Today in History

On This Day In History, December 17th

2010 Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire
The Tunisian street vendor self-immolated as a protest against the economic conditions in Tunisia. He died 18 days after at the age of 26. His protest and death were a catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and similar revolutions and protests around the Arab world.

2010 The beginning of the Arab Spring
The multi-country protests and demands for change in the Arab world are thought to have begun with street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia. Bouazizi's attempt and death 18 days later was the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution which forced then-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down from his post.

1989 First episode of The Simpsons aired
The popular American animated series directed by Matt Groening is set in the fictional town of Springfield and it follows the life of the Simpson family.

1903 First flight of the Wright Flyer
The powered aircraft was made by the Wright brothers and was the first such aircraft to take flight.

1790 Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone
Also known as the Stone of the Five Eras, the sculpture was excavated in Mexico City.
 


Births On This Day, December 17th 🎂

1978 Manny Pacquiao
Filipino boxer, politician

1973 Paula Radcliffe
English runner

1936 Pope Francis
Current Pope of the Catholic Church.

1778 Humphry Davy
English chemist, physicist

1770 Ludwig van Beethoven
German pianist, composer

Deaths On This Day, December 17th 🪦

2011 Kim Jong-il
North Korean politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea

2010 Captain Beefheart
American singer-songwriter

1933 13th Dalai Lama

1830 Simón Bolívar
Venezuelan commander

1273 Rumi
Persian mystic, poet
 
On This Day In History, December 18th

1966 Saturn's Moon, Epimetheus, discovered
One of Saturn's 150 natural satellites or moons, Epimetheus shares its orbit with another moon, Janus. Saturn's largest moon is Titan, which is the only natural satellite in the Solar System with an atmosphere.

1958 World's first communication satellite launched
A product of a highly secretive project, SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment) was launched aboard the Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Once in orbit, it relayed the first message sent to Earth from space - a short statement by American President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1912 Piltdown Man Hoax
The announcement by British archaeologist Charles Dawson at a conference of the Geological Society of London was received with very little scepticism in the field of paleoanthropology. The discovery of fossilized remains of an unidentified human ancestor in Piltdown, East Sussex, England, was thought to have provided valuable clues about human evolution. It wasn't until 1953 that the Piltdown Man was discovered to be a hoax - with the skull consisting of the jawbones of an orangutan and the cranium of an adult human being.

1892 The Nutcracker makes its debut in St. Petersburg, Russia
The two-part ballet was inspired by German author Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann's novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Even though the ballet's score was composed by the famous Russian composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, it did not get good reviews. It was only in the mid-20th century, that The Nutcracker gained popularity among theatregoers, especially during Christmas time in the United States.

1865 US abolishes slavery
The US secretary of state proclaimed the adoption of the 13th Amendment, officially bringing it into force. The first of the 3 Reconstruction Amendments, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude. The other two Reconstruction Amendments – the 14th and the 15th Amendments – extended citizenship rights, equal protection of the law, and the right to vote to all Americans irrespective of their "race, colour, or previous condition of servitude."
 

Births On This Day, December 18th 🎂

1980 Christina Aguilera
American singer-songwriter, producer, actress

1964 Stone Cold Steve Austin
American wrestler, actor, producer

1963 Brad Pitt
American actor, producer

1946 Steven Spielberg
American director

1878 Joseph Stalin
Soviet marshal, politician, 4th Premier of the Soviet Union


Deaths On This Day, December 18th 🪦

2011 Václav Havel
Czech politician, 1st President of the Czech Republic

2008 Mark Felt
American agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

2006 Joseph Barbera
American animator, director, producer, co-founded Hanna-Barbera

1980 Alexei Kosygin
Soviet politician

1892 Richard Owen
English biologist
 
1796
The 1st U.S. newspaper to be published on Sun, Baltimore,MD 'Monitor'
1892
Russian composer, Pytor Tchackovsky's ballet' The Nutcracker' debuts in Saint Petersburg,Russia. It would become the world's most performed ballet
1958
Project SCORE, the world's 1st communication satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral,Fla
1987
Ivan Boesky,a Wall Street titan who made millions by betting on corporate takeovers is sentenced to 3 yrs in prison, for conspiracy to file false trading stock trading records. He paid a$100 million fine His story was the basis of movie' Wall Street'
2018
meteor explodes over the Bering Sea in huge fireball, 10 times the energy of Hiroshima atomic bomb
 
On This Day In History, December 19th

2012 Election of First Female President of South Korea
Park Geun-hye is the eleventh President of South Korea and also holds the distinction of being the first female head of state in Northeast Asia. She assumed office in February 2013.

1984 Hong Kong Treaty Signed
Formally known as the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong, the Sino-British Treaty was signed by Zhao Ziyang of China and Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom in Beijing. The treaty decided the fate of Hong Kong as a territory of China from July 1, 1997.

1972 Apollo 17 returns to Earth
The last mission of the United States' Apollo program spent 12 days in space and was the first human spaceflight launched at night from the United States. The three-member crew spent more time orbiting the Moon and on the surface of the Moon than during any other Moon landings. It was also the last time humans set foot on Earth's only natural satellite.

1971 A Clockwork Orange released
The dystopian film was directed by Stanley Kubrick and was based on a novella of the same name by British author, Anthony Burgess. Based in a futuristic London, the film opened with critical acclaim, though the centrality of violence in it drew a lot of mainstream criticism. Today, the movie is considered to be one of the best movies of the 20th century.

1886 Sherlock Holmes' The Adventure of Beryl Coronet begins on this date
The short detective story written by Arthur Conan Doyle and featuring detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and assistant Dr Watson began on this date with the theft of 3 precious crystals from a coronet. The story is the 11th in a series of 12 stories contained in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
 
Births On This Day, December 19th 🎂

1980 Jake Gyllenhaal
American actor

1974 Ricky Ponting
Australian cricketer

1967 Criss Angel
American magician

1915 Édith Piaf
French singer-songwriter, actress

1906 Leonid Brezhnev
Soviet politician

Deaths On This Day, December 19th 🪦

2012 Robert Bork
American lawyer, scholar, United States Attorney General

2009 Hussein-Ali Montazeri
Iranian theologian, scholar, activist

2008 Dock Ellis
American baseball player

2000 John Lindsay
American politician, 103rd Mayor of New York City

1848 Emily Brontë
English novelist
 
On This Day In History, December 20th

2007 Queen Elizabeth becomes the longest-living British monarch
The previous longest-living monarch - Queen Victoria - died on Jan 22, 1901, when she was 81 years, 7 months, and 29 days old. Queen Elizabeth, born on 21 April 1926, turned 81 years, 7 months and 30 days on this day.

1999 Portuguese transferred the sovereignty of Macau to China
Portugal ruled over the special administrative region of China from the mid-16th century to 1999. Macau has a high degree of independence from China and has control over its legal system, monetary system, and immigration policy.

1989 United States' invasion of Panama begins
Also known as Operation Just Cause, the invasion took place under the leadership of President George H. W. Bush and led to the deposing of the dictator, Manuel Noriega. The invasion ended on January 31, 1990.

1973 Spanish Prime Minister Carrero Blanco assassinated
A confidant of dictator Francisco Franco, Blanco was assassinated by the Basque nationalist and separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA.

1803 Louisiana Purchase completed
The French officially handed the United States over the territory of Louisiana. The French regained control of the territory over 15 present-day states and 2 Canadian territories in 1800. In 1762, Spain had taken over the territory.
 

Births On This Day, December 20th 🎂

1976 Aubrey Huff
American baseball player

1966 Matt Neal
English race car driver

1946 Uri Geller
Israeli psychic

1905 Bill O'Reilly
Australian cricketer

1868 Harvey Samuel Firestone
American businessman founded the Firestone Tire, and Rubber Company

Deaths On This Day, December 20th 🪦

1996 Carl Sagan
American astronomer, author

1976 Richard J. Daley
American politician, 48th Mayor of Chicago

1968 John Steinbeck
American author, Nobel Prize laureate

1812 Sacagawea
American member of the Lewis, and Clark Expedition

1722 Kangxi Emperor
of China
 
On This Day In History, December 21st

1995 Palestinians take control of Bethlehem
Israeli troops withdrew from the city under the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip signed in September 1995. The city was under a British mandate from 1920 to 1948, and then it was captured by Jordan during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Most recently, it was taken over by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.

1988 Lockerbie Bombing
A bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight number 103 on its way from Frankfurt, Germany, to Detroit, United States, over the Scottish city of Lockerbie. The terrorist attack killed all the passengers and crew on board and 11 people on the ground.

1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination adopted
The human rights convention was adopted by the United Nations member states and was put into force on January 4, 1969. It attempts to eliminate racial discrimination in the world.

1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs released
The movie made by Walt Disney Productions was the world's first full-length animated feature film and it was based on a German fairy tale of the same name by the Brothers Grimm.

1872 Phileas Fogg wins his wager
The fictional character created by French writer Jules Verne for his book, Around the World in Eighty Days, finished circumnavigating the world and reached London to win the wager he had set with his friends. The date also coincides with the publication of the last of the series that ended up becoming the now popular science fiction novel.
 
Births On This Day, December 21st 🎂

1982 Philip Humber
American baseball player

1966 Kiefer Sutherland
English/Canadian actor, director, producer

1940 Frank Zappa
American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer

1804 Benjamin Disraeli
English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1118 Thomas Becket
English archbishop

Deaths On This Day, December 21st 🪦

1963 Jack Hobbs
English cricketer

1945 George S. Patton
American general

1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald
American author

1935 Kurt Tucholsky
German journalist

72 Thomas the Apostle
 
On This Day In History, December 22nd

2010 Don't Ask Don't tell was repealed
President Obama signed the repeal of the Don't Ask, don't Tell policy that governed the recruitment and service of LGBTQ members in the United States military. The policy was put in place by the Clinton Administration in 1994.

1989 Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu overthrown
The Communist President was ousted after widespread demonstrations in the country. Ceaușescu and his wife Elena tried to flee the country but were captured, tried and executed by a firing squad. The Romanian Revolution was the only violent overthrow of a communist government in the 1980s.

1937 Lincoln Tunnel opens
The 1.5-mile-long (2.4 km) long tunnel passes under the Hudson River and connects New Jersey to New York City.

1891 First asteroid was discovered through astrophotography
323 Brucia was discovered by Max Wolf and was named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patron of astronomy.

1882 First Christmas tree to be illuminated by electric lights displayed
Edward H. Johnson, an associate of inventor Thomas Edison and the Vice President of the Edison Electric Light Company, became the first person to decorate a Christmas tree with electric lights at his home in New York City.
 
Births On This Day, December 22nd 🎂

1989 Jordin Sparks
American singer-songwriter, actress

1943 Paul Wolfowitz
American politician, the 25th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense

1912 Lady Bird Johnson
American wife of Lyndon B. Johnson, 38th First Lady of the United States

1887 Srinivasa Ramanujan
Indian mathematician

1666 Guru Gobind Singh
Indian guru

Deaths On This Day, December 22nd 🪦

2014 Joe Cocker
English singer-songwriter

2002 Joe Strummer
English singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor

1989 Samuel Beckett
Irish/French author, playwright, director, Nobel Prize laureate

1942 Franz Boas
German anthropologist

1880 George Eliot
English author
 
On This Day In History, December 23rd

1994 Organized crime boss Whitey Bulger goes into hiding
The convicted murderer stayed out of sight for 16 years causing great embarrassment to the American Federal Bureau of Investigations. He was finally arrested in 2011.

1990 Slovenian referendum on independence from Yugoslavia
The Eastern European country had joined the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as a socialist republic state in 1945. Actual independence for the country did not occur until June of 1991, when the Slovenians rejected Yugoslavian interference in the form of a 10-day war that ended on July 7, 1991. A new constitution for the country came into force on December 23, 1991.

1975 Metric Conversion Act signed by U.S. President Gerald Ford
The act made the metric system the preferred system of weights and measures in the United States. Today, the metric system is predominantly only used by scientists and academics in the U.S. Common people tend to follow the customary units that were developed before American Independence. The U.S. is 1 of 3 countries in the world that do not use the metric system. Liberia and Myanmar are the other two.

1958 Tokyo Tower opened to the public
At 333 meters tall, it is the world's tallest, self-supported steel tower. It is based on the Eiffel Tower and is used for communication purposes.

1888 Vincent van Gogh cuts off his ear
It is now believed that the Dutch painter was suffering from a psychotic break at the time of the event. After cutting off his left ear, van Gogh bandaged his head and took the severed ear to a prostitute for safekeeping.
 
Births On This Day, December 23rd 🎂

1967 Carla Bruni
Italian/French singer-songwriter, model

1964 Eddie Vedder
American singer-songwriter, guitarist

1963 Jim Harbaugh
American football player

1944 Wesley Clark
American general

1918 Helmut Schmidt
German politician, 5th Chancellor of Germany

Deaths On This Day, December 23rd 🪦

2009 Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme
Tibetan politician

2007 Oscar Peterson
Canadian pianist, composer

2004 P. V. Narasimha Rao
Indian lawyer, politician, activist, 9th Prime Minister of India

1953 Lavrentiy Beria
Soviet politician

1795 Henry Clinton
English general, politician
 
1919
Alice H. Parker patents gas heating furnace
1938
actress ,Margaret Hamilton's costume caught fire while filming the movie' The Wizard of OZ'. She was standing on the trap door, and the special effects man set off the fire too soon. She was hosptialized with 2nd degree burns on her face, 3rd degree burn on her hand She played the' Wicked Witch'
1951
The 1st NFL title game was televised coast to coast from Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The L.A. Rams defeated Cleveland Browns 24-17
1994
organized crime boss, Whitney Bulger flees Boston and hides from law enforcement officals for 16yrs. He &long time girlfriend, Catherine Grieg were captured& arrested outside their Santa Monica apt building
 
On This Day In History, December 24th

1955 NORAD's Santa tracking service begins
The event is now a Christmas tradition where the North American Aerospace Defense Command tracks Santa Claus as he travels around the world delivering presents to children. The event began after a printing error in a Sears catalogue asking children to call Santa Claus. The number that was printed was the number of Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center.

1951 Libya gains independence from Italy
The North African country had been ruled by Italy since 1912. After independence, it became a constitutional monarchy under King Idris. King Idris was overthrown in a military coup led by Muammar Gaddafi in 1969.

1914 Christmas Truce begins
A much-studied event in war and peace studies, the Christmas Truce was a brief unofficial ceasefire between British and German troops along the Western Front of World War I. During the truce, soldiers from both sides sang carols, shared food, exchanged gifts and played football (soccer). Subsequent attempts to hold similar ceasefires around Christmas time failed.

1865 Ku Klux Klan created
The extremist white supremacist organization, also known as the Klan, was created in Pulaski, Tennessee by Confederate Army veterans.

1826 Eggnog riots begin at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York
Also known as the Grog Mutiny, these riots began on Christmas Eve after cadets consumed copious amounts of eggnog made with smuggled whiskey. The riots lasted until December 25.
 

Births On This Day, December 24th 🎂

1973 Stephenie Meyer
American author, film producer

1971 Ricky Martin
Puerto Rican/American singer-songwriter, actor

1957 Hamid Karzai
Afghan politician, 12th President of Afghanistan

1868 Emanuel Lasker
German chess player

1166 John, King of England

Deaths On This Day, December 24th 🪦

2008 Harold Pinter
English playwright, screenwriter, director, actor, Nobel Prize laureate

1977 Samael Aun Weor
Colombian author

1965 William M. Branham
American minister

1914 John Muir
Scottish/American environmentalist, author

1524 Vasco da Gama
Portuguese explorer
 
On This Day In History, December 25th

1989 Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu and wife Elena were executed
The communist leader and his wife were deposed after a revolution. Their trial lasted for about an hour and then they were summarily executed by a firing squad.

1979 USSR invades Afghanistan
The airlift of Soviet troops into Afghanistan started a 9 year-long war. The anti-Soviet insurgents, the mujahideen, received support from the United States and other Western allies.

1926 Hirohito becomes the 124th emperor of Japan
Michinomiya Hirohito, known as Emperor Shōwa after his death, becomes the 124th emperor of Japan after the death of his father, Emperor Yoshihito. Hirohito was the Emperor of Japan for 62 years, making him the longest-reigning Emperor of Japan.

1809 First abdominal surgery performed
American physician Ephraim McDowell became the first person in recorded history to successfully remove an ovarian tumor. He is known as the father of ovariotomy and abdominal surgery. The procedure took about 30 minutes and was performed without any anaesthesia.

1643 Christmas Island Discovered
Captain William Mynors on the East India Company ship Royal Mary did not stop at the Australian island, which owes its name to the date of its discovery by Europeans. It was not until 44 years later that the first Europeans stepped on the Island. Sparsely populated, the Indian Ocean island is rich in phosphate, which is mined from the guano–bird droppings.
 
Births On This Day, December 25th 🎂

1984 Alastair Cook
English cricketer

1924 Rod Serling
American screenwriter, producer, created The Twilight Zone

1899 Humphrey Bogart
American actor

1876 Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Indian/Pakistani lawyer, politician, founder of Pakistan

1642 Isaac Newton
English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, theologian

Deaths On This Day, December 25th 🪦

2006 James Brown
American singer-songwriter, producer, actor

1989 Nicolae Ceaușescu
Romanian politician, 11th President of Romania

1983 Joan Miró
Spanish painter

1977 Charlie Chaplin
English actor, director, producer, screenwriter, composer

1963 Tristan Tzara
Romanian/French poet, critic
 
On This Day In History, December 27th

2007 Benazir Bhutto was assassinated
The former Prime Minister of Pakistan was killed after a shooting and the detonation of a suicide bomb while campaigning for the upcoming elections in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

1949 Indonesian Independence
The Southeast Asian country's independence came after 4 years of revolution and struggle. In August 1945, Sukarno signed the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, which was formally accepted and recognized by the Dutch in 1949.

