On This Day

November 22, 2011

1699 - A treaty was signed by Denmark, Russia, Saxony and Poland for the partitioning of the Swedish Empire.

1718 - English pirate Edward Teach (a.k.a. "Blackbeard") was killed during a battle off the coast of North Carolina. British soldiers cornered him aboard his ship and killed him. He was shot and stabbed more than 25 times.

1880 - Lillian Russell made her vaudeville debut in New York City.

1899 - The Marconi Wireless Company of America was incorporated in New Jersey.

1906 - The International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin adopted the SOS distress signal.

1909 - Helen Hayes appeared on stage for the first time. She was a member of the cast of "In Old Dutch."

1910 - Arthur F. Knight patented a steel shaft to replace wood shafts in golf clubs.

1917 - The National Hockey League (NHL) was officially formed in Montreal, Canada.

1928 - In Paris, "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel was first performed publicly.

1935 - The first trans-Pacific airmail flight began in Alameda, CA, when the flying boat known as the China Clipper left for Manila. The craft was carrying over 110,000 pieces of mail.

1942 - During World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad began.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss the measures for defeating Japan.

1950 - The lowest scoring game in the NBA was played. The Fort Wayne Pistons (later the Detroit Pistons) defeated the Minneapolis Lakers (later the Los Angeles Lakers) 19-18.

1961 - The film, "A Man for All Seasons", opened in New York City.

1963 - U.S. President Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, TX. Texas Governor John B. Connally was also seriously wounded. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was inaugurated as the 36th U.S. President.

1967 - The U.N. Security Council approved resolution 242. The resolution called for Israel to withdraw from territories it had captured in 1967 and called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist.

1972 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon lifted a ban on American travel to Cuba. The ban had been put in place on February 8, 1963.

1974 - The U.N. General Assembly gave the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.

1975 - Juan Carlos I was proclaimed King of Spain upon the death of Gen. Francisco Franco.

1975 - "Dr. Zhivago" appeared on TV for the first time. NBC paid $4 million for the broadcast rights.

1977 - Regular passenger service on the Concorde began between New York and Europe.

1983 - The Bundestag approved NATO's plan to deploy new U.S. nuclear missiles in West Germany.

1984 - Fred Rogers of PBS' "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" presented a sweater to the Smithsonian Institution.

1985 - Anne Henderson-Pollard was taken into custody a day after her husband Jonathon Jay Pollard was arrested for spying for Israel.

1985 - 38,648 immigrants became citizens of the United States. It was the largest swearing-in ceremony.

1986 - An Iranian surface-to-surface missile hit a residential area in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, wounding 20 civilians.

1986 - Attorney Generel Meese's office discovered a memo in Colonel Oliver North's office that included an amount of money to be sent to the Contras from the profits of weapons sales to Iran.

1986 - Mike Tyson became the youngest to wear the world heavyweight-boxing crown. He was only 20 years and 4 months old.

1988 - The South African government announced it had joined Cuba and Angola in endorsing a plan to remove Cuban troops from Angola.

1989 - Rene Moawad, the president of Lebanon, was assassinated less than three weeks after taking office by a bomb that exploded next to his motorcade in West Beirut.

1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush, his wife, Barbara, and other congressional leaders shared Thanksgiving dinner with U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia.

1990 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced she would resign.

1993 - Mexico's Senate overwhelmingly approved the North American Free Trade Agreement.

1993 - American Airlines flight attendants ended their strike that only lasted four days.

1994 - Inside the District of Columbia's police headquarters a gunman opened fire. Two FBI agents, a city detective and the gunman were killed in the gun battle.

1994 - In northwest Bosnia, Serb fighters set villages on fire in response to a retaliatory air strikes by NATO.

1998 - CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a tape of jack Kevorkian giving lethal drugs in an assisted suicide of a terminally ill patient. Kevorkian was later sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.

2005 - Angela Merkel was elected as Germany's first female chancellor.

2005 - Microsoft's XBOX 360 went on sale.

November 23, 2011

1765 - Frederick County, MD, repudiated the British Stamp Act.

1835 - Henry Burden patented the horseshoe manufacturing machine.

1889 - The first jukebox made its debut in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon.

1890 - Princess Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands at the age of 10 when her father William III died.

1936 - The first edition of "Life" was published.

1943 - During World War II, U.S. forces seized control of Tarawa and Makin from the Japanese during the Central Pacific offensive in the Gilbert Islands.

1945 - The U.S. wartime rationing of most foods ended.

1948 - Dr. Frank G. Back patented the "Zoomar" lens.

1961 - The Dominican Republic changed the name of its capital from Ciudad Trujillo to Santo Domingo.

1971 - The People's Republic of China was seated in the United Nations Security Council.

1979 - In Dublin, Ireland, Thomas McMahon was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of Earl Mountbatten.

1980 - In southern Italy, approximately 4,800 people were killed in a series of earthquakes.

1983 - The first Pershing II missiles were deployed in West Germany. In response, the U.S.S.R. broke off International Nuclear Forces (INF) talks in Geneva.

1985 - Larry Wu-tai Chin, a retired CIA analyst, was arrested and accused of spying for China. He committed suicide a year after his conviction.

1985 - Gunmen hijacked an Egyptian jetliner en route from Athens to Cairo. The plane was forced to land in Malta.

1986 - In Manila, President Aquino dismissed Defense Minister Enrile.

1988 - Wayne Gretzky scored his 600th National Hockey League (NHL) goal.

1989 - Lucia Barrera de Cerna, a housekeeper who claimed she had witnessed the slaying of six Jesuit priests and two other people at the Jose Simeon Canas University in El Salvador, was flown to the U.S.

1991 - Yugoslavia's rival leaders agreed to a new cease-fire, the 14th of the Balkan civil war.

1991 - The Sacramento Kings ended the NBA's longest road losing streak at 43 games.

1992 - The play "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" opened.

1994 - About 111 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a stampede after Indian police baton-charged tribal protesters in the western city of Nagpur.

1995 - Charles Rathbun, free-lance photographer, was booked in Hermosa Beach, CA, for investigation of murder in the disappearance of model Linda Sobek. He was later convicted.

1998 - Dennis Rodman filed for an annulment from Carmen Electra. The two had been married on November 14, 1998.

1998 - The tobacco industry signed the biggest U.S. civil settlement. It was a $206-billion deal to resolve remaining state claims for treating sick smokers.

