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What Happened This Day In History

Today in History
December 14

1799		George Washington dies on his Mount Vernon estate.
1819		Alabama is admitted as the 22nd state, making 11 slave states and 11 free states.
1861		Prince Albert of England, one of the Union’s strongest advocates, dies.
1863		Confederate General James Longstreet attacks Union troops at Bean’s Station, Tenn.
1900		Max Planck presents the quantum theory at the Physics Society in Berlin.
1906		The first U1 submarine is brought into service in Germany. Italy’s MAS torpedo boats.
1908		The first truly representative Turkish Parliament opens.
1909		The Labor Conference in Pittsburgh ends with a "declaration of war" on U.S. Steel.
1911		Roald Amundsen and four others discover the South Pole.
1920		The League of Nations creates a credit system to aid Europe.
1939		The League of Nations drops the Soviet Union from its membership. Joseph Avenol sold out the League of Nations.
1941		German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel orders the construction of defensive positions along the European coastline. Desperate Hours on Omaha Beach
1946		The United Nations adopt a disarmament resolution prohibiting the A-Bomb.
1949		Bulgarian ex-Premier Traicho Kostov is sentenced to die for treason in Sofia.
1960		A U.S. Boeing B-52 bomber sets a 10,000-mile non-stop record without refueling.
1980		NATO warns the Soviets to stay out of the internal affairs of Poland, saying that intervention would effectively destroy the détente between the East and West.
1981		Israel’s Knesset passes the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the Golan Heights area.
1994		Construction begins on China’s Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.
1995		The Dayton Agreement signed in Paris; establishes a general framework for ending the Bosnian War between Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1999		Tens of thousands die as a result of flash floods caused by torrential rains in Vargas, Venezuela.
2003		Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, narrowly escapes and assassination attempt.
2004		The Millau Viaduct, the world’s tallest bridge, official opens near Millau, France.
2008		Iraqi broadcast journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at US President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad.
2012		At Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn., 20 children and six adults are shot to death by a 20-year-old gunman who then commits suicide.
Born on December 14
1503		Nostradamus [Michel de Nostredame], French astrologer and physician.
1546		Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer.
1585		Henry IV, the first Bourbon king of France.
1795		John Bloomfield Jarvis, civil engineer.
1822		John Christie, English patron of music.
1866		Roger Fry, English art critic.
1896		James H. Doolittle, American Air Force general who commanded the first bombing mission over Japan.
1916		Shirley Jackson, novelist and short story writer (Life Among Savages, The Lottery).
1917		June Taylor, choreographer, founder of the June Taylor Dancers featured on Jackie Gleason’s TV programs.
1918		James Thomas Aubrey Jr., TV and film executive; president of CBS television (1959–1965).
1922		Don Hewitt, TV producer; creator of 60 Minutes.
1922		Junior J. Spurrier, received Medal of Honor for his actions in capturing Achain, France.
1925		Sam Jones ("Sad Sam" "Toothpick" Jones), pro baseball player; first African-American pitcher to throw a no-hitter in integrated baseball game.
1932		Charlie Rich, crossover country singer, musician ("Behind Closed Doors").
1935		Lee Remick, actress (Days of Wine and Roses, The Omen).
1939		Ernie Davis, first African American to win Heisman Trophy (Syracuse University); subject of The Express movie (2008).
1943		Emmett Tyrell, journalist, author, publisher; founded The American Spectatormagazine.
1946		Patty Duke, actress, singer; won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 16, playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker; president of Screen Actors Guild (1985-88).
1955		Spider Stacy (Peter  Stacy), singer, songwriter, musician with The Pogues band.
1966		Anthony Mason, pro basketball player.
1972		Miranda Hart, comedian, actress, writer (Miranda Hart’s Joke Shop on BBC Radio 2 and its spinoff BBC sitcom TV series Miranda).