1918 Greater Poland Uprising of 1918–1919 begins
The revolt against the Germans began in Poznań after a speech by the Polish Prime Minister, Ignacy Paderewski. The uprising led to newer territory being added to Poland in the Treaty of Versailles.

1845 Anesthesia used for the first time for childbirth
Dr. Crawford W. Long, an American physician, gave ether to his wife during the birth of their second child. The event revolutionalized the use of anaesthesia in medicine and surgery.

1831 Charles Darwin begins his journey on the HMS Beagle
It was during this 5-year long voyage that the English naturalist worked on his Theory of Evolution. He published the evidence supporting it in his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species.
 
Births On This Day, December 27th 🎂

1980 Antonio Cesaro
Swiss wrestler

1948 Gérard Depardieu
French actor

1901 Marlene Dietrich
German/American actress, singer

1822 Louis Pasteur
French chemist, microbiologist

1571 Johannes Kepler
German astronomer

Deaths On This Day, December 27th 🪦

2007 Benazir Bhutto
Pakistani politician, first female Prime Minister of Pakistan

1997 Billy Wright
English/Irish commander

1985 Dian Fossey
American zoologist

1979 Hafizullah Amin
Afghan politician

1958 Harry Warner
Polish/American businessman, co-founded Warner Bros.
 
On This Day In History. December 28th

2007 Nepal abolishes monarchy
The amendment to the Nepalese constitution that declared the country a federal republic was passed by the parliament. The transition was completed on May 28, 2008. Established in 1768 by Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Kingdom of Nepal lasted for over 200 years. Nepal is the world's only country with Hinduism as the state religion.

1972 Kim il Sung becomes first president of North Korea
Kim Il-sung became the first and only president of North Korea under an amended constitution. He was elected to the post by the members of the North Korean parliament, which is also known as the Supreme People's Assembly. The post was abolished in 1998, and Kim II-sung was given the title of Eternal President of Korea.

1968 Israel raid on Beirut Airport
The Israeli Defence Forces mounted a special operation, also known as Operation Gift, on Beirut Airport. The raid was in retaliation to the attack on El Al Flight 253, which was en route from Tel Aviv to New York. During its layover in Athens, Greece, two Palestinians fired at passengers and crew and killed 1 person. In retaliation, Israel destroyed several passenger and cargo planes parked at Beirut Airport. There were no fatalities during the raid.

1885 Indian National Congress founded
The party is one of the two main political parties in India. Created by the members of the Theosophical Society, the party was a major player in India's independence movement against the British. After Independence, the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru belonged to the INC.

1836 South Australia becomes a British colony
The central southern state of Australia was first established as a province in 1834 by the British Parliament under the South Australia Act. The day was observed as Proclamation Day in the state, which was later turned into an extra holiday after Christmas Day.
 
Births On This Day, December 28th 🎂

1962 Michel Petrucciani
French/American pianist

1934 Maggie Smith
English actress

1903 John von Neumann
Hungarian/American mathematician

1903 Earl Hines
American pianist

1856 Woodrow Wilson
American politician, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate

Deaths On This Day, December 28th 🪦

2015 Lemmy
English singer-songwriter, bass player, actor

2004 Susan Sontag
American author

1984 Sam Peckinpah
American director, screenwriter

1959 Ante Pavelić
Croatian politician

1937 Maurice Ravel
French composer
 
1732
Ben Franklin using alias 'Richard Saunders' begins publican of 'Poor Richard's Almanack'
1905
U.S's Intercollegate Athletic Association is founded, named changed in 1910 to NCAA
1944
Montreal Canadien right wing, Maurice 'Rocket' Richard becomes 1st NHL hockey player to score 8 pts in 1 game. He had 5 goals,3 assists as team defeated Detroit Red Wings 9-1
1968
The Beatles release their double album known as 'White Album' hits #1 on music charts, stays there for 9 weeks
2000
Montgomery Ward,a U.S retail store announces its going out of business after 128 yrs
 

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