2005 – Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicate the throne as King of Bhutan.

2009 – MV Danny F II sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals.

2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire.This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution. The success of the Tunisian protests sparked protests in several other Arab countries.

1843 - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published. The "social conversion" of Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve may be seen as a literary symbol (based on the events of the first Christmas night) of the human potential released through spiritual conversion.

1917 - Confiscation of the property of the Russian Orthodox Church and abolition of religious instruction in schools was announced by the Bolshevik government.

1920 - The first orphanage founded by the Church of God opened in Cleveland, Tennessee. Its establishment was the result of the vision and efforts of Church of God pioneer, A.J. Tomlinson.

1934 - Birth of Kurt Kaiser, contemporary American Christian songwriter and composer. His abiding works include: "Oh, How He Loves You and Me," "Pass It On" and "Master Designer."

1943 - German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'The consciousness of being borne up by a spiritual tradition that goes back for centuries gives one a feeling of confidence and security in the face of all passing strains and stresses.'

1995 "School after Scandal" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 23 performances

1991 - Soap opera "One Life To Live" airs its 6,000th episode

218 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.

1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China.

1642 – Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.

1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of 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 Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.

1878 – John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.

1878 – The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar

1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.

1892 – The first performance of the fairy tale-ballet The Nutcracker was held at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car.

1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.

1912 – Amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson announced the discovery of fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human, known as Piltdown Man, which later turned out to be a hoax.

1915 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Bolling Galt Wilson while president of the United States.

1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of Staff Erich Von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000 casualties.

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 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game is moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.

1935 – The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.

1944 – World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.

1956 – Japan joins the United Nations.

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

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

1969 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years.

1971 – Capitol Reef National Park is established in Utah.

1972 – Vietnam War: The United States began Operation Linebacker II against North Vietnam, the largest heavy bomber strikes launched by the U.S. Air Force since the end of World War II.

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

1973 – The Islamic Development Bank is founded.

1978 – Dominica joins the United Nations.

1987 – Programmer Larry Wall released the first version of the programming language Perl via the comp.sources.misc newsgroup.

1989 – The European Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.

1996 – The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring "Ebonics" a language or dialect.

1997 – HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.

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

2002 – 2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.

2006 – The first of a series of floods (pictured) struck Malaysia, which would eventually kill 118 people and leave over 400,000 others homeless.

2006 – The first of a series of floods (pictured) struck Malaysia, which would eventually kill 118 people and leave over 400,000 others homeless.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2a/Kt_flood.jpg/100px-Kt_flood.jpg

2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.

2010 – Governmental protests begin in Tunisia, beginning the 2010-2011 Middle East and North Africa protests

1819 - Birth of Isaac Thomas Hecker, American Roman Catholic leader. He entered the Redemptorist Order in 1845, and in 1858 founded the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (the Paulist Fathers). He was superior general of the Paulist Society during his last 30 years (1858_88).

1834 - Emory College was chartered in Oxford, GA, under Methodist auspices. In 1915 it changed its name to Emory University and in 1919 the campus was relocated in Atlanta, GA.

1892 - Rabbi H. Rosenberg was expelled from Temple Beth_Jacob in Brooklyn, NY, for eating pork.

1904 - Indian mystic Sundar Singh, 15, was converted to Christianity through a vision. Baptized into the Church of England in 1905, Singh afterward donned the robe of a Sadhu (holy man) in an endeavor to present Christianity in a Hindu form. (He disappeared in April 1929, while undertaking a strenuous work in Tibet.)

1943 - German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'The man who finds God in his earthly happiness...does not lack reminder that earthly things are transient...and...there will be times when he can say in all sincerity, "I wish I were home."'

1991 - DeForest Kelly (Dr McCoy on Star Trek) gets a star in Hollywood

1989 "I Love Lucy" Christmas episode, shown for first time in over 30 years

1976 - "Wonder Woman" debuts on ABC

1966 - Dr Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs for first time on CBS

1966 - Dr Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs for first time on CBS


and it's still on TV.

and it's still on TV.
Repeated?

1843 – A Christmas Carol (frontispiece pictured) by Charles Dickens, a novella about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his conversion after being visited by three Christmas ghosts, was first published.