1998 - A U.S. federal judge rejected a Virginia county's effort to block pornography on library computer calling the attempt unconstitutional.

2001 - A crowd of 87,555 people watched the Texas Longhorns beat the Texas A&M Aggies 21-7. The crowd was the largest to see a football game in Texas.

2010 - North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island.

November 24, 2011

1715 - Sybilla Thomas Masters became the first American to be granted an English patent for cleaning and curing Indian corn.

1758 - During the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne at what is now known as Pittsburgh.

1783 - During the Revolutionary War, the British evacuated New York. New York was their last military position in the U.S.

1837 - William Crompton patented the silk power loom.

1850 - Texas relinquished one-third of its territory in exchange for $10 million from the U.S. to pay its public debts and settle border disputes.

1867 - Alfred Nobel patented dynamite.

1882 - The first of 400 performances of "lolnathe" took place.

1884 - J.B. Meyenberg received the patent for evaporated milk.

1920 - The first play-by-play broadcast of a football game was aired in College Station, TX. The game was between the University of Texas and Texas A&M.

1936 - The Anti-Comintern Pact, an agreement between Japan and Germany, was signed.

1947 - Movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the "Hollywood 10," who were cited a day earlier and jailed for contempt of Congress when they failed to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1952 - Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opened in London.

1955 - In the U.S., the Interstate Commerce Commission banned racial segregation on interstate trains and buses.

1957 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a stroke.

1970 - Japanese author Yukio Mishima committed ritual suicide after giving a speech attacking Japan's post-war constitution.

1973 - Greek President George Papadapoulos was ousted in military coup.

1976 - O.J. Simpson (Buffalo Bills) ran for 273 yards against the Detroit Lions.

1983 - Mediators from Syria and Saudi Arabia announced a cease-fire in the PLO civil war in Tripoli, Lebanon.

1985 - Ronald W. Pelton was arrested on espionage charges. Pelton was a former employee of the National Security Agency. He was later convicted of 'selling secrets' to Soviet agents.

1986 - U.S. President Reagan and Attorney Gen. Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to rebels in Nicaragua. National Security Advisor John Poindexter resigned and Oliver North was fired.

1990 - Poland held its first popular presidential election.

1992 - The Czech parliament voted to split the country into separate Czech and Slovak republics beginning January 1, 1993.

1993 - Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Sedki escaped an attempt on his life when a bomb was detonated by Islamic militants near his motorcade.

1995 - Serbs protested in the streets of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo The protest was against a peace plan.

1998 - Britain's highest court ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose extradition was being sought by Spain, could not claim immunity from prosecution for the crimes he committed during his rule.

1998 - President Jiang Zemin arrived in Tokyo for the first visit to Japan by a Chinese head of state since World War II.

1998 - The IMF (International Monetary Fund) approved a $5.5 billion bailout for Pakistan.

November 25, 2011

1615 - French King Louis XIII married Ann of Austria. They were both 14 years old.

1859 - Charles Darwin, a British naturalist, published "On the Origin of Species." It was the paper in which he explained his theory of evolution through the process of natural selection.

1863 - During the Civil War, the battle for Lookout Mountain began in Tennessee.

1871 - The National Rifle Association was incorporated in the U.S.

1874 - Joseph F. Glidden was granted a patent for a barbed fencing material.

1903 - Clyde J. Coleman received the patent for an electric self-starter for an automobile.

1940 - Nazis closed off the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. Over the next three years the population dropped from 350,000 to 70,000 due to starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps.

1944 - During World War II, the first raid against the Japanese capital of Tokyo was made by land-based U.S. bombers.

1947 - The "Hollywood 10," were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about alleged Communist influence in their industry.

1947 - John Steinbeck's novel "The Pearl" was published for the first time.

1963 - Dallas nightclub owner jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald live on national television.

1969 - Apollo 12 landed safely in the Pacific Ocean bringing an end to the second manned mission to the moon.

1971 - Hijacker Dan Cooper, known as D.B. Cooper, parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom.

1983 - The Palestine Liberation Organization released six Israeli prisoners in exchange for the release of 4,500 Palestinians and Lebanese held by the Israelis.

1985 - In Malta, Egyptian commandos stormed an Egyptian jetliner. 60 people died in the raid.

1987 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to scrap short- and medium-range missiles. It was the first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.

1989 - Czechoslovakia's hard-line party leadership resigned after more than a week of protests against its policies.

1992 - In China, a domestic jetliner crashed, killing 141 people.

1993 - The U.S. Congress gave its final approval to the Brady handgun control bill.

1993 - Robert Thompson and Jon Venables (both 11 years old) were convicted of murdering 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool, England. They were both sentenced to "indefinite detention."

1995 - In Ireland, the voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment legalizing divorce.

1996 - Rusty Wallace won the first NASCAR event to be held in Japan.

1996 - Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) set an NFL record when he recorded his eighth straight 1,000-yard season.

1998 - AOL (America Online) announced a deal for their purchase of Netscape for $4.21 billion.

November 27, 2011

1684 - Japan's shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa was born.

1701 - Anders Celsius was born in Sweden. He was the inventor of the Celsius thermometer.

1779 - The College of Pennsylvania became the University of Pennsylvania. It was the first legally recognized university in America.

1839 - The American Statistical Association was founded in Boston.

1889 - Curtis P. Brady was issued the first permit to drive an automobile through Central Park in New York City.

1901 - The Army War College was established in Washington, DC.

1910 - New York's Pennsylvania Station opened.

1939 - The play "Key Largo," by Maxwell Anderson, opened in New York.

1951 - Hosea Richardson became the first black horse racing jockey to be licensed in Florida.

1963 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress.

1970 - Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was attacked at the Manila airport by a Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.

1973 - The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president after the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew.

1978 - San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by Dan White, a former supervisor.

1980 - Dave Williams (Chicago Bears) became the first player in NFL history to return a kick for touchdown in overtime.

1983 - 183 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Barajas airport in Madrid.

1985 - The British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord giving Dublin a consulting role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland.

1987 - French hostages Jean-Louis Normandin and Roger Auque were set free by their pro-Iranian captors in West Beirut, Lebanon.

1989 - 107 people were killed when a bomb destroyed a Colombian jetliner minutes after the plane had taken off from Bogota's international airport. Police blamed the incident on drug traffickers.

1991 - The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that led the way for the establishment of a UN peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia.

1992 - In Venezuela, rebel forces tried but failed to overthrow President Carlos Andres Perez for the second time in ten months.

November 28, 2011

1520 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait. The strait was named after him. He was the first European to sail the Pacific from the east.

1582 - William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were married.

1757 - English poet, painter and engraver William Blake was born. Two of his best known works are "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience."

1919 - American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.

1922 - Capt. Cyril Turner of the Royal Air Force gave the first public exhibition of skywriting. He spelled out, "Hello USA. Call Vanderbilt 7200" over New York's Times Square.

1925 - The Grand Ole Opry made its radio debut on station WSM.

1934 - The U.S. bank robber George "Baby Face" Nelson was killed by FBI agents near Barrington, IL.

1942 - 491 people died in a fire that destroyed the Coconut Grove in Boston.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to map out strategy concerning World War II.

1953 - New York City began 11 days without newspapers due to a strike of photoengravers.

1958 - The African nation of Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.

1963 - U.S. President Johnson announced that Cape Canaveral would be renamed Cape Kennedy in honor of his assassinated predecessor. The name was changed back to Cape Canaveral in 1973 by a vote of residents.

1964 - The U.S. launched the space probe Mariner IV from Cape Kennedy on a course set for Mars.

1977 - Larry Bird was introduced as "College Basketball's Secret Weapon" with a cover story in Sports Illustrated. (NBA)

1978 - The Iranian government banned religious marches.

1979 - An Air New Zealand DC-10 flying to the South Pole crashed in Antarctica killing all 257 people aboard.

1983 - The space shuttle Columbia took off with the STS-9 Spacelab in its cargo bay.

1985 - The Irish Senate approved the Anglo-Irish accord concerning Northern Ireland.

1987 - A South African Airways Boeing 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean. All 159 people aboard were killed.

1989 - Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci arrived in New York after escaping her homeland through Hungary.

1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister of Britain.

1992 - In Bosnia-Herzegovina, 137 tons of food and supplies were to be delivered to the isolated town of Srebrenica.

1992 - In King William's Town, South Africa, black militant gunmen attacked a country club killing four people and injuring 20.

1993 - The play "Mixed Emotions" closed after 48 performances.

1994 - Jeffrey Dahmer, a convicted serial killer, was clubbed to death in a Wisconsin prison by a fellow inmate.

1994 - Norwegian voters rejected European Union membership.

1995 - U.S. President Clinton signed a $6 billion road bill that ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.

2010 - WikiLeaks released to the public more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. About 100,000 were marked "secret" or "confidential."

November 29, 2011

1530 - Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, former adviser to England's King Henry VIII, died.

1864 - The Sand Creek Massacre occurred in Colorado when a militia led by Colonel John Chivington, killed at least 400 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who had surrendered and had been given permission to camp.

1890 - Navy defeated Army by a score of 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game. The game was played at West Point, NY.

1929 - The first airplane flight over the South Pole was made by U.S. Navy Lt. Comdr. Richard E. Byrd.

1939 - The USSR broke off diplomatic relations with Finland prior to a Soviet attack.

1945 - The monarchy was abolished in Yugoslavia and a republic proclaimed.

1947 - The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution that called for the division of Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

1961 - The Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft was launched by the U.S. with Enos the chimp on board. The craft orbited the earth twice before landing off Puerto Rico.

1963 - A Trans-Canada Airlines DC-8F with 111 passengers and 7 crew members crashed in woods north of Montreal 4 minutes after takeoff from Dorval Airport. All aboard were killed. The crash was the worst in Canada's history.

1963 - U.S. President Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.

1967 - U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was leaving the Johnson administration to become president of the World Bank.

1971 - The Professional Golf Championship was held at Walt Disney World for the first time.

1974 - In Britain, a bill that outlawed the Irish Republican Army became effective.

1975 - Bill Gates adopted the name Microsoft for the company he and Paul Allen had formed to write the BASIC computer language for the Altair.

1981 - Actress Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, CA, at the age 43.

1982 - The U.N. General Assembly voted that the Soviet Union should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

1986- Actor Cary Grant died at the age of 82.

1987 - A Korean jetliner disappeared off Burma, with 115 people aboard.

1987 - Cuban detainees released 26 hostages they'd been holding for more than a week at the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, LA.

1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the rights of criminal defendants are not violated when police unintentionally fail to preserve potentially vital evidence.

1989 - In Czechoslovakia, the Communist-run parliament ended the party's 40-year monopoly on power.

1990 - The U.N. Security Council voted to authorize military action if Iraq did not withdraw its troops from Kuwait and release all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

1991 - 17 people were killed in a 164-vehicle wreck during a dust storm near Coalinga, CA, on Interstate 5.

1992 - Dennis Byrd (New York Jets) was paralyzed after a neck injury in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

1994 - The U.S. House passed the revised General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

1994 - Fighter jets attacked the capital of Chechnya and its airport only hours after Russian President Boris Yeltsin demanded the breakaway republic end its civil war.

1996 - A U.N. court sentenced Bosnian Serb army soldier Drazen Erdemovic to 10 years in prison for his role in the massacre of 1,200 Muslims. The sentence was the first international war crimes sentence since World War II.

1998 - Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected legalizing heroin and other narcotics.

2004 - The French government announced plans to build the Louvre II in northern France. The 236,808 square foot museum was the planned home for 500-600 works from the Louvre's reserves.

2004 - Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

November 30, 2011

1016 - English King Edmund II died.

1700 - 8,000 Swedish troops under King Charles XII defeated an army of at least 50,000 Russians at the Battle of Narva. King Charles XII died on this day.

1782 - The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.

1803 - Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France.

1804 - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase went on trial accused of political bias. He was later acquitted by the U.S. Senate.

1835 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born. He wrote "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" under the name Mark Twain.

1838 - Three days after the French occupation of Vera Cruz Mexico declared war on France.

1853 - During the Crimean War, the Russian fleet attacked and destroyed the Turkish fleet at the battle of Sinope.

1875 - A.J. Ehrichson patented the oat-crushing machine.

1897 - Thomas Edison's own motion picture projector had its first commercial exhibition.

1936 - London's famed Crystal Palace was destroyed in a fire. The structure had been constructed for the International Exhibition of 1851.

1939 - The Russo-Finnish War began when 20 divisions of Soviet troops invaded Finland.

1940 - Lucille Ball and Cuban musician Desi Arnaz were married.

1949 - Chinese Communists captured Chungking.

1954 - In Sylacauga, AL, Elizabeth Hodges was injured when a meteorite crashed through the roof of her house. The rock weighed 8½-pounds.

1956 - CBS replayed the program "Douglas Edward and the News" three hours after it was received on the West Coast. It was the world's first broadcast via videotape.

1962 - U Thant of Burma was elected secretary-general of the United Nations, succeeding the late Dag Hammarskjold.

1966 - The former British colony of Barbados became independent.

1967 - Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower announced their engagement.

1971 - ABC-TV aired "Brian's Song." The movie was about Chicago Bears' Brian Picolo and his friendship with Gale Sayers.

1981 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva that were aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.

1982 - The motion picture "Ghandi" had its world premiere in New Delhi.

1986 - "Time" magazine published an interview with U.S. President Reagan. In the article, Reagan described fired national security staffer Oliver North as a "national hero."

1988 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. took over RJR Nabisco Inc. with a bid of $24.53 billion.

1989 - Alfred Herrhausen was killed in a bombing. The Red Army Faction claimed responsibility of killing Herrhausen the chairman of West Germany's largest bank.

1989 - PLO leader Yasser Arafat was refused a visa to enter the United States in order to address the U.N. General Assebly in New York City.

1993 - U.S. President Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill. The bill required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.

1993 - Richard Allen Davis was arrested by authorities in California. Davis confessed to abducting and slaying 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma.

1995 - President Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.

1998 - The Deutsche Bank AG announced that it would acquire Bankers Trust Corp. for $10.1 billion creating the world's largest financial institution.

2000 - David Spade was assaulted with a stun gun by his longtime personal assistant, David Warren Malloy. Malloy attacked Spade during a burglary of Spade's home in Beverly Hills.

2001 - For the first time in its history, McDonald's teamed up with a retail partner on its Happy Meal promotions. Toys R Us provided plush figures from its Animal Alley.

2001 - In Seattle, WA, Gary Leon Ridgeway was arrested for four of the Green River serial killings. He was pled innocent on December 18, 2001.

2004 - In Stockholm, Sweden, the Carl Larsson painting "Boenskoerd" ("Bean Harvest") was sold at auction for $730,000. The work had been in a private collection for more than a century.

December 1, 2011

1835 - Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.

1909 - The Pennsylvania Trust Company, of Carlisle, PA, became the first bank in the in the U.S. to offer a Christmas Club account.

1913 - Ford Motor Co. began using a new movable assembly line that ushered in the era of mass production.

1913 - The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh, PA.

1919 - Lady Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.

1925 - The Locarno Pact finalized the treaties between World War I protagonists.

1934 - Sergei M. Kirov, a collaborator of Joseph Stalin, was assassinated at the Leningrad party headquarters.

1941 - In the U.S., the Civil Air Patrol was created. In April 1943 the Civil Air Patrol was placed under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces.

1942 - In the U.S., nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect.

1943 - In Teheran, leaders of the United States, the USSR and the United Kingdom met to reaffirm the goal set on October 30, 1943. The previous meeting called for an early establishment of an international organization to maintain peace and security.

1952 - In Denmark, it was announced that the first successful sex-change operation had been performed.

1955 - Rosa Parks, a black seamstress in Montgomery, AL, refused to give up her seat to a white man. Mrs. Parks was arrested marking a milestone in the civil rights movement in the U.S.

1959 - 12 countries, including the U.S. and USSR, signed a treaty that set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, which would be free from military activity.

1965 - An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began.

1969 - The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.

1973 - David Ben-Gurion, the founding father of Israel and its first prime minister, died at the age of 87.

1981 - 180 people were killed when a chartered Yugoslav DC9 jetliner crashed into a mountain while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica.

1983 - Rita M. Lavelle, a former Environmental Protection Agency official, was convicted in Washington of perjury and trying to obstruct a congressional inquiry.

1984 - A remote-controlled Boeing 720 jetliner was deliberately crashed into California's Mojave Desert to test an anti-flame fuel additive. The test proved to be disappointing.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagansaid he would welcome an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair if it were recommended by the Justice Department.

1987 - NASA announced four companies had been given contracts to help build a space station. The companies were Boeing Aerospace, G. E.'s Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas Aeronautics, and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International.

1989 - Dissidents in the Philippine military launched an unsuccessful coup against Corazon Aquino's government.

1989 - East Germany's Parliament abolished the Communist Party's constitutional guarantee of supremacy.

1990 - Iraq accepted a U.S. offer to talk about resolving the Persian Gulf crisis.

1990 - British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel finally met under the English Channel.

1991 - Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.

1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers pledged to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio within 48 hours.

1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin survived an impeachment attempt by hard-liners at the opening of the Russian Congress.

1992 - Amy Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco.

1993 - In Minnesota, 18 people were killed when a Northwest Airline commuter plane crashed.

1994 - The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval to the 124-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

1997 - Michael Carneal, 14 years old, fired upon a morning prayer group at Heath High School in West Paducah, KY. Three students were killed and five were wounded. Carneal pled guilty but insane and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for 25 years.

1998 - Exxon announced that it was buying Mobil for $73.7 billion creating the largest company in the world to date.

December 2, 2011

1804 - Napoleon was crowned emperor of France at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

1816 - The first savings bank in the U.S., the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.

1823 - U.S. President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.

1859 - John Brown, a militant abolitionist, was hanged for his raid on Harper's Ferry the previous October.

1901 - Gillette patented the KC Gillette Razor. It was first razor to feature a permanent handle and disposable double-edge razor blades.

1917 - During World War I, hostilities were suspended on the eastern front.

1927 - The Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model A automobile. It was the successor to the Model T.

1939 - New York's La Guardia Airport began operations as an airliner from Chicago landed at 12:01 a.m.

1942 - A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated by Dr. Enrico Fermi and his staff at the University of Chicago.

1943 - "Carmen Jones" opened on Broadway.

1954 - The U.S. Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy for what it called "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." The censure was related to McCarthy's controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military and civilian society.

1961 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared in a nationally broadcast speech that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that he was going to lead Cuba to communism.

1969 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people flew from Seattle, WA, to New York City, NY. Most of the passengers were reporters and photographers.

1970 - The Environmental Protection Agency began operating under its first director, William Ruckelshaus.

1980 - The Central Committee of Poland’s Communist Party announced major Politburo changes. The changes were apparently aimed at coping with labor unrest.

1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Barney Clark. He lived 112 days with the device. The operation was the first of its kind.

1985 - A Philippine civilian court acquitted armed forces chief Gen. Fabian C. Ver of charges related to the 1983 shooting death of opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino. 25 other defendants were also acquitted.

1988 - Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan.

1989 - V.P. Singh was sworn in as prime minister of India.

1990 - Chancellor Hekmut Kohl's coalition won the first free all-German elections since 1932.

1990 - The Midwest section of the U.S. prepared for a massive earthquake predicted by Iben Browning. Nothing happened.

1991 - American hostage Joseph Cicippio was released by his kidnappers. He had been held captive in Lebanon for over five years.

1992 - Germany's lower house of parliament voted in favor of the Maastricht Treaty on European unity.

1993 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin.

1993 - An unemployed man opened fire at an unemployment agency in Oxnard, CA. He killed three workers at the location and a police officer during a chase that ended in Ventura, where the man himself was gunned down.

1993 - The space shuttle Endeavor blasted off on a mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope.

1994 - The U.S. government agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors pickup trucks. Instead a deal was made with GM under which the company would spend more than $51 million on safety and research.

1994 - "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss was convicted in Los Angeles of three counts of pandering.

1994 - In Pensacola, FL, Paul Hill was given two life sentences for murdering a doctor and security guard outside an abortion clinic in July 1994.

1995 - NASA launched a U.S.-European observatory on a $1 billion dollar mission intended to study the sun.

1997 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of telephone fund-raising by President Clinton and Vice President Gore. It was concluded that they had not violated election laws.

1997 - Actress Anat Elimelech was killed by her boyfriend David Afuta. Afuta then killed himself.

1998 - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates donated $100 million to help immunize children in developing countries.

1999 - The British government transferred political power over the province of Northern Ireland to a the Northern Ireland Executive.

2001 - Enron Corp. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The filing came five days after Dynegy walked away from a $8.4 billion buyout. It was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

2010 - NASA announced the discovery of a new arsenic-based life form.

December 3, 2011

1818 - Illinois was admitted as the 21st state of the union.

1828 - Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States.

1833 - Oberlin College in Ohio opened as the first truly coeducational school of higher education in the United States.

1835 - In Rhode Island, the Manufacturer Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued the first fire insurance policy.

1910 - The neon lamp was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show. The lamp was developed by French physicist Georges Claude.

1917 - The Quebec Bridge opened for traffic after almost 20 years of planning and construction. The bridge suffered partial collapses in 1907 (August 29) and 1916 (September 11).

1931 - Alka Seltzer was sold for the first time.

1947 - The Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theater.

1948 - The "Pumpkin Papers" came to public light. The House Un-American Activities Committee announced that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.

1950 - Paul Harvey began his national radio broadcast.

1950 - Tom Fears (Los Angeles Rams) caught an NFL-record 18 passes against the Green Bay Packers. Terrell Owens (San Francisco 49ers) broke the record with 20 catches for 283 yards and a touchdown against the Chicago Bears on December 17, 2000.

1964 - Police arrested about 800 students at the University of California at Berkeley. The arrest took place one day after the students staged a massive sit-in inside an administration building.

1967 - In Cape Town, South Africa, a team of surgeons headed by Dr. Christian Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky. Washkansky only lived 18 days.

1967 - The famed luxury train, "20th Century Limited," completed its final run from New York to Chicago.

1968 - The rules committee of Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that in 1969 the pitcher's mound would be lowered from 15 to 10 inches. This was done in order to "get more batting action."

1973 - Pioneer 10 sent back the first close-up images of Jupiter. The first outer-planetary probe had been launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on March 2, 1972.

1980 - U.S. Representatives Frank Thompson, Jr. (D-NJ) and John Murphy (D-NY) were convicted on Abscam charges.

1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center removed the respirator of Barney Clark. The retired dentist had become the world's first recipient of a permanent artificial heart only one day before.

1983 - 3-foot-high concrete barriers were installed at two White House entrances.

1984 - In Bhopal, India, more than 2,000 people were killed after a cloud of poisonous gas escaped from a pesticide plant. The plant was operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary.

1987 - U.S. President Reagan said there was a good chance of progress toward a treaty on long-range weapons with Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

1988 - In South Africa, 11 black funeral mourners were slain in Natal Province in an attack blamed on security forces.

1988 - Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State University won the Heisman Trophy.

1990 - A collision, on the ground, of a Northwest Airlines DC-9 and a Northwest Boeing 727 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, resulted in a fire that claimed eight lives.

1991 - After nearly five years, Shiite Muslim radicals in Lebanon released American hostage Allen Sutten.

1992 - The UN Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help starving Somalians.

1992 - The Greek tanker "Aegean Sea" ran aground at La Coruna, Spain and spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil.

1993 - Britain's Princess Diana announced she would be limiting her public appearances because she was tired of the media's intrusions into her life.

1993 - Angola's government and its rebel enemies agreed to a cease-fire in their 18-year war.

1994 - Rebel Serbs in Bosnia failed to keep a pledge to release hundreds of UN peacekeepers.

1994 - AIDS activist Elizabeth Glaser died at the age 47. She and her two children were infected with HIV because of a blood transfusion.

1995 - Former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan was arrested for his role in a 1979 coup.

1997 - Pierce Brosnan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, more than 120 countries were represented to sign a treaty prohibiting the use and production of anti-personnel land mines. The United States, China and Russia did not sign the treaty.

1997 - South Korea received $55 billion from the International Monetary Fund to bailout its economy.

1998 - In Manilla, 28 people were killed in an orphanage that caught fire. Most of the victims were children.

1999 - Tori Murden became the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean alone. It took her 81 days to reach the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.

1999 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded a four-day meeting in Seattle, WA, without setting an agenda for a new round of trade talks. The meeting was met with fierce protests by various groups.

1999 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lost radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander as it entered Mars' atmosphere. The spacecraft was unmanned.

December 4, 2011

1783 - Gen. George Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.

1791 - Britain's Observer newspaper was first published.

1812 - Peter Gaillard patented the power mower.

1867 - The National Grange of Husbandry was founded.

1875 - William Marcy Tweed, the "Boss" of New York City's Tammany Hall political organization, escaped from jail and fled from the U.S.

1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson set sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. Wilson became the first chief executive to travel to Europe while in office.

1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration. The program had been created in order to provide jobs during the Great Depression.

1942 - U.S. bombers attacked the Italian mainland for the first time during World War II.

1943 - Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis announced that any club was free to employ black players.

1945 - The U.S. Senate approved American participation in the United Nations.

1965 - The U.S. launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Comdr. James A. Lovell on board.

1973 - Pioneer 10 reached Jupiter.

1977 - Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Empire, crowned himself emperor in a ceremony believed to have cost more than $100 million. He was deposed 2 years later.

1978 - Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco's first woman mayor when she was named to replace George Moscone, who had been murdered.

1979 - For the second time, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to urge Iran to free American hostages that had been taken on November 4.

1980 - The bodies of four American nuns slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. Five national guardsmen were later convicted of the murders.

1983 - U.S. jet fighters struck Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon in retaliation for attacks directed at American reconnaissance planes. Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman Jr. was shot down and captured by Syria.

1984 - A five-day hijack drama began as four men seized a Kuwaiti airliner en route to Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran. Two American passengers were killed by the hijackers.

1986 - Both U.S. houses of Congress moved to establish special committees to conduct their own investigations of the Iran-Contra affair.

1987 - Cuban inmates at a federal prison in Atlanta freed their 89 hostages, peacefully ending an 11-day uprising.

1988 - The government of Argentina announced that hundreds of heavily armed soldiers had ended a four-day military revolt.

1990 - Iraq promised to release 3,300 Soviet citizens it was holding.

1991 - Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson was released after nearly seven years in captivity in Lebanon.

1991 - Pan American World Airways ceased operations.

1992 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia.

1993 - The Angolan government and its UNITA guerrilla foes formally adopted terms for a truce. The conflict was killing an estimated 1,000 people per day.

1994 - Bosnian Serbs released 53 out of about 400 UN peacekeepers they were holding as insurance against further NATO airstrikes.

1997 - The play revival "The Diary of Anne Frank" opened.

1997 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) suspended Latrell Sprewell of the Golden State Warriors for one year for choking and threatening to kill his coach, P.J. Carlesimo.

2000 - O.J. Simpson was involved in an incident with another motorist in Miami, FL. Simpson was accused of scratching the other motorists face while pulling off the man's glasses.

2001 - O.J. Simpson's home in Florida was raided by the FBI in an ongoing two year international investigation into drug trafficking, satellite service pilfering and money laundering. Some satellite equipment was taken from Simpson's home and no drugs were found.

December 5, 2011

1492 - Christopher Columbus discovered Hispaniola (now Haiti).

1560 - Charles IX succeeded as King of France on the death of Francis II.

1766 - James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.

1776 - In Williamsburg, VA, at the College of William and Mary the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized.

1782 - The first native U.S. president, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, NY.

1792 - The trial of France's King Louis XVI began.

1797 - Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris to command forces for the invasion of England.

1812 - Napoleon Bonaparte left his army as they were retreating from Russia.

1839 - General George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, OH.

1848 - U.S. President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming the fact that gold had been discovered in California.

1876 - The Stillson wrench was patented by D.C. Stillson. The device was the first practical pipe wrench.

1901 - Movie producer Walt Disney was born in Chicago. He created his first Mickey Mouse cartoon at the age of 27.

1904 - The Russian fleet was destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur, during the Russo-Japanese War.

1908 - At the University of Pittsburgh, numerals were first used on football uniforms worn by college football players.

1913 - Britain outlawed the sending of arms to Ireland.

1932 - German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa making it possible for him to travel to the U.S.

1933 - Prohibition came to an end when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1934 - Fighting broke out between Italian and Ethiopian troops on the Somalian border.

1934 - The Soviet Union executed 66 people charged with plotting against Joseph Stalin's government.

1935 - In Montebello, CA, the first commercial hydrophonics operation was established.

1936 - The Soviet Union adopted a new Constitution under a Supreme Council.

1944 - During World War II, Allied troops took Ravenna, Italy.

1945 - The so-called "Lost Squadron" disappeared. The five U.S. Navy Avenger bombers carrying 14 Navy flyers began a training mission at the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. They were never heard from again.

1951 - The first push button-controlled garage opened in Washington, DC.

1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO.

1956 - British and French forces began a withdrawal from Egypt during the Suez War.

1958 - Britain's first motorway, the Preston by-pass, was opened by Prime Minister Macmillan.

1961 - United Nations forces launched an attack in Katanga, the Congo, near Elizabethville.

1962 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to cooperate in the peaceful uses of outer space.

1971 - The Soviet Union, at United Nations Security Council, vetoed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in hostilities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

1976 - Jacques Chirac re-founded the Gaullist party as the RPR (Rassemblement pour la République).

1977 - Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen due to peaceful relations with Israel.

1978 - The American space probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet.

1979 - Sonia Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church due to her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

1983 - In west Beirut, Lebanon, more than a dozen people were killed when a car bomb shattered a nine-story apartment building.

1983 - The video arcade game "NFL Football" was unveiled in Chicago. It was the first video arcade game to be licensed by the National Football League.

1984 - Iran's official news agency quoted the hijackers of a Kuwaiti jetliner parked at Tehran airport as saying they would blow up the plane unless Kuwait released 14 imprisoned extremists.

1985 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 1,500 for the first time.

1986 - The Soviet Union said it would continue to abide by the SALT II treaty limits on nuclear weapons. This was despite the decision by the U.S. to exceed them.

1988 - Jim Bakker and former aide Richard Dortch were indicted by a federal grand jury in North Carolina on fraud and conspiracy charges.

1989 - Israeli soldiers killed five heavily armed Arab guerrillas who crossed the border from Egypt. The guerrillas were allegedly going to launch a terrorist attack commemorating the anniversary of the Palestinian uprising.

1989 - East Germany's former leaders were placed under house arrest.

1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia's Congress.

1998 - James P. Hoffa became the head of the Teamsters union, 23 years after his father was the head. His father disappeared and was presumed dead.

2001 - In Germany, Afghan leaders signed a pact to create a temporary administration for post-Taliban Afghanistan. Two women were included in the cabinet structure. Hamid Karzai and his Cabinet were planned to take over power in Afghanistan on December 22.

2008 - The iTunes music Store reached 300 million applications downloaded.

December 6, 2011

1774 - Austria became the first nation to introduce a state education system.

1790 - The U.S. Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.

1865 - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment abolished slavery in the U.S.

1876 - The city of Anaheim was incorporated for a second time.

1877 - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb.

1883 - "Ladies' Home Journal" was published for the first time.

1884 - The construction of the Washington Monument was completed by Army engineers. The project took 34 years.

1889 - Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans. He was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America.

1907 - In Monongah, WV, 361 people were killed in America's worst mine disaster.

1917 - More than 1,600 people died when two munitions ships collided in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1917 - Finland proclaimed independence from Russia.

1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State was created as a self-governing dominion of Britain when an Anglo-Irish treaty was signed.

1923 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge became the first president to give a presidential address that was broadcast on radio.

1926 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini introduced a tax on bachelors.

1947 - Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by U.S. President Truman.

1957 - AFL-CIO members voted to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters were readmitted in 1987.

1957 - America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed when the satellite blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL.

1960 - Gene Autry and Bob Reynolds were granted the Los Angeles Angels baseball franchise by the American League.

1973 - Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the vice-president of the United States after vice-president Spiro Agnew resigned.

1982 - 11 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed when a bomb exploded in a pub in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. The Irish National Liberation Army was responsible for planting the bomb.

1983 - In Jerusalem, a bomb planted on a bus exploded killing six Israelis and wounding 44.

1985 - Congressional negotiators reached an agreement on a deficit-cutting proposal that later became the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law.

1989 - The worst mass shooting in Canadian history occurred when a man gunned down 14 women at the University of Montreal's school of engineering. The man then killed himself.

1989 - Egon Krenz resigned as leader of East Germany.

1990 - Iraq announced that it would release all its 2,000 foreign hostages.

1990 - U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle was enshrined in the Little League Museum's Hall of Excellence.

1992 - Germany's primary political parties agreed to tighten postwar asylum laws.

1992 - In India, thousands of Hindu extremists destroyed a mosque. The following two months of Hindu-Muslim rioting resulted in at least 2,000 people being killed.

1993 - Former priest James R. Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Porter had admitted molesting 28 children in the 1960s.

1994 - Orange County, CA, filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion. The county is one of the richest in the U.S. and became to largest municipality to file for bankruptcy.

1997 - A Russian Antonov 124 military transport crashed into a residential area in Irkutsk, Russia, shortly after takeoff. 70 people were killed.

1998 - In Venezuela, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez was elected president. He had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier.

1998 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour connected the first two building blocks of the international space station in the shuttle cargo bay.

2002 - Winona Ryder was sentenced to 36 months of probation and 480 hours of community service stemming from her conviction for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue. She was also ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and restitution.

2002 - Officials released the detailed plans for a $4.7 million memorial commemorating Princess Diana. The large oval fountain was planned to be constructed in London's Hyde Park.

December 8, 2011

1765 - Eli Whitney was born in Westboro, MA. Whitney invented the cotton gin and developed the concept of mass-production of interchangeable parts.

1776 - George Washington's retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The theory holds that Mary, mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment she was conceived.

1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South.

1863 - Tom King of England defeated American John Heenan and became the first world heavyweight champion.

1886 - At a convention of union leaders in Columbus, OH, the American Federation of Labor was founded.

1941 - The United States entered World War II when it declared war against Japan. The act came one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Britain and Canada also declared war on Japan.

1949 - The Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa due to Communists pressure.

1952 - On the show "I Love Lucy," a pregnancy was acknowledged in a TV show for the first time.

1953 - Los Angeles became the third largest city in the United States.

1962 - Workers of the International Typographical Union began striking and closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike lasted 114 days and ended April 1, 1963.

1980 - Zimbabwe’s manpower minister, Edgar Tekere, was found guilty in the killing of a white farmer. He was freed under a law that protected ministers acting to suppress terrorism.

1982 - Norman D. Mayer demanding an end to nuclear weapons held the Washington Monument hostage. He threatened to blow it up with explosives he claimed were inside a van. 10 hours later he was shot to death by police.

1984 - In Roanoke, Virginia, a jury found Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt innocent of libeling Reverend Jerry Falwell with a parody advertisement. However Falwell was awarded $200,000 for emotional distress.

1987 - U.S. President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty agreeing to destroy their nations' arsenals of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

1987 - The "intefadeh" (Arabic for uprising) by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began.

1989 - Communist leaders in Czechoslovakia offered to surrender their control over the government and accept a minority role in a coalition Cabinet.

1991 - Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine declared the Soviet national government to be dead. They forged a new alliance to be known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. The act was denounced by Russian President Gorbachev as unconstitutional.

1992 - Americans got to see live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia during Operation Restore Hope. (Due to the time difference, it was December 9 in Somalia.)

1993 - U.S. President Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.

1994 - Bosnian Serbs released dozens of hostage peacekeepers, but continued to detain about 300 others.

1994 - In Los Angeles, 12 alternate jurors were chosen for the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

1997 - The second largest bank was created with the announcement that Union Bank Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation would merge. The combined assets were more than $590 billion.

1997 - Jenny Shipley was sworn in as the first female prime minister of New Zealand.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police could not search a person or their cars after ticketing for a routine traffic violation.

1998 - The FBI opened its files on Frank Sinatra to the public. The file contained over 1,300 pages.

1998 - Nkem Chukwu and Iyke Louis Udobi's first of eight babies was born. The other seven were delivered 12 days later.

1998 - AT&T Corp. announced that it was buying IBM's data networking business for $5 billion cash.

1998 - The first female ice hockey game in Olympic history was played. Finland beat Sweden 6-0.

1999 - In Memphis, TN, a jury found that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin.

1999 - Russia and Belarus agreed in principle to form an economic and political confederation.

2000 - Mario Lemieux announced to the Pittsburgh Penguins that he planned to return to the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player at age 35. He would be the first modern owner-player in U.S. pro sports.

December 9, 2011

1594 - Gustavus II of Sweden was born.

1608 - English poet John Milton was born in London.

1625 - The Treaty of the Hague was signed by England and the Netherlands. The agreement was to subsidize Christian IV of Denmark in his campaign in Germany.

1783 - The first executions at Newgate Prison took place.

1793 - "The American Minerva" was published for the first time. It was the first daily newspaper in New York City and was founded by Noah Webster.

1803 - The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President.

1848 - American author and creator of "Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit," Joel Chandler Harris was born.

1854 - Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," was published in England.

1879 - Thomas Edison organized the Edison Ore Milling Company.

1884 - Levant M. Richardson received a patent for the ball-bearing roller skate.

1892 - In London, "Widowers' Houses," George Bernard Shaw's first play, opened at the Royalty Theater.

1907 - Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, in the Wilmington, DE, post office.

1926 - The United States Golf Association legalized the use of steel-shafted golf clubs.

1914 - The Edison Phonograph Works was destroyed by fire.

1917 - Turkish troops surrendered Jerusalem to British troops led by Viscount Allenby.

1940 - During World War II, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa.

1940 - The Longines Watch Company signed for the first FM radio advertising contract with experimental station W2XOR in New York City.

1941 - China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.

1942 - The Aram Khachaturian ballet "Gayane" was first performed by the Kirov Ballet.

1955 - Sugar Ray Robinson knocked out Carl Olson and regained his world middleweight boxing title.

1958 - In Indianapolis, IN, Robert H.W. Welch Jr. and 11 other men met to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society.

1960 - Sperry Rand Corporation unveiled a new computer, known as "Univac 1107."

1960 - The first episode of "Coronation Street" was screened on ITV.

1962 - "Lawrence of Arabia," by David Lean had its world premiere in London.

1965 - Nikolai V. Podgorny replaced Anastas I. Mikoyan as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

1975 - U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.

1978 - The first game of the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) was played between the Chicago Hustle and the Milwaukee Does.

1983 - NATO foreign ministers called on the Soviet Union to join in a "comprehensive political dialogue" to ease tensions in the world.

1984 - Iranian security men seized control of the plane ending a five-day hijacking of a Kuwaiti jetliner, which was parked at the Tehran airport.

1985 - In Argentina, five former military junta members received sentences in prison for their roles in the "dirty war" in which nearly 9,000 people had "disappeared."

1987 - West Bank Palestinians launched an intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation.

1987 - In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli patrol attacked the Jabliya refugee camp.

1990 - Lech Walesa won Poland's first direct presidential election in the country's history.

1990 - Slobodan Milosovic was elected president in Serbia's first free elections in 50 years.

1990 - The first American hostages to be released by Iraq began arriving in the U.S.

1991 - European Community leaders agreed to begin using a single currency in 1999.

1992 - Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation.

1992 - Clair George, former CIA spy chief, was convicted of lying to the U.S. Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. U.S. President George H.W. Bush later pardoned George.

1992 - U.S. troops arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, to oversee delivery of international food aid, in operation 'Restore Hope'.

1993 - The U.S. Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos that were marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.

1993 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.

1993 - At Princeton University in New Jersey, scientists produced a controlled fusion reaction equivalent to 3 million watts.

1994 - Representatives of the Irish Republican Army and the British government opened peace talks in Northern Ireland.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders after learning that she had told a conference that masturbation should be discussed in school as a part of human sexuality.

1996 - UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali approved a deal allowing Iraq to resume its exports of oil and easing the UN trade embargo imposed on Iraq in 1990.

1999 - The U.S. announced that it was expelling a Russian diplomat that had been caught gathering information with an eavesdropping device at the U.S. State Department.

2002 - United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after losing $4 billion in the previos two years. It was the sixth largest bankruptcy filing.

2003 - In Australia, thieves broke into a home and stole two 300-year-old etchings by Rembrandt. The 4-by-4-inch etchings, a self-portait and a depiction of the artist's mother, were valued around $518,000.

December 10, 2011

1520 - Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict. The papacy demanded that he recant or face excommunication. Luther refused and was formally expelled from the church in January 1521.

1768 - The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in London by George III. Joshua Reynolds was its first president.

1817 - Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th American state.

1830 - Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, MA. Only seven of her works were published while she was alive.

1845 - British civil engineer Robert Thompson patented the first pneumatic tires.

1851 - American librarian Melvil Dewey was born. He created the "Dewey Decimal Classification" system.

1869 - Women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory.

1898 - A treaty was signed in Paris that officially ended the Spanish-American War. Also, Cuba became independent of Spain.

1901 - The first Nobel prizes were awarded.

1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

1931 - Jane Addams became a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, she was the first American woman to do so.

1939 - The National Football League's attendance exeeded 1 million in a season for the first time.

1941 - Japan invaded the Philippines.

1941 - The Royal Naval battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Malaya.

1948 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

1950 - Dr. Ralph J. Bunche was presented the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first African-American to receive the award. Bunche was awarded the prize for his efforts in mediation between Israel and neighboring Arab states.

1953 - Hugh Hefner published the first "Playboy" magazine with an investment of $7,600.

1958 - The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. when 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami on a National Airlines Boeing 707.

1962 - Frank Gifford (New York Giants) was on the cover of "Sports Illustrated."

1964 - In Oslo, Norway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest person to receive the award.

1980 - South Carolina Representative John W. Jenretter resigned to avoid being expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives following his conviction on charges to the FBI's Abscam investigation.

1982 - The Law of the Sea Convention was signed by 118 countries in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 23 nations and the U.S. were excluded.

1983 - Raul Alfonsin was inaugurated as Argentina's first civilian president after nearly eight years of military rule.

1984 - South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize.

1990 - The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Norplant, a long-acting contraceptive implant.

1991 - The play Revival "The Crucible" opened.

1992 - Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called "unwelcome and offensive" actions toward women. However, he refused to resign.

1993 - The crew of the space shuttle Endeavor deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth's orbit.

1994 - Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ, was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber.

1994 - Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize. They pledged to pursue their mission of healing the Middle East.

1995 - The first U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in the former Yugoslavia.

1996 - South Africa's President Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country's transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy.

1998 - Six astronauts opened the doors to the new international space station 250 miles above the Earth's surface.

1998 - The Palestinian leadership scrapped constitutional clauses that rejected Israel's existence.

1999 - After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later pled guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped.

2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contibutions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)

2003 - The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts.

2007 - Cristina Fernandez was sworn in as Argentina's first elected female president.

December 11, 2011