Events1287 -
St. Lucia's flood: The
Zuider Zee sea wall in the
Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.1542 - Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen
Mary I of Scotland.
1702 (according to the
old calendar;
January 30,
1703 by the new calendar) - The
Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master.
1751 - The
Theresian Military Academy was founded as the first Military Academy in the world.
1769 -
Dartmouth College is chartered by
King George III of
England.
1782 -
Montgolfier brothers first balloon lifted on its very first test flight.
1819 -
Alabama becomes the 22nd
U.S. state.
1825 - Advocates of
Liberalism in
Russia rise up against
Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in the
Decembrist Revolt in
St. Petersburg.
1836 - The
Toledo War unofficially ended.
1896 - The
Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
1900 -
Quantum Mechanics:
Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his
black-body radiation law.
1902 - The
Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first
Pacific telegraph cable, from
Ocean Beach, San Francisco to
Honolulu, Hawaii.
1903 - The
Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly with the
Wright Flyer at
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It crashes, and 3 days later, after repairs, they get it to fly.
1907 - The schooner
Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the
Scilly Isles in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
1911 -
Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself,
Olav Bjaaland,
Helmer Hanssen,
Sverre Hassel, and
Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the
South Pole.
1914 -
Lisandro de la Torre and others found the
Democratic Progressist Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy,
Buenos Aires.
1918 -
Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a
German prince elected by the
Parliament of Finland to become King
Väinö I, renounces the
Finnish throne.
1939 -
Winter War: The
Soviet Union is expelled from the
League of Nations.
1941 -
German military commander of
Kharkiv,
Ukraine issued an order, according to which the
Jewish population was to move to the city periphery within 2 days, into the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days 15,000 Jews were shot at
Drobitsky Yar.1941 -
World War II:
Japan signs
treaty of alliance with
Thailand.
1946 - The
UN General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in
New York City.
1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (
NASCAR) is founded in
Daytona Beach, Florida.
1955 -
Albania,
Austria,
Bulgaria,
Finland,
Hungary,
Ireland,
Italy,
Jordan,
Laos,
Portugal,
Romania and
Spain join the
United Nations.
1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first-ever to reach
The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the
Antarctic.
1959 - The
Motown record label is founded in
Detroit, Michigan by
Berry Gordy.
1962 -
NASA's
Mariner 2 becomes the first
spacecraft to fly by
Venus.
1964 -
American Civil Rights Movement:
Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States - The
United States Supreme Court rules that the
U.S. Congress can use its
Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.
1972 -
Apollo program:
Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and
Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final
Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of
Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.
1979 - Legendary
punk rock group
The Clash release
London Calling in the UK, a landmark album in rock music.
1981 -
Arab-Israeli conflict:
Israel's
Knesset passes The
Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the
Golan Heights.
1995 -
Yugoslav Wars: The
Dayton Agreement is signed in
Paris by leaders of various governments.
2003 -
President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.2003 -
President of Iraq Saddam Hussein was captured at a
farmhouse in ad-Dawr near
Tikrit.
2004 - The
Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, near
Millau,
France is officially opened.
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14. Dezember