On this day…
0624 Moslem army occupies Kurashitische Caravan
0794 Church at Lindisfarne, England destroyed by Vikings
0871 Battle at Ashdown Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1198 Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III
1214 Earl Ferrand of Flanders drops ties with France
1499 Louis XII of France after papal divorce marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany to keep the duchy for the crown
1558 French troops under duke de Guise occupy Calais
1598 Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy
1598 Genoa Italy expels Jews
1656 Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
1675 1st American commercial corporation chartered (New York Fishing Co)
1705 Georg F Händels 1st opera “Almira” premieres in Hamburg
1716 Dutch gang leader “Sjako” arrested
1745 England, Austria, Netherlands & Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance
1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie’s troops occupy Stirling
1760 Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1790 George Washington delivers 1st “State of the Union” address
1798 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
1800 Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi
1800 Wild Boy of Aveyron discovered in southern France
1806 Cape colony becomes English colony
1806 Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105′ blue whale in Oregon
1811 Louisiana slave revolt by Charles Deslondes at German Coast
1815 Battle of New Orleans-War of 1812 ended 12/24/1814 but nobody knew
1830 Dutch King Willem I fires him displeasing parliament members
1833 Boston Academy of Music, 1st US music school, established
1838 1st telegraph message sent using dots & dashes, New Jersey
1838 Rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out
1842 Dutch King Willem II charters Technical College Delft
1848 Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia
1853 1st US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Washington
1856 Dr John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs CA
1857 Dion Boucicauly’s “Poor of NY” premieres in New York City NY
1867 Legislation gives suffrage to DC blacks, despite President Johnson’s veto
1870 US mint at Carson City NV begins issuing coins
1878 Secret meeting of King Leopold II’s agent & Henry Morton Stanley
1884 Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz
1889 Dr Herman Hollerith receives 1st US patent for a tabulating machine (1st Computer)
1894 Columbus World’s fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1897 Michael Eagan wins 1st US national amateur handball championship
1901 New South Wales score 918 all out vs South Australia in 560 minutes
1902 1st National Bowling Championship held (Chicago IL)
1904 Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
1913 Frank Chance becomes Yankee manager
1917 Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy
1918 Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition)
1918 President Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after WWI
1923 Typography strike in Amsterdam
1925 1st all-female US state supreme court appointed, Texas
1926 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa’ud becomes king of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia
1929 1st telephone connection between Netherlands & West-Indies
1929 CBS radio network buys WABC in New York City NY
1930 Belgium Princess Marie-José marries Italian’s crown prince Umberto
1931 Philadelphia Quakers set then NHL record of 15 straight loses
1932 Ratification of present San Francisco City Charter
1934 Jaap Speyers “Bluejackets” premieres in Amsterdam
1935 Spectrophotometer patented, AC Hardy
1937 -50ºF (-45.6ºC), San Jacinto NV (state record)
1938 Bradman scores 107 for South Australia vs Queensland (1st innings)
1940 Britain’s 1st WWII rationing (bacon, butter & sugar)
1941 British Air Marshal Richard Peirse resigns
1945 “Youth for Christ” organizes
1947 Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game
1947 General George Marshall becomes Secretary of State
1948 Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
1949 “Make Mine Manhattan” closes at Broadhurst Theater New York City NY after 429 performances
1949 “My Romance” closes at Shubert Theater New York City NY after 95 performances
1949 “Small Wonder” closes at Coronet Theater New York City NY after 134 performances
1951 Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow is rediscovered in Bermuda
1952 Jordan adopts constitution
1953 Indians bar night games with Browns (who refuse to share TV receipts)
1953 René Mayer forms French government
1954 Elvis Presley pays $4 to a Memphis studio & records his 1st two songs, “Casual Love” & “I’ll Never Stand in Your Way”
1955 Furman sets NCAA basketball single-game scoring record with 154 points
1955 Georgia Tech ends Kentucky’s 130-game home basketball win streak
1955 Louise Sugg wins LPGA Los Angeles Golf Open
1955 WUNC TV channel 4 in Chapel Hill NC (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel/Hound Dog” single goes to #1 & stays #1 for a record 11 weeks (for a single)
1956 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Conrad Aiken