1843 – A Christmas Carol (frontispiece pictured) by Charles Dickens, a novella about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his conversion after being visited by three Christmas ghosts, was first published.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/A_Christmas_Carol_-_Mr._Fezziwig%27s_Ball.jpg/76px-A_Christmas_Carol_-_Mr._Fezziwig%27s_Ball.jpg

1941 – Second World War: Three Italian Royal Navy manned torpedoes detonated limpet mines on British Royal Navy ships, sinking two battleships.

1946 – The First Indochina War began when Viet Minh operatives attacked French military positions and homes in Hanoi.

1986 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released dissident Andrei Sakharov after six years of internal exile in Gorky.

1998 – The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton following the Lewinsky scandal.

Repeated?


Yes.

211 – Publius Septimius Geta, co-emperor of Rome, is lured to come without his bodyguards to meet his brother Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla), to discuss a possible reconciliation. When he arrives the Praetorian Guard murders him and he dies in the arms of his mother Julia Domna.

324 – Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.

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

1490 – Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.

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 titled The American Crisis.

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in the Pennsylvania Journal titled The American Crisis.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/PaineAmericanCrisis.jpg/240px-PaineAmericanCrisis.jpg

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.

1828 – Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.

1900 – Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, appointed Sir William Lyne as premier of the new state New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and is forced to resign.

1907 – A group of 239 coal miners die during a mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.

1912 – William H. Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over 1,000 people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after three-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison.

1916 – World War I: Battle of Verdun – On the Western Front, the French Army successfully holds off the German Army and drives it back to its starting position.

1920 – King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander I of Greece and a plebiscite.

1924 – The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.

1924 – The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/RollsRoyceSilverGhostAx201.jpg/220px-RollsRoyceSilverGhostAx201.jpg

1927 – Three Indian revolutionaries viz. Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan were executed by the British government.

1932 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service

1941 – World War II: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.

1956 – Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.

1961 – India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.

1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.

1964 – The South Vietnamese military junta of Nguyen Khanh dissolved the High National Council and arrested some of the members.

1967 – Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt is officially presumed dead.

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

1975 – John Paul Stevens is appointed a justice of The United States Supreme Court.

1981 – Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.

1983 – The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro.

1984 – The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that the People's Republic of China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.

1995 – The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indian tribe.

1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.

2000 – The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist attack a Nationalist Movement Party office in Istanbul, killing one person and injuring three.

2001 – A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia.

2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots – Riots erupt in Buenos Aires.

1808 - Birth of Horatius Bonar, Scottish clergyman and poet. He authored several missionary biographies and penned over 600 hymns, including "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say."

1855 - Birth of William Henry Draper, Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter. His words to "All Creatures of Our God and King" are an English translation of a Latin text believed to have been penned by St. Francis of Assisi.

1860 - Birth of Frank E. Graeff, American Methodist clergyman. Well_known for his interest in children's ministry and for his storytelling abilities, Graeff also authored over 200 hymns, including "Does Jesus Care?"

1944 - Birth of Andrew Robert Culverwell, American sacred music songwriter. This contemporary music artist has written such popular Christian songs as "Born Again" and "Come On, Ring Those Bells."

1965 - American missionary and apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'God has given us rules not because He is arbitrary, but because the rules...are fixed in His own character... Thus, when we sin we break the law of God...in the direction of destroying what we really are.'

1941 – World War II: The 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, popularly known as the Flying Tigers, engaged in its first combat missions.

1973 – Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco was assassinated by a bomb planted by members of the Basque nationalist and separatist organisation ETA.

1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, a treaty mostly devoted to fighting organized crime by mandating cooperation in tracing and seizing drug-related assets, was signed in Vienna.

1999 – Portugal transferred sovereignty of Macau to the People's Republic of China (flag lowering ceremony pictured).

1999 – Portugal transferred sovereignty of Macau to the People's Republic of China (flag lowering ceremony pictured).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Flag_lowering_ceremony_at_the_Macau_Government.jpg/100px-Flag_lowering_ceremony_at_the_Macau_Government.jpg

2005 – US district court Judge John E. Jones III ruled against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.

69 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor.

217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.

