December
December 1
Worlds AIDS Day
-1589: Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene was registered for publication.
-1860: The first installment of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations appeared in the magazine All the Year Round. A few chapters of Great Expectations were published weekly from December 1, 1860 through August 3, 1861, and about a hundred thousand copies of his magazine were sold each week. It has remained one of Dickens' most popular novels.
-1877: Popular novelist Rex Beach was born in Atwood, Michigan.
-1886: American detective novelist Rex Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana.
-1935: Film director, actor, writer Woody Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in New York City.
December 2
-1859: Abolitionist John Brown dies
-1981: Britney Spears, pop singer and performer, was born in Kentwood, LA.
-1988: Benazir Bhutto becomes first female prime minister of Pakistan
December 3
-1857: Novelist Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Ukraine, in a region that had once been part of Poland.
-1947: Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire premiered in New York City.
-1965: Katerina Witt, figure skater, was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, Germany.
December 4
-1795: Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle was born in the village of Ecclefechan, Scotland.
-1835: English novelist Samuel Butler was born in Nottinghamshire, England.
-1861: Actress/singer Lillian Russell was born.
-1892: Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco was born.
-1893: English writer Herbert Read was born in Yorkshire, England.
-1921: Actress Deanna Durbin was born.
-1937: Actors Max Baer Jr. was born.
-1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered liquidation of the Works Progress Administration, created during the Depression to provide work for the unemployed.
-1948: Rock Star Ozzy Osbourne was born.
-1949: Jeff Bridges was born.
-1951: Actresses Patricia Wettig was born.
-1960: Actress Julianne Moore was born.
-1964: Marisa Tomei was born.
-1967: First Human heart transplant was carried out.
-1971: India joined East Pakistan in its war for independence from West Pakistan. East Pakistan became the republic of Bangladesh.
-1973: Model Tyra Banks was born.
-1985: National security adviser Robert McFarlane resigned. President Reagan named Vice Adm. John Poindexter to succeed him.
-1991: Former Lincoln Savings & Loan Association chairman Charles Keating was convicted on 17 counts of securities fraud.
-1991: American Terry Anderson was freed by his pro-Iranian captors after 6 years. He was the last U.S. hostage held in the Middle East.
-1992: President Bush ordered U.S. troops into Somalia.
-1995: Officials of the United Auto Workers union called an end to a largely unsuccessful 17-month-long strike against Caterpiller in Peoria, Ill.
-1996: Jonathan Schmitz was sentenced in the slaying of Scott Amedure, who had confessed to having a crush on Schmitz during the taping of "The Jenny Jones Show." The segment never aired.
-1997: Top health officials in Europe voted to ban most forms of advertising of tobacco beginning in four to five years.
-1998: The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off, carrying into orbit a U.S. component of the International Space Station.
December 5
-1782: Martin Van Buren, once governor of New York and the eighth president of the United States, was born.-1830: English poet Christina Rossetti was born in London to Italian parents.
-1892: Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.
-1901: Walt Disney, animator, producer, creator of Mickey Mouse and Disney theme parks, was born in Chicago, IL.
-1933: The 21st Amendment revoking the 18th (Prohibition) Amendment was ratified in the United States.
-1934: American writer Joan Didion was born in Sacramento, California.
-1936: Novelist James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas.
-1939: Writer John Berendt was born in Syracuse, New York.
-1955: Martin Luther King, Jr. organized the Montgomery bus boycott to protest racial segregation.
December 4
-1918: President Woodrow Wilson travels to Versailles for WWI peace talks. He was the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
-1969: Jay-Z was born.
-1973: Tyra Banks was born.
-1991: Terry Anderson was released after more than six years a hostage in Lebanon.
December 5
-1791: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies.
-1901: Walt Disney was born.
December 6
-1803: Novelist Susannah Moodie was born Susannah Strickland in Suffolk, England.
-1865: 13th Amendment of the US Constitution is ratified abolishing slavery.
-1884: Washington Monument completed.
-1886: Poet (Alfred) Joyce Kilmer was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
-1892: English essayist Sir Osbert Sitwell was born in London.
-1893: Novelist and short story writer Sylvia Townsend Warner was born in Middlesex, England.
-1896: Lyricist Ira Gershwin was born Israel Gershvin on the East Side of New York City.
-1900: Hollywood actress Agnes Moorehead was born.
-1942: Austrian avant-garde playwright and novelist Peter Handke was born in Griffen, Austria.
-1994: NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo was born.
December 7
National Slime Day
So Much Slime by Jason Lefebvre: read by June Squibb: storylineonline.net/books/so-much-slime/
with teachers guide
-1598: Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born.
-1761: Waxworks museum founder Marie Tussaud was born.
-1787: Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
-1810: German physiologist Theodor Schwann, co-originator of the cell theory and the first to use the term, was born.
-1873: Novelist Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia.
-1879: Composer Rudolph Friml ("Indian Love Call") was born.
-1888: Novelist and essayist Joyce Cary was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
-1915: Actor Eli Wallach was born.
-1923: Actor Ted Knight was born.
-1928: Linguist Noam Chomsky was born.
-1931: President Hoover refused to see a group of "hunger marchers" at the White House.
-1932: Actress Ellen Burstyn was born.
-1941: Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor killing 2,403 US personnel. Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7, "a date which will live in infamy," and he used the event as the grounds for leading the United States into World War II.
-1942: Rock/folksinger Harry Chapin was born.
-1947: Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench was born.
-1956: Former basketball player-turned-coach Larry Bird was born.
-1958: "Tonight Show" announcer Edd Hall was born.
-1966: Actor C. Thomas Howell was born.
-1972: Apollo 17 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the last manned mission to the moon.
-1986: The speaker of Iran's Parliament said his country would help free more American hostages in Lebanon in exchange for more U.S. arms.
-1987: Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Washington, D.C., the first Soviet leader to officially visit the United States since 1973.
-1988: As many as 60,000 people were killed when a powerful earthquake rocked the Soviet republic of Armenia.
-1991: On the 50th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, President Bush called for an end to recriminations and sought the healing of old wounds.
-1992: The destruction of a 16th century mosque by militant Hindus touched off five days of violence across India that left more than 1,100 people dead.
-1993: A gunman opened fire on a crowded Long Island, N.Y., commuter train, killing several persons.
-1993: Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed the United States had conducted 204 underground nuclear tests from 1963 to 1990 without informing the public.
-1993: Astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour fixed the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
-1995: A two-week-old strike by hundreds of thousands of French public-sector workers protesting planned cuts in welfare spending had spread to cities throughout France.
-1997: Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, actress Lauren Bacall and actor Charlton Heston were among those receiving awards from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
-2020: Sound barrier-breaking pilot Chich Yeager died.
December 8
Bodhi Day: The Buddha is said to have reached enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. He sat there for days, and as he did, he came to realize what would later become the founding principles of Buddhism. The anniversary of his attaining Buddhahood is called Bodhi Day and is celebrated by some (though not all) traditions of Buddhism on December 8.
-65 B.C.: The Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known as Horace was born in Apulia, Italy. He's best known today for his Odes, poems about ordinary events like drinking wine or saying goodbye to a friend.
-1765: Eli Whitney, the American inventor of the cotton gin, was born.
-1894: American writer James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio.
-1913: American poet, essayist, and fiction writer Delmore Schwartz was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
-1949: American novelist Mary Gordon was born in Far Rockaway, Long Island, New York.
-1980: Rock star John Lennon of the Beatles was shot and killed in New York City.
December 9
National Pastry Day;
Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller - read by Chris O'Dowd: storylineonline.net/books/arnie-the-doughnut/
-1608: John Milton, poet and controversialist was born in London, England.
-1848: Joel Chandler Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia.
-1905: Screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo was born in Montrose, Colorado.
-1898: Emmett Kelly, clown, was born in Sedan, Kansas.
-1916: Actor Kirk Douglas was born.
-1934: Actress Dame Judi Dench was born.
-1965: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" debut
-1979: World Health Organization declared smallpox was eradicated
-1992: U.S. troops arrived in Somalia to calm the unrest and provide famine relief.
December 10
Nobel Prize Day: https://www.nobelprize.org/
-1768: Encyclopedia Britannica was first published
-1787: Francis Gallaudet, founder of the first free school for the deaf, was born.
-1830: American poet Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
-1851: Melvil Dewey, librarian and cataloger, was born in Adams Center, N.Y. He studied at Amherst College (A.B. 1874) and his experience as a student working in the college library led him to propose his decimal-based system of classifying books. He also founded the first professional school of library services in 1887. In 1893 he and his wife, Emily, created the Lake Placid Club, which pioneered recreational winter sports.
-1869: The Territory of Wyoming granted women the right to vote.
-1891: Poet Nelly Sachs was born in Berlin.
-1896: Inventor Alfred Nobel, founder of Nobel Prizes, died.
-1898: Spanish-American War ended.
-1901: The Nobel prizes were first awarded in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden.
-1911: TV newscaster Chet Huntley was born.
-1914: Actress Dorothy Lamour was born.
-1923: Actor Harold Gould was born.
-1925: Poet Carolyn Kizer was born in Spokane, Washington.
-1927: The Grand Ole Opry made its first radio broadcast from Nashville.
-1936: Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson. His brother succeeded to the throne as King George VI.
-1941: Japanese troops landed on northern Luzon in the Philippines in the early days of World War II.
-1950: Ralph J Bunche becomes the first black person awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
-1950: William Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.
-1952: Actress Susan Dey was born.
-1960: Actor Kenneth Branaugh was born.
-1984: The National Science Foundation reported the discovery of the first planet outside our solar system, orbiting a star 21 million light years from Earth.
-1990: The communists won a major victory in the first post-war multi-party elections in the Yugoslavian republics of Serbia and Montenegro.
-1991: TV commentator Patrick Buchanan announced a bid to challenge President Bush for the Republican presidential nomination.
-1991: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law that allowed a criminal's profits for selling his story to be seized and given to his victims.
-1997: The Swiss high court ruled that $100 million of the money that had been salted away in banks by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos would be returned to the Philippine government
-2006: Chilean dictator Augusto Pnochet died.
December 11
-1781: Scottish physicist and kaleidoscope inventor David Brewster was born.
-1803: French composer Hector Berlioz was born.
-1843: German pioneer bacteriologist Robert Koch was born.
-1882: La Guardia, Fiorello (Henry), Mayor, lawyer, U.S. representative, and social activist, was born in New York City.
-1913: Italian film producer Carlo Ponti was born.
-1918: Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, Russia.
-1922: American short story writer Grace Paley was born in New York City.
-1928: Rafael Cortijo was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and he died of cancer on October 4, 1982 in the caserío Lloréns Torres at the age of 53.
-1931: Actress Rita Moreno was born.
-1931: American poet Jerome Rothenberg was born in New York City.
-1936: King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to his younger brother King George VI
-1937: Jim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan.
-1939: Thomas McGuane was born in Wyandotte, Michigan.
-1941: Germany and Italy declare war on the US.
-1943: Actress Donna Mills was born.
-1943: John Kerry was born.
-1944: Singer Brenda Lee was born.
-1949: Actress Teri Garr was born.
-1951: Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from baseball after 13 seasons with the New York Yankees.
-1953: Actor Ken Wahl (Wiseguy) was born.
-1954: Singer Jermaine Jackson was born.
-1964: Musician Sam Cooke died.
-1972: Apollo XVII astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed on the moon for a three-day exploration.
-1983: 30,000 women tried to rip down fences around a U.S. cruise missile base at Greenham Common, England.
-1984: A nativity scene was displayed near the White House for the first time since courts ordered it removed in 1973.
-1989: Bulgarian leader Peter Mladenov set a May 31 deadline for free elections in the Eastern European country. He also called for a constitution stripping the Communist Party of its guaranteed dominant role in Bulgaria.
-1991: William Kennedy Smith was acquitted on rape charges by a jury that deliberated less than 77 minutes following a 10-day televised trial.
-1992: The three major TV networks agreed on joint standards to limit entertainment violence by the start of the next fall's season.
-1992: Women priests were approved by the Church of England.
-1993: Parliamentary elections were held in Russia.
-1993: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle of the ruling center-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy won Chile's presidential election.
-1994: Up to 40,000 Russian troops invaded Chechnya, a semi-autonomous republic on Russia's border with Georgia, to put down a secessionist rebellion.
-1995: Two Japanese cult members admitted they had released the toxic sarin gas in Tokyo subway trains the previous March that killed 12 people.
-1996: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, was shot and wounded.
-1997: A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that Microsoft Corp. could not bundle Microsoft Internet Explorer with Windows 95.
-1998: The International Olympic Committee began an internal investigation into rumors that bribes had been offered by cities seeking to be chosen as sites for the Olympic games.
-2008: Model Betti Page died.
December 12
-1745: John Jay, first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was born.
-1800: Washington, D.C. was founded.
-1805: Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was born.
-1821: French novelist Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, France (1821).
-1863: Norwegian painter Edvard Munch was born.
-1870: Joseph Hayne Rainey of South Carolina was sworn in as the first black to serve in the U.S. House.
-1893: Actor Edward G. Robinson was born.
-1901: First transatlantic radio signal was sent by Guglielmo Marconi.
-1915: Singer Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
-1923: TV game show host Bob Barker was born.
-1924: Former New York Mayor Edward Koch was born.
-1929: British playwright John Osborne was born in London.
-1937: Japanese planes bombed and sank the U.S. gunboat Panay in the Yangtze River north of Nanking, China. Japan later said it was a mistake.
-1938: Singers Connie Francis was born.
-1940: Dionne Warwick was born.
-1951: Talk show host Rush Limbaugh was born.
-1952: Former Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby was born.
-1959: Musician Sheila E was born.
-1962: Former tennis player Tracy Austin was born.
-1975: Actress Mayim Bialik ("Blossom") was born.
-1981: Martial law was imposed in Poland.
-1985: The crash of an Arrow Air DC-8 military charter on takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland, killed all 256 aboard, including 248 U.S. soldiers.
-1989: Five Central American presidents, including Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, called for an end to the rebel offensive against El Salvador's U.S.-backed government.
-1990: 15 people were killed and more than 260 injured in a pileup on a foggy Tennessee highway.
-1991: The Russian parliament ratified a commonwealth treaty linking the three strongest Soviet republics in the nation's most profound change since the 1917 revolution.
-1991: North and South Korea concluded an historic agreement to reunify peacefully after 46 years of division and animosity.
-1992: Princess Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, became the first divorced royal in the inner circle to remarry when she wed Cmdr. Timothy Laurence.
-1993: Russian voters approved a new Constitution.
-1996: A French gunman took 35 hostages in a Paris office. The standoff ended without injuries.
-1998: President Clinton began a trip to the Middle East that included a visit to the new Gaza International Airport in Palestinian territory.
-2000: Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore certifies George W. Bush as president.
December 13
National Day of the Horse
Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Marten J. & John Archambault - Read by Bonnie Bartlett & William Daniels: storylineonline.net/books/knots-on-a-counting-rope/
-1577: Sir Francis Drake embarked on a voyage to circumnavigate the globe.
-1642: Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand.
-1797: German poet Heinrich Heine was born in Dusseldorf, Germany.
-1816: The nation's first savings bank, the Provident Institution for Savings, opened in Boston.
-1835: Clergyman Phillips Brooks, who wrote the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was born.
-1862: An estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded in a battle with Confederate troops outside Fredericksburg, Va.
-1887: World War I hero Sergeant Alvin York was born.
-1910: Actor Van Heflin was born.
-1915: Mystery novelist Ross Macdonald was born Kenneth Millar in Los Gatos, California.
-1920: Former Secretary of State George Shultz was born.
-1925: Comedian/actor Dick Van Dyke was born.
-1927: American poet James Wright was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio.
-1929: Actor Christopher Plummer was born.
-1941: Singer/actor John Davidson was born.
-1948: Rock singer Ted Nugent was born.
-1948: Rock critic Lester Bangs was born in Escondido, California.
-1950: Actors Wendy Malick was born.
-1958: Steve Buscemi was born.
-1963: Football player and novelist Tim Green was born near Syracuse, New York.
-1967: Jamie Foxx was born.
-1982: The Sentry armored car company in New York discovered the overnight theft of $11 million from its headquarters. It was the biggest cash theft in U.S. history.
-1990: The last of the U.S. hostages being held by Iraq, five diplomats in Kuwait, flew to freedom.
-1990: Troops were rushed to Soviet Georgia and a state of emergency was imposed after inter-ethnic violence killed three people.
-1991: The leaders of the Central American countries held a summit meeting and agreed to pledge $4.5 billion to fight poverty.
-1992: Ricky Ray, 15, one of three hemophiliac brothers barred from attending a Florida school because they had the AIDS virus, died.
-1993: In Canada, Kim Campbell resigned as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.
-1997: The Getty Center museum complex, built on a hilltop overlooking Los Angeles, was officially opened.
-1998: In a non-binding plebiscite giving Puerto Ricans the opportunity to express a preference as to the future of political status of the island, the "none of the above" option was supported by 50 percent of voters -- indicating that most wished to retain Puerto Rico's current status as a U.S. commonwealth.
December 14
-1919: Novelist and short story writer Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco.
-1945: Stanley Crouch was born in Los Angeles, California.
-1951: Amy Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois.
December 15
-1791: Bill of Rights Day, which commemorates the passage of the first 10 amendments.
-1932: Irish writer Edna O'Brien was born in County Clare in the west of Ireland.
December 16
-955: 18-year-old Ottaviano, the only son of Duke Alberic II of Spoleto, who ruled Rome, became Pope John XII when his father ordered his election.
-1485: Catherine of Aragon was born. The first wife of King Henry VIII of England, Catherine was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
-1770: Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, was born in Bonn, Germany.
-1773: Boston Tea Pary Day
-1775: Jane Austen was born in the parish of Steventon in Hampshire, England.
-1863: Philosopher and poet George Santayana was born in Madrid.
-1917: Arthur C. Clarke was born in Somerset, England.
December 17
-1760: American Revolutionary War soldier Deborah Sampson, who fought as a man under the alias Robert Shurtleff, was born.
-1770: Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized on this day in Bonn. No one knows when he was born.
-1790: The Aztec Calendar or Solar Stone was uncovered by workmen repairing Mexico City’s Central Plaza.
-1807: Poet John Greenleaf Whittier was born.
-1894: Arthur Fiedler, conductor, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
-1903: The Wright brothers made the world's first flight in a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine that cost about $1000 to build. With Orville at the controls and Wilbur on the ground, the plane flew 120 feet in twelve seconds in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
-1925: Army Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell, outspoken advocate of a separate U.S. Air Force, was found guilty of conduct prejudicial to the good of the armed services. He was awarded the Medal of Honor 20 years after his death.
-1929: Journalist William Safire was born in New York City.
-1930: Publisher Bob Guccione was born.
-1936: British singer/actor Tommy Steele was born.
-1939: The Nazi warship Graf Spee was scuttled off the coast of Uruguay as British vessels pursued it.
-1945: Actor Ernie Hudson ("Ghostbusters") was born.
-1946: Comedian Eugene Levy ("Second City TV") was born.
-1954: Actor Bill Pullman ("Independence Day") was born.
-1967: The Clean Air Act was passed by Congress.
-1981: American Brig. Gen. James Dozier was kidnapped in Rome by Italy's Red Brigades. He was freed 42 days later in a raid by Italian anti-terrorist forces.
-1986: A Las Vegas federal jury awarded entertainer Wayne Newton $19.3 million in his defamation suit against NBC. A judge later reduced the award to $5.3 million.
-1986: A federal jury in Detroit cleared automaker John DeLorean of all 15 charges in his fraud and racketeering trial.
-1990: Secretary of State Baker told NATO that Iraq might withdraw from Kuwait around the Jan. 15 deadline. NATO rejected the partial solution.
-1991: 15 people were killed and 20 wounded in clashes between Soviet troops and guerrillas in a disputed Armenian enclave.
-1992: Israel tried to deport hundreds of Palestinians to Lebanon but Beirut closed the border, trapping them in the Israeli-controlled "security zone."
-1992: President Bush formally signed the North American Free Trade Treaty simultaneously with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.
-1993: President Clinton acknowledged the $500 million gift of philanthropist Walter Annenberg to public-education reform.
-1994: North Korea said it shot down a U.S. Army helicopter in North Korean airspace, killing one pilot. The second pilot was reportedly uninjured but was held in North Korea.
-1996: The United Nations elected Kofi Annan of Ghana the new secretary-general.
-1997: New Jersey became the first state in the United States to permit homosexual couples to adopt children.
-1998: The U.N. World Meteorological Organization said 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded.
December 18
-1708: Playwright Christopher Fry was born in Bristol, England.
-1708: Hymn writer Charles Wesley was born in Epworth, England.
-1778: Joseph Grimaldi, known as the "greatest clown in history," was born.
-1856: English physicist Joseph Thompson, discoverer of the electron, was born.
-1865: Slavery abolished by 13th Amendment in the United States.
-1870: British short story writer Saki was born Hector Hugh Munro in Akyab, Burma.
-1879: Swiss modernist painter Paul Klee was born.
-1886: Baseball pitcher Tyrus "Ty" Cobb was born.
-1904: Film director George Stevens ("Giant") was born.
-1913: West German statesman Willy Brandt was born.
-1915: President Wilson, a widower for one year, married the widow Edith Bolling Galt.
-1916: Actress Betty Grable was born.
-1917: Actor Ossie Davis was born.
-1943: Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was born.
-1946: Steven Spielberg, academy award winning film director, was born in Cincinnati, OH.
-1950: Movie critic Leonard Maltin was born.
-1955: Actors Ray Liotta was born.
-1964: Brad Pitt was born.
-1966: Kiefer Sutherland was born.
-1969: Singer Tiny Tim, 44, married 17-year-old Miss Vicky Budinger on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show."
-1972: The United States resumed heavy bombing and mining operations against North Vietnam after the communists refused to agree to end the war.
-1978: Katie Holmes ("Dawson's Creek") was born.
-1980: Singer Christina Aguilera was born.
-1985: Congress approved the biggest overhaul of farm legislation since the Depression, trimming price supports.
-1989: A pipe bomb killed Savannah, Ga., City Councilman Robert Robinson, hours after a pipe bomb is discovered at the Atlanta federal courthouse. A racial motive was cited in a rash of bomb incidents.
-1989: The Romanian government sealed the borders amid reports of a deadly crackdown on dissidents.
-1989: The United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of General Manuel Noriega.
-1990: Moldavia became the sixth Soviet republic to refuse to participate in a 10-day meeting in a mounting affront to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
-1991: General Motors announced it would close 21 plants and eliminate 74,000 jobs in the next four years to offset record losses.
-1993: Vice President Gore wrapped up a tour of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia -- during which he signed a series of agreements.
-1996: New rating codes were announced for American television programs.
-1997: South Koreans elected longtime leftist opposition leader Kim Dae Jong president, marking the first time in the nation's history that a member of the opposition had defeated a candidate of the New Korea Party and its predecessors.
-1997: The six-mile-long Tokyo Bay tunnel connecting the cities of Kawasaki and Kisarazu opened. The project took 8 1/2 years to complete and cost $17 billion.
December 19
-1777: Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army began a winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pa.
-1820: Women's suffrage leader Mary Livermore was born.
-1843: Charles Dickens published Christmas Carol, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge.
-1861: Italo Svevo was born Aron Hector Schmitz in Trieste.
-1861: Constance Garnett was born Constance Black in Brighton, England.
-1868: Novelist Eleanor Porter ("Pollyanna") was born.
-1875: The father of Black history, Carter G Woodson was born.
-1902: Actor Ralph Richardson was born.
-1906: Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev was born.
-1910: French dramatist Jean Genet, a pioneer in the theater of the absurd, was born.
-1933: Actors Cicely Tyson was born.
-1944: Tim Reid was born.
-1946: Robert Urich was born.
-1958: The U.S. satellite Atlas transmitted the first radio voice broadcast from space, a 58-word recorded Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower.
-1963: Jennifer Beals was born.
-1972: Alyssa Milano was born.
-1972: The splashdown of Apollo XVII ended America's manned moon exploration program.
-1984: The United States formally withdrew from UNESCO in a effort to force reform of the U.N. cultural organization's budget and alleged Third World bias.
-1984: The prime ministers of Britain and China signed an accord, returning Hong Kong to China in 1997.
-1986: Attorney General Edwin Meese said President Reagan did NOT know that money Iran paid for U.S. arms was going to Nicaraguan rebels.
-1990: A judge in Oshkosh, Wis., dismissed the case against a man convicted of sex assault against a woman with at least 46 personalities.
-1991: The Bank of Credit and Commerce International agreed to plead guilty to federal racketeering charges, forfeiting $550 million.
-1996: O.J. Simpson was called to the witness stand in his civil trial for damages in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
-1997: The motion picture "Titanic" opened in U.S. theaters to generally favorable reviews.
-1998: President Clinton became only the second U.S. president to be impeached when the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The allegations stemmed from the actions he took to conceal his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
-1998: House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston, R-La, announced he would not be a candidate and would be leaving Congress. Two days earlier, Livingston admitted he'd had extra-marital affairs "on occasion."
December 20
-1803: Louisiana Purchase Day, the anniversary of the transfer of the Louisiana Territory from France, which doubled the size of the United States.
-1911: Novelist and short story writer Hortense Calisher was born in Manhattan.
-1989: U.S. troops invaded Panama after Manuel Noriega refused to give up power.
December 21
Winter Solstice, the shortest period of daylight for the Northern Hemisphere
Brave Irene by William Steig - Read by Al Gore: storylineonline.net/books/brave-irene/
-1620: The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock on the shores of Massachusetts.
-1804: Benjamin Disraeli was born in London.
-1879: Joseph Stalin was born in the village of Gori, Georgia.
-1913: Although the origins of the crossword puzzle can be traced to nineteenth century children's books, journalist Arthur Wynne is credited with creating the first modern crossword puzzle. It appeared in New York World on December 21, 1913 and soon became a regular feature.
-1917: German novelist Heinrich Boll was born in Cologne, Germany.
-1937: Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered.
-1988: A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
December 22
-1869: Poet Edward Arlington Robinson was born in Head Tide, Maine.
-1905: Poet Kenneth Rexroth was born in South Bend, Indiana.
December 23
-1790: The founder of scientific Egyptology, Jean Francois Champollion, born in Figeac, France.
-1860: Poet and editor Harriet Monroe was born in Chicago, Illinois.
-1926: Poet, translator and editor Robert Bly was born in Madison, Minnesota.
December 24
-1822: Victorian poet Matthew Arnold was born in Middlesex, England.
-1823: The poem, now known as "The Night Before Christmas," was first published anonymously in a small newspaper in Upstate New York in 1823, and its original title was "Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas." It was a huge success, and it has been published in book form so many times that it now exists in more editions than any other Christmas book ever printed. Fourteen years after its first publication, an editor attributed the poem to a wealthy professor of classical literature named Clement Clarke Moore.
-1926: The first singing radio commercial aired and it was for Wheaties, which had been introduced by General Mills in 1921.
-1931: Suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark was born in New York City. She's the author of many novels, including Weep No More, My Lady (1987), Loves Music, Loves to Dance (1991) and Mount Vernon Love Story (2002).
-1950: Poet and essayist Dana Gioia was born in Los Angeles.
-1992, President Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
December 25
Christmas
Christmas is Christianity's celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, its Messiah. On the Western calendar Christmas is December 25 (some Eastern Orthodox traditions celebrate January 7). The "twelve days of Christmas," they run from Christmas Day to Epiphany on January 6. Advent is a four-Sunday season to prepare for the coming of Christmas.
The Elves and the Shoemaker by Brothers Grimm & Jim LaMarche - Read by Chrissy Metz: storylineonline.net/books/the-elves-and-the-shoemaker/
-1642: Mathematician Sir Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, England. One of the most important scientists of all time, he established the laws of motion, he developed the first theory of gravity, and he invented calculus.
-1775: Washington crossed the Delaware.
December 26
Boxing Day and St. Stephen's Day in England, Canada, and several other countries.
St. Stephen is honored today as the first Christian martyr, having been stoned to death for blasphemy.
-1792: The inventor of the first calculating machine, Charles Babbage, was born in London, England.
-1822: Louis Pasteur, French Chemist and microbiologist, was born.
-1848: William and Ellen Craft escaped from slavery in Georgia.
-1891: Author Henry Miller was born in New York City.
-1928: A. A. Milne's classic House at Pooh Corner is published.
December 27
-1874: Novelist and playwright Zona Gale was born in Portage, Wisconsin.
-1896: Author Louis Bromfield was born in Mansfield, Ohio.
-1930: Novelist Wilfrid Sheed was born in London, England.
-1979: Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.
December 28
-1856: Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth U.S. president was born in Staunton, VA.
-1902: Philosopher, educator, and author Mortimer J. Adler was born in New York City.
-1911: Author and humorist Sam Levenson was born in New York City.
-1922: Comic book writer Stan Lee was born Stanley Lieber in New York.
-1927: Novelist Simon Raven was born in London.
-1932: Novelist Manuel Puig was born in Vallegas, Argentina.
-1981: Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.
-1997: Terry Nichols was found guilty of conspiracy of manslaughter in the Oklahoma City bombing.
December 29
-1800: Inventor Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
-1808: The 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in a two-room log cabin to nearly illiterate parents.
-1849: The Christmas carol "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," written by Edmund Sears, was published in The Christian Register. Sears hoped the song would promote "peace on earth, good will toward men."
-1915: Science fiction writer Charles L. Harness was born in Colorado City, Texas.
-1915: Novelist and essayist Robert Ruark was born in Wilmington, North Carolina
-1934: Mary Tyler Moore, television actress, was born in New York City. Star of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
-1954: Actor Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, NY.
December 30
-1865: Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India.
-1869: Stephen Leacock was born in Hampshire, England.
-1910: Paul Bowles was born in New York City.
December 31
-1790: Catherine Read Williams was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
-1869: Artist Henri Matisse, born in Le Cateau, France.
-1897: A solemn ceremony was held to commemorate the final day of the existence of the city of Brooklyn before its incorporation into New York City. The rest of the city was jubilant; crowds gathered, fireworks were set off everywhere, and bands played "The One New York Two-Step."
Worlds AIDS Day
-1589: Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene was registered for publication.
-1860: The first installment of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations appeared in the magazine All the Year Round. A few chapters of Great Expectations were published weekly from December 1, 1860 through August 3, 1861, and about a hundred thousand copies of his magazine were sold each week. It has remained one of Dickens' most popular novels.
-1877: Popular novelist Rex Beach was born in Atwood, Michigan.
-1886: American detective novelist Rex Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana.
-1935: Film director, actor, writer Woody Allen was born Allan Stewart Konigsberg in New York City.
December 2
-1859: Abolitionist John Brown dies
-1981: Britney Spears, pop singer and performer, was born in Kentwood, LA.
-1988: Benazir Bhutto becomes first female prime minister of Pakistan
December 3
-1857: Novelist Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Ukraine, in a region that had once been part of Poland.
-1947: Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire premiered in New York City.
-1965: Katerina Witt, figure skater, was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, Germany.
December 4
-1795: Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle was born in the village of Ecclefechan, Scotland.
-1835: English novelist Samuel Butler was born in Nottinghamshire, England.
-1861: Actress/singer Lillian Russell was born.
-1892: Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco was born.
-1893: English writer Herbert Read was born in Yorkshire, England.
-1921: Actress Deanna Durbin was born.
-1937: Actors Max Baer Jr. was born.
-1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered liquidation of the Works Progress Administration, created during the Depression to provide work for the unemployed.
-1948: Rock Star Ozzy Osbourne was born.
-1949: Jeff Bridges was born.
-1951: Actresses Patricia Wettig was born.
-1960: Actress Julianne Moore was born.
-1964: Marisa Tomei was born.
-1967: First Human heart transplant was carried out.
-1971: India joined East Pakistan in its war for independence from West Pakistan. East Pakistan became the republic of Bangladesh.
-1973: Model Tyra Banks was born.
-1985: National security adviser Robert McFarlane resigned. President Reagan named Vice Adm. John Poindexter to succeed him.
-1991: Former Lincoln Savings & Loan Association chairman Charles Keating was convicted on 17 counts of securities fraud.
-1991: American Terry Anderson was freed by his pro-Iranian captors after 6 years. He was the last U.S. hostage held in the Middle East.
-1992: President Bush ordered U.S. troops into Somalia.
-1995: Officials of the United Auto Workers union called an end to a largely unsuccessful 17-month-long strike against Caterpiller in Peoria, Ill.
-1996: Jonathan Schmitz was sentenced in the slaying of Scott Amedure, who had confessed to having a crush on Schmitz during the taping of "The Jenny Jones Show." The segment never aired.
-1997: Top health officials in Europe voted to ban most forms of advertising of tobacco beginning in four to five years.
-1998: The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off, carrying into orbit a U.S. component of the International Space Station.
December 5
-1782: Martin Van Buren, once governor of New York and the eighth president of the United States, was born.-1830: English poet Christina Rossetti was born in London to Italian parents.
-1892: Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.
-1901: Walt Disney, animator, producer, creator of Mickey Mouse and Disney theme parks, was born in Chicago, IL.
-1933: The 21st Amendment revoking the 18th (Prohibition) Amendment was ratified in the United States.
-1934: American writer Joan Didion was born in Sacramento, California.
-1936: Novelist James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas.
-1939: Writer John Berendt was born in Syracuse, New York.
-1955: Martin Luther King, Jr. organized the Montgomery bus boycott to protest racial segregation.
December 4
-1918: President Woodrow Wilson travels to Versailles for WWI peace talks. He was the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
-1969: Jay-Z was born.
-1973: Tyra Banks was born.
-1991: Terry Anderson was released after more than six years a hostage in Lebanon.
December 5
-1791: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies.
-1901: Walt Disney was born.
December 6
-1803: Novelist Susannah Moodie was born Susannah Strickland in Suffolk, England.
-1865: 13th Amendment of the US Constitution is ratified abolishing slavery.
-1884: Washington Monument completed.
-1886: Poet (Alfred) Joyce Kilmer was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
-1892: English essayist Sir Osbert Sitwell was born in London.
-1893: Novelist and short story writer Sylvia Townsend Warner was born in Middlesex, England.
-1896: Lyricist Ira Gershwin was born Israel Gershvin on the East Side of New York City.
-1900: Hollywood actress Agnes Moorehead was born.
-1942: Austrian avant-garde playwright and novelist Peter Handke was born in Griffen, Austria.
-1994: NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo was born.
December 7
National Slime Day
So Much Slime by Jason Lefebvre: read by June Squibb: storylineonline.net/books/so-much-slime/
with teachers guide
-1598: Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born.
-1761: Waxworks museum founder Marie Tussaud was born.
-1787: Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
-1810: German physiologist Theodor Schwann, co-originator of the cell theory and the first to use the term, was born.
-1873: Novelist Willa Cather was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia.
-1879: Composer Rudolph Friml ("Indian Love Call") was born.
-1888: Novelist and essayist Joyce Cary was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
-1915: Actor Eli Wallach was born.
-1923: Actor Ted Knight was born.
-1928: Linguist Noam Chomsky was born.
-1931: President Hoover refused to see a group of "hunger marchers" at the White House.
-1932: Actress Ellen Burstyn was born.
-1941: Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor killing 2,403 US personnel. Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7, "a date which will live in infamy," and he used the event as the grounds for leading the United States into World War II.
-1942: Rock/folksinger Harry Chapin was born.
-1947: Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench was born.
-1956: Former basketball player-turned-coach Larry Bird was born.
-1958: "Tonight Show" announcer Edd Hall was born.
-1966: Actor C. Thomas Howell was born.
-1972: Apollo 17 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the last manned mission to the moon.
-1986: The speaker of Iran's Parliament said his country would help free more American hostages in Lebanon in exchange for more U.S. arms.
-1987: Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Washington, D.C., the first Soviet leader to officially visit the United States since 1973.
-1988: As many as 60,000 people were killed when a powerful earthquake rocked the Soviet republic of Armenia.
-1991: On the 50th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, President Bush called for an end to recriminations and sought the healing of old wounds.
-1992: The destruction of a 16th century mosque by militant Hindus touched off five days of violence across India that left more than 1,100 people dead.
-1993: A gunman opened fire on a crowded Long Island, N.Y., commuter train, killing several persons.
-1993: Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed the United States had conducted 204 underground nuclear tests from 1963 to 1990 without informing the public.
-1993: Astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour fixed the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
-1995: A two-week-old strike by hundreds of thousands of French public-sector workers protesting planned cuts in welfare spending had spread to cities throughout France.
-1997: Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, actress Lauren Bacall and actor Charlton Heston were among those receiving awards from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
-2020: Sound barrier-breaking pilot Chich Yeager died.
December 8
Bodhi Day: The Buddha is said to have reached enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. He sat there for days, and as he did, he came to realize what would later become the founding principles of Buddhism. The anniversary of his attaining Buddhahood is called Bodhi Day and is celebrated by some (though not all) traditions of Buddhism on December 8.
-65 B.C.: The Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known as Horace was born in Apulia, Italy. He's best known today for his Odes, poems about ordinary events like drinking wine or saying goodbye to a friend.
-1765: Eli Whitney, the American inventor of the cotton gin, was born.
-1894: American writer James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio.
-1913: American poet, essayist, and fiction writer Delmore Schwartz was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
-1949: American novelist Mary Gordon was born in Far Rockaway, Long Island, New York.
-1980: Rock star John Lennon of the Beatles was shot and killed in New York City.
December 9
National Pastry Day;
Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller - read by Chris O'Dowd: storylineonline.net/books/arnie-the-doughnut/
-1608: John Milton, poet and controversialist was born in London, England.
-1848: Joel Chandler Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia.
-1905: Screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo was born in Montrose, Colorado.
-1898: Emmett Kelly, clown, was born in Sedan, Kansas.
-1916: Actor Kirk Douglas was born.
-1934: Actress Dame Judi Dench was born.
-1965: "A Charlie Brown Christmas" debut
-1979: World Health Organization declared smallpox was eradicated
-1992: U.S. troops arrived in Somalia to calm the unrest and provide famine relief.
December 10
Nobel Prize Day: https://www.nobelprize.org/
-1768: Encyclopedia Britannica was first published
-1787: Francis Gallaudet, founder of the first free school for the deaf, was born.
-1830: American poet Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
-1851: Melvil Dewey, librarian and cataloger, was born in Adams Center, N.Y. He studied at Amherst College (A.B. 1874) and his experience as a student working in the college library led him to propose his decimal-based system of classifying books. He also founded the first professional school of library services in 1887. In 1893 he and his wife, Emily, created the Lake Placid Club, which pioneered recreational winter sports.
-1869: The Territory of Wyoming granted women the right to vote.
-1891: Poet Nelly Sachs was born in Berlin.
-1896: Inventor Alfred Nobel, founder of Nobel Prizes, died.
-1898: Spanish-American War ended.
-1901: The Nobel prizes were first awarded in Oslo, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden.
-1911: TV newscaster Chet Huntley was born.
-1914: Actress Dorothy Lamour was born.
-1923: Actor Harold Gould was born.
-1925: Poet Carolyn Kizer was born in Spokane, Washington.
-1927: The Grand Ole Opry made its first radio broadcast from Nashville.
-1936: Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson. His brother succeeded to the throne as King George VI.
-1941: Japanese troops landed on northern Luzon in the Philippines in the early days of World War II.
-1950: Ralph J Bunche becomes the first black person awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
-1950: William Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.
-1952: Actress Susan Dey was born.
-1960: Actor Kenneth Branaugh was born.
-1984: The National Science Foundation reported the discovery of the first planet outside our solar system, orbiting a star 21 million light years from Earth.
-1990: The communists won a major victory in the first post-war multi-party elections in the Yugoslavian republics of Serbia and Montenegro.
-1991: TV commentator Patrick Buchanan announced a bid to challenge President Bush for the Republican presidential nomination.
-1991: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law that allowed a criminal's profits for selling his story to be seized and given to his victims.
-1997: The Swiss high court ruled that $100 million of the money that had been salted away in banks by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos would be returned to the Philippine government
-2006: Chilean dictator Augusto Pnochet died.
December 11
-1781: Scottish physicist and kaleidoscope inventor David Brewster was born.
-1803: French composer Hector Berlioz was born.
-1843: German pioneer bacteriologist Robert Koch was born.
-1882: La Guardia, Fiorello (Henry), Mayor, lawyer, U.S. representative, and social activist, was born in New York City.
-1913: Italian film producer Carlo Ponti was born.
-1918: Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, Russia.
-1922: American short story writer Grace Paley was born in New York City.
-1928: Rafael Cortijo was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and he died of cancer on October 4, 1982 in the caserío Lloréns Torres at the age of 53.
-1931: Actress Rita Moreno was born.
-1931: American poet Jerome Rothenberg was born in New York City.
-1936: King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to his younger brother King George VI
-1937: Jim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan.
-1939: Thomas McGuane was born in Wyandotte, Michigan.
-1941: Germany and Italy declare war on the US.
-1943: Actress Donna Mills was born.
-1943: John Kerry was born.
-1944: Singer Brenda Lee was born.
-1949: Actress Teri Garr was born.
-1951: Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from baseball after 13 seasons with the New York Yankees.
-1953: Actor Ken Wahl (Wiseguy) was born.
-1954: Singer Jermaine Jackson was born.
-1964: Musician Sam Cooke died.
-1972: Apollo XVII astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed on the moon for a three-day exploration.
-1983: 30,000 women tried to rip down fences around a U.S. cruise missile base at Greenham Common, England.
-1984: A nativity scene was displayed near the White House for the first time since courts ordered it removed in 1973.
-1989: Bulgarian leader Peter Mladenov set a May 31 deadline for free elections in the Eastern European country. He also called for a constitution stripping the Communist Party of its guaranteed dominant role in Bulgaria.
-1991: William Kennedy Smith was acquitted on rape charges by a jury that deliberated less than 77 minutes following a 10-day televised trial.
-1992: The three major TV networks agreed on joint standards to limit entertainment violence by the start of the next fall's season.
-1992: Women priests were approved by the Church of England.
-1993: Parliamentary elections were held in Russia.
-1993: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle of the ruling center-left Coalition of Parties for Democracy won Chile's presidential election.
-1994: Up to 40,000 Russian troops invaded Chechnya, a semi-autonomous republic on Russia's border with Georgia, to put down a secessionist rebellion.
-1995: Two Japanese cult members admitted they had released the toxic sarin gas in Tokyo subway trains the previous March that killed 12 people.
-1996: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, was shot and wounded.
-1997: A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that Microsoft Corp. could not bundle Microsoft Internet Explorer with Windows 95.
-1998: The International Olympic Committee began an internal investigation into rumors that bribes had been offered by cities seeking to be chosen as sites for the Olympic games.
-2008: Model Betti Page died.
December 12
-1745: John Jay, first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was born.
-1800: Washington, D.C. was founded.
-1805: Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison was born.
-1821: French novelist Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, France (1821).
-1863: Norwegian painter Edvard Munch was born.
-1870: Joseph Hayne Rainey of South Carolina was sworn in as the first black to serve in the U.S. House.
-1893: Actor Edward G. Robinson was born.
-1901: First transatlantic radio signal was sent by Guglielmo Marconi.
-1915: Singer Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
-1923: TV game show host Bob Barker was born.
-1924: Former New York Mayor Edward Koch was born.
-1929: British playwright John Osborne was born in London.
-1937: Japanese planes bombed and sank the U.S. gunboat Panay in the Yangtze River north of Nanking, China. Japan later said it was a mistake.
-1938: Singers Connie Francis was born.
-1940: Dionne Warwick was born.
-1951: Talk show host Rush Limbaugh was born.
-1952: Former Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby was born.
-1959: Musician Sheila E was born.
-1962: Former tennis player Tracy Austin was born.
-1975: Actress Mayim Bialik ("Blossom") was born.
-1981: Martial law was imposed in Poland.
-1985: The crash of an Arrow Air DC-8 military charter on takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland, killed all 256 aboard, including 248 U.S. soldiers.
-1989: Five Central American presidents, including Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, called for an end to the rebel offensive against El Salvador's U.S.-backed government.
-1990: 15 people were killed and more than 260 injured in a pileup on a foggy Tennessee highway.
-1991: The Russian parliament ratified a commonwealth treaty linking the three strongest Soviet republics in the nation's most profound change since the 1917 revolution.
-1991: North and South Korea concluded an historic agreement to reunify peacefully after 46 years of division and animosity.
-1992: Princess Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, became the first divorced royal in the inner circle to remarry when she wed Cmdr. Timothy Laurence.
-1993: Russian voters approved a new Constitution.
-1996: A French gunman took 35 hostages in a Paris office. The standoff ended without injuries.
-1998: President Clinton began a trip to the Middle East that included a visit to the new Gaza International Airport in Palestinian territory.
-2000: Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore certifies George W. Bush as president.
December 13
National Day of the Horse
Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Marten J. & John Archambault - Read by Bonnie Bartlett & William Daniels: storylineonline.net/books/knots-on-a-counting-rope/
-1577: Sir Francis Drake embarked on a voyage to circumnavigate the globe.
-1642: Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand.
-1797: German poet Heinrich Heine was born in Dusseldorf, Germany.
-1816: The nation's first savings bank, the Provident Institution for Savings, opened in Boston.
-1835: Clergyman Phillips Brooks, who wrote the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was born.
-1862: An estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded in a battle with Confederate troops outside Fredericksburg, Va.
-1887: World War I hero Sergeant Alvin York was born.
-1910: Actor Van Heflin was born.
-1915: Mystery novelist Ross Macdonald was born Kenneth Millar in Los Gatos, California.
-1920: Former Secretary of State George Shultz was born.
-1925: Comedian/actor Dick Van Dyke was born.
-1927: American poet James Wright was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio.
-1929: Actor Christopher Plummer was born.
-1941: Singer/actor John Davidson was born.
-1948: Rock singer Ted Nugent was born.
-1948: Rock critic Lester Bangs was born in Escondido, California.
-1950: Actors Wendy Malick was born.
-1958: Steve Buscemi was born.
-1963: Football player and novelist Tim Green was born near Syracuse, New York.
-1967: Jamie Foxx was born.
-1982: The Sentry armored car company in New York discovered the overnight theft of $11 million from its headquarters. It was the biggest cash theft in U.S. history.
-1990: The last of the U.S. hostages being held by Iraq, five diplomats in Kuwait, flew to freedom.
-1990: Troops were rushed to Soviet Georgia and a state of emergency was imposed after inter-ethnic violence killed three people.
-1991: The leaders of the Central American countries held a summit meeting and agreed to pledge $4.5 billion to fight poverty.
-1992: Ricky Ray, 15, one of three hemophiliac brothers barred from attending a Florida school because they had the AIDS virus, died.
-1993: In Canada, Kim Campbell resigned as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.
-1997: The Getty Center museum complex, built on a hilltop overlooking Los Angeles, was officially opened.
-1998: In a non-binding plebiscite giving Puerto Ricans the opportunity to express a preference as to the future of political status of the island, the "none of the above" option was supported by 50 percent of voters -- indicating that most wished to retain Puerto Rico's current status as a U.S. commonwealth.
December 14
-1919: Novelist and short story writer Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco.
-1945: Stanley Crouch was born in Los Angeles, California.
-1951: Amy Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois.
December 15
-1791: Bill of Rights Day, which commemorates the passage of the first 10 amendments.
-1932: Irish writer Edna O'Brien was born in County Clare in the west of Ireland.
December 16
-955: 18-year-old Ottaviano, the only son of Duke Alberic II of Spoleto, who ruled Rome, became Pope John XII when his father ordered his election.
-1485: Catherine of Aragon was born. The first wife of King Henry VIII of England, Catherine was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
-1770: Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, was born in Bonn, Germany.
-1773: Boston Tea Pary Day
-1775: Jane Austen was born in the parish of Steventon in Hampshire, England.
-1863: Philosopher and poet George Santayana was born in Madrid.
-1917: Arthur C. Clarke was born in Somerset, England.
December 17
-1760: American Revolutionary War soldier Deborah Sampson, who fought as a man under the alias Robert Shurtleff, was born.
-1770: Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized on this day in Bonn. No one knows when he was born.
-1790: The Aztec Calendar or Solar Stone was uncovered by workmen repairing Mexico City’s Central Plaza.
-1807: Poet John Greenleaf Whittier was born.
-1894: Arthur Fiedler, conductor, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
-1903: The Wright brothers made the world's first flight in a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine that cost about $1000 to build. With Orville at the controls and Wilbur on the ground, the plane flew 120 feet in twelve seconds in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
-1925: Army Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell, outspoken advocate of a separate U.S. Air Force, was found guilty of conduct prejudicial to the good of the armed services. He was awarded the Medal of Honor 20 years after his death.
-1929: Journalist William Safire was born in New York City.
-1930: Publisher Bob Guccione was born.
-1936: British singer/actor Tommy Steele was born.
-1939: The Nazi warship Graf Spee was scuttled off the coast of Uruguay as British vessels pursued it.
-1945: Actor Ernie Hudson ("Ghostbusters") was born.
-1946: Comedian Eugene Levy ("Second City TV") was born.
-1954: Actor Bill Pullman ("Independence Day") was born.
-1967: The Clean Air Act was passed by Congress.
-1981: American Brig. Gen. James Dozier was kidnapped in Rome by Italy's Red Brigades. He was freed 42 days later in a raid by Italian anti-terrorist forces.
-1986: A Las Vegas federal jury awarded entertainer Wayne Newton $19.3 million in his defamation suit against NBC. A judge later reduced the award to $5.3 million.
-1986: A federal jury in Detroit cleared automaker John DeLorean of all 15 charges in his fraud and racketeering trial.
-1990: Secretary of State Baker told NATO that Iraq might withdraw from Kuwait around the Jan. 15 deadline. NATO rejected the partial solution.
-1991: 15 people were killed and 20 wounded in clashes between Soviet troops and guerrillas in a disputed Armenian enclave.
-1992: Israel tried to deport hundreds of Palestinians to Lebanon but Beirut closed the border, trapping them in the Israeli-controlled "security zone."
-1992: President Bush formally signed the North American Free Trade Treaty simultaneously with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.
-1993: President Clinton acknowledged the $500 million gift of philanthropist Walter Annenberg to public-education reform.
-1994: North Korea said it shot down a U.S. Army helicopter in North Korean airspace, killing one pilot. The second pilot was reportedly uninjured but was held in North Korea.
-1996: The United Nations elected Kofi Annan of Ghana the new secretary-general.
-1997: New Jersey became the first state in the United States to permit homosexual couples to adopt children.
-1998: The U.N. World Meteorological Organization said 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded.
December 18
-1708: Playwright Christopher Fry was born in Bristol, England.
-1708: Hymn writer Charles Wesley was born in Epworth, England.
-1778: Joseph Grimaldi, known as the "greatest clown in history," was born.
-1856: English physicist Joseph Thompson, discoverer of the electron, was born.
-1865: Slavery abolished by 13th Amendment in the United States.
-1870: British short story writer Saki was born Hector Hugh Munro in Akyab, Burma.
-1879: Swiss modernist painter Paul Klee was born.
-1886: Baseball pitcher Tyrus "Ty" Cobb was born.
-1904: Film director George Stevens ("Giant") was born.
-1913: West German statesman Willy Brandt was born.
-1915: President Wilson, a widower for one year, married the widow Edith Bolling Galt.
-1916: Actress Betty Grable was born.
-1917: Actor Ossie Davis was born.
-1943: Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards was born.
-1946: Steven Spielberg, academy award winning film director, was born in Cincinnati, OH.
-1950: Movie critic Leonard Maltin was born.
-1955: Actors Ray Liotta was born.
-1964: Brad Pitt was born.
-1966: Kiefer Sutherland was born.
-1969: Singer Tiny Tim, 44, married 17-year-old Miss Vicky Budinger on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show."
-1972: The United States resumed heavy bombing and mining operations against North Vietnam after the communists refused to agree to end the war.
-1978: Katie Holmes ("Dawson's Creek") was born.
-1980: Singer Christina Aguilera was born.
-1985: Congress approved the biggest overhaul of farm legislation since the Depression, trimming price supports.
-1989: A pipe bomb killed Savannah, Ga., City Councilman Robert Robinson, hours after a pipe bomb is discovered at the Atlanta federal courthouse. A racial motive was cited in a rash of bomb incidents.
-1989: The Romanian government sealed the borders amid reports of a deadly crackdown on dissidents.
-1989: The United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of General Manuel Noriega.
-1990: Moldavia became the sixth Soviet republic to refuse to participate in a 10-day meeting in a mounting affront to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
-1991: General Motors announced it would close 21 plants and eliminate 74,000 jobs in the next four years to offset record losses.
-1993: Vice President Gore wrapped up a tour of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia -- during which he signed a series of agreements.
-1996: New rating codes were announced for American television programs.
-1997: South Koreans elected longtime leftist opposition leader Kim Dae Jong president, marking the first time in the nation's history that a member of the opposition had defeated a candidate of the New Korea Party and its predecessors.
-1997: The six-mile-long Tokyo Bay tunnel connecting the cities of Kawasaki and Kisarazu opened. The project took 8 1/2 years to complete and cost $17 billion.
December 19
-1777: Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army began a winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pa.
-1820: Women's suffrage leader Mary Livermore was born.
-1843: Charles Dickens published Christmas Carol, the story of Ebenezer Scrooge.
-1861: Italo Svevo was born Aron Hector Schmitz in Trieste.
-1861: Constance Garnett was born Constance Black in Brighton, England.
-1868: Novelist Eleanor Porter ("Pollyanna") was born.
-1875: The father of Black history, Carter G Woodson was born.
-1902: Actor Ralph Richardson was born.
-1906: Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev was born.
-1910: French dramatist Jean Genet, a pioneer in the theater of the absurd, was born.
-1933: Actors Cicely Tyson was born.
-1944: Tim Reid was born.
-1946: Robert Urich was born.
-1958: The U.S. satellite Atlas transmitted the first radio voice broadcast from space, a 58-word recorded Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower.
-1963: Jennifer Beals was born.
-1972: Alyssa Milano was born.
-1972: The splashdown of Apollo XVII ended America's manned moon exploration program.
-1984: The United States formally withdrew from UNESCO in a effort to force reform of the U.N. cultural organization's budget and alleged Third World bias.
-1984: The prime ministers of Britain and China signed an accord, returning Hong Kong to China in 1997.
-1986: Attorney General Edwin Meese said President Reagan did NOT know that money Iran paid for U.S. arms was going to Nicaraguan rebels.
-1990: A judge in Oshkosh, Wis., dismissed the case against a man convicted of sex assault against a woman with at least 46 personalities.
-1991: The Bank of Credit and Commerce International agreed to plead guilty to federal racketeering charges, forfeiting $550 million.
-1996: O.J. Simpson was called to the witness stand in his civil trial for damages in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
-1997: The motion picture "Titanic" opened in U.S. theaters to generally favorable reviews.
-1998: President Clinton became only the second U.S. president to be impeached when the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The allegations stemmed from the actions he took to conceal his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
-1998: House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston, R-La, announced he would not be a candidate and would be leaving Congress. Two days earlier, Livingston admitted he'd had extra-marital affairs "on occasion."
December 20
-1803: Louisiana Purchase Day, the anniversary of the transfer of the Louisiana Territory from France, which doubled the size of the United States.
-1911: Novelist and short story writer Hortense Calisher was born in Manhattan.
-1989: U.S. troops invaded Panama after Manuel Noriega refused to give up power.
December 21
Winter Solstice, the shortest period of daylight for the Northern Hemisphere
Brave Irene by William Steig - Read by Al Gore: storylineonline.net/books/brave-irene/
-1620: The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock on the shores of Massachusetts.
-1804: Benjamin Disraeli was born in London.
-1879: Joseph Stalin was born in the village of Gori, Georgia.
-1913: Although the origins of the crossword puzzle can be traced to nineteenth century children's books, journalist Arthur Wynne is credited with creating the first modern crossword puzzle. It appeared in New York World on December 21, 1913 and soon became a regular feature.
-1917: German novelist Heinrich Boll was born in Cologne, Germany.
-1937: Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered.
-1988: A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
December 22
-1869: Poet Edward Arlington Robinson was born in Head Tide, Maine.
-1905: Poet Kenneth Rexroth was born in South Bend, Indiana.
December 23
-1790: The founder of scientific Egyptology, Jean Francois Champollion, born in Figeac, France.
-1860: Poet and editor Harriet Monroe was born in Chicago, Illinois.
-1926: Poet, translator and editor Robert Bly was born in Madison, Minnesota.
December 24
-1822: Victorian poet Matthew Arnold was born in Middlesex, England.
-1823: The poem, now known as "The Night Before Christmas," was first published anonymously in a small newspaper in Upstate New York in 1823, and its original title was "Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas." It was a huge success, and it has been published in book form so many times that it now exists in more editions than any other Christmas book ever printed. Fourteen years after its first publication, an editor attributed the poem to a wealthy professor of classical literature named Clement Clarke Moore.
-1926: The first singing radio commercial aired and it was for Wheaties, which had been introduced by General Mills in 1921.
-1931: Suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark was born in New York City. She's the author of many novels, including Weep No More, My Lady (1987), Loves Music, Loves to Dance (1991) and Mount Vernon Love Story (2002).
-1950: Poet and essayist Dana Gioia was born in Los Angeles.
-1992, President Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
December 25
Christmas
Christmas is Christianity's celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, its Messiah. On the Western calendar Christmas is December 25 (some Eastern Orthodox traditions celebrate January 7). The "twelve days of Christmas," they run from Christmas Day to Epiphany on January 6. Advent is a four-Sunday season to prepare for the coming of Christmas.
The Elves and the Shoemaker by Brothers Grimm & Jim LaMarche - Read by Chrissy Metz: storylineonline.net/books/the-elves-and-the-shoemaker/
-1642: Mathematician Sir Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, England. One of the most important scientists of all time, he established the laws of motion, he developed the first theory of gravity, and he invented calculus.
-1775: Washington crossed the Delaware.
December 26
Boxing Day and St. Stephen's Day in England, Canada, and several other countries.
St. Stephen is honored today as the first Christian martyr, having been stoned to death for blasphemy.
-1792: The inventor of the first calculating machine, Charles Babbage, was born in London, England.
-1822: Louis Pasteur, French Chemist and microbiologist, was born.
-1848: William and Ellen Craft escaped from slavery in Georgia.
-1891: Author Henry Miller was born in New York City.
-1928: A. A. Milne's classic House at Pooh Corner is published.
December 27
-1874: Novelist and playwright Zona Gale was born in Portage, Wisconsin.
-1896: Author Louis Bromfield was born in Mansfield, Ohio.
-1930: Novelist Wilfrid Sheed was born in London, England.
-1979: Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.
December 28
-1856: Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth U.S. president was born in Staunton, VA.
-1902: Philosopher, educator, and author Mortimer J. Adler was born in New York City.
-1911: Author and humorist Sam Levenson was born in New York City.
-1922: Comic book writer Stan Lee was born Stanley Lieber in New York.
-1927: Novelist Simon Raven was born in London.
-1932: Novelist Manuel Puig was born in Vallegas, Argentina.
-1981: Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.
-1997: Terry Nichols was found guilty of conspiracy of manslaughter in the Oklahoma City bombing.
December 29
-1800: Inventor Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
-1808: The 17th president of the United States, Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in a two-room log cabin to nearly illiterate parents.
-1849: The Christmas carol "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," written by Edmund Sears, was published in The Christian Register. Sears hoped the song would promote "peace on earth, good will toward men."
-1915: Science fiction writer Charles L. Harness was born in Colorado City, Texas.
-1915: Novelist and essayist Robert Ruark was born in Wilmington, North Carolina
-1934: Mary Tyler Moore, television actress, was born in New York City. Star of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
-1954: Actor Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, NY.
December 30
-1865: Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India.
-1869: Stephen Leacock was born in Hampshire, England.
-1910: Paul Bowles was born in New York City.
December 31
-1790: Catherine Read Williams was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
-1869: Artist Henri Matisse, born in Le Cateau, France.
-1897: A solemn ceremony was held to commemorate the final day of the existence of the city of Brooklyn before its incorporation into New York City. The rest of the city was jubilant; crowds gathered, fireworks were set off everywhere, and bands played "The One New York Two-Step."