1958 Cuban revolutionary forces capture Havana
1959 Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as President of France’s 5th Republic
1961 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Yvor Winters
1962 Dutch express train crashes into slow commuter train, 91 die (Netherlands)
1962 Golfer Jack Nicklaus, 21, 1st pro appearance, he came in 50th
1963 “Mona Lisa”, on loan, unveiled in America’s National Gallery of Art
1963 Dmitri Shostakovich’s Katharina Ismailova, premieres in Riga
1964 President Lyndon B Johnson declares “War on Poverty”
1964 European Parliament accept Mansholt Plan
1965 Senator Everett Dirksen introduces a bill to make marigold the national flower (didn’t pass)
1965 Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
1966 Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” album goes #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks
1966 Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks
1966 Georges Pompidou appointed French premier
1966 Who & the Kinks perform on the last “Shindig” TV show on ABC
1968 Jacques Cousteau’s 1st undersea special on US network TV
1971 Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota established
1971 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island CA
1972 Dmitri Shostakovich’s 15th Symphony, premieres in Moscow
1972 NCAA announces freshman can play on teams starting in fall
1973 Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris
1973 USSR launches Luna 21 for Moon landing
1973 “Tricks” opens at Alvin Theater New York City NY for 8 performances
1973 Greg Chappell’s best Test bowling, 5-61 vs Pakistan at SCG
1974 Gold hits record $126.50 an ounce in London
1974 Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York
1974 E Wilson Jr’s musical “Let My People Come” premieres in New York City NY
1974 Loch Ness Monster photographed
1975 Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate’s John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
1976 Franklin Mint strikes 1st gold coins for Netherlands Antilles
1978 Israel’s Cabinet votes to `strengthen’ settlements in occupied Sinai
1979 512 die as oil tanker Bantry Bay blows up
1979 Today Show gets a new theme song
1979 Argentina & Chile sign Beagle Canal accord
1979 Vietnamese troops overtook Khmer Rouge & occupy Phnom Penh
1980 Islander Glenn Resch’s 20th shut-out opponent-Canucks 3-0
1980 NCAA decides to sponsor women’s championships in 5 sports
1981 “Pirates of Penzance” opens at Uris Theater New York City NY for 772 performances
1981 India all out 63 in one-day international vs Australia
1981 Reds become last team to sign a free agent (Larry Biitner)
1982 Justice Department withdraws antitrust suit against IBM, pending since 1969
1982 Johnny Cash Parkway opens in Hendersonville Tennessee
1984 Washington Capitals Bengt Gustafsson scores 5 goals
1984 NCAA announces that basketball tournament will have 64 teams
1985 Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley’s Comet
1986 President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US
1986 Willie McCovey is 16th elected to Hall of Fame in his 1st year
1987 Jack Sikma (Milwaukee) begins NBA free throw streak of 51 games
1987 Dow Jones closes above 2,000 for 1st time (2,002.25)
1988 9th largest NBA crowd 38,873-Chicago at Detroit
1988 Dow Jones down 140.58 points
1988 Hewlett-Packard introduces the HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator
1988 US female Figure Skating championship won by Debi Thomas
1989 Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
1989 “42nd Street” closes at Winter Garden Theater New York City NY after 3,486 performances
1989 “Starlight Express” closes at Gershwin Theater New York City NY after 761 performances
1989 Boeing 737-400 crashes in England, 46 die
1991 Davis Rules with Jonathan Winters & Randy Quaid premieres on ABC-TV
1991 Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins & Rod Carew elected to Hall of Fame
1991 Rod Carew is 22nd player elected to Hall of Fame on 1st try
1991 Tamás Darnyi swims world record 400m medley (4 12.36)
1992 US President George Bush gets ill & vomits on Japanese prime minister’s lap during Japanese tour
1993 Chicago Bull Michael Jordan scores his 20,000th career point
1993 Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp goes on sale
1993 NBC offers “Tonight Show” to David Letterman
1994 Rintje Ritsma skates world record 1500m (1 51.60)
1994 Russian manned space craft TM-18, launches into orbit
1994 US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Davis
1995 “Guys & Dolls” closes at Martin Beck Theater New York City NY after 1143 performances
1995 15th United Negro College Fund raises $12,200,000
1995 Mike Schmidt is elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame
1996 Blizzard buries eastern US causing at least 50 deaths
1996 For 1st time in 25 years no one is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1998 New York Giant GM George Young resigns to accept NFL position
1998 Roseanne files for divorce from 3rd husband Ben Thomas
1998 Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
1998 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life