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.