1823 – “Visit from St Nicholas” by C Moore published in Troy (NY) Sentinel
1862 – Union General Ben “Beast” Butler is proclaimed a “felon, outlaw and common enemy of mankind” by Jefferson Davis
1893 – Opera “Hansel und Gretel” by Engelbert Humperdinck and his sister Adelheid Wette premieres in Weimar, conducted by Richard Strauss
1919 – Alice H Parker patents gas heating furnace
1922 – BBC Radio began daily newscasts
1928 – NBC sets up a permanent, coast-to-coast radio network
1962 – Cuba starts returning US prisoners from Bay of Pigs invasion
1968 – 1st US case of space motion sickness
1973 – 6 Persian Gulf nations double their oil prices
2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.