On This Day

December 19, 2011

1154 - Henry II became King of England.

1562 - The Battle of Dreux was fought between the Huguenots and the Catholics, beginning the French Wars of Religion.

1732 - Benjamin Franklin began publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac."

1776 - Thomas Paine published his first "American Crisis" essay.

1777 - General George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, PA, to camp for the winter.

1842 - Hawaii's independence was recognized by the U.S.

1843 - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published in England.

1871 - Corrugated paper was patented by Albert L. Jones.

1887 - Jake Kilrain and Jim Smith fought in a bare knuckles fight which lasted 106 rounds and 2 hours and 30 minutes. The fight was ruled a draw and was halted due to darkness.

1903 - The Williamsburg Bridge opened in New York City. It opened as the largest suspension bridge on Earth and remained the largest until 1924. It was also the first major suspension bridge to use steel towers to support the main cable.

1907 - A coalmine explosion in Jacobs Creek, PA, killed 239 workers.

1917 - The first games of the new National Hockey League (NHL) were played. Five teams made up the league: Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, the Montreal Canadiens and the Montreal Wanderers.

1918 - Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column in "The New York Globe".

1932 - The British Broadcasting Corp. began transmitting overseas with its "Empire Service" to Australia.

1957 - Meredith Wilson’s "The music Man" opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. It ran for 1,375 shows.

1957 - Air service between London and Moscow was inaugurated.

1959 - Penn State’s Nittany Lions beat Alabama, 7-0, in the first Liberty Bowl football game.

1959 - Walter Williams died in Houston, TX, at the age of 117. He was said to be the last surviving veteran of the U.S. Civil War.

1961 - "Judgment At Nuremberg" opened in New York City.

1972 - Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

1973 - Johnny Carson started a fake toilet-paper scare on the "Tonight Show."

1978 - Indira Gandhi was expelled from the Lok Sabha for contempt and imprisoned.

1979 - ESPN televised its first NHL game. The teams were the Washington Capitals and the Hartford Whales.

1984 - Wayne Gretsky, 23, of the Edmonton Oilers, became only the 18th player in the National Hockey League (NHL) to score more than 1,000 points.

1984 - Ted Hughes was appointed England's poet laureate.

1984 - Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

1985 - Jan Stenerud announced his retirement from the NFL. The football kicker held the record for the most career field goals with 373.

1985 - ABC Sports announced that it was severing ties with Howard Cosell and released ‘The Mouth’ from all TV commitments. Cosell continued on ABC Radio for another five years.

1986 - The Soviet Union announced it had freed dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile, and pardoned his wife, Yelena Bonner.

1986 - Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh was appointed to investigate the Iran-Contra issue.

1989 - U.S. troops invaded Panama to overthrow the regime of General Noriega.

1990 - Bo Jackson (Los Angeles Raiders) became the first athlete to be chosen for All Star Games in two sports.

1996 - The school board of Oakland, CA, voted to recognize Black English, also known as "ebonics." The board later reversed its stance.

1997 - "Titanic" opened in American movie theaters.

1998 - U.S. President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives.

1998 - A four-day bombing of Iraq by British and American forces ended.

2000 - The U.N. Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless they closed all terrorist training camps and surrender U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden.

2003 - Images for the new design for the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site were released. The building slopes into a spire that reaches 1,776 feet.

2008 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed a $17.4 billion rescue package of loans for ailing auto makers General Motors and Chrysler.

December 20, 2011

1606 - The "Susan Constant," "Godspeed" and "Discovery" set sail from London. Their landing at Jamestown, VA, was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.

1699 - Peter the Great ordered that the Russian New Year be changed from September 1 to January 1.

1790 - The first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, RI.

1803 - The United States Senate ratified a treaty that included the Louisiana Territories from France for $15 million. The transfer was completed with formal ceremonies in New Orleans.

1820 - The state of Missouri enacted legislation to tax bachelors between the ages of 21-50 for being unmarried. The tax was $1 a year.

1860 - South Carolina became the first state to secede from the American Union.

1864 - Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, GA as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."

1879 - Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, NJ.

1880 - New York's Broadway became known as the "Great White Way" when it was lighted by electricity.

1892 - Alexander T. Brown and George Stillman patented the pneumatic tire.

1928 - Mail delivery by dog sled began in Lewiston, ME.

1933 - The film "Flying Down to Rio" was first shown in New York.

1938 - Vladimir Kosma Zworykin patented the iconoscope television system.

1946 - The Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life" had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, a day before its "official" world premiere. James Stewart and Donna Reed star in the film.

1946 - In Indochina (Vietnam), full-scale guerrilla warfare between Vietnam partisans and French troops began.

1954 - Buick Motor Company signed Jackie Gleason to one of the largest contracts ever entered into with an entertainer. Gleason agreed to produce 78 half-hour shows over a two-year period for $6,142,500.

1962 - A world indoor pole-vault record was set by Don Meyers when he cleared 16 feet, 11/4 inches.

1963 - The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners. It was only for the holiday season. It closed again on January 6, 1964.

1968 - Author John Steinbeck died at the age of 66.

1973 - The Spanish premier Carrero Blanco was assassinated in Madrid.

1987 - More than 3,000 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion.

1989 - General Noriega, Panama's former dictator, was overthrown by a United States invasion force invited by the new civilian government. The project was known as Operation Just Cause.

1991 - Ante Markovic resigned as federal Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.

1991 - Oliver Stone's "JFK" opened in the U.S.

1994 - Marcelino Corniel, a homeless man, was shot and mortally wounded by White House security officers. He had brandished a knife near the executive mansion.

1994 - Ivan Lendl retired after a 17-year tennis career.

1995 - An American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, crashed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard.

1996 - Doctors reported that a Cypriot woman who had taken fertility drugs was carrying about 11 embryos.

1998 - In Houston, TX, a 27-year-old woman gave birth to the only known living set of octuplets.

1999 - The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.

1999 - Sovereignty over the colony of Macao was transferred from Portugal to China.

2001 - The U.S. Congress passed a $20 billion package to finance the war against terrorism taking place in Afghanistan.

2001 - Argentina's President Fernando De la Rua resigned after two years in power.

2001 - The first British peacekeepers arrived in Afghanistan to help the nation heal after decades of war.

December 21, 2011

1620 - The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA.

1849 - The first ice-skating club in America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.

1879 - Ibsen's "A Doll's House" was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a revised happy ending.

1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

1909 - McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S.

1913 - The "New York World" Sunday edition included a crossword puzzle as an added feature of the "Fun" supplement. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published.

1914 - Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appeared in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy. The film was entitled "Tillie’s Punctured Romance".

1925 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was first shown in Moscow.

1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Disney movies, music and books

1944 - Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II.

1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.

1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.

1951 - Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1958 - Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

1968 - Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.

1971 - The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general.

1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.

1981 - Cincinnati defeated Bradley 75-73 in seven overtimes. The game was the longest collegiate basketball game in the history of NCAA Division I competition.

1988 - 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack.

1990 - In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline.

1991 - Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1995 - The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.

1996 - After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.

1998 - Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections. It was the signal to the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government.

1998 - A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents to long prison terms for attempting to organize an opposition party. A third man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 22, 1998.

1998 - The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved.

2001 - The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel.

2002 - Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.

December 22, 2011

1715 - James Stuart, the "Old Pretender", landed at Petershead after his exile in France.

1775 - A Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.

1807 - The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe.

1864 - During the American Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to U.S. President Lincoln from Georgia. The message read, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

1877 - The "American Bicycling Journal" went on sale for the first time.

1894 - The United States Golf Association was formed in New York City.

1894 - French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.

1895 - German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen made the first X-ray, of his wife's hand.

1910 - U.S. Postal savings stamps were issued for the first time. They were discontinued in 1914.

1939 - Gloria Jacobs became the first girl to hold a world pistol record when she shot 299 out of a possible 300 points. She was 17 years old at the time.

1943 - Sporting goods manufacturers received permission to use synthetic rubber for the core of baseballs.

1941 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.

1956 - Colo, the first gorilla to be born in captivity, was born at the Columbus, Ohio zoo.

1956 - The last British and French forces evacuated Egypt.

1961 - James Davis became the first U.S. soldier to die in Vietnam, while U.S. involvement was still limited to the provision of military advisers.

1976 - The last show of "Let’s Make A Deal" was aired.

1984 - New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway. Goetz claimed they were about to rob him.

1989 - Romania's hard-line Communist ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown in a popular uprising.

1990 - Lech Walesa was sworn in as Poland's first popularly elected president.

1991 - The body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found along a highway in Lebanon.

1996 - A car bomb exploded in Belfast, injuring a known IRA supporter. Police suspected that Protestant loyalists were responsible for the attack.

1998 - A unit of RJR Nabsico pled guilty to attempting to smuggle cigarettes into Canada.

2001 - Thirty Afghans, including two women, were sworn in as part of the new interim government in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was the head of the post-Taliban government.

December 23, 2011

1783 - George Washington returned home to Mount Vernon, after the disbanding of his army following the Revolutionary War.

1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.

1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore (" 'Twas the night before Christmas...") was published.

1834 - English architect Joseph Hansom patented his 'safety cab', better known as the Hansom cab.

1852 - The Theatre of Celestial John opened on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, CA. It was the first Chinese theatre in the U.S.

1880 - Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Electric Light Company of Europe.

1888 - Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.

1893 - The Engelbert Humperdinck opera "Hansel und Gretel" was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.

1913 - The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.

1919 - The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief and had 515 beds.

1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.

1930 - Ruth Elizabeth Davis, an unknown actress, arrived in Hollywood, under contract to Universal Studios. Universal changed her name to Bette Davis for the movies.

1938 - "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" was heard for the final time on the radio.

1941 - During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.

1942 - Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of the traditional Christmas shows.

1943 - "Hansel and Gretel," the opera, was televised on New York's WRBG. It was the first complete opera to be televised.

1947 - John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain and William Shockley invented the transistor.

1948 - Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo. They had been found guilty of crimes against humanity.

1951 - A National Football League (NFL) championship game was televised nationally for the first time. The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 24-17. The DuMont Network had paid $75,000 for the rights to the game.

1953 - Soviet secret police chief Lavrenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.

1954 - The Walt Disney movie "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was released.

Disney movies, music and books

1957 - Dan Blocker made his acting debut on television in the "Restless Gun."

1965 - A 70-mph speed limit was introduced in Britain.

1968 - Eighty-two crewmembers of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.

1972 - The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second play that was dubbed the "Immaculate Reception." Pittsburgh's Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran it in for the winning touchdown.

1981 - NASA approved a plan to continue the Voyager II spacecraft on a trajectory that would take it within 66,000 miles of Uranus on July 24, 1986.

1986 - The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. She was recaptured two days later.

1989 - Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were captured as they were attempting to flee their country.

1990 - Elections in Yugoslavia ended, leaving four of its six republics with non-Communist governments.

1995 - A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children's school.

1995 - The bodies of 16 members of the Solar Temple religious sect were found in a clearing near Grenoble, France. 14 were presumed shot by two people who then committed suicide.

1997 - Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.

1998 - Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.

December 24, 2011

1814 - The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.

1818 - Franz Gruber of Oberndorf, Germany composed the music for "Silent Night" to words written by Josef Mohr.

1828 - William Burke who, with his partner William Hare, dug up the dead and murdered to sell the corpses for dissection, went on trial in Edinburgh.

1851 - A fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, destroying about 35,000 volumes.

1865 - Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, TN, called the Ku Klux Klan.

1906 - Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, MA.

1914 - In World War I, the first air raid on Britain was made when a German airplane dropped a bomb on the grounds of a rectory in Dover.

1928 - The first broadcast of "The Voice of Firestone" was heard.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord.

1944 - The Andrews Sisters starred in the debut of "The Andrews Sisters’ Eight-To-The-Bar-Ranch" on ABC Radio.

1944 - A German submarine torpedoed the Belgian transport ship S.S. Leopoldville with 2,235 soldiers aboard. About 800 American soldiers died. The soldiers were crossing the English Channel to be reinforcements at the battle that become known as the Battle of the Bulge.

1948 - For the first time ever, a midnight Mass was broadcast on television. It was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

1948 - The first completely solar-heated house became occupied in Dover, MA.

1951 - NBC-TV presented, "Amal and the Night Visitors," the first opera written for television.

1951 - Libya achieved independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, under King Idris.

1965 - A meteorite landed on Leicestershire. It weighed about 100lbs.

1966 - Luna 13 landed on the moon.

1967 - Joe Namath (New York Jets) became the first NFL quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards.

1968 - The crew of the U.S. Navy ship, Pueblo, was released by North Korea. The Captain of the Pueblo, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, and 82 of his crew were held for 11 months after the ship was seized by North Korea because of suspected spying by the Americans.

1968 - Three astronauts, James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman, reached the moon. They orbited the moon 10 times before coming back to Earth. Seven months later man first landed on the moon.

1979 - Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in support of the country's Marxist government.

1981 - Reggie Jackson announced that he would join Gene Autry’s California Angels for the 1982 season.

1981 - In Eastern Kazakh/Semipalatinsk, the Soviet Union performed a nuclear test.

1985 - Fidel Castro, the Cuban president, announced that he was a non-smoker.

1989 - Ousted Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega took refuge at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Panama City.

1990 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were married.

1992 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

1997 - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as "Carlos the Jackal," was sentenced by a French court to life in prison for the 1975 murders of two French investigators and a Lebanese national.

1998 - At Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, a tourist was hit by a piece of flying metal while waiting to board a ride. The man's wife and a Disneyland employee were also injured. Luan Phi Dawson died December 26th from his injuries.

1999 - Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bédié was overthrown in a coup.

1999 - An Indian Airplines plane was seized during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi. In Afghanistan, the 150 hostages were freed on December 31 after India released three Kashmir militants from prison.

2000 - 36 minutes after the end of a game, both the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins were called back to the playing field. The teams had to play the final 3 seconds of the game which the Dolphins had won 27-24. The end result did not change.

2000 - The "Texas 7," seven convicts that had escaped a Texas prison, robbed a sports store in Irving, TX. The suspects killed Officer Aubrey Hawkins, stole $70,000, 25 weapons and clothing. The men had escaped on December 13.

December 25, 2011

0800 - Charlemagne was crowned first Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III.

1066 - William the Conqueror was crowned king of England.

1223 - St. Francis of Assisi assembled one of the first Nativity scenes, in Greccio, Italy.

1776 - Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, NJ.

1818 - "Silent Night" was performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorff, Austria.

1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion that resulted in the Civil War.

1894 - The University of Chicago became the first Midwestern football team to play on the west coast. U.C. defeated Stanford, 24-4, in Palo Alto, CA.

1896 - John Philip Sousa finally titled the melody "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

1914 - During World War I, British and German troops observed an unofficial truce and even playing football together on the Western Front.

1917 - The play "Why Marry?" opened at the Astor Theatre in New York City. "Why Marry?" was the first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize.

1926 - Hirohito became the emperor of Japan after the death of his father Emperor Taisho.

1930 - The Mt. Van Hoevenberg bobsled run at Lake Placid, New York opened to the public. It was the first bobsled track of international specifications to open in the U.S.

1931 - Lawrence Tibbett was the featured vocalist as radio came to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first opera was "Hansel und Gretel" and was heard on the NBC network of stations.

1937 - Arturo Toscanini conducted the first broadcast of "Symphony of the Air" over NBC radio.

1939 - "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens, was read on CBS radio for the first time.

1941 - Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese.

1946 - W.C. Fields died at the age of 66.

1950 - Dick Tracy married on Tess Truehart.

1962 - The Department of Commerce Census Clock in Washington, DC, recorded the U.S. population on this day as 188,000,000.

1971 - The longest pro-football game to date finally ended when Garo Yepremian kicked a field goal in the second quarter of sudden death overtime. The Miami Dolphins defeated Kansas City, 27-24. The total game time was 82 minutes and 40 seconds.

1972 - The Nicaraguan capital Managua was hit by an earthquake. Over 10,000 people were killed.

1979 - The USSR invaded Afghanistan in a bid to halt civil war and protect USSR interests.

1989 - Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising.

1989 - Former baseball player and manager Billy Martin died in a truck crash in Fenton, NY.

1989 - Dissident playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1991 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as leader of a Communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.

1998 - Seven days into their journey, Richard Branson, Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand of Sweden gave up their attempt to make the first nonstop round-the-world balloon flight. They ditched near Hawaii.

2000 - Over 300 people were killed and dozens were injured by fire at a Christmas party in the Chinese city of Luoyang. The incident occurred at the Dongdu Disco.

December 26, 2011

1620 - The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.

1776 - The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.

1865 - The coffee percolator was patented by James H. Mason.

1871 - The "Gods Grown Old" was performed for the first time. It ran for 64 shows.

1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

1908 - Texan boxer "Galveston Jack" Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight title.

1917 - During World War I, the U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads.

1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain.

1927 - The East-West Shrine football game featured numbers on both the front and back of players’ jerseys.

1941 - Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

1943 - The German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk in the North Sea, during the Battle of North Cape.

1944 - Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago, IL.

1947 - Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast United States, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours. The severe weather was blamed for about 80 deaths.

1953 - "Big Sister" was heard for the last time on CBS Radio. The show ran for 17 years.

1954 - "The Shadow" aired on radio for the last time.

1956 - Fidel Castro attempted a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. All but 11 of his supporters were killed.

1959 - The first charity walk took place, along Icknield Way, in aid of the World Refugee Fund.

1974 - Comedian jack Benny died at age 80.

1982 - The Man of the Year in "TIME" magazine was a computer. It was the first time a non-human received the honors.

1986 - Doug Jarvis, age 31, set a National Hockey League (NHL) record as he skated in his 916th consecutive game. Jarvis eventually set the individual record for most consecutive games played with 964.

1990 - Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain the chess championship.

1991 - The Soviet Union's parliament formally voted the country out of existence.

1995 - Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority.

1996 - Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, CO.

1998 - Iraq announced that it would fire on U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the skies over northern and southern Iraq.

1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, won Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in 40 years.

2000 - Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.

2002 - The first cloned human baby was born. The announcement was made the December 27 by Clonaid.

2004 - Under the Indian Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake sent 500-mph waves across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The tsunami killed at least 283,000 people in a dozen countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra, Thailand and India.

December 28, 2011

1065 - Westminster Abbey was consecrated under Edward the Confessor.

1694 - Queen Mary II of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.

1732 - "The Pennsylvania Gazette," owned by Benjamin Franklin, ran an ad for the first issue of "Poor Richard’s Almanack."

1832 - John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Jackson.

1836 - Mexico's independence was recognized by Spain.

1846 - Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1869 - William E. Semple, of Mt. Vernon, OH, patented an acceptable chewing gum.

1877 - John Stevens applied for a patent for his flour-rolling mill, which boosted production by 70%.

1879 - In Dundee, Scotland the central portion of the Tay Bridge collapsed as a train was passing over it. 75 people were killed.

1897 - "Cyrano de Bergerac," the play by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris, France.

1902 - The first professional indoor football game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Syracuse defeated the Philadelphia Nationals 6-0.

1908 - An earthquake killed over 75,000 at Messina in Sicily.

1912 - The first municipally-owned street cars were used on the streets of San Francisco, CA.

1917 - The New York Evening Mail published a facetious essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America.

1926 - The highest recorded cricket innings score of 1,107 runs was hit by Victoria, against New South Wales, in Melbourne.

1937 - The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.

1942 - R.O. Sullivan crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the 100th time.

1945 - The U.S. Congress officially recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."

1950 - The Peak District became Britain's first designated National Park.

1956 - After five years on television, the last "Ding Dong School" was aired on NBC-TV.

1964 - Initial filming of the movie "Dr. Zhivago" began on location near Madrid, Spain. The movies total running time is 197 minutes.

1973 - The Chamber of Commerce of Akron, OH, terminated its association with the All-American Soap Box Derby. It was stated that the race had become "a victim of cheating and fraud."

1973 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system.

1981 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, VA.

1982 - Nevell Johnson Jr. was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade. The event set off three days of race related disturbances that left another man dead.

1987 - The bodies of 14 relatives of R. Gene Simmons were found at his home near Dover, AR. Simmons had gone on a shooting spree in Russellville that claimed two other lives.

1989 - Alexander Dubcek, who had been expelled from the Communist Party in 1970, was elected speaker of the Czech parliament.

1991 - Nine people died in a rush to get into a basketball game at City College in New York.

1995 - Pressure from German prosecutors investigating pornography forced CompuServe to set a precedent by blocking access to sex-oriented newsgroups on the Internet for its customers.

2000 - U.S. District Court Judge Matsch held a hearing to ensure that confessed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh understood that he was dropping his appeals. McVeigh said that he wanted an execution date, set but wanted to reserve the right to seek presidential clemency.

2000 - Shannen Doherty was arrested for driving under the influence.

December 29, 2011

1170 - St. Thomas à Becket, the 40th archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights acting on Henry II's orders.

1812 - The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.

1813 - The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.

1837 - Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.

1845 - U.S. President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.

1848 - U.S. President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.

1851 - The first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized, in Boston, MA.

1860 - The HMS Warrior, Britain's first seagoing first iron-hulled warship, was launched.

1888 - The first performance of Macbeth took place at the Lyceum Theatre.

1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, SD. This was the last major conflict between Indians and U.S. troops.

1895 - The Jameson Raid from Mafikeng into Transvaal, which attempted to overthrow Kruger's Boer government, started.

1911 - Sun Yat-sen became the first president of a republican China.

1913 - "The Unwelcome Throne" was released by Selig’s Polyscope Company. This was a moving picture and the first serial motion picture.

1934 - The first regular-season, college basketball game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. New York University defeated Notre Dame 25-18.

1934 - Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

1937 - Babe Ruth returned to baseball as the new manager of the Class D, De Land Reds of the Florida State League. Ruth had retired from baseball in 1935.

1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, "Truth or Consequences", hosted by Ralph Edwards.

1945 - Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN.

1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule.

1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation.

1953 - Jean Stapleton debuted in her first Broadway play, "In the Summer House", which closed after only 55 performances.

1972 - Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of "LIFE" magazine hit the newsstands. The magazine later became a monthly publication.

1975 - A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.

1985 - Phil Donahue and a Soviet radio commentator hosted the "Citizens’ Summit" via satellite TV.

1986 - The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, reopened for business after eighteen years and $47 million expended on restoration.

1989 - Following Hong Kong's decision to forcibly repatriate some Vietnamese refugees, thousands of Vietnamese 'boat people' battled with riot police.

1996 - The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a civil war that had lasted 36 years.

1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of 'bird flu'.

1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.

December 30, 2011

1460 - At the Battle of Wakefield, in England's Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated and killed by the Lancastrians.

1853 - The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.

1879 - Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" was first performed, at Paignton, Devon, England.

1880 - The Transvaal was declared a republic. Paul Kruger became its first president.

1887 - A petition to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays was handed to the home secretary.

1903 - About 600 people died when fire broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, IL.

1919 - Lincoln's Inn, in London, admitted the first female bar student.

1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed.

1924 - Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.

1927 - The first subway in the Orient was dedicated in Tokyo, Japan.

1935 - Italian bombers destroyed a Sweedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.

1936 - The United Auto Workers union staged its first sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI.

1940 - California's first freeway was officially opened. It was the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.

1942 - "Mr. and Mrs. North" debuted on NBC radio.

1944 - King George II of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne.

1947 - King Michael of Romania abdicated in favor of a Communist Republic. He claimed he was forced from his throne.

1948 - "Kiss Me Kate" opened at the New Century Theatre in New York City. Cole Porter composed the music for the classic play that ran for 1,077 performances.

1953 - The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.

1954 - Pearl Bailey opened on Broadway in the play, "House of Flowers."

1954 - James Arness made his dramatic TV debut in "The Chase". The "Gunsmoke" series didn’t begin for Arness until the fall of 1955.

1961 - jack Nicklaus lost his first attempt at pro golf to Gary Player in an exhibition match in Miami, FL.

1972 - The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1976 - The Smothers Brothers, Tom and Dick, played their last show at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas and retired as a team from show business. Both continued as solo artists and they reunited several years later.

1978 - Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl. Bauman had intercepted an Ohio pass.

1980 - "The Wonderful World of Disney" was cancelled by NBC after more than 25 years on the TV. It was the longest-running series in prime-time television history

1993 - Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.

1996 - A passenger train was bombed by Bodo separatists in India's eastern state of Assam. At least 26 people were killed and dozens were seriously injured.

1996 - About 250,000 striking workers shut down vital services across Israel in protests against budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

1997 - More than 400 people were massacred in four villages in the single worst incident during Algeria's insurgency.

December 31, 2011

1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage.

1695 - The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up.

1711 - The Duke of Marlborough was dismissed as commander-in-chief.

1775 - The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle.

1841 - The State of Alabama enacted the first dental legislation in the U.S.

1857 - Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.

1862 - U.S. President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.

1877 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes became the first U.S. President to celebrate his silver (25th) wedding anniversary in the White House.

1879 - Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting to an audience in Menlo Park, NJ.

1891 - New York's new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.

1897 - Brooklyn, NY, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.

1923 - In London, the BBC first broadcast the chimes of Big Ben.

1929 - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played "Auld Lang Syne" as a New Year's Eve song for the first time.

1946 - U.S. President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

1947 - Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were married.

1953 - Willie Shoemaker broke his own record as he won his 485th race of the year.

1954 - The last episode of the radio show "Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok" aired.

1955 - General Motors became the first U.S. corporation to earn more than one billion dollars in a single year.

1960 - The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.

1961 - In the U.S., the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.

1967 - The Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship game by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 21-17. The game is known as the Ice Bowl since it was played in a wind chill of 40 degrees below zero. (NFL)

1974 - Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.

1978 - Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, DC. The event marked the end of diplomatic relations with the U.S.

1979 - At year end oil prices were 88% higher than at the start of 1979.

1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 97 and injured 140 people. Three hotel workers later pled guilty to charges in connection with the fire.

1990 - Titleholder Gary Kasparov of the U.S.S.R. won the world chess championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1996 - NCR Corp. became an independent company.

1997 - Michael Kennedy, 39-year-old son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.

1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president.

1999 - Five hijackers left the airport where they had been holding 150 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane. They left with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed from an Indian prison. The plane had been hijacked during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal to New Dehli on December 24.

1999 - Sarah Knauss died at the age of 119 years. She was the world's oldest person. She was born September 24, 1880.

January 1, 2012

It's my birthday :happybday: and no one remembered.... :crybaby:

January 2, 2012

1492 - The leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.

1788 - Georgia became the 4th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1842 - In Fairmount, PA, the first wire suspension bridge was opened to traffic.

1859 - Erastus Beadle published "The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette."

1872 - Brigham Young, the 71-year-old leader of the Mormon Church, was arrested on a charge of bigamy. He had 25 wives.

1879 - Thomas Edison began construction on his first generator.

1890 - Alice Sanger became the first female White House staffer.

1893 - The first commemorative postage stamps were issued.

1900 - U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announced the Open Door Policy to prompt trade with China.

1900 - The Chicago Canal opened.

1910 - The first junior high school in the United States opened. McKinley School in Berkeley, CA, housed seventh and eighth grade students. In a separate building students were housed who attended grades 9-12.

1917 - Royal Bank of Canada took over the Quebec Bank.

1921 - The first religious broadcast on radio was heard on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA, as Dr. E.J. Van Etten of Calvary Episcopal Church preached.

1921 - DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opened.

1929 - The United States and Canada reached an agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.

1935 - Bruno Richard Hauptmann went on trial for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindberghs baby. Hauptmann was found guilt and executed.

1942 - The Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.

1953 - "The Life of Riley" debuted on NBC-TV.

1955 - Panamanian President Jose Antonio Remon was assassinated.

1957 - The San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merged.

1959 - CBS Radio ended four soap operas. "Our Gal Sunday", "This is Nora Drake", "Backstage Wife" and "Road of Life" all aired for the last time.

1960 - U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1965 - "Broadway" Joe Namath signed the richest rookie contract ($400,000) in the history of pro football.

1968 - Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant.

1968 - Fidel Castro announced petroleum and sugar rationing in Cuba.

1971 - In the U.S., a federally imposed ban on television cigarette advertisements went into effect.

1974 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill requiring all states to lower the maximum speed limit to 55 MPH. The law was intended to conserve gasoline supplies during an embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries. Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.

1983 - The final edition of Garry Trudeau’s comic strip, "Doonesbury", appeared in 726 newspapers. "Doonesbury" began running again in September 1984.

1983 - The musical "Annie" closed on Broadway at the Uris Theatre after 2,377 performances.

1985 - The Rebels of UNLV beat Utah State in three overtime periods. The final score of 142-140 set a new NCAA record for total points in a basketball game (282). The game took over three hours to play.

1991 - Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC. She was the first black woman to head a city of that size and prominence.

1996 - AT&T announced that it would eliminate 40,000 jobs over three years.

1998 - Russia began circulating new rubles in effort to keep inflation in check and promote confidence.

January 3, 2012

1496 - References in Leonardo da Vinci notebooks suggested that he tested his flying machine. The test didn't succeed and he didn't try to fly again for several years.

1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther.

1777 - The Battle of Princeton took place in the War of Independence, in which George Washington defeated the British forces, led by Cornwallis.

1815 - By secret treaty, Austria, Britain, and France formed a defensive alliance against Prusso-Russian plans to solve the Saxon and Polish problems.

1823 - Stephen F. Austin received a grant from the Mexican government and began colonization in the region of the Brazos River in Texas.

1825 - The first engineering college in the U.S. , Rensselaer School, opened in Troy, NY. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

1833 - Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. About 150 years later, Argentina seized the islands from the British, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.

1868 - The Shogunate was abolished in Japan and Meiji dynasty was restored.

1871 - Henry W. Bradley patented oleomargarine.

1888 - The drinking straw was patented by Marvin C. Stone.

1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovered the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

1925 - In Italy, Mussolini announced that he would take dictatorial powers.

1938 - The first broadcast of "Woman in White" was presented on the NBC Red network. The program remained on radio for 10 years.

1938 - The March of Dimes was established by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The organization fights poliomyelitis. The original name of the organization was the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

1947 - U.S. Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time. Viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York City saw some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.

1947 - In Trenton, NJ, Al Herrin, passed away at age 92. He had claimed that he had not slept at all during his life.

1951 - NBC-TV debuted "Dragnet."

1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, became the first mother-son combination to serve at the same time in the U.S. Congress.

1957 - The Hamilton Watch Company introduced the first electric watch.

1959 - In the U.S., Alaska became the 49th state.

1961 - The U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.

1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicated Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro.

1967 - jack Ruby died in a Dallas, TX, hospital.

1973 - The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sold the New York Yankees to a 12-man syndicate headed by George Steinbrenner for $10 million.

1980 - Conservationist Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free," was killed in northern Kenya by a servant.

1983 - Tony Dorsett (Dallas Cowboys) made the longest run from scrimmage in NFL history. Dorsett ran 99 yards in a game against the Minnesota Vikings.

1984 - A woman died at Disneyland after falling from a ride. She had apparently unfastened her seatbelt while on the Matterhorn bobsled.

1988 - Margaret Thatcher became the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century.

1990 - Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.

1991 - The British government announced that seven Iraqi diplomats, another embassy staff member and 67 other Iraqis were being expelled from Britain.

1993 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in Moscow.

1995 - WHO reported that the cumulative total of officially reported cases of AIDS had risen to 1,025,073 in 192 countries as at the end of 1994.

1995 - The U.S. Postal Service raised the price of the first-class stamp to 32 cents.

1997 - Bryant Gumbel signed off for the last time as host of NBC's "Today" show.

1998 - China announced that it would spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.

1999 - Israeli authorities detained, and later expelled, 14 members of Concerned Christians. Israeli officials claimed that the Denver, CO-based cult was plotting violence in Jerusalem to bring about the Second Coming of Christ.

2000 - Charles M. Schulz's final original daily comic strip appeared in newspapers.

2001 - The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) charged the "Texas 7" with weapons violations. An autopsy showed that Office Aubrey Hawkins, killed by the convicts, had been shot 11 times and run over with a vehicle.

2004 - NASA's Spirit rover landed on Mars. The craft was able to send back black and white images three hours after landing.

January 5, 2012

1781 - Richmond, VA, was burned by a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold.

1885 - The Long Island Railroad Company became the first to offer piggy-back rail service which was the transportation of farm wagons on trains.

1896 - It was reported by The Austrian newspaper that Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered the type of radiation that became known as X-rays.

1900 - In Ireland, Nationalist leader John Edward Redmond called for a revolt against British rule.

1903 - The general public could use the Pacific cable for the very first time.

1914 - Ford Motor Company announced that there would be a new daily minimum wage of $5 and an eight-hour workday.

1925 - Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross was sworn in as the governor of Wyoming She was the first female governor in the U.S.

1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began.

1934 - Both the National and American baseball leagues decided to use a uniform-size baseball. It was the first time in 33 years that both leagues used the same size ball. (MLB)

1935 - Phil Spitalny’s All-Girl Orchestra was featured on CBS radio on the program, "The Hour of Charm."

1940 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) got its very first demonstration of FM radio.

1944 - The London "Daily Mail" was the first transoceanic newspaper to be published.

1948 - Warner Brothers-Pathe showed the very first color newsreel. The footage was of the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football classic.

1956 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy walked on two legs for the first time.

1961 - "Mr. Ed" debuted. The show would run for six years.

1970 - "All My Children" premiered on ABC.

1972 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle.

1987 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan underwent prostate surgery.

1993 - The state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd. It was America's first legal hanging since 1965. Dodd was an admitted child sex killer.

1996 - Yahya Ayyash, a member of the Hamas in Israel, is killed by a booby-trapped cellular phone.

1998 - U.S. Representative Sonny Bono died in skiing accident.

2002 - A 15 year-old student pilot, Charles Bishop, crashed a small plane into a building in Tampa, FL. Bishop was about to begin a flying lesson when he took off without permission and without an instructor.

January 6, 2012

0871 - England's King Alfred defeated the Danes at the Battle of Ashdown.

1205 - Philip of Swabia was crowned as King of the Romans.

1453 - Frederick III erected Austria into an Archduchy.

1540 - King Henry VIII of England was married to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife.

1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble published its findings.

1759 - George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married.

1838 - Samuel Morse publicly demonstrated the telegraph for the first time.

1896 - The first American women’s six-day bicycle race was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1900 - In India, it was reported that millions of people were dying from starvation.

1900 - Off of South Africa, the British seized the German steamer Herzog. The boat was released on January 22, 1900.

1912 - New Mexico became the 47th U.S. state.

1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip was completed after a run of 792 miles from Indianapolis, IN, to New York City, NY.

1931 - Thomas Edison executed his last patent application.

1941 - Richard Widmark made his debut on radio in "The Home of the Brave."

1941 - Alice Marble made her professional tennis debut when she defeated Ruth Hardwick of Great Britain at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1942 - The first commercial around-the-world airline flight took place. Pan American Airlines was the company that made history with the feat.

1942 - The National Collegiate Football Rules Committee abolished the Y formation.

1945 - The Battle of the Bulge ended with 130,000 German and 77,000 Allied casualties.

1950 - Britain recognized the Communist government of China.

1952 - "Peanuts" debuted in Sunday papers across the United States.

1963 - "Wild Kingdom" premiered on NBC.

1967 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces launched a major offensive, known as Operation "Deckhouse V", in the Mekong River delta.

1974 - CBS radio debuted "Radio Mystery Theatre."

1975 - The Broadway show "The Wiz" opened.

1975 - ABC-TV debuted "A.M. America."

1982 - William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles, CA, of being the "freeway killer" who had murdered 14 young men and boys.

1987 - After a 29-year lapse, the Ford Thunderbird was presented with the Motor Trend Car of the Year Award. It was the first occurrence of a repeat winner of the award.

1994 - Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI. Four men were later sentenced to prison for the attack, including Tonya Harding's ex-husband.

1998 - The spacecraft Lunar Prospect was launched into orbit around the moon. The craft was crashed into the moon, in an effort to find water under the lunar surface, on July 31, 1999.

1999 - The 106th U.S. Congress opened. The first item on the agenda was the impeachment proceedings of U.S. President Bill Clinton. The trial was set to begin January 7, 1999.

1999 - Bob Newhart received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

January 10, 2012

1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the U.S.

1799 - British prime minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax, at two shillings (10p) in the pound, to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars.

1848 - The first commercial bank was established in San Francisco, CA.

1861 - The state of Mississippi seceded from the United States.

1894 - The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company put the first battery-operated switchboard into operation in Lexington, MA.

1902 - New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public.

1905 - In Russia, the civil disturbances known as the Revolution of 1905 forced Czar Nicholas II to grant some civil rights.

1929 - The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, TN. The company's purpose was to train dogs to guide the blind.

1936 - The United States Army adopted the semi-automatic rifle.

1937 - The first issue of "Look" went on sale. Within a month, "Look" became a biweekly magazine.

1940 - Television was used for the first time to present a sales meeting to convention delegates in New York City.

1951 - The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City.

1961 - The play, "Rhinoceros," opened on Broadway.

1969 - The supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight, at Bristol.

1972 - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor.

1972 - British miners went on strike for the first time since 1926.

1981 - Hockey Hall of Famer, Phil Esposito, announced that he would retire as a hockey player after the New York Rangers-Buffalo Sabres hockey game. T

1984 - Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's.

1986 - Kodak got out of the instant camera business after 10 years due to a loss in a court battle that claimed that Kodak copied Polaroid patents.

1991 - U.S. secretary of state Baker and Iraqi foreign minister Aziz met for 61/2 hours in Geneva, but failed to reach any agreement that would forestall war in the Persian Gulf.

1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov, 51, completed his 366th day in outer space aboard the Mir space station, breaking the record for the longest continuous time spent in outer space.

1997 - Tamil rebels attact a military base in Sri Lanka. 200 soldiers and 140 rebels were killed.

2000 - ABC-TV began airing "The Mole."

2002 - Yasmine Bleeth was sentenced to two years of probation, regular drug tests, 100 hours of community service and pay the court costs in connection to a cocaine-possession charge.

2002 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corp. The company had filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.

2003 - Archaeologists announced that they had found five more chambers in the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor. The rooms were believed to cover about 750,000 square feet.

2006 - Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a dual ceremony.

January 11, 2012

1569 - England's first state lottery was held.

1770 - The first shipment of rhubarb was sent to the United States from London.

1805 - The Michigan Territory was created.

1815 - U.S. General Andrew Jackson achieved victory at the Battle of New Orleans. The War of 1812 had officially ended on December 24, 1814, with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The news of the signing had not reached British troops in time to prevent their attack on New Orleans.

1861 - Alabama seceded from the United States.

1867 - Benito Juarez returned to the Mexican presidency, following the withdrawal of French troops and the execution of Emperor Maximilian.

1878 - In New York, milk was delivered in glass bottles for the first time by Alexander Campbell.

1902 - "Popular Mechanics" magazine was published for the first time.

1913 - The first sedan-type car was unveiled at the National Automobile Show in New York City. The car was manufactured by the Hudson Motor Company.

1922 - At Toronto General Hospital, Leonard Thompson became the first person to be successfully treated with insulin.

1935 - Amelia Earhart Putnam became the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1938 - In Limerick, ME, Frances Moulton assumed her duties as the first woman bank president.

1942 - Japan declared war against the Netherlands. The same day, Japanese forces invaded the Dutch East Indies.

1943 - The United States and Britain signed treaties relinquishing extraterritorial rights in China.

1947 - "Murder and Mrs. Malone" debuted on ABC radio.

1958 - "Seahunt" debuted on CBS-TV. The show was aired on the network for four years.

1964 - U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report that said that smoking cigarettes was a definite health hazard.

1973 - The Open University awarded its first degrees.

1973 - Owners of American League baseball teams voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule on a trial basis.

1977 - France released Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

1978 - Two Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule linked up with the Salyut 6 orbiting space station, where the Soyuz 26 capsule was already docked.

1980 - Nigel Short, age 14, from Bolton in Britain, became the youngest International Master in the history of chess.

1986 - Author James Clavell signed a 5$ million deal with Morrow/Avon Publishing for the book "Whirlwind". The book is a 2,000 page novel.

1988 - U.S. Vice President George Bush met with representatives of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to answer questions about the Iran-Contra affair.

1991 - An auction of silver and paintings that had been acquired by the late Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, brought in a total of $20.29 million at Christie's in New York.

1996 - Ryutaro Hashimoto become Japan's prime minister. He replaced Tomiichi Murayama who had resigned on January 5, 1996.

2000 - The merger between AOL and Time Warner was approved by the U.S. government with restrictions.

2000 - The U.S. Postal Service unveiled the second Vietnam Veterans Memorial commemorative stamp in a ceremony at The Wall.

2001 - The Texas Board of Criminal Justice released a review of the escape of the "Texas 7." It stated that prison staff missed critical opportunities to prevent the escape by ignoring a fire alarm, not reporting unsupervised inmates and not demanding proper identification from inmates.

2002 - Thomas Junta, 44, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for beating another man to death at their son's hockey practice. The incident occurred on July 5, 2000.

January 12, 2012

49 BC - Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River signaling a war between Rome and Gaul.

1519 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died.

1773 - The first public museum in America was established in Charleston, SC.

1866 - The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded in London.

1875 - Kwang-su was made emperor of China.

1882 - Thomas Edison's central station on Holborn Viaduct in London began operation.

1895 - The first performance of King Arthur took place at the Lyceum Theatre.

1896 - At Davidson College, several students took x-ray photographs. They created the first X-ray photographs to be made in America.

1908 - A wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1915 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.

1915 - The U.S. Congress established the Rocky Mountain National Park.

1926 - "Sam ‘n’ Henry" debuted on WGN Radio in Chicago, IL.

1932 - Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

1938 - Austria recognized the Franco government in Spain.

1940 - Soviet bombers raided cities in Finland.

1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board.

1943 - The Office of Price Administration announced that standard frankfurters/hot dogs/wieners would be replaced by 'Victory Sausages.'

1945 - During World War II, Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe.

1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not discriminate against law-school applicants because of race.

1949 - "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" was debuted on CBS-TV. The show stayed on the network for seven years.

1949 - "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", the Chicago-based children’s show, made its national debut on NBC-TV.

1955 - Rod Serling’s career began with the TV production of "Patterns."

1960 - Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals became the first pro basketball player in the NBA to score more than 15,000 points in his career.

1964 - Leftist rebels in Zanzibar began their successful revolt against the government and a republic was proclaimed.

1966 - U.S. President Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there was ended.

1966 - "Batman" debuted on ABC-TV.

1967 - "Dragnet" returned to NBC-TV after being off the network schedule for eight years.

1970 - The breakaway state of Biafra capitulated and the Nigerian civil war came to an end.

1970 - Nigeria's civil war ended.

1971 - "All In the Family" debuted on CBS-TV.

1973 - Yassar Arafat was re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

1986 - Space shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.

1991 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing President Bush to use military power to force Iraq out of Kuwait.

1995 - Northern Ireland Secretary Patrick Mayhew announced that as of January 16 British troops would no longer carry out daylight street patrols in Belfast.

1998 - Tyson Foods Inc. pled guilty to giving $12,000 to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Tyson was fined $6 million.

1998 - 19 European nations agreed to prohibit human cloning.

1998 - Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

1999 - Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball was sold at auction in New York for $3 million to an anonymous bidder.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.

2000 - Charlotte Hornets guard Bobby Phills was killed in a crash during a drag race.

2005 - NASA launched "Deep Impact". The spacecraft was planned to impact on Comet Tempel 1 after a six-month, 268 million-mile journey.

January 13, 2012

1128 - Pope Honorius II granted a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar. He declared it to be an army of God.

1794 - U.S. President Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.

1854 - Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, PA, patented the accordion.

1893 - Britain's Independent Labor Party, a precursor to the current Labor Party, met for the first time.

1898 - Emile Zola's "J'accuse" was published in Paris.

1900 - In Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph decreed that German would be the language of the imperial army to combat Czech nationalism.

1906 - Hugh Gernsback, of the Electro Importing Company, advertised radio receivers for sale for the price of just $7.50 in "Scientific American" magazine.

1928 - Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television.

1942 - Henry Ford patented the plastic automobile, which allowed for a 30% decrease in car weight.

1957 - Wham-O began producing "Pluto Platters." This marked the true beginning of production of the flying disc.

1962 - Ernie Kovacs died in a car crash in west Los Angeles, CA.

1966 - Elizabeth Montgomery’s character, Samantha, on "Bewitched," had a baby. The baby's name was Tabitha.

1966 - Robert C. Weaver became the first black Cabinet member when he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by U.S. President Johnson.

1982 - An Air Florida 737 crashed into the capital's 14th Street Bridge after takeoff and fell into the Potomac River. 78 people were killed.

1984 - Wayne Gretzky extended his NHL consecutive scoring streak to 45 games.

1986 - The NCAA adopted the controversial "Proposal 48," which set standards for Division 1 freshman eligibility.

1986 - "The Wall Street Journal" printed a real picture on its front page. The journal had not done this in nearly 10 years. The story was about artist, O. Winston Link and featured one of his works.

1989 - Bernhard H. Goetz was sentenced to one year in prison for possession of an unlicensed gun that he used to shoot four youths he claimed were about to rob him. He was freed the following September.

1990 - L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, the nation's first elected black governor, took the oath of office in Richmond.

1992 - Japan apologized for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

1997 - Debbie Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - NBC agreed to pay almost $13 million for each episode of the TV show E.R. It was the highest amount ever paid for a TV show.

1998 - ABC and ESPN negotiated to keep "Monday Night Football" for $1.15 billion a season.

1998 - One of the 110 missing episodes of the British TV show "Doctor Who" was found in New Zealand.

1999 - Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) announced his retirement from the NBA.

2002 - The exhibit "In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." opened at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. More than 100 artists supplied the collection of 120 works of art.

2002 - Japan and Singapore signed a free trade pact that would remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between the two countries.

2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush fainted after choking on a pretzel.

2009 - Ethiopian military forces began pulling out of Somalia, where they had tried to maintain order for nearly two years.

January 16, 2012

1547 - Ivan the Terrible was crowned Czar of Russia.

1572 - The Duke of Norfolk was tried for treason for complicity in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. He was executed on June 2.

1759 - The British Museum opened.

1809 - The British defeated the French at the Battle of Corunna, in the Peninsular War.

1866 - Mr. Everett Barney patented the metal screw, clamp skate.

1883 - The United States Civil Service Commission was established as the Pendleton Act went into effect.

1896 - The first five-player college basketball game was played at Iowa City, IA.

1900 - The U.S. Senate consented to the Anglo-German treaty of 1899, by which the U.K. renounced rights to the Samoan islands.

1919 - The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages, was ratified. It was later repealed by the 21st Amendment.

1920 - Prohibition went into effect in the U.S.

1920 - The motion picture "The Kid" opened.

1925 - Leon Trotsky was dismissed as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of the USSR.

1939 - The "I Love a Mystery" debuted on NBC’s West-Coast outlets.

1944 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Allied invasion force in London.

1961 - Mickey Mantle signed a contract that made him the highest paid baseball player in the American League at $75,000 for the 1961 season.

1964 - "Hello Dolly!" opened at the St. James Theatre in New York City.

1970 - Colonel Muammar el-Quaddafi became virtual president of Libya.

1970 - Buckminster Fuller, the designer of the geodesic dome, was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects.

1979 - The Shah of Iran and his family fled Iran for Egypt.

1982 - Britain and the Vatican resumed full diplomatic relations after a break of over 400 years.

1985 - "Playboy" magazine announced its 30-year tradition of stapling centerfold models in the bellybutton and elsewhere would come to an immediate end.

1988 - Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was fired as a CBS sports commentator one day after telling a TV station in Washington, DC, that, during the era of slavery, blacks had been bred to produce stronger offspring.

1998 - Researchers announce that an altered gene helped to defend against HIV.

1991 - The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm. The operation was designed to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

1992 - Officials of the government of El Salvador and rebel leaders signed a pact in Mexico City ending 12 years of civil war. At least 75,000 people were killed during the fighting.

1997 - Bill Cosby's only son, Ennis, 27, was shot to death while changing a flat tire on a dark road in Los Angeles, CA.

1998 - The first woman to enroll at Virginia Military Institute withdrew from the school.

1998 - NASA officially announced that John Glenn would fly aboard the space shuttle Discovery in October.

1998 - It was announced that Texas would receive $15.3 billion in a tobacco industry settlement. The payouts were planned to take place over 25 years.

1998 - Three federal judges secretly granted Kenneth Starr authority to probe whether U.S. President Clinton or Vernon Jordan urged Monica Lewinsky to lie about her relationship with Clinton.

1999 - At least 37 bodies were found mutilated of executed in southern Kosovo. They were all in civilian clothing. This occurred one day after a fierce attack by Serb forces.

2000 - A truck loaded with evaporated milk was rammed into California's state capitol building in Sacramento, CA. The driver was killed in the incident.

2000 - Ricardo Lagos was elected Chile's first socialist president since Salvador Allende.

2002 - In Grundy, VA, student killed three and wounding three others at the Appalachian School of Law.

2002 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that John Walker Lindh would be brought to the United States to face trial.

He was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA, with conspiracy to kill U.S.citizens, providing support to terrorist organizations, and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban of Afghanistan.

2002 - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted sanctions against Osama bin Laden, his terror network and the remnants of the Taliban.

2009 - The iTunes music Store reached 500 million applications downloaded.

January 17, 2012

1377 - The Papal See was transferred from Avignon in France back to Rome.

1562 - French Protestants were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain.

1773 - Captain Cook's Resolution became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle.

1795 - The Dudingston Curling Society was organized in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1806 - James Madison Randolph, grandson of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, was the first child born in the White House.

1852 - The independence of the Transvaal Boers was recognized by Britain.

1871 - Andrew S. Hallidie received a patent for a cable car system.

1882 - Thomas Edison's exhibit opened the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London.

1893 - Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.

1900 - The U.S. took Wake Island where there was in important cable link between Hawaii and Manila.

1900 - Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaimed their independence from Mexico.

1900 - Mormon Brigham Roberts was denied a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for his practicing of polygamy.

1905 - Punchboards were patented by a manufacturing firm in Chicago, IL.

1912 - English explorer Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole. Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by one month. Scott and his party died during the return trip.

1913 - All partner interests in 36 Golden Rule Stores were consolidated and incorporated in Utah into one company. The new corporation was the J.C. Penney Company.

1916 - The Professional Golfers Association was formed in New York City.

1928 - The fully automatic, film-developing machine was patented by A.M. Josepho.

1934 - Ferdinand Porsche submitted a design for a people's car, a "Volkswagen," to the new German Reich government.

1938 - "Stepmother" debuted on CBS radio.

1945 - Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II.

1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody. Wallenberg was credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews.

1946 - The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting.

1949 - "The Goldbergs" debuted on CBS-TV. The program had been on radio since 1931. The TV version lasted for four years.

1959 - Senegal and the French Sudan joined to form the Federal State of Mali.

1961 - In his farewell address, U.S. President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."

1966 - A B-52 carrying four H-bombs collided with a refuelling tanker. The bombs were released and eight crewmembers were killed.

1977 - Double murderer Gary Gilmore became the first to be executed in the U.S. in a decade. The firing squad took place at Utah State Prison.

1985 - Leonard Nimoy got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1991 - Coalition airstrikes began against Iraq after negotiations failed to get Iraq to retreat from the country of Kuwait.

1992 - An IRA bomb, placed next to a remote country road in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, killed seven building workers and injured seven others.

1994 - The Northridge earthquake rocked Los Angeles, CA, registering a 6.7 on the Richter Scale. At least 61 people were killed and about $20 billion in damage was caused.

1995 - More than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.

1997 - A court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.

1997 - Israel gave over 80% of Hebron to Palestinian rule, but held the remainder where several hundred Jewish settlers lived among 20,000 Palestinians.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton gave his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him. He was the first U.S. President to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil lawsuit.

2000 - British pharmaceutical companies Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC agreed to a merger that created the world's largest drugmaker.

2001 - Congo's President Laurent Kabila was shot and killed during a coup attempt. Congolese officials temporarily placed Kabila's son in charge of the government.

2001 - The director of Palestinian TV, Hisham Miki, was killed at a restaurant when three masked gunmen walked up to his table and shot him more than 10 times.

2002 - It was announced that Microsoft had signed a joint venture agreement to produce software with two partners in China. The two partners were Beijin Centergate Technologies (Holding) Co. and the Stone Group.

January 17, 2012