On this day in History - Dec. 7

• 43 BC - Cicero dies (b. 106 BC). Roman politician and author.
• 0283 - Pope Eutychian dies.
• 0521 - Saint Columba was born (d. 0597). Irish Christian missionary to Scotland.
• 0903 - Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi was born (d. 0986). Persian astronomer.
• 0983 - Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor dies.
• 1254 - Pope Innocent IV dies.
• 1279 - King Boleslaus V of Poland dies (b. 1226).
• 1295 - Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford dies (b. 1243). English politician.
• 1302 - Azzone Visconti was born (d. 1339). Lord of Milan.
• 1493 - Columbus left the ruined settlement of La Navidad and sailed east for a month till he reached the site that became La Isabela in the Dominican Republic.
• 1498 - Alexander Hegius von Heek dies. German humanist.
• 1545 - Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was born (d. 1567). Consort of Mary I of Scotland.
  
• 1561 - Kikkawa Hiroie was born (d. 1625). Japanese politician.
• 1562 - Adrian Willaert dies. Flemish composer.
• 1598 - Giovanni "Gian" Lorenzo Bernini was born (d. 28 Nov 1680). Italian sculptor, painter, architect, was born. He was the greatest sculptor of the 17th century and worked under the patronage of Pope Urban VII. His work included the “Ecstasy of St. Teresa,” “David” and “Daphne and Apollo.”
• 1632 - Emperor Sissinios of Ethiopia dies (b. 1607).
• 1637 - Bernardo Pasquini was born (d. 1710). Italian composer.
• 1649 - Charles Garnier dies (b. 1606). French Jesuit missionary.
• 1670 - John Aislabie was born (d. 1742). English director of the South Sea Company.
• 1672 - Richard Bellingham dies (b. 1592). Massachusetts colonial magistrate.
• 1683 - John Oldham dies (b. 1653). English poet.
• 1683 - Algernon Sydney dies (b. 1623). English politician.
• 1723 - Jan Santini Aichel dies (b. 1677). Czech architect.
• 1724 - Tumult of Thorn - religious unrest followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.
• 1724 - Louise of Great Britain was born (d. 1751). Queen of Denmark and Norway.
• 1725 - Florent Carton Dancourt dies (b. 1661). French dramatist and actor.
• 1732 - The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.
• 1741 - Elisabeth Petrovna became tsarina of Russia.
• 1761 - Marie Tussaud was born (d. 1850). Museum proprietress and waxwork modeler.
• 1764 - Claude Victor-Perrin, duc de Belluno was born (d. 1841). French marshal.
• 1775 - Charles Saunders dies. British admiral.
• 1776 - Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general.
• 1784 - Allan Cunningham was born (d. 1842). Scottish poet.
• 1787 - Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• 1793 - Joseph Bara dies (b. 1780). French Revolution child-hero.
• 1796 - Electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States.
• 1801 - Johann Nestroy was born (d. 1862). Austrian dramatist and actor.
• 1803 - Maria Josepha of Saxony was born (d. 1829). Queen consort of Spain.
• 1808 - James Madison was elected president in succession to Thomas Jefferson.
• 1810 - Theodor Schwann was born (d. 1882). German physiologist.
• 1810 - Josef Hyrtl was born (d. 1894). Austrian anatomist.
• 1815 - Michel Ney, Marshal of France, is executed (b. 1769) by firing squad, after been convicted of treason for his support of Napoleon Bonaparte.
• 1817 - William Bligh dies (b. 1745). British naval officer.
• 1823 - Leopold Kronecker was born (d. 1891). German mathematician (Tensor of Kronecker).
• 1826 - Malacca High School (SMK Tinggi Melaka) is established in Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia.
• 1835 - German railway Nurnberg-Furth opened.
• 1835 - Manuel Agostinho Barreto was born in Pedrógão Grande. Portuguese bishop of Funchal.
• 1836 - Martin Van Buren (d.1862) was elected the eighth president of the United States and served one term. He was known as the “Little Magician” and the “Red Fox of Kinderhook.”
• 1840 - Hermann Goetz was born († 3 Dec 1876). German composer.
• 1842 - Thomas Hamilton dies (b. 1789). Scottish writer.
• 1847 - George Grossmith was born (d. 1912). English actor and comic writer.
• 1848 - Luís Carlos Martins Pena dies in Lisbon (b. in Rio de Janeiro on 5 Nov 1815). Brazilian dramatist and diplomat.
