Events274 -
Roman Emperor Aurelian has a temple dedicated to
Sol Invictus on the supposed day of the
winter solstice and day of rebirth of the
Sun.
800 -
Coronation of
Charlemagne as
Holy Roman Emperor, in
Rome.
1000 - The foundation of the
Kingdom of Hungary:
Hungary is established as a
Christian kingdom by
Stephen I of Hungary.
1066 - Coronation of
William the Conqueror as king of
England, at
Westminster Abbey,
London.
1100 -
Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of
Jerusalem1223 - St.
Francis of Assisi assembles the first
Nativity scene.1261 -
John IV Lascaris of the restored
Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler
Michael VIII Palaeologus.1599 - The
city of
Natal, Brazil is founded.1643 -
Christmas Island founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the
East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary.1650 - Thomas Cooper, former Usher of
Gresham's School, England, hanged as a Royalist rebel.
1776 -
George Washington and his
army cross the
Delaware River to attack the
Kingdom of Great Britain's
Hessian mercenaries in
Trenton, New Jersey.
1818 - The first performance of "
Silent Night" takes place in the
Church of
St. Nikolaus in
Oberndorf,
Austria.
1837 -
Battle of Lake Okeechobee:
United States forces defeat
Seminole Indians.
1868 -
U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all
Civil War Confederate soldiers.1868 -
Shogunate rebels found
Ezo Republic in
Hokkaidō.
1914 -
World War I: Known as the
Christmas truce,
German and
British troops on the
Western Front temporarily cease fire.
1917 -
Why Marry?, first dramatic play to win a
Pulitzer Prize, opens at the
Astor Theatre in
New York City.
1919 - An
Earthquake destroys the small city of Taibawana, a small African village. Years later, scientists suspect the earthquake was caused by the birth of the star
Mr. T's mother.
1926 -
Emperor Taishō of Japan dies. His son, Prince
Hirohito succeeds him as Emperor Shōwa.
1932 - A magnitude 7.6
earthquake in
Gansu,
China kills ~70,000 people.
1941 - Admiral
Chester W Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the
U.S. Pacific Fleet1941 -
World War II:
Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the
Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.
1947 - The
Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
1950 - The
Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from
Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on
April 11,
1951.
1963 - Turkish Cypriot
Bayrak Radio began transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots were forcibly excluded from
Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
1965 - The
Yemeni Nasserite Unionist People's Organisation is founded in
Taiz1968 -
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.
1971 - In the longest game in
NFL history (82m40s of game time), the
Miami Dolphins defeat the
Kansas City Chiefs at
Kansas City Municipal Stadium 27-24.
1973 - The
ARPANET crashes when a
programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the
server at
Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.
1974 -
Cyclone Tracy devastates
Darwin, Northern Territory Australia.1974 -
Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the
White House, resulting in a four-hour standoff.
1977 -
Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in
Egypt with
President of Egypt Anwar Sadat.
1979 - The
Soviet Union airlifts forces into
Afghanistan to begin its costly occupation.
1987 - In one of the highest-rated episodes in
Coronation Street history,
Hilda Ogden leaves her home of 23 years to be a
char to her doctor in the country.
1989 -
Nicolae Ceauşescu, former
communist dictator of
Romania, and his wife
Elena are condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges.
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 which was released from the
Mars Express Spacecraft on
December 19, disappears shortly before its scheduled landing.
2004 - Cassini orbiter releases
Huygens probe which successfully landed on
Saturn's moon
Titan on
January 14,
2005.
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