1192 – Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade.

1522 – Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.

1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

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

1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.

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

1915 – World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.

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

1924 – Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison

1942 – World War II: Bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.

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.

1952 – United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.

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

1959 – The Walker family murders are committed.

1960 – National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.

1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.

1977 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.

1984 – The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.

1987 – History's worst peacetime sea disaster, when the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).

1989 – United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.

1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.

1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.

1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160.

1996 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, one of the largest bank robberies in UK history.

2005 – In Durrës, Albania was founded Aleksander Moisiu University.

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

2007 – The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.

1552 - Death of Katherine von Bora, 53, a former nun and the widow of German reformer Martin Luther. They married in 1525, when Luther was 42 and Katie was 26, and bore six children. Luther died in 1546; Katie, six years later.

1787 - A revival broke out among the Shakers of New Lebanon, Indiana, soon igniting a religious fervor among other denominations, especially in Kentucky and other colonial frontier regions.

1845 - Baldwin Institute was chartered in Berea, Ohio, by the Methodists. Changing its name in 1854 to Baldwin University, the college merged in 1914 with German Wallace College and adopted its present name: Baldwin Wallace University.

1856 - Newberry College was chartered in Newberry, SC, under Lutheran auspices. The campus moved to Walhalla, SC, in 1868, but returned to Newberry in 1877.

1961 - Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'What God chooses for us children of men is always the best.'

69 – The Roman Senate declares Vespasian as Roman emperor, the last in the Year of Four Emperors.

1140 – Conrad III of Germany besieged Weinsberg.

1598 – Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile.

1620 – The Mayflower Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, establishing the Plymouth Colony.

1826 – American settlers in Mexican Texas made the first attempt to secede from Mexico, establishing the short-lived Republic of Fredonia.

1832 – Egyptian–Ottoman War: Egyptian forces decisively defeat Ottoman troops at the Battle of Konya.

1844 – The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.

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.

1879 – World première of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen.

1883 – The first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army are formed: The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment.

1907 – The Chilean Army commits a massacre of at least 2,000 striking saltpeter miners in in Iquique, Chile.

1910 – An underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit in Over Hulton, Westhoughton, England, kills 344 miners.

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

1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/First_crossword.png/200px-First_crossword.png

1919 – After serving two years in prison for encouraging people to resist military conscription, anarchist Emma Goldman (pictured) was deported from the United States to Russia.

1919 – After serving two years in prison for encouraging people to resist military conscription, anarchist Emma Goldman (pictured) was deported from the United States to Russia.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Emma_Goldman_seated.jpg/71px-Emma_Goldman_seated.jpg

1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-animated feature in film history, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles.

1941 – World War II: A formal treaty of alliance between Thailand and Japan is signed in the presence of the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew.

1946 – An 8.1 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaidō, Japan, kill over 1,300 people and destroy over 38,000 homes.

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

1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, after living for 18 days after the transplant.

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

1969 – The Gay Activists Alliance is formed in New York City.

1969 – The United Nations adopts the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

1973 – The Geneva Conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict opens.

1979 – Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.

1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.

1992 – A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport, killing 56 people.

1994 – Mexican volcano Popocatepetl, dormant for 47 years, erupts gases and ash.

1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.

1999 – The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid.

2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.

1672 - Birth of Benjamin Schmolck, German Lutheran clergyman. Though a busy pastor, Schmolck found time to pen 900 hymns, the best remembered of them being "My Jesus, As Thou Wilt."

1672 - Birth of Johann Christoph Schwedler, German clergyman and author of the hymn, "Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know." Schwedler penned more than 500 hymns during his life, many stressing the joy filled confidence available to every Christian believer.

1776 - Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'It is necessary that our sharpest trials should sometimes spring from our dearest comforts, else we should be in danger of forgetting ourselves and setting up our rest here.'

1835 - Oglethorpe University was chartered in Milledgeville, Georgia under Presbyterian auspices. In 1913 the campus was moved to Atlanta.

1843 - Irish Catholic religious Frances Ward, 33, first arrived in the U.S. in Pittsburgh, where she afterward helped establish successive convents of the Sisters of Mercy, both in Chicago and in Loretto, Pennsylvania.

