Event-a-Day

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December 17:

1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.

1777 – American Revolution: France formally recognizes the United States.

1790 – Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone.

1807 – Napoleonic Wars: France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.

1943 – All Chinese are again permitted to become citizens of the United States upon the repeal of the Act of 1882 and the introduction of the Magnuson Act.

1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge: Malmedy massacre: American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Joachim Peiper.

1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.

1950 – The F-86 Sabre's first mission over Korea.

1969 – The SALT I talks begin. Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs.

1989 – the Simpsons first premiered on television with the episode, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.

2003 – SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first powered and first supersonic flight.

2014 – The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them in 1960.

December 18:

1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the American rebels over British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga in October.

1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1793 – Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.

1833 – The national anthem of the Russian Empire, "God Save the Tsar!", is first performed.

1865 – US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the USA.

1917 – The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.

1932 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans in the first NFL Championship Game.

1958 – Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.

1966 – Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker.

1973 – Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.

1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

1154 – Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

1606 – The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who found, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".

1777 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Two British frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart engage in battle off the coast of Murcia.

1972 – Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.

1974 – Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

2013 – Spacecraft Gaia is launched by European Space Agency.

1192 – Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after the Third Crusade.

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.

1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.

1915 – World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.

1916 – World War I: The battle of Verdun results in a French victory after more than 9 months of intense fighting.

1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.

1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.

1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.

1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.

1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.

1967 – A Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Metroliner exceeds 155 mph on their New York Division, also present day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.

2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.

2013 – China successfully launches the Bolivian Túpac Katari 1 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

1861 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

1872 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England.

1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre.

1962 – Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.

1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).

1851 – India's first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.

1864 – Savannah, Georgia falls to the forces of General Sherman.

1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.

1890 – Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kentville and Kingsport, Nova Scotia.

1891 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.

1940 – World War II: Himara is captured by the Greek army.

1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.

1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge: German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"

2010 – The repeal of the Don't ask, don't tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama.

1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to Paris, France after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.

1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.

1793 – The Battle of Savenay: a decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in War in the Vendée during the French Revolution.

1876 – First day of the Constantinople Conference which resulted in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

1893 – The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.

1913 – The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.

1940 – World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis (Y-2) sinks the Italian motor ship Antonietta.

1954 – First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.

1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.

1986 – Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.

1800 – The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise fails to kill Napoleon Bonaparte.

1814 – Representatives of Britain and the United States sign the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.

1914 – World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.

1924 – Albania becomes a republic.

1943 – World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Allied Commander for the Invasion of Normandy.

1968 – Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed ten lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures.

1980 – Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called "Britain's Roswell".

336 – First documentary sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.

1066 – William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

1492 – The carrack Santa María, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off Haiti due to an improper watch.

1776 – George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.

1941 – Admiral Chester W. Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.

2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.

2004 – The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army attacks and successfully defeats a garrison of Hessian forces .

1799 – Four thousand people attend George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen".

1862 – Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship. The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans died.

1871 – Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.

1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.

1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee, allegedly establishing the Curse of the Bambino superstition.

1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1943 – World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.

1944 – World War II: George S. Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.

1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union.

2009 – China opens the world's longest high-speed rail route, which links Beijing and Guangzhou.

1657 – The Flushing Remonstrance is signed.

1814 – War of 1812: The American schooner USS Carolina is destroyed. It was the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson's makeshift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.

1831 – Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate his theory of evolution.

1922 – Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose built aircraft carrier to be commissioned in the world.

1927 – Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.

1932 – Radio City Music Hall, "Showplace of the Nation", opens in New York City.

1939 – Winter War: Finland holds off a Soviet attack in the Battle of Kelja.


1966 – The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.

1978 – Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship.

1979 – The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

1836 – South Australia and Adelaide are founded. Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico with the signing of the Santa María–Calatrava Treaty.

1846 – Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.

1867 – United States claims Midway Atoll, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.

1902 – The Syracuse Athletic Club defeated the New York Philadelphians, 5–0, in the first indoor professional football game, which was held at Madison Square Garden.

1941 – World War II: Operation Anthropoid, the plot to assassinate high-ranking Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich, commences.

1943 – World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the Battle of Ortona concludes with the victory of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division over the German 1st Parachute Division and the capture of the Italian town of Ortona.

1944 – Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score eight points in one game of NHL ice hockey.

1958 – "Greatest Game Ever Played": Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium.

1972 – Kim Il-sung, already Prime Minister of North Korea and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, becomes the first President of North Korea.

1973 – The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.

1170 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II.

1786 – French Revolution: The Assembly of Notables is convened.

1812 – The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three-hour battle.

1851 – The first American YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.

1860 – The launch of HMS Warrior, with her combination of screw propeller, iron hull and iron armour, renders all previous warships obsolescent.

1874 – The military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos in Sagunto ends the failed First Spanish Republic and Prince Alfonso is proclaimed King of Spain.

1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota killed by the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment.

1939 – First flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.

1940 – World War II: In the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, UK, killing almost 200 civilians.

1419 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of La Rochelle

1460 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield.

1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis (1816) between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed.

1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed.

1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

1896 – Canadian ice hockey player Ernie McLea scores the first hat-trick in Stanley Cup play, and the Cup-winning goal as the Montreal Victorias defeat the Winnipeg Victorias 6–5.

1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.

1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.

1936 – The United Auto Workers union stages its first sitdown strike.

2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed.

1600 – The British East India Company is chartered.

1660 – James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.

1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.

1757 – Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating Königsberg into Russia.

1790 – Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today, is published for the first time.

1796 – The incorporation of Baltimore as a city.

1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.

1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.

1862 – American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.

1878 – Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879.

1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1907 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in Manhattan.

1944 – World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany. Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front begins.

1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.

1951 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.

1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.

1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.

2011 – NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.

45 BC – The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year.

42 BC – The Roman Senate posthumously deifies Julius Caesar.

1502 – The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is first explored by the Portuguese.

1515 – King Francis I of France succeeds to the French throne.

1651 – Charles II is crowned King of Scotland.

1788 – First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.

1801 – The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.

1808 – The United States bans the importation of slaves.

1822 – The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.

1863 – American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.

1873 – Japan begins using the Gregorian calendar.

1877 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Empress of India.

1881 – Ferdinand de Lesseps begins French construction of the Panama Canal.

1885 – Twenty-five nations adopt Sandford Fleming's proposal for standard time (and also, time zones)

1892 – Ellis Island opens to begin processing immigrants into the United States.

1898 – New York, New York annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.

1899 – Spanish rule ends in Cuba.
1901 – Nigeria becomes a British protectorate. The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister.

1902 – The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.

1906 – British India officially adopts Indian Standard Time.

1908 – For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City's Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.

1934 – Alcatraz Island becomes a United States federal prison.

1948 – The British railway network is nationalized to form British Railways.

1979 – Formal diplomatic relations are established between China and the United States.

1981 – Greece is admitted into the European Community.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.

1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1860 – The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.

1942 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history—the Duquesne Spy Ring.

1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.

1981 – One of the largest investigations by a British police force ends when serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper", is arrested in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.