• 1860 - Sir Joseph Cook was born (d. 1947). Sixth Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1862 - Confederate forces surprise Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
• 1862 - Paul Adam was born (d. 1920). French novelist.
• 1863 - Pietro Mascagni was born (d. 1945). Italian composer (Cavalleria Rusticana).
• 1863 - Richard Sears was born (d. 1914). American department store founder.
• 1873 - America’s first international football (soccer) game was played in New Haven, CT. Yale defeated Eton (England) 2-1.
• 1873 - Willa Cather was born (d.1947). American author famous for “O Pioneers” and “My Antonia,” was born. "I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do."
• 1874 - Constantin von Tischendorf dies (b. 1815). German biblical scholar.
• 1879 - Rudolf Friml was born (d. 1972). American composer.
• 1883 - Ladies’ Home Journal was published for the first time. It became one of the few magazines to reach a circulation of over one million. Paid circulation is currently over 4,000,000.
• 1887 - Ernst Toch was born (d. 1964). Austrian composer and pianist.
• 1888 - Joyce Cary was born (d. 1957). Irish novelist (The Horse's Mouth). "It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know - and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything."
• 1888 - Hamilton Fish was born (d. 1991). American politician.
• 1889 - The Gondoliers - one of the most popular of the comic operas created by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan - opens in London.
• 1889 - Pedro II ex-Emperor of Brazil arrives to Lisbon after he have been deposed with the Republic Proclamation.
• 1889 - Gabriel Marcel was born in Paris (d. 1973). French writer and philosopher.
• 1889 - Gilbert and Sullivan’s "Gondoliers," premiered in London.
• 1891 - Fay Bainter was born (d. 1968). Academy Award-winning American actress.
• 1894 - Stuart Davis was born in Philadelphia. American painter.
• 1894 - Ferdinand de Lesseps dies (b. 19 Nov 1805). French engineer.
• 1895 - Sir Milton Margay was born. First Prime Minister of Sierra Leone.
• 1900 - Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission.
• 1902 - The 8¢ Martha Washington stamp was issued this day. The stamp was the first U.S. definitive or commemorative stamp to feature a woman.
• 1902 - Thomas Nast dies (b. 1840). German cartoonist.
• 1903 - Danilo Blanuša was born (d. 1987). Croatian mathematician.
• 1904 - Konstantin Sokolsky was born. Russian singer.
• 1905 - Gerard Kuiper was born (d. 1973). Dutch-born astronomer.
• 1906 - Élie Ducommun dies (b. 1833). Swiss journalist and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
• 1907 - Fred Rose was born (d. 1983). Canadian communist politician.
• 1909 - Dr. Leo H. Baekeland patented Bakelite, the 1st completely synthetic plastic thermosetting plastic.
• 1910 - Edmundo Ros was born. Trinidadian musician.
• 1910 - Louis Prima was born (d. 1978). American musician.
• 1912 - Daniel Jones was born. Welsh composer.
• 1913 - Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano dies (b. 1828). Italian Catholic churchman and last surviving cardinal of Pius IX.
• 1915 - Eli Wallach was born. American actor.
• 1916 - The British government of David Lloyd George formed.
• 1916 - Jean Carignan was born (d. 1988). French Canadian fiddler.
• 1917 - U.S. declared war on Austria-Hungary in World War I, with only one dissenting vote in Congress and became the 13th country to do so.
• 1917 - Léon Minkus dies (b. 23 Mar 1826). German/Czech Composer and violinist.
• 1918 - Zora Seljan was born in Ouro Preto (d. 25 Apr. 2006). Brazilian writer (wife of the Brazilian cronist Ruben Braga).
• 1920 - Fiorenzo Magni was born. Italian cylist.
• 1920 - Manuel Pereira da Silva was born. Portuguese sculptor.
• 1921 - Pramukh Swami Maharaj was born. Indian spiritual leader.
• 1922 - Howard Zinn was born. American historian and activist.
• 1924 - John Love was born (d. 2005). Zimbabwean Formula One driver.
• 1924 - Mário Soares was born. Portuguese politician (Socialist Party), premier of Portugal (1976-78, 1983-1985) and President (1986-1996).
• 1924 - Bent Fabric was born. Danish pop pianist and composer.
• 1925 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 150-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute, 25 and 2/5 seconds - in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Johnny went on to fame swinging from vines as ‘King of the Jungle’, Tarzan, in movies.
• 1925 - Hernando da Silva Ramos was born. Brazilian racing driver.
• 1926 - Victor Kermit Kiam II CEO (Remington shavers), NFL owner (Patriots), was born.
• 1926 - A gas refrigerator was patented.
• 1926 - The military right-wing opposition executed a coup d’etat in Lithuania and a dictatorship was established under Antanas Smetona, who remained president until the country was annexed by the USSR in 1940.
• 1927 - Helen Watts was born. Welsh contralto.
• 1928 - Noam Chomsky was born. American linguist and political writer.
• 1930 - W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts broadcasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The broadcast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.
• 1930 - Hal Smith was born. American baseball player.
• 1931 - A report indicated that Nazis would ensure "Nordic dominance" by sterilizing certain races.
• 1932 - Ellen Burstyn was born. American actress.
• 1932 - Paul Caponigro was born. American photographer.
• 1933 - President Roosevelt adopted a “good neighbor” policy toward Latin America and announced a policy of nonintervention in Latin American affairs at the December 7th International American Conference at Montevideo, Uruguay.
• 1934 - Wiley Post discovered the jet stream.
• 1937 - José Carlos Ary dos Santos was born in Lisbon (18 Jan 1984). Portuguese poet.
• 1937 - Russian chess player Aljechin recaptures world title from Max Euwe.
• 1939 - Lou Gehrig, baseball player is elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame.
• 1940 - Gerry Cheevers was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1940 - Stan Boardman was born. English comedian.
• 1941 - World War II: Canada declared war on Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Japan.
• 1941 - At 7:50 a.m. Japan launched an aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet, and forced US entry into the war. Relations between Japan and the United States had been strained for a decade as both nations sought to dominate the Pacific. Long aware that a Japanese surprise attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor could precede war, U.S. authorities were still woefully unprepared when 363 Japanese fighters, dive-bombers and torpedo planes sunk or damaged eight battleships and three light cruisers, destroyed 188 planes and killed 2,400 men in just over two hours. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced December 7, 1941, as a "date which will live in infamy" as he asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
• 1941 - At 2:20 p.m. the "Final Memorandum" document was delivered to Sec. of State Cordell Hull in Washington DC. In it Japan notified the US that it was "impossible to reach an agreement through further negotiations."
• 1941 - Australian bombers landed on Timor and Ambon.
• 1941 - The 1st Japanese submarine was sunk by a US ship, the USS Ward.
• 1941 - Casualties of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor: Mervyn S. Bennion died (b, 1887). United States Navy Captain, Medal of Honor recipient; Herbert C. Jones died (b. 1918). United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient; Isaac C. Kidd died (b. 1884). United States Navy Rear Admiral, Medal of Honor recipient; Thomas J. Reeves died (b. 1895). United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient; Franklin Van Valkenburgh died (b. 1888). United States Navy, Medal of Honor recipient.
• 1942 - Alex Johnson was born. American baseball player.
• 1942 - Harry Chapin was born (d. 1981). American musician, rock vocalist (Taxi, Cat's in the Cradle).
• 1942 - Peter Tomarken was born. American game show host.
• 1942 - The U.S. Navy launched the USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built.
• 1943 - Bernard C. Parks was born. Former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.
• 1943 - Göran Lennmarker was born. Swedish politician.
• 1943 - Per Imerslund dies (b. 1912), "The Aryan idol". Norwegian socialist.
• 1944 - Daniel Chorzempa was born. American organist.
• 1944 - Jamiel Chagra was born. American drug trafficker.
• 1945 - The microwave oven was patented. Percy Spencer accidentally discovered that microwaves would also heat food. Spencer, an eighth-grade dropout and electronic wizard, worked for the Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation of Massachusetts developing a radar machine using microwave radiation.
• 1945 - Marion Rung was born. Finnish singer.
• 1946 - The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, ordered all striking miners back to work.
• 1946 - America’s worst hotel fire broke out at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, killing 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff.
• 1947 - Johnny Bench was born. American baseball player.
• 1947 - Garry Unger was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1947 - Tony Thomas was born. American TV and film producer.
• 1947 – Wilton Gregory was born. American Archbishop of Atlanta.
• 1947 – Sir Ellison Pogo was born. Solomon Islander Archbishop of Melanesia.
• 1947 - Nicholas M. Butler dies (b. 1862). American president of Columbia University, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
• 1947 - Tristan Bernard dies (b 1866). French playwright and novelist.
• 1948 - Gary Morris was born. Singer and actor.
• 1948 - Mads Vinding was born. Danish bassist.
• 1948 - Yoko Morishita was born. Prima ballerina (Baterina No Habataki).
• 1949 - Tom Waits was born in California. American rock singer ( Shiver Me Timbers, Diamonds on My Windshield, Small Change, The Piano Has Been Drinking, Tom Traubert’s Blues, Burma Shave, Potter’s Field, Jersey Girl, LP: Foreign Affairs, Swordfishtrombone), songwriter ( I Never Talk to Strangers), actor ( Short Cuts, Paradise Alley, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Ironweed, The Cotton Club) and playwright [w/wife, Kathleen Brennan] (Frank’s Wild Years).
• 1949 - The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organized a non-Communist international trade union.
• 1949 - Chinese Civil War: The government of the Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei.
• 1952 - Georges Corraface was born. Greek actor, president of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
• 1953 - Audrey Hepburn was featured on the cover of Life Magazine.
• 1953 - Israel's PM Ben-Gurion retired.
• 1953 - Xuxa Lopes was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1954 - Mark Hofmann was born. American forger and bomber.
• 1954 - Mike Nolan was born. Irish singer (Bucks Fizz).
• 1955 - John Watkins was born. Australian politician.
• 1955 - Priscilla Barnes was born. American actress.
• 1956 - Larry Bird was born. American basketball player for the Boston Celtics. Rookie of the Year [1979-80]; NBA MVP [1984, 1985, 1986], AP Male Athlete of the Year [1986], Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year [1986].
• 1956 - Huntley Gordon dies (b. 1887). Canadian actor.
• 1957 - Tom Winsor was born. British lawyer and economic regulator.
• 1958 - Tim Butler was born. English musician (Psychedelic Furs).
• 1958 - Rick Rude was born (d. 1996). American professional wrestler.
• 1959 - Lorena da Silva was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1960 - Ivory Coast claims independence from France.
• 1960 - Craig Scanlon was born. English guitarist (The Fall).
• 1960 - Clara Haskil dies (b. 1895). Swiss pianist.
• 1962 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.
• 1962 - Great Britain performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.
• 1962 - Grecia Colmenares was born. Venezuelan actress.
• 1964 - Roberta Close was born. Brazilian model.
• 1964 - Tadao Uematsu was born. Japanese racing driver.
• 1965 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.
• 1965 - Jeffrey Wright was born. American actor.
• 1965 - Colin Hendry was born. Scottish footballer.
• 1966 - A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.
• 1966 - C. Thomas Howell was born. American actor.
• 1966 - Shinichi Itoh was born. Japanese motorcycle racer.
• 1967 - Tino Martinez was born. American baseball player.
• 1968 - The first orbiting astronomical observatory, OAO-2, was launched.
• 1968 - Mark Geyer was born. Australian rugby league player.
• 1969 - Lefty O'Doul dies (b. 1897). Baseball player.
• 1969 - Eric Portman dies (b. 1903). English actor.
• 1970 - The first ever general election on the basis of direct adult franchise are held in Pakistan for 313 National Assembly seats.
• 1970 - Poland and West Germany signed a pact renouncing use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland's western frontier, and acknowledging transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory.
• 1970 - Carmen Campuzano was born. Mexican actress and fashion model.
• 1970 - Rube Goldberg dies (b. 1883). American cartoonist (Mike & Ike, Pulitzer 1948).
• 1971 - Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces formation of a Coalition Government at Centre with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as Vice-Prime Minister.
• 1971 - Vladimir Akopian was born. Armenian chess player.
• 1971 - Chasey Lain was born. American pornographic actress.
• 1971 - Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces formation of a Coalition Government at Centre with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as Vice-Prime Minister.
• 1972 - Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew take the photograph known as "The Blue Marble" as they leave the Earth.
• 1972 - Hermann Maier was born. Austrian ski diver.
• 1972 - Tammy Lynn Sytch was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1972 - In Northern Ireland Jean McConville was abducted from her home in Belfast and was never seen alive again. In 1999 the IRA admitted responsibility and revealed the location of her body.
• 1972 - Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant who was then shot dead by her bodyguards.
• 1972 - Hermann Maier was born. Austrian skier.
• 1972 - Tammy Lynn Sytch was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1973 - Damien Rice was born. Irish musician.
• 1973 - Fabien Pelous was born. French international rugby player.
• 1973 - Terrell Owens was born. American football player.
• 1974 - Nicole Appleton was born. Canadian singer, member of british band all saints.
• 1974 - Portugal : UDP — União Democrática Popular is founded.
• 1975 - Indonesia invaded East Timor, nine days after the Timorese political party Fretilin claimed independence leading to a 25-year occupation. Some 600,000 were left dead after this prolonged war.
• 1975 - Jamie Clapham was born. English footballer.
• 1975 - Thornton Wilder dies (b. 1897). American playwright.
• 1976 - Alan Faneca was born. American football player.
• 1976 - Brent Johnson was born. Canadian football player.
• 1976 - Georges Laraque was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1976 - Vanessa Lorenzo was born. Spanish fashion model.
• 1977 - Dominic Howard was born. British drummer (Muse).
• 1977 - Peter Carl Goldmark dies (b. 1906). Hungarian-born American engineer.
• 1978 - Shiri Appleby was born. American actress (Roswell, ER, Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife, I Love You to Death, The Thirteenth Floor, A Time for Dancing).
• 1978 - Alexander Wetmore dies (b. 1886). American ornithologist.
• 1978 - Frankie J was born. Mexican-born American singer.
• 1979 - Ayako Fujitani was born. Japanese actress.
• 1979 - Jennifer Carpenter was born. American actress.
• 1979 - Lampros Choutos was born. Greek footballer.
• 1980 - Portugal : Ramalho Eanes is reelected President of Republic.
• 1980 - John Terry was born. English football player.
• 1980 - Darby Crash dies (b. 1958). American punk-rock lengend.
• 1981 - Spain became a member of NATO.
• 1982 - Convicted murderer Charles Brooks, Jr. became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas. Brooks, convicted of murdering an auto mechanic, received an intravenous injection of sodium pentathol.
• 1983 - Edgar Graham, member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, was shot dead by IRA.
• 1983 - In Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC-9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Airlines' Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff, killing all 42 people aboard the DC-9 and 51 aboard the Iberia jet.
• 1983 - Fausto Carmona was born. Dominican baseball player.
• 1983 - Fanny Cano dies (b. 1944). Mexican actress.
• 1984 - Michael Jackson was in Chicago to testify that the song, The Girl is Mine, was exclusively his and he didn’t swipe the song, Please Love Me Now. It was a copyright infringement case worth five million dollars. He won.
• 1984 - Robert Kubica was born. The first Polish Formula One racing driver.
• 1984 - Aaron Gray was born. American basketball player.
• 1984 - Lee Roy Yarbrough dies (b. 1938). American race car (Nascar) driver.
• 1985 - Robert Graves dies (b. 1895). English author.
• 1985 - Potter Stewart dies (b. 1891). U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
• 1986 - President Jean-Claude Duvalier fled Haiti.
• 1986 - Megan Kanka was born (d. 1994). American rape and murder victim, basis of Megan's Law.
  
• 1987 - Brasilia is announced to be World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.
• 1987 - Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time, arriving for a Washington summit with President Reagan.
• 1987 - Forty-three people were killed in the crash of a Pacific Southwest Airlines - PSA Flight 1771- near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself. jetliner in California after a gunman apparently opened fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots.
• 1987 - Aaron Carter was born. American singer.
• 1988 - Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills nearly 25,000, injures 15,000 and leaves 400,000 homeless.
• 1988 - Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
• 1988 - Emily Browning was born. Australian actress.
• 1989 - East Germany's Communist Party agreed to cooperate with the opposition in paving the way for free elections and a revised constitution.
• 1989 - In their third and final fight, Sugar Ray Leonard retains the WBC Super Middleweight championship of the world over Roberto Duran.
• 1989 - Nicholas Hoult was born. English actor.
• 1989 - William Calhoun dies (b. 1934). Professional wrestler.
• 1990 - As President Bush arrived in Venezuela on the last stop of his South American tour, his chief spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, warned Iraq that there was “no lessening in the threat of war,” despite Iraq’s promise to release its hostages.
• 1990 - Joan Bennett dies (b. 1910). American actress.
• 1990 - Jean Duceppe dies (b. 1923). Quebec stage, television and film actor.
• 1990 - Jean Paul Lemieux dies (b. 1904). Quebec painter.
• 1990 - Reinaldo Arenas dies (b. 16 Jul 1943). Cuban writer and poet.
• 1991 - Fifty years after Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a visibly moved President Bush led the nation in services commemorating the anniversary.
• 1992 - The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a Mississippi abortion law that required women to get counseling and then wait 24 hours before terminating their pregnancies.
• 1993 - The Long Island Rail Road massacre: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.
• 1993 - Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed that the government had conducted more than 200 nuclear weapons tests in secret.
• 1993 - An multiracial conseill assumes the Government of South Africa.
• 1993 - A gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six people and wounding 17.
• 1993 - Félix Houphouët-Boigny dies (b. 1905). President of Côte d'Ivoire.
• 1993 - Wolfgang Paul dies (b. 1913). German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1994 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Gaza City, pledged to protect Israelis from militant extremists.
• 1994 - J.C. Tremblay dies (b. 1939). National Hockey League defenseman.
• 1995 - Bill Gates announced Microsoft’s Internet counterattack [on Netscape and the browser market].
• 1995 - The Galileo spacecraft arrived at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
• 1995 - 20 people are killed in the Port-au-Prince air disaster.
  
• 1995 - US paratrooper James N. Burmeister (21) shot and killed Jackie Burden and Michael James. He was convicted on Feb 27, 1997 of 1st degree murder and conspiracy in the hate crime and faced the death penalty. The jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of death so the judge sentenced him to 2 consecutive life terms in prison. He will have to serve at least 50 years before becoming eligible for parole. Malcolm Wright, a fellow soldier, was also charged in the murders and convicted on May 2, 1997.
• 1995 - 5000 Serbs protested in Serajevo against the US brokered peace accord. They were opposed to control by the Bosnian-Croat federation.
• 1996 - The space shuttle Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center, ending a nearly 18-day mission marred by a jammed hatch that prevented two planned spacewalks.
• 1996 - Toni Braxton’s Unbreak My Heart was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The hit, from her Secrets album, stayed at number one half-way thru Feb 1997.
• 1997 - Republicans threatened Attorney General Janet Reno with contempt of Congress over her decision to forgo an independent counsel's investigation of White House campaign fund raising.
• 1997 - Singer Bob Dylan, actor Charlton Heston, actress Lauren Bacall, opera singer Jessye Norman and ballet master Edward Villella shared the 20th annual Kennedy Center Honors in Washington D.C..
• 1997 - A new Presidential Decision Directive was reported to replace on put into place by Pres. Reagan in 1981. It reset the guidelines for the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons would still be maintained as a deterrent.
• 1997 - It was reported that some 19 sperm whales washed up along the Danish and German North Sea coasts over the last several weeks.
• 1997 - It was reported that the world’s tiger population was down to 6000, from 100,000 a century ago. 5 of 8 subspecies are left: Indian (Bengal), Sumatran, Chinese, Indo-Chinese and Amur (Siberian).
• 1997 - In Serbia elections failed to elect a president with a 50% majority. Milan Milutinovic, an ally of Slobodan Milosevic received 42% and Vojislav Seselj, a former paramilitary leader, had 33%. Vuk Draskovic received 16% and threatened to call a boycott in a Dec 21 runoff.
• 1997 - Billy Bremner dies (b. 1942). Scottish former footballer.
• 1998 - Pres. Clinton announced the removal of Iran from the list of drug problem countries due to an energetic campaign to eliminate opium poppies.
• 1998 - On the eve of historic hearings, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde said there was a "compelling case" for impeaching President Clinton. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.
• 1998 - South Carolina ended its participation in the antitrust case against Microsoft.
• 1998 - The UN agreed to give Cambodia’s UN seat to the new government.
• 1998 - In Chechnya a rescue attempt was made to free 4 men kidnapped Oct 3. The action led to the murder of the 4 men whose severed heads were found the next day.
• 1998 - On the secessionist Comoros island of Anjouan separatist militias broke a short cease fire and some 10 people were reported killed.
• 1998 - Congolese rebels dismissed the tentative truce worked out in Paris by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
• 1998 - Yachtsman Jesse Martin departs from Melbourne on his circumnavigation journey around the world.
• 1998 - In Russia Pres. Yeltsin left the hospital, fired several aides and returned to the hospital to recover from pneumonia.
• 1998 - John Addison dies (b. 1920). British composer.
• 1998 - Martin Rodbell dies (b. 1925). American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 1999 - In Germany Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won re-election as leader of the Social Democrats.
• 1999 - In Holland a student (17) in Veghel shot and wounded a teacher and 4 fellow students in the 1st school shooting in Dutch history. The student was reported to have been upset over a romance. The student's father (35) and sister (15) were arrested 2 days later as accessories.
• 2000 - Al Gore's lawyer, David Boies, pleaded with the Florida Supreme Court to order vote recounts and revive his presidential campaign. Republican attorneys called George W. Bush the certified, rightful victor.
• 2000 - Some 4,000 protestors clashed with police at the opening of the EU summit in Nice.
• 2000 - In Ghana presidential elections were held. Representatives for the 200-seat parliament were also chosen. Opposition candidate John Agyekum Kuffuor led Vice Pres. John Atta Mills 48-44% in the 1st round of elections. A runoff vote was planned within 3 weeks.
• 2000 - In India indigenous rebels massacred 30 Hindi-speaking people in Assam state.2000 In Indonesia a separatist mob attacked a police station in Jayapura, Irian Jaya, and 2 officers were killed.
• 2000 - In the Philippines the Senate began the impeachment trial of Pres. Estrada.
• 2000 - Vladimir Gotovac dies (b. 1930). Croatian poet and politician.
• 2001 - The US called to cut off discussions about enforcing a 1972 Biological Weapons Convention on the final day of a 3-week conference in Geneva. The conference sought binding measures and disbanded in chaos.
• 2001 - In New Jersey nearly 230 teachers were ordered freed from jail after their union agreed to end the 9-day strike and go into mediation.
• 2001 - John P. Walters is sworn in as the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
• 2001 - In Afghanistan Taliban soldiers fled Kandahar and left the city in chaos. Day 62: Assaults continued around Tora Bora where up to 2,000 bin Laden loyalists were positioned at a mountain redoubt.
• 2001 - Statistics Canada reported a jobless increase to 7.5%, the highest level since mid-1999.
• 2001 - Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a Palestinian security compound in Gaza and into the Arafat Police City. Arafat said his forces had arrested 17 of 33 militants wanted by Israel.
• 2001 - In Sri Lanka Pres. Kumaratunga called on Ranil Wickremesinghe, head of the United National Party, to form a government. The UNP promised to pursue peace talks with Tamil rebels.
• 2001 - Charles McClendon dies (b. 1923). LSU Tigers head football coach.
• 2002 - Porto Metropolitan system is inaugurated.
• 2003 - The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
• 2003 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands was born.
• 2003 - Carl F. H. Henry dies (b. 1913). American theologian and publisher.
• 2003 - Azie Taylor Morton dies (b. 1936). Treasurer of the United States.
• 2003 - Raúl Vale dies (b. 1944). Venezuelan entertainer.
• 2004 - Hamid Karzai is inaugurated as president of Afghanistan.
• 2004 - John Kufuor is re-elected as president of Ghana.
• 2004 - Frederick Fennell dies (b. 1914). American conductor.
• 2004 - Jerry Scoggins dies (b. 1913). American singer.
• 2004 - Dimebag Darrell dis (b. 1966). Lead Guitarist For Pantera.
• 2004 - Jay Van Andel dies (b. 1924). Co-founder and former chairman of Amway.
• 2005 - Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of US federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
• 2005 - Benfica defeats Man. United (2-1) and the English team is putt off from Champions League.
• 2005 - Bud Carson dies (b. 1931). American football player and coach.
• 2005 - Lucy d'Abreu dies (b. 1892). She was the oldest living person in the United Kingdom from April 2004 until her death.
• 2006 - A tornado struck Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging around 150 properties.
• 2006 - Jeane Kirkpatrick dies (b. 1926). American ambassador.
• 2006 - Jay McShann dies (b. ca. 1910). American musician.
• R.C. Saints - Saint Ambrose: Memorial.
• Eastern Orthodox Saints: Saint Aemilianus.
• US - Pearl Harbor Day (observance).
• Colombia - Día de las Velitas (Day of the Candles): Festivity.
• India - The Armed Forces Flag Day.