Events Pre-1600
653 – Pope Martin I, having been abducted by Byzantine authorities from Rome for his opposition to Monothelitism, is tried in Constantinople. 1154 – Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey. 1187 – Pope Clement III is elected. 1490 – Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy. 1562 – The Battle of Dreux takes place during the French Wars of Religion.
1601–1900 1606 – The ships , , and depart England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States. 1675 – The Great Swamp Fight, a pivotal battle in King Philip's War, gives the English settlers a bitterly won victory. 1688 – Glorious Revolution: Williamite forces defeat Jacobites at Battle of Reading, forcing James II to flee England. 1776 – Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis". 1777 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. 1783 – William Pitt the Younger becomes the youngest Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 24.William Pitt 'The Younger' 1793 – War of the First Coalition: The Siege of Toulon ends when Napoleon's French artillery forces the British to abandon the city, securing southern France from invasion. 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 – Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun sparks the Nullification Crisis when he anonymously publishes 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, appoints Sir William Lyne premier of the new state of New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and is forced to resign. 1900 – French parliament votes amnesty for all involved in scandalous army treason trial known as Dreyfus affair.
1901–present 1907 – Two hundred thirty-nine coal miners die in the Darr Mine Disaster in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania. 1912 – William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship which caught fire and killed over one thousand people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after years in Sing Sing prison. 1920 – King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander of Greece and a plebiscite. 1924 – The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England. 1924 – German serial killer Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death for a series of murders. 1927 – Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan, are executed by the British Raj for participation in the Kakori conspiracy. 1929 – The Indian National Congress promulgates the Purna Swaraj (the Declaration of the Independence of India). 1932 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service. 1940 – Risto Ryti, the Prime Minister of Finland, is elected President of the Republic of Finland in a presidential election, which is exceptionally held by the 1937 electoral college.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p. 628. Antti Laine (2003) "Finland At War" (Suomi sodassa), p. 705–707 in Seppo Zetterberg et al., eds., A Small Giant of the Finnish History / Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen. Helsinki: WSOY. (in Finnish) 1941 – World War II: Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres. 1941 – World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers heavily damage and in Alexandria harbour. 1945 – John Amery, British Fascist, is executed at the age of 33 by the British Government for treason. 1946 – Start of the First Indochina War. 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. 1967 – Harold Holt, the Prime Minister of Australia, is officially presumed dead. 1972 – Apollo program: The last crewed lunar flight, Apollo 17, carrying Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth. 1974 – Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. 1977 – The 5.8 Bob–Tangol earthquake strikes Kerman Province in Iran, destroying villages and killing 665 people. 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, Brazil. 1984 – The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that 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. 1985 – Aeroflot Flight 101/435 is hijacked to China by its first officer. 1986 – Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky. 1995 – The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Native American tribe. 1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104. 1998 – President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second president of the United States to be impeached. 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-103, the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. 2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December riots: Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2005 – Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 crashes into the Government Cut channel immediately after takeoff from Miami Seaplane Base, killing 20. 2005 – A passenger train from Sucha Beskidzka to Żywiec in Poland loses its brakes while on a steep downhill part of the route. It is stopped in a controlled collision in Świnna by a train travelling in opposite direction. 2 drivers and 6 passengers are injured. 2012 – Park Geun-hye is elected the first female president of South Korea. 2013 – Spacecraft Gaia is launched by the European Space Agency. 2016 – Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov is assassinated while at an art exhibition in Ankara. The assassin, Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, is shot and killed by a Turkish guard. 2016 – A vehicular attack in Berlin, Germany, kills 12 and injures 56 people at a Christmas market.
Births Pre-1600
1343 – William I, Margrave of Meissen (died 1407) 1498 – Andreas Osiander, German Protestant theologian (died 1552) 1554 – Philip William, Prince of Orange (died 1618) 1587 – Dorothea Sophia, Abbess of Quedlinburg (died 1645)
1601–1900 1683 – Philip V of Spain (died 1746) 1699 – William Bowyer, English printer (died 1777) 1714 – John Winthrop, American astronomer and educator (died 1779) 1778 – Marie Thérèse of France (died 1851) 1796 – Manuel Bretón de los Herreros, Spanish poet, playwright, and critic (died 1873) 1797 – Antoine Louis Dugès, French obstetrician and naturalist (died 1838) 1817 – James J. Archer, American lawyer and general (died 1864) 1820 – Mary Livermore, American journalist and activist (died 1905) 1825 – George Frederick Bristow, American violinist and composer (died 1898) 1831 – Bernice Pauahi Bishop, American philanthropist (died 1884) 1849 – Henry Clay Frick, American businessman and financier (died 1919) 1852 – Albert Abraham Michelson, Prussian-American physicist, chemist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1931) 1853 – Charles Fitzpatrick, Canadian lawyer and politician, 12th Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec (died 1942) 1861 – Italo Svevo, Italian author and playwright (died 1928) 1863 – Wallace Bryant, American archer (died 1953) 1865 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress and playwright (died 1932) 1873 – Alphonse Kirchhoffer, French fencer (died 1913) 1875 – Mileva Marić, Serbian physicist (died 1948) 1875 – Carter G. Woodson, American historian and author, founded Black History Month (died 1950) 1875 – Grace Marie Bareis, American mathematician (died 1962) 1876 – Bernard Friedberg, Austrian-Israeli scholar and author (died 1961) 1884 – Antonín Zápotocký, Czech politician, President of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (died 1957) 1888 – Fritz Reiner, Hungarian-American conductor (died 1963) 1891 – Edward Bernard Raczyński, Polish politician and diplomat, 4th President-in-exile of Poland (died 1993) 1894 – Ford C. Frick, American journalist and businessman (died 1978) 1895 – Ingeborg Refling Hagen, Norwegian author and educator (died 1989) 1899 – Martin Luther King Sr., American pastor, missionary, and activist (died 1984)
1901–present 1901 – Rudolf Hell, German engineer, invented the Hellschreiber (died 2002) 1901 – Oliver La Farge, American anthropologist and author (died 1963) 1901 – Fritz Mauruschat, German footballer and manager (died 1974) 1902 – Ralph Richardson, English actor (died 1983) 1903 – George Davis Snell, American geneticist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1996) 1905 – Irving Kahn, American businessman (died 2015) 1905 – Giovanni Lurani, Italian race car driver, engineer, and journalist (died 1995) 1906 – Leonid Brezhnev, Ukrainian-Russian marshal, engineer, and politician, 4th Head of State of the Soviet Union (died 1982) 1907 – Jimmy McLarnin, Irish-American boxer, actor, and golfer (died 2004) 1909 – W. A. Criswell, American pastor and author (died 2002) 1910 – Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, and poet (died 1986) 1914 – Mel Shaw, American animator and screenwriter (died 2012) 1915 – Édith Piaf, French singer-songwriter and actress (died 1963) 1915 – Claudia Testoni, Italian hurdler, sprinter, and long jumper (died 1998) 1916 – Roy Ward Baker, English director and producer (died 2010) 1916 – Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, German political scientist, journalist, and academic (died 2010) 1918 – Professor Longhair, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1980) 1918 – Lee Rich, American producer and production manager (died 2012) 1920 – Little Jimmy Dickens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2015) 1920 – David Susskind, American talk show host and producer (died 1987) 1922 – Eamonn Andrews, Irish radio and television host (died 1987) 1923 – Robert V. Bruce, American historian and author (died 2008) 1923 – Gordon Jackson, Scottish-English actor and singer (died 1990) 1924 – Carlo Chiti, Italian engineer (died 1994) 1924 – Doug Harvey, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 1989) 1924 – Gary Morton, American comedian and producer (died 1999) 1924 – Edmund Purdom, British-Italian actor (died 2009) 1924 – Michel Tournier, French journalist and author (died 2016) 1924 – Cicely Tyson, American actress (died 2021) 1925 – Tankred Dorst, German author and playwright (died 2017) 1925 – William Schutz, American psychologist and academic (died 2002) 1925 – Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter and screenwriter (died 2012) 1926 – Bobby Layne, American football player and coach (died 1986) 1926 – Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (died 2015) 1927 – James Booth, English actor and screenwriter (died 2005) 1928 – Eve Bunting, Irish-American author and academic (died 2023) 1928 – Nathan Oliveira, American painter and sculptor (died 2010) 1929 – Bob Brookmeyer, American trombonist, pianist, and composer (died 2011) 1929 – Gregory Carroll, American singer-songwriter and producer (died 2013) 1929 – David Douglas, 12th Marquess of Queensberry, Scottish potter 1929 – Howard Sackler, American playwright and screenwriter (died 1982)