1991 - US actress Jane Fonda marries CNN-director Ted Turner

1788 - Hue Tay Son becomes emperor Quang Trung of Vietnam

1925 - Eisenstein's movie Potemkin premieres in Moscow

1933 - Fox signs Shirley Temple, aged 5, to a studio contract

1936 - Don Bradman's 2nd consecutive Test Cricket duck! Australia all out 80

1946 - Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life," premieres

1951 - Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement

1960 - Elvis Presley was inducted into the Los Angeles Indian Tribal Council coinciding with the opening with his movie "Flaming Star."

1967 - The Rolling Stones album, "Their Satanic Majesties Request" was released.

1968 - Crosby, Stills and Nash performed together in public for the first time.

1969 - Diana Ross gave her last performance as a member of the Supremes on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

1970 - Elvis Presley went to the White House to volunteer his services to U.S. President Nixon on fighting the nation's drug problems. He gave Nixon a chrome-plated Colt .45 and Tricky Dick gave Elvis a Narcotics Bureau badge.

1996 - Tony Bennett was rushed to a hospital for an emergency operation for an erupted hernia. Bennett was just arriving at the White House for a holiday dinner with U.S. President and Mrs. Clinton when he fell ill.

69 – Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered at the Gemonian stairs in Rome.

1769 – Having been soundly defeated in battle, the Qing Dynasty agreed to terms of truce, ending the Sino-Burmese War.

1790 – The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies.

1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

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).

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).
I would loved to had been there that day!

1809 – The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, is passed by the U.S. Congress.

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

1864 – Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".

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

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

1894 – The Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.

1920 – The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.

1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.

1939 – Indian Muslims observed a "Day of Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over the decision to enter the Second World War at the request of the United Kingdom.

1940 – World War II: Himarë 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!"

1944 – World War II: The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.

1947 – The Constituent Assembly of Italy approves the Constitution of Italy.

1951 – The Selangor Labour Party is founded in Selangor, Malaya.

1956 – Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.

1963 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.

1964 – First flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird).

1965 – In the United Kingdom, a 70 mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.

1964 – First flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg/300px-Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg

1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Fus%C3%A9e_V2.jpg/300px-Fus%C3%A9e_V2.jpg

1974 – Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli voted to become the independent nation of the Comoros.

1974 – The house of former British Prime Minister Ted Heath is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.

1978 – The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.

1984 – Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four African-American would-be muggers on an express train in Manhattan, New York City.

1988 – Brazilian unionist and environmental activist Chico Mendes was murdered at his Xapuri home.

1989 – After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.

1989 – Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.

1990 – Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship.

1990 – The Parliament of Croatia adopts the current Constitution of Croatia.

1991 – Armed opposition groups launch a military coup against President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

1992 – The Archives of Terror are discovered.

1992 – The Archives of Terror are discovered.
The "Archives of Terror" (Archivos del Terror) were found on December 22, 1992, by a lawyer, Dr. Martín Almada, and a human-rights activist and judge, José Agustín Fernández, in a police station in a suburb of Asunción (Lambaré), capital of Paraguay. Fernández was looking for files on a former prisoner. Instead, he found archives describing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who had been secretly kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This was known as Operation Condor.

The "terror archives" listed 50,000 people murdered, 30,000 people disappeared and 400,000 people imprisoned. They also revealed that other countries such as Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela cooperated, to various degrees, by providing intelligence information that had been requested by the security services of the Southern Cone countries. Some of these countries have used portions of the archives, now in Asunción's Palace of Justice, to prosecute former military officers. Much of the case built against General Pinochet by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón was made using those archives. Dr. Almada was twice interviewed by Baltasar Garzón.

" are a mountain of ignominy, of lies, which Stroessner used for 40 years to blackmail the Paraguayan people," states Dr. Almada. He wants the UNESCO to list the "terror archives" as an international cultural site, as this would greatly facilitate access to funding to preserve and protect the documents.

In May 2000, a UNESCO mission visited Asunción following a request from the Paraguayan authorities for help in putting these files on the Memory of the World Register, one element of a program aimed at safeguarding and promoting the documentary heritage of humanity to ensure that records are preserved and available for consultation.