What Happened This Day In History

Today in History

December 13

1789		The National Guard is created in France.
1812		The last remnants of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grand Armeé reach the safety of Kovno, Poland, after the failed Russian campaign. Napoleon’s costly retreat from Moscow
1814		General Andrew Jackson announces martial law in New Orleans, Louisiana, as British troops disembark at Lake Borne, 40 miles east of the city. The Battle of New Orleans
1862		The Battle of Fredericksburg ends with the bloody slaughter of onrushing Union troops at Marye’s Heights. Maine’s Colonel Chamberlain at Marye’s Heights.
1902		The Committee of Imperial Defense holds its first meeting in London.
1908		The Dutch take two Venezuelan Coast Guard ships.
1937		The Japanese army occupies Nanking, China. Boeing’s Trailblazing P-26 Peashooters.
1940		Adolf Hitler issues preparations for Operation Martita, the German invasion of Greece.
1941		British forces launch an offensive in Libya.
1945		France and Britain agree to quit Syria and Lebanon.
1951		After meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Harry S Truman vows to purge all disloyal government workers.
1968		President Lyndon B. Johnson and Mexico’s President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz meet on a bridge at El Paso, Texas, to officiate at ceremonies returning the long-disputed El Chamizal area to the Mexican side of the border.
1972		Astronaut Gene Cernan climbs into his lunar lander on the moon and prepares to lift off. He is the last man to set foot on the moon.
1973		Great Britain cuts the work week to three days to save energy.
1981		Polish labor leader Lech Walesa is arrested and the government decrees martial law, restricting civil rights and suspending operation of the independent trade union Solidarity.
1985		France sues the United States over the discovery of an AIDS serum.
2001		Terrorists attach the Parliament of India Sansad; 15 people are killed, including the terrorists
2003		Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein captured; he is found hiding in near his home town of Tikrit.
Born on December 13
1585		William Drummond, Scottish poet.
1797		Heinrich Heine, German poet, satirist and journalist.
1818		Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln.
1835		Phillips Brooks, Episcopal clergyman who wrote the lyrics for "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
1838		Alexis Millardet, botanist who developed the first successful fungicide.
1890		Marc Connelly, playwright, actor, director and journalist (The Green Pastures).
1911		Kenneth Patchen, American poet and author (Before the Brave, Hurrah for Anything).
1923		Sir Terence Beckett, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (1980–1987).
1923		Phillip Anderson, physicist.
1925		Dick Van Dyke, actor, singer, producer; (The Dick Van Dyke TV series, Mary Poppins).
1934		Richard D. Zanuck, film producer; won Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989 (Driving Miss Daisy).
1948		Jeff Baxter, musician with Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers bands.
1948		Ted Nugent, singer, songwriter, musician, actor.
1954		John Anderson, country singer, musician.
1967		Jamie Foxx, actor, singer.
1989		Taylor Swift, multiple award-winning crossover country singer, actress; youngest-ever Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year and youngest artist ever to win an Album of the Year Grammy.

What Happened This Day In History

Today in History
December 12

1753		George Washington, the adjutant of Virginia, delivers an ultimatum to the French forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain’s claim to the entire Ohio River valley.
1770		The British soldiers responsible for the "Boston Massacre" are acquitted on murder charges.
1862		The Union loses its first ship to a torpedo, USS Cairo, in the Yazoo River.
1863		Orders are given in Richmond, Virginia, that no more supplies from the Union should be received by Federal prisoners.
1901		Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio transmission in St. John’s Newfoundland.
1927		Communists forces seize Canton, China.
1930		The Spanish Civil War begins as rebels take a border town.
1930		The last Allied troops withdraw from the Saar region in Germany.
1931		Under pressure from the Communists in Canton, Chiang Kai-shek resigns as president of the Nanking Government but remains the head of the Nationalist government that holds nominal rule over most of China.
1943		The German Army launches Operation Winter Tempest, the relief of the Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad.
1943		The exiled Czech government signs a treaty with the Soviet Union for postwar cooperation.
1956		The United Nations calls for immediate Soviet withdrawal from Hungary.
1964		Kenya becomes a republic.
1964		Three Buddhist leaders begin a hunger strike to protest the government in Saigon.
1967		The United States ends the airlift of 6,500 men in Vietnam.
1979		South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan, acting without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa, alleging that the chief of staff was involved in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.
1985		Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff at Gander, Newfoundland; among the 256 dead are 236 members of the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
1991		The Russian Federation becomes independent from the USSR.
1995		Willie Brown beats incumbent mayor Frank Jordon to become the first African-American mayor of San Francisco.
2000		The US Supreme Court announces its decision in Bush v. Gore, effectively ending legal changes to the results of that year’s Presidential election.
Born on December 12
1745		John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who negotiated treaties for the United States.
1805		William Lloyd Garrison, American abolitionist who published The Liberator.
1821		Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (Madame Bovary, A Simple Heart).
1863		Edvard Munch, Norwegian artist (The Scream).
1893		Edward G. Robinson, actor famous for gangster roles.
1897		Lillian Smith, Southern writer and civil rights activist.
1912		Henry Jackson Jr, boxer using the name Henry Armstrong, the only fighter to hold 3 professional boxing titles simultaneously.
1915		Frank Sinatra, American pop singer and actor.
1927		Robert Norton Noyce, co-inventor of the integrated circuit.
1928		Helen Frankenthaler, abstract painter.
1929		John Osbourne, playwright and film producer (Look Back in Anger).
1938		Connie Francis, singer.
1940		Dionne Warwick, singer, actress.
1943		Grover Washington Jr, singer, songwriter, musician, producer.
1952		Cathy Rigby, gymnast, actress.

What Happened This Day In History

Today in History

December 11

1688		James II abdicates the throne because of William of Orange landing in England.
1816		Indiana is admitted to the Union as the 19th state.
1861		A raging fire sweeps the business district of Charleston, South Carolina, adding to an already depressed economic state.
1862		Union General Ambrose Burnside occupies Fredericksburg and prepares to attack the Confederates under Robert E. Lee.
1863		Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline enter St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and begin bombardment of both Confederate quarters and saltworks.
1882		A production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe at Boston’s Bijou Theatre becomes the first performance in a theatre lit by incandescent electric lights.
1927		Nearly 400 world leaders sign a letter to President Calvin Coolidge asking the United States to join the World Court.
1930		As the economic crisis grows, the Bank of the United States closes its doors.
1933		Reports say Paraguay has captured 11,000 Bolivians in the war over Chaco.
1936		Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry American Wallis Warfield Simpson.
1941		The United States declares war on Italy and Germany.
1943		U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull demands that Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria withdraw from the war.
1945		A Boeing B-29 Superfortress shatters all records by crossing the United States in five hours and 27 minutes.
1951		Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement from baseball.
1955		Israel raids Syrian positions on the Sea of Galilee.
1964		Frank Sinatra, Jr., is returned home to his parents after being kidnapped for the ransom amount of $240,000.
1967		The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France.
1972		Challenger, the lunar lander for Apollo 17, touches down on the moon’s surface, the last time that men visit the moon.
1978		Massive demonstrations take place in Tehran against the shah.
1981		Military forces in El Salvador kill over 800 civilians in what is known as the El Mozote massacre during the Salvadoran Civil War.
1997		The Kyoto Protocol international treaty intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses, opens for signature.
2001		People’s Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.
2005		Cronulla riots begin in Cronulla, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
2006		President of Mexico Felipe Calderon launches a military-led offensive against drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacan.
2008		Bernard "Bernie" Madoff arrested and charged with securities fraud in what was called a $50-billion Ponzi scheme.
Born on December 11
1803		Hector Berlioz, French composer and conductor (Symphonie Fantastique, La Damnation de Faust).
1843		Robert Koch, physician and medical researcher.
1882		Fiorella H. La Guardia, mayor of New York City from 1933 to 1945.
1911		Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist.
1918		Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Famous for The Gulag Archipelago.
1922		Grace Paley, short story writer.
1926		Willie "Big Mama" Thorton, blues singer.
1937		Jim Harrison, novelist and poet (Legends of the Fall).
1939		Tom McGuane, novelist and screenwriter (The Sporting Club, Bushwacked Piano).
1939		Tom Hayden, social and political activist; author, politician.
1940		Donna Mills, actress (Knots Landing TV series, Play Misty for Me movie).
1943		John Kerry, politician; unsuccessful Democratic nominee for President of the United States (2004); secretary of state (2013– ).
1944		Teri Garr, actress, dancer (Tootsie, Mr. Mom).
1944		Brenda Lee, singer; her 37 US chart hits in the 1960s is surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis ("I’m Sorry," "Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree").
1950		Christina Onassis, businesswoman; inherited and operated the Onassis shipping businessh.
1981		Hamish Blake, Australian comedian, actor, author; won Gold Logie Award for "Most Popular Personality on Television"; half of award-winning comedy duo Hamish and Andy (Andy Lee).

What Happened This Day In History

Today in History
December 10

1817		Mississippi is admitted as the 20th state.
1861		Kentucky is admitted to the Confederate States of America.
1862		The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill creating the state of West Virginia.
1869		Governor John Campbell signs the bill that grants women in Wyoming Territory the right to vote as well as hold public office.
1898		The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ceding Spanish possessions, including the Philippines, to the United States.
1917		The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Red Cross.
1918		U.S. troops are called to guard Berlin as a coup is feared.
1919		Captain Ross Smith becomes the first person to fly 11,500 miles from England to Australia.
1936		Edward VIII abdicates to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American-born divorcee.
1941		Japanese troops invade the Philippine island of Luzon.
1941		The siege of Tobruk in North Africa is raised.
1943		Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that postpones a draft of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers.
1943		Allied forces bomb Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
1949		150,000 French troops mass at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
1950		Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first African-American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1977		On UN Human Rights Day, the Soviet Union places 20 prominent dissidents under house arrest, cutting off telephones and threatening to break up a planned silent demonstration in Moscow’s Pushkin Square. Soviet newspapers decry human rights violations elsewhere in the world.
1978		President of Egypt Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1983		Democracy restored to Argentina with the assumption of Raul Alfonsin.
1989		Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of Mongolia’s democratic movement that changes the second oldest communist country into a democracy.
1993		The Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland, East England, closes, marking the end of the County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
Born on December 10
1830		Emily Dickinson, American poet of more than 1,000 poems, seven published in her lifetime.
1851		Melvil Dewey, American librarian who created the Dewey Decimal System.
1881		Viscount Alexander of Tunis, British soldier who took his title from his part in the Allied victories in North Africa.
1891		Nelly Sachs, Nobel Prize-winning poet.
1903		Mary Norton, English children’s author (Bedknobs and Broomsticks).
1907		Rumor Godden, English novelist (Black Narcissus).
1908		Oliver Messian, French composer (Quartet for the End of Time).
1911		Chester "Chet" Huntley, American broadcast journalist.
1914		Dorothy Lamour, actress, best remembered for co-starring with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in their "Road to" movie series.
1922		Agnes Nixon, writer, producer; creator of long-running TV soap operas (One Life to Live, All My Children).
1934		Howard Martin Temin, geneticist; shared 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1941		Chad Stuart, singer, musician; half of the Chad & Jeremy folk rock duo.
1948		Abu Abbas (Muhammad Zaidan, Muhammad Abbas), a founder of the Palestine Liberation Front; led terrorist hijacking of cruise ship Achille Lauro.
1956		Rod Blagojevich, 40th Governor of Illinois; arrested on federal charges of trying to sell the US Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama.