W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s comic opera “The Gondoliers” premieres at the Savoy Theatre, London
1941 – Adolf Hitler issues “Nacht und Nebel Erlass” (Night and Fog Directive), against anti-Nazi resistance fighters in occupied territories; targets sent to concentration camps and/or murdered
1968 – Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 launched into Earth orbit
1972 – Apollo 17 launched, the final manned lunar landing mission where the crew takes the famous “blue marble” photo of the entire Earth
1988 – 6.9 earthquake in Spitak, Armenia kills 25,000-50,000 people and leaves up to 500,000 homeless
1991 – A J Kitt, US, wins World Skiing Cup
1992 – Galileo spacecraft passes North Pole of Moon (Peary Crater)
2018 – Comedian Kevin Hart steps down as 2019 Oscars host after his history of homophobic statements is revealed
2020 – Bob Dylan sells his entire songwriting catalog of more than 600 songs to the Universal Music Publishing Group for over $300 million
Historical Events for 6th December 2023
1424 – Don Alfonso V of Aragon grants Barcelona the right to exclude Jews
1756 – British troops under Robert Clive occupy Fulta, India
1866 – Chicago water supply tunnel 3,227 m into Lake Michigan completed
1875 – 44th Congress (1875-77) convenes
1903 – Sumatra Atjehs guerilla leader Panglima Polim surrenders
1925 – Record 73,000 pay to watch Chicago Bears beat NY Giants 19-7
1956 – Soviet gymnast Viktor Chukarin follows his parallel bars gold medal with the individual all-round title and teams gold at the Melbourne Olympics
1957 – Gardnar Mulloy becomes oldest American to win a Davis Cup tennis match at age 44 years, 14 days; teams with Vic Seixas to give US a match-clinching, 3-0 lead over the Philippines in the Inter Zone 1st round in Adelaide, Australia
1973 – NL votes to move San Diego Padres to Washington, D.C. (doesn’t happen)
2017 – Britain’s top Brexit negotiator David Davis admits there has been “no systematic impact assessment” on effects of Brexit
Historical Events for 5th December 2023
1590 – Niccolo Sfondrati chosen as Pope Gregory XIV
1741 – -6] Russian princess Elisabeth Petrovna grabs powers
1896 – Henrik Ibsen’s play “Kejsor og Galileer” (Emperor and Galilean) premieres in Leipzig
1949 – Ezzard Charles defeats Jersey Joe Walcott for heavyweight boxing title
1957 – William Inge’s “Dark at the Top of the Stairs” premieres in NYC
1960 – Ghana drops diplomatic relations with Belgium
1965 – Brunswick Records releases “My Generation”, the debut album of British rock group The Who, in the UK and Australia
1979 – Ireland premier Jack Lynch resigns
1983 – 12 killed by a car bomb shattering 9-story building in west Beirut
2008 – Former NFL star O.J. Simpson is sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery