EVENTS
- 1620 – The Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock.
- 1846 – Anesthesia was used for the first time in Britain during an operation at University College Hospital in London performed by Robert Liston who amputated the leg of a servant.
- 1872 – Phileas Fogg wins his wager. The fictional character created by French writer Jules Verne for his book, Around the World in Eighty Days, finished circumnavigating the world and reached London to win the wager he had set with his friends. The date also coincides with the publication of the last of the series that ended up becoming the now popular science fiction novel.
- 1913 – The first crossword puzzle is published
- 1937 – The film ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ first premiers.
- 1945 – World War II General George Patton died in Germany following a car accident. He had been injured on December 9th near Mannheim and was taken to a hospital in Heidelberg where he died. He was buried in Luxembourg. Nicknamed “Old Blood and Guts,” he once stated during the war, “We shall attack and attack until we are exhausted, and then we shall attack again.”
- 1958 – Charles de Gaulle is elected President of France
- 1965 – International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination adopted. The human rights convention was adopted by the United Nations’ member states and was put into force on January 4, 1969. It attempts to eliminate racial discrimination in the world.
- 1972 – East and West Germany established diplomatic ties, ending nearly two decades of Cold War hostility and paving the way for international recognition of East Germany.
- 1988 – Pan American Flight 103 exploded in midair as the result of a terrorist bomb and crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 passengers and crew members along with 11 persons on the ground were killed.
- 1993 – The KGB (Soviet Secret Police) organization was abolished by Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
- 1995 – Palestinians take control of Bethlehem. Isreali troops withdrew from the city under the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip signed in September 1995. The city was under a British mandate from 1920 to 1948, and then it was captured by Jordan during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Most recently, it was taken over by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1118 – Thomas Becket (English archbishop)
- 1804 – British statesman Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was born in London (He led the Tory Party and twice held the post of prime minister (He was instrumental in the expansion of the British Empire into India and the Middle East during the reign of Queen Victoria (He also pioneered the concept of the political novel and produced such works as Vivian Grey, Coningsby, and Lothair.
- 1879 – Soviet Russia leader Josef Stalin (1879-1953) was born in the village of Gori in Georgia, Russia (as Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili).
- 1926 – Joe Paterno (Penn State Football Coach)
- 1940 – Frank Zappa (American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer)
- 1948 – Samuel L. Jackson (Actor)
- 1954 – Chris Evert (Tennis player)
- 1957 – Ray Romano (Actor)
- 1959 – Florence Griffith Joyner (Gold Medal Track star)
- 1966 – Keifer Sutherland (Actor)
- 1982 – Philip Humber (American baseball player)
DEATHS
- 72 – Thomas the Apostle
- 1935 – Kurt Tucholsky (German journalist)
- 1940 – F. Scott Fitzgerald (American author)
- 1945 – George S (Patton (American general)
- 1963 – Jack Hobbs (English cricketer)