EVENTS
- 1718 – France declares war on Spain
- 1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
- 1893 – Auguste Vaillant bombs the French Chamber of Deputies. Auguste Vaillant, a French anarchist, bombed the French Chamber of Deputies. No one was hurt in the attack, but Vaillant was sentenced and executed for his actions.
- 1941 – During World War II, China issued a formal declaration of war against Japan, Germany and Italy.
- 1948 – The United Nations General Assembly unanimously approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It took effect on January 12, 1951, following ratification by 20 member nations.
- 1958 – The John Birch Society was founded in the U.S. by Robert H.W. Welch as an anti-Communist political organization named for Capt. John Birch, a U.S. Army officer killed in 1945 by Chinese Communists.
- 1960 – First episode of ‘Coronation Street’ airs. The longest running TV soap opera, this British production follows the life of people living on Coronation Street, a fictional street in a fictional suburb of Manchester.
- 1961 – Tanganyika gains independence. The Republic of Tanganyika was administered by the British from 1916 until 1961. Part of German East Africa, the territory was officially handed over to the British by League of Nations mandate in 1922. The Republic was short-lived. In April 1964, it joined the People’s Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which became the United Republic of Tanzania in 1965.
- 1965 – ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ premieres on television.
- 1979 – Smallpox declared eradicated. The World Health Organization officially certified that after a number of concentrated vaccination campaigns around the world smallpox had been eradicated. Only two infectious diseases have been completely eradicated in history; the other is Rinderpest, which is an infectious disease of cattle that was eradicated in 2011.
- 1984 – NFL player Eric Dickerson rushes 215 yards for season record 2,003 yards
- 1985 – Jerry Rice begins an NFL streak of 100+ consecutive games with a reception
- 1987 – Boston Celtic Larry Bird, ends streak of 59 consecutive NBA free throws
- 1990 – Lech Walesa won a landslide victory in the Polish presidential election.
- 1992 – Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Prince Charles and Princess of Wales, Diana.
- 1993 – A five-day repair job in space on the $3 billion Hubble Space Telescope was finished by U.S. astronauts.
- 1994 – Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Army’s political wing, held its first formal talks with Britain in over 70 years.
- 1998 – Swiss politicians elected Interior Minister Ruth Dreifuss as president, making her the first woman to lead the Swiss government.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1608 – John Milton (Poet – Paradise Lost)
- 1886 – American industrialist Clarence Birdseye (1886-1956) was born in Brooklyn, New York. He developed a method of deep-freezing foods and was one of the founders of General Foods Corp.
- 1895 – Dolores Ibárruri (Spanish politician)
- 1916 – Kirk Douglas (Actor)
- 1934 – Judy Dench (Actress)
- 1942 – Dick Butkus (Football Player)
- 1953 – John Malkovich (Actor)
- 1957 – Donny Osmond (Singer)
- 1968 – Kurt Angle (American wrestler, actor)
DEATHS
- 1437 – Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1941 – Dmitry Merezhkovsky (Russian author, poet, philosopher)
- 1979 – Fulton J. Sheen (American archbishop)
- 1998 – Archie Moore (American boxer)
- 2012 – Patrick Moore (English astronomer, television host)