EVENTS
- 1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicated King Henry VIII after he had declared himself supreme head of the Church in England.
- 1777 – At Valley Forge in Pennsylvania, the Continental Army led by General George Washington settled in for the winter.
- 1790 – Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone. Also known as the Stone of the Five Eras, the sculpture was excavated in Mexico City.
- 1843 – Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is first published.
- 1903 – The Wright Brothers make the first powered heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
- 1971 – The war between India and Pakistan over East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) ended as 90,000 Pakistani troops surrendered.
- 1989 – The first episode of ‘The Simpsons’ airs on television.
- 2003 – ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ is released worldwide. The film was based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien.
- 2010 – The beginning of the Arab Spring. The multi-country protests and demands for change in the Arab world are thought to have begun with street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia. Bouazizi’s attempt and death 18 days later was the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution which forced then-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down from his post.
- 2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. The Tunisian street vendor self-immolated as a protest against the economic conditions in Tunisia. He died 18 days after at the age of 26. His protest and death were a catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and similar revolutions and protests around the Arab world.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1760 – Deborah Sampson (1760-1827) was born in Plympton, Massachusetts. During the American Revolutionary War, she disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Continental Army under the name Robert Shurtleff. Although she was wounded in battle, she was not discovered until a severe fever unmasked her identity. She was dismissed from the army in 1783. In later life, she lectured professionally on her wartime experiences.
- 1770 – Ludwig van Beethoven (German pianist, composer)
- 1778 – Humphry Davy (English chemist, physicist)
- 1807 – Poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts (His books of poetry include Legends of New England and Snowbound.
- 1936 – Pope Francis (Current Pope of the Catholic Church)
- 1945 – Ernie Hudson (Actor)
- 1946 – Eugene Levy (Actor)
- 1973 – Paula Radcliffe (English runner)
- 1975 – Milla Jovovich (Actress and Model)
- 1978 – Manny Pacquiao (Filipino boxer, politician)
- 1978 – Chase Utley (Baseball Player)
- 1978 – Manny Pacquiao (Boxer)
DEATHS
- 1273 – Rumi (Persian mystic, poet)
- 1830 – Simón Bolívar (Venezuelan commander)
- 1933 – 13th Dalai Lama
- 2010 – Captain Beefheart (American singer-songwriter)
- 2011 – Kim Jong-il (North Korean politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea)