On this day in History - Dec. 14

• 0644 - Osman ibn Affan appointed 3rd kalief of islam.
• 0867 - Adrian II becomes Pope.
• 0872 - John VIII becomes Pope.
• 1009 - Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan was born (d. 1045).
• 1077 - Agnes of Poitou, German empress / Wife of Emperor Henry III, dies .
• 1136 - Harald IV, "Gylle Krist", King of Norway, murdered.
• 1287 - St. Lucia's flood: Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapsed, with the loss of 50,000 lives.
• 1460 - Guarino da Verona dies (b. 1370). Italian humanist and translator.
• 1476 - Vlad III the Impaler dies (b. 1431).
• 1503 - Nostradamus [Michel de Nostredame] was born in St. Remy, Provence, France. Astrologuer and physician (d. 1566). He predicted correctly French king Henri II's manner of death. Nostradamus was the author of a book of prophecies that many still believe foretold the future. He wrote in rhyming quatrains, accurately predicting the Great London Fire in 1666, Spain’s Civil War, and a Hitler that would lead Germany into war. He even correctly predicted his own death on July 2, 1566.
• 1510 - Friedrich of Saxony dies (b. 1473).
• 1542 - King James V of Scotland (1513-42) dies (b. 1512). Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland.
  
• 1546 - Tycho Brahe was born in Knudstrup, Denmark (d. 1601). Astronomer, he constructed the most precise astronomical instruments of his time.
• 1553 - Henri IV the Bourbon, King of Navarra (Henri III) / France, was born.
• 1553 - Hanibal Lucić dies (b. 1485). Croatian writer.
• 1591 - Saint John of the Cross dies (b. 1542). Spanish friar and poet.
• 1624 - Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham dies (b. 1536). English statesman.
• 1625 - Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville was born (d. 1695). French orientalist.
• 1631 - Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway was born (d. 1679). English philosopher.
• 1640 - Baptism date of Aphra Behn (d. 1689). English playwright and novelist.
• 1651 - Pierre Dupuy dies (b. 1582). French scholar.
• 1678 - Daniel Neal was born (d. 1743). English historian.
• 1702 - (Dec, 14 according to the old calendar; January 30, 1703 by the new calendar) - The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master, Asano Takumi no kami Naganori, by beheading Kira Kōzukenosuke Yoshinaka. Later 46 of the surviving ronin would commit seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment), and would later achieve heroic status as the embodiments of the ideals of the samurai.
• 1713 - Thomas Rymer dies (b. 1641). English historian.
• 1715 - Thomas Tenison dies (b. 1636). Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1720 - Justus Möser was born (d. 1794). German statesman.
• 1735 - Thomas Tanner dies (b. 1674). English bishop and antiquarian.
• 1741 - Charles Rollin dies (b. 1661). French historian.
• 1751 - The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first Military Academy in the world.
• 1766 - José Acúrsio das Neves was born (d. 1834). Portuguese politician, historian, essayst and pioneer about Portuguese economic studies.
• 1775 - Philander Chase was born (d. 1852). American founder of Kenyon College.
• 1775 - Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald was born (d. 1860). British admiral.
• 1782 - The Montgolfier brothers first balloon lifted on its very first test flight.
• 1784 - Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily was born (d. 1806). Princess of Asturias.
• 1787 - Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este was born (d. 1816). Empress of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia.
• 1788 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach dies (b. 1714). German compose.
• 1788 - King Charles III of Spain dies (b. 1716).
• 1791 - Charles Wolfe was born (d. 1823). Irish poet.
• 1794 - Erastus Corning was born d. 1872). American businessman and politician.
  
• 1798 - David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented a nut and bolt machine.
• 1799 - George Washington dies at his Mount Vernon home (b. 1732). He was the first president of the United States (1789-97).
• 1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
• 1818 -The pirate Hippolyte Bouchard demanded gunpowder and other supplies from the padres at Mission San Juan Capistrano, Ca. The padres refused and the pirate sent 140 men to destroy the mission and the town was stripped of its provisions.
• 1819 - Alabama becomes the 22nd state in the United States, making 11 slave states and 11 free states.
• 1822 - John Christie, English patron of music, was born. He founded the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
• 1824 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was born (d. 1898). French painter.
• 1825 - Advocates of Liberalism in Russia rise up against Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg.
• 1836 - The Toledo War unofficially ends.
• 1838 - Jean-Olivier Chénier dies (b. 1806). French Canadian physician and Patriote.
• 1853 - Salvador Diaz Miron was born. Mexican Poet (Los Cien Mejores Poemas).
• 1855 - Ice hockey originated. The first game was played by 2 military teams.
• 1860 - George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen dies (b. 1784). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1861 - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, consort of Queen Victoria and one of the Union’s strongest advocates, dies in London (b. 1819); he was cousin of King D. Fernando II of Portugal husband of Queen D. Maria II; The book “Uncrowned King: The Life of Prince Albert” was later written by Stanely Weintraub.
• 1863 -The widow of Confederate General B.H. Helm was given amnesty by President Lincoln after she swore allegiance to the Union. Mrs. Helm was the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.
• 1865 - Johan Georg Forchhammer dies (b. 1794). Danish geologist.
• 1866 - Roger Fry was born (d. 1934). British artist and art critic.
• 1870 - Karl Renner was born (d. 1950). President of Austria.
• 1873 - Louis Agassiz dies (b. 1807). Swiss-born American zoologist and geologist.
  
• 1881 - Katherine MacDonald was born (d. 1956). American actress and fim producer.
• 1884 - Jane Cowl was born (d. 1950). American actress and playwright.
• 1895 - Paul Eluard was born (d. 1952). French poet.
• 1895 - King George VI of the United Kingdom was born (d. 1952).
• 1896 - The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
• 1896 - Jimmy Doolittle was born (d. 1993). American Air Force general, he commanded the first bombing mission over Japan. His Tokyo raid was a great boost for American war morale.
• 1897 - Margaret Chase Smith was born (d. 1995). American politician.
• 1897 - Kurt Schuschnigg was born (d. 1977). Austrian politician.
• 1900 - Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
• 1900 - Max Planck (1858-1947), German physicist, presented the quantum theory at the Physics Society in Berlin. Planck, demonstrated that energy, in certain situations, can exhibit characteristics of physical matter. Planck was rewarded the Nobel Prize (1918) in Physics for his work on blackbody radiation.
• 1902 - The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.
• 1902 - Frances Bavier was born (d. 1989). American actress.
• 1902 - Julia Grant dies (b. 1826). Wife of President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant.
• 1903 - The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It crashes, and 3 days later, after repairs, they get it to fly.
• 1903 - William Ennis became the 1st cop to die in electric chair.
• 1906 - First U1 submarine was brought into service in Germany.
• 1907 - The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Scilly Isles in a gale. The pilot and 15 able seamen are lost.
• 1907 - Beatriz Costa was born. Portuguese actress.
• 1908 - The first truly representative Turkish Parliament opened.
• 1908 - Morey Amsterdam was born (d. 1996). American comedian and actor.
• 1908 - Claude Davey was born. Welsh rugby player.
• 1908 - Mária Szepes was born (d. 2007). Hungarian author.
• 1908 - Morey Amsterdam was born (d. 1996). American comedian and actor.
• 1909 - Edward Tatum was born (d. 1975). American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate in 1958.
• 1909 -The Labor Conference in Pittsburgh ended with a "declaration of war" on U.S. Steel.
• 1909 - Leopold II, King of Belgium, dies.
• 1911 - Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, became the first man to reach the South Pole.
  
• 1911 - Hans von Ohain was born (d. 1998). German/American aerospace engineer.
• 1911 - Spike Jones was born (d. 1965). American comedian and musician.
• 1912 - Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis dies (b. 1887). British Army lieutenant.
• 1913 - Dan Dailey was born (d. 1978). American actor.
• 1914 - Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressist Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires.
• 1914 - Attila Petschauer was born (d. 1943). Hungarian Olympic champion fencer.
• 1914 - Karl Carstens was born (d. 1992). President of Germany.
• 1914 - Rosalyn Tureck was bon (d.2003). American pianist and harpsichordist.
• 1915 - Jack Johnson became the 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion.
• 1916 - Shirley Jackson was born (d. 1965). American writer.
• 1917 - C.-H. Hermansson wa born. Swedish communist leader.
• 1917 - Elyse Knox was born. American actress.
• 1917 - June Taylor was born (d. 2004). American choreographer.
  
• 1918 - Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
• 1918 - James T. Aubrey was born (d. 1994). American television executive.
• 1918 - B. K. S. Iyengar was born. Indian yoga advocate.
• 1918 - Sidónio Pais dies assassinated. Fourth President of Portugal/ Sidónio Pais, 4º. Presidente da Republica de Portugal, foi assassinado em Lisboa, na Estação do Rossio, baleado por um sargento do exército.
• 1920 -The League of Nations created a credit system to aid Europe; U.S. export trade was threatened.
• 1920 - Clark Terry was born. American trumpeter.
• 1920 - George Gipp dies (b. 1895). American football player.
• 1922 - Don Hewitt was born. American CBS news executive, creator of 60 Minutes.
• 1922 - Nikolay Basov was born (d. 2001). Soviet-born Russian physicist and Noble Prize laureate.
• 1923 - Gerard Reve was born. Dutch writer.
• 1924 - Raj Kapoor was born (d. 1988). Indian actor.
• 1925 - Sam Jones was born (d. 1971). American baseball player.
• 1926 - Theo van Rysselberghe died at 64. Belgian painter (pointillism).
• 1927 - Iraq gained independence from Britain, but British troops remained.
• 1927 - Richard Cassilly was born (d. 1998). American tenor.
• 1927 - Yulian Vasilievich Sokhotski dies (b. 1842). Russian mathematician.
• 1928 - Lady Chatterley's Lover, by David Herbert Lawrence, is first published.
• 1929 - Alexander Zaimis elected President of Greece.
• 1931 - Jon Elia was born (d. 2002). Pakistani scholar, poet and philosopher.
• 1932 - Abbe Lane was born. American singer and actress.
• 1932 - Charlie Rich was born (d. 1995). American musician.
• 1933 - Eva Wilma was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1934 - 1st streamlined steam locomotive was introduced in Albany, NY.
• 1935 - Lee Remick was born (d. 1991). American actress.
• 1935 - Lewis Arquette was born (d. 2001). American film actor, writer and producer.
• 1935 - Luís de Magalhães dies in Porto (b. 13 Sep. 1859). Portuguese poet, essayst and politician.
• 1935 - Stanley G. Weinbaum dies (b. 1902). American science-fiction author.
• 1937 - Japanese troops conquered and plundered Nanjing.
• 1938 - Leonardo Boff was born. Brazilian theologian.
• 1939 - Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
• 1939 - Ernie Davis was born (d. 1963). American football player.
  
• 1939 - João Batista de Andrade was born. Brazilian film director.
• 1940 - Lex Gold was born. Scottish football administrator.
• 1941 - US Treasury Sec. Henry Morgenthau asked his assistant Harry Dexter White to prepare a paper outlining the possibilities for coordinated monetary arrangements between the US and its allies. White’s proposal said the primary goal should be to stabilize the exchange rates of the Allied countries to encourage the flow of capital. The later led to the establishment of the gold standard at Bretton Woods, N.H., in 1944.
• 1941 - German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel ordered the construction of defensive positions along the European coastline.
• 1941 - German military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine issued an order, according to which the Jewish population was to move to the city periphery within 2 days, into the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days 15.000 Jews were shot at Drobitsky Yar.
• 1941 - World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.
• 1941 - Ellen Willis was born (d. 2006). American journalist.
• 1941 - Karan Armstrong was born. American soprano.
• 1942 - Ethiopia joins the Declaration by United Nations.
  
• 1942 - Zoe Laskari was born. Greek actress.
• 1943 - R. Emmett Tyrrell was born. American magazine publisher.
• 1944 - Congress established the rank of General of Army, the 5-star General.
• 1946 - Patty Duke was born. Americn actress who started her career at seven and won an Oscar for her portrayal of Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker." He went on to star in television's "The Patty Duke Show".
• 1946 -The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City. The UN adopted a disarmament resolution prohibiting the A-bomb.
• 1946 - Jane Birkin was born in London (d. 1946). British-born actress (Mrs Don Juan, Dark Places, Dust).
• 1946 - Joyce Vincent Wilson was born. American singer (Tony Orlando and Dawn).
• 1946 - Michael Ovitz was born. American film producer.
• 1946 - Patty Duke was born. American actress.
• 1946 - Ruth Fuchs was born. East German athlete.
• 1946 - Stan Smith was born. American tennis player.
• 1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
• 1947 - Christopher Parkening was born. American guitarist.
• 1947 - Linda Sutton was born. British artist.
• 1947 - Stanley Baldwin dies (b. 1867). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1947 - Edward Higgins dies (b. 1864). General of The Salvation Army.
• 1948 - Dee Wallace-Stone was born. American actress.
• 1948 - Kim Beazley was born. Australian politician.
• 1948 - Lester Bangs was born (d. 1982). American music journalist.
• 1949 - Bill Buckner was born. American baseball player.
• 1949 - Cliff Williams was born. British-born bassist (AC/DC).
• 1949 - Bulgarian ex-Premier Traicho Kostov was sentenced to die for treason in Sofia.
• 1950 - El coronel Osorio asume la presidencia de El Salvador.
• 1951 - Jan Timman was born. Dutch chess grandmaster.
• 1952 - Germain Houde was born. French Canadian actor.
• 1952 - Pedro Collor de Mello was born in Maceió (d. 19 Dec. 1994). Brazilian entrepreneur.
  
• 1952 - Teixeira de Pascoaes dies (b. 8 Nov. 1877). Portuguese poet/ Faleceu em Amarante Teixeira de Pascoaes, poeta, defensor do Saudosismo como estética literária.
• 1953 - Mikael Odenberg was born. Swedish politician.
• 1953 - René Eespere was born. Soviet-born Estonian composer.
• 1953 - Vangelis Meimarakis was born. Greek lawyer and politician.
• 1953 - Vijay Amritraj was born. Indian former tennis player.
• 1954 - Alan Kulwicki was born (d. 1993). American race car driver.
• 1954 - James Horan was born. American actor.
• 1954 - Steven MacLean was born. Canadian astronaut.
• 1955 - Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations.
• 1956 - John Diefenbaker was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative party in Canada. he succeeded John Drew.
• 1956 - Hanni Wenzel was born. Liechtenstein skier.
• 1956 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi dies (b. 1870). President of Finland.
• 1957 - Gary Ferris was born. American author.
• 1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first-ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
• 1958 - Mike Scott was born. British singer and songwriter (The Waterboys).
• 1958 - Spider Stacy (Peter Richard Stacy) was born. British-born tin whistle player (The Pogues).
• 1959 - Motown, a famed record label whose roster included The Supremes, The Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men and many other musicians, was founded in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1959 - Jorge Vaca was born. Mexican boxer.
• 1960 - Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) forms.
• 1960 - A U.S. B-52 bomber set a 10,000 mile non-stop record without refueling.
• 1960 - Bob Paris was born. American bodybuilder and gay rights advocate.
• 1960 - Chris Waddle was born. English footballer.
• 1961 - The United Republic of Tanzania joins the United Nations.
• 1962 - NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
• 1962 - The Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million, the highest insurance valuance for a painting in history.
• 1962 - Ginger Lynn (Ginger Lynn Allen) was born. American adult film actress.
• 1963 - Cynthia Gibb was born. American actress.
• 1963 - Greg Abbott was born. English former football player.
• 1963 - Dinah Washington dies (b. 1924). American singer.
• 1964 - American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States - The United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress can use its Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.
• 1964 - William Bendix dies (b. 1906). American actor.
• 1965 - Craig Biggio was born. American baseball player.
• 1965 - Ken Hill was born. Baseball player.
• 1966 - Bill Ranford was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1966 - Fabrizio Giovanardi was born. Italian racecar driver.
• 1966 - Tim Skold was born. Swedish/American musician.
• 1966 - Shailendra dies (b. 1923). Indian lyricist.
• 1967 - DNA synthesized for the first time.
• 1967 - Ewa Białołęcka was born. Polish writer.
• 1969 - Scott Hatteberg was born. American baseball player.
• 1970 - Anna Maria Jopek was born. Polish singer.
• 1970 - Beth Orton was born. English singer-songwriter.
• 1970 - Nadine Garner was born. Australian actress.
• 1970 - Franz Schlegelberger dies (b. 1876). German Nazi politician.
• 1971 - Natascha McElhone was born. British actress.
• 1971 - Dick Tiger dies (b. 1929). African-born boxer.
• 1972 - Willy Brandt re-elected West German chancellor.
• 1972 - Astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan blasted off from the moon to join the command module America in lunar orbit, thus ending America’s manned lunar exploration for the 20th century.
• 1972 - Eric Anderson was born. American musical theatre actor.
• 1972 - Marcus Jensen was born. Baseball player.
• 1973 - Tomasz Radzinski was born. Polish-born Canadian international football player.
• 1973 - Thuy Trang was born (d. 2001). American actress.
• 1973 - Tia Texada was born. American actress and singer.
• 1974 - Billy Koch was born. American baseball player.
• 1974 - Walter Lippman dies (b. 1889). American writer, journalist, and political commentator.
• 1975 - Six South Moluccan extremists surrendered after holding 23 hostages for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen.
• 1975 - Inga Drozdova was born. Latvia playmate (Nov. 1997).
• 1975 - Justin Furstenfeld was born. American rock singer.
• 1975 - Arthur Treacher dies (b. 1894). English actor.
• 1976 - Karl Carstens is elected Presuident of Germany.
• 1976 - André Couto was born. Portuguese racing driver.
• 1976 - Leland Chapman was born. Bounty Hunter, son of Duane "Dog" Chapman.
• 1976 - Santiago Ezquerro was born. Spanish football player.
• 1977 - The film Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta, premiered in NYC.
• 1977 - War criminal Pieter Menten sentenced in Amsterdam to 15 years.
• 1977 - KaDee Strickland was born. American actress.
• 1978 - Dean Brogan was born. Australian rules footballer.
• 1978 - Kim St-Pierre was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1978 - Patty Schnyder was born. Swiss tennis player.
• 1978 - Radu Sârbu was born. Moldovam singer (O-Zone).
• 1978 - Salvador de Madariaga dies (b. 1886). Spanish diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist.
• 1979 - Punk rock group The Clash release London Calling in the UK, a landmark album in rock music.
• 1979 - Jean-Alain Boumsong was born. French football player.
• 1979 - Michael Owen was born. English football (soccer) star.
• 1979 - Sophie Monk was born. Australian actress, singer, and model.
• 1980 - After four days of meetings, members of NATO warned the Soviets to stay out of the internal affairs of Poland, saying that intervention would effectively destroy the détente between East and West.
• 1980 - Fans around the world paid tribute to John Lennon, six days after he was shot to death in New York City.
• 1980 - Didier Zokora was born. Ivorian footballer.
• 1980 - Frankie J was born. Spanish singer.
• 1980 - Tata Young was born. Thai-American singer.
• 1981 - Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.
• 1981 - Amber Chia was born. Malaysian model and actress.
• 1981 - Emilie Heymans was born. Canadian diver.
• 1981 - Johnny Jeter was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1981 - Liam Lawrence was born. English footballer.
• 1981 - Shaun Marcum was born. American baseball player.
• 1982 - Government of the 23rd Dáil first sits.
• 1982 - Gerardo Iglesias es elegido secretario general del PCE (Partido Comunista de España) en sustitución de Santiago Carrillo.
• 1982 - Anthony Way was born. British singer and actor.
• 1982 - Josh Fields was born. American baseball player.
• 1982 - Steve Sidwell was born. English footballer.
• 1983 – The 3rd Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.
• 1983 - Sara Afonso dies (b. 1899). Portuguese painter and ilustrator.
• 1984 - Chris Brunt was born. Northern Irish football player.
• 1984 - Edward Rainsford was born. Zimbabwean cricketer.
• 1984 - Vicente Aleixandre dies (b. 1898). Spanish writer and Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1985 - Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
• 1985 - Jakub Błaszczykowski was born. Polish footballer.
• 1985 - Julio Pimentel was born. Dominican baseball player.
• 1985 - Nonami Takizawa was born. Japanese actress.
• 1985 - Paul Rabil was born. American professional lacrosse player.
• 1985 - Ren Yagami was born. Japanese actor and singer
• 1985 - Tom Smith was born. Welsh Rugby Union Player.
• 1985 - Catherine Doherty dies (b. 1896). American social justice activist.
• 1985 - Roger Maris dies (b. 1934). American baseball player.
• 1986 - The experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world. (The trip took nine days).
• 1987 - Supreme Court nominee Anthony M. Kennedy told his confirmation hearing he had no hidden agenda for abortion and privacy cases.
• 1987 - Chrysler pleaded no contest to federal charges of selling several thousand vehicles as new even though they'd been driven by employees with the odometer disconnected.
• 1987 - In the worst attack on merchant shipping in the 'Gulf War', 21 crewmen from a Norwegian tanker are killed.
• 1988 - In a dramatic policy shift, President Reagan authorized the United States to enter into a "substantive dialogue" with the Palestine Liberation Organization, after chairman Yasser Arafat said he was renouncing "all forms of terrorism."
• 1988 – Hayato Sakamoto was born. Japanese baseball player.
• 1988 – Nicolas Batum was born. French basketball player.
• 1988 – Vanessa Anne Hudgens was born. American singer and actress.
• 1989 - Nobel Peace laureate Andrei D. Sakharov died in Moscow at age 68.
• 1989 - Chile holds its first free election in 16 years. Patricio Aylwin was elected president.
• 1989 - Pedro Roberto Silva Botelho was born. Brazilian footballer.
• 1989 - Andrei D. Sakharov dies (b. 1921). Russian physicist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
• 1989 - Jock Mahoney dies (b. 1919). American actor and stuntman.
  
• 1990 - President Bush said he would nominate Lynn Martin to succeed Elizabeth H. Dole as labor secretary.
• 1990 - President Bush prodded Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to agree to talks on the Persian Gulf crisis by January third.
• 1990 - Right to Die case permitted Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed she died 12 days later.
• 1990 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt dies (b. 1921). Swiss writer.
• 1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin lost a battle with hard-liners as he was forced to abandon his reformist prime minister, Yegor Gaidar, in favor of Communist-era technocrat Viktor Chernomyrdin.
• 1992 - Tori Kelly was born. American singer.
• 1993 - A Colorado judge struck down the state's voter-approved Amendment Two prohibiting gay rights laws, calling it unconstitutional.
• 1993 - United Mine Workers approved a five-year contract, ending a strike that had reached seven states and involved some of the nation's biggest coal operators.
• 1993 - Jeff Alm dies (b. 1968). American football player.
• 1993 - Myrna Loy dies in New York (b. 1905). American actress.
• 1994 – Three Gorges Dam: Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River.
• 1994 - Former Arkansas Governor Orval E. Faubus, died at age 84. His refusal to let nine black students into Little Rock's Central High School in 1957 forced President Eisenhower to send in federal troops.
• 1994 - Orval Faubus dies (b. 1910). Governor of Arkansas.
  
• 1995 - AIDS patient Jeff Getty received the first-ever bone-marrow transplant from a baboon. The experimental procedure at a San Francisco hospital was criticized by animal rights activists.
• 1995 - A way to genetically improve resistance to leaf blight in rice plants was reported found by scientists.
• 1995 - Yugoslav Wars: Dayton Agreement: An agreement for peace in Bosnia, reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, was formally signed. Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia signed the Bosnian peace treaty in Paris. The agreement divided Bosnia into 2 autonomous territories and granted 51% of Bosnia to the Muslim-Croat federation and 49% to the Serbs. Elections were scheduled and a force of 60,000 Western troops was planned for deployment. A 3-member presidency and a national parliament was also part of the plan.
• 1995 - Princess Olimpia Preslavska of Bulgaria was born in London.
  
• 1996 - Teamsters President Ron Carey won election to a second term. Later, the results were overturned, and Carey was barred from a rerun vote by a court-appointed monitor who ruled that Carey had used union money for his campaign.
• 1996 - In New Orleans, the 700-foot freighter, Bright Field, lost power on the Mississippi River, went out of control and slammed into a riverfront structure and then hit a crowded mall. No one was killed.
• 1996 - Gaston Miron dies (b. 1928). French Canadian poet and editor.
• 1997 - Astronomers detected the brightest explosion ever detected in a galaxy 12 billion light-years away.
• 1997 - Cuban President Fidel Castro declared Christmas 1997 an official holiday to ensure the success of Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit in Jan.
• 1997 - From India it was reported that Bombay film studios churn out 900 features a year in Hindi and other Indian languages at an average cost of $2.24 million.
• 1997 - Iran's new president, Mohammad Khatami, called for a dialogue with the people of the United States - a nation reviled by his predecessors as "The Great Satan."
• 1997 - In Mexico the 500-seat Chamber of Deputies approved Pres. Zedillo’s $108.9 billion budget for 1988. The secret budget was reduced to $6.25 million.
• 1997 -From Mexico it was reported that the Korean owners of the Han Young plant in Tijuana have agreed to cut ties with the government union and recognize the independent Unidad Obrera (Worker Unity) that was elected on Oct 6.
• 1997 - Kurt Winter dies (b. 1946)., Canadian guitarist (The Guess Who).
• 1997 - Stubby Kaye dies (b. 1918). American actor.
• 1998 - Researchers reported that the protein IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor type1, was found to sustain muscle maintenance and repair when injected into muscle cells. The protein was packaged in the shell of a virus that causes no disease.
• 1998 - The peak of the Geminid meteor shower.
• 1998 - In Algeria Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia resigned.
• 1998 - In Angola UNITA rebels launched an offensive at Cuito and Huambo and claimed to have shot down a government jet.
• 1998 - In Brazil legislators proposed to give themselves a 59% pay raise as the economy slipped into recession.
• 1998 - The British human rights group, Global Witness, reported that in Angola UNITA was selling diamonds to finance its battles against government forces.
• 1998 - In China the armed forces completed the hand over of their commercial holdings to civilian control.
• 1998 - In Guinea Lansana Conte was re-elected president to a 7-year term with 54.1% of the vote.
• 1998 - In Iran authorities arrested several suspects in the recent string of murders of opposition figures. Pirouz Davani, leader of the United Left, and Rostami Hamedani, an activist with Davani, were reported missing.
• 1998 - In Mexico the Senate approved a new law that ended restrictions limiting foreign ownership of the nation’s top banks.
• 1998 - In Kosovo Serbian border guards killed 31 ethnic Albanian guerrillas on the Albanian border.
• 1998 - In Pec masked Albanian rebels opened fire in the Panda barroom and killed 6 young Kosovo Serbs.
• 1998 - Norman Fell dies (b. 1924). American actor.
• 1998 - Annette Strauss dies (b. 1924). American philanthropist and Mayor of Dallas, Texas.
• 1998 - Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr. dies (b. 1928). American civil rights activist and author.
• 1999 - Macau is returned to China.
• 1999 - Charles M. Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, announces his retirement.
• 1999 - Jorge Edwards es galardonado con el Premio Cervantes.
• 1999 - In Seattle Ahmed Ressam (32) was arrested after crossing the border at Port Angeles from Canada with a car trunk with over 150 pounds of bomb-making materials that included 200 pounds of urea, timing devices and a bottle of RDX, cyclotrimethylene trinitramine. Canadian authorities later issued an arrest warrant for Abdelmajed Dahoumane for possessing or making explosives. Dahoumane was arrested in Algeria In Oct, 2000. In 2001 Ressam admitted that he planned to detonate a bomb at the LA Int’l. Airport. Mokhtar Haouari provided fake ID and $3,000 to Ressam. Haouari was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2002.
• 1999 - US and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slave and forced laborers.
• 1999 - Charles Schultz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon, announced that he would retire and that the last Peanuts cartoon would appear Feb 13, 2000.
• 1999 - In Germany the government and industry officials agreed to establish nearly $5.2 billion fund to compensate slave laborers of the Nazi regime.
• 1999 - It was reported that Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa had recently announced a $3.75 billion environmental crusade in an effort to reduce pollution. An 80% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions by 2005 was planned. Hong Kong's yearly emissions for sulfur dioxide was 80,000 tons. Guangdong Province on the Chinese mainland put out 630,000 tons.
• 1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.
• 1999 - In Jammu-Kashmir, India, at least 6 people were killed in clashes between secessionist guerrillas and security forces.
• 1999 - In Mexico a passenger bus collided head-on with a gas truck and at least 26 people were killed near Salvatierra in Guanajuato.
• 1999 - In Panama former US Pres. Jimmy Carter symbolically turned over the Panama Canal. The official ownership transfer date was Dec 31.
• 1999 -In Romania Pres. Constantinescu fired Prime Minister Radu Vasile, though the constitution did not grant him that power. Alexandru Athanasiu, the Labor and Social Welfare minister, was named to replace Vasile. The average monthly salary was down to $89.
• 1999 - In South Africa Clarence Mlokoti (69), co-founder of the Kaizer Chiefs soccer team, was killed during an attempted car-jacking in Soweto.
• 1999 - Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national, was arrested after authorities allegedly found nitroglycerin in the trunk of his car as he arrived from Canada by ferry at Port Angeles, Wash. (Ressam was convicted in April 2001 of terrorist conspiracy and eight other charges).
• 2000 -Pres. Clinton spoke in England and urged the US and other rich countries to end farm subsidies, spend money on fighting disease in the 3rd World and to cut emissions to thwart global warming.
• 2000 President-elect George W. Bush conferred by phone with congressional leaders of both parties and planned a goodwill tour of Washington, D.C.; he also received a flood of congratulatory calls from world leaders on his first full day as president-elect. ref#62190
  2000 U.S. businessman Edward Pope was pardoned and released by Russia after being convicted of espionage.
• 2000 -The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.
• 2000 - In the southern Philippines Muslim extremists killed 3 passengers on a motorcycle taxi.
• 2000 - In Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe claimed that his government has no control over the economy and blamed the “white man” as the real enemy during an address to a Congress of the ruling Zanu-PF Party.
• 2001 - The US vetoed a UN Security council vote that condemned all “acts of terror” against Israelis and Palestinians.
• 2001 - American and British commandos behind a screen of local Afghan fighters contained the last remnants of al Qaeda forces in the White Mountains of Tora Bora. American Marines occupied Kandahar airport.
• 2001 - The US shipped a load of corn to Cuba, the 1st American food shipment there since 1963.
• 2001 - European leaders agreed to send 4,000 troops to Afghanistan.
• 2001 - Portugal Douro: A UNESCO designa a região vinhateira do Rio Douro na lista dos locais que são Património da Humanidade.
• 2001 - European nations began distributing a “Eurokit” of euro coins in advance of the Jan 1 day when the euro becomes legal tender.
• 2001 -The German parliament approved a plan to shut down all nuclear power plants within 20 years.
• 2001 - W. G. Sebald dies in a car accident (b.1944). German-born British author. His books included “The Emigrants” (1996), “The Rings of Saturn” (1998) and “Austerlitz” (2001). The National Books Critics Circle awarded “Austerlitz” top honors in 2002.
• 2003 - President of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharaf [b. 11 Aug 1943, ~] escapes an assassination attempt when a powerful bomb explodes a couple of minutes after his highly-guarded convoy crossed a bridge in Rawalpindi. There are no casualties.
• 2003 - President George W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein.
• 2003 - The La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, rebuilt following arson, is reopened.
• 2003 - Jeanne Crain dies (b. 1925). American actress.
• 2003 - Blas Ople dies (b. 1927). Foreign minister of the Philippines.
• 2004 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, spanning the valley of the River Tarn near Millau, France and designed by British architect Lord Foster in collaboration with French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, is officially opened.
• 2004 – Cuba and Venezuela founded the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.
• 2004 - Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King released.
• 2004 - Rod Kanehl dies (b. 1934). American baseball player.
• 2004 - Fernando Poe, Jr. dies (b. 1939). Filipino actor and presidential candidate.
• 2005 - The Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales, Australia starts to issue NSW Photo Card.
• 2005 - Dr. Rodney William Whitaker of pen name Trevanian, dies (b. 1931). American author.
• 2006 - Ahmet Ertegün dies (b. 1923). Co-founder of Atlantic Records.
• 2006 - Anton Balasingham dies (b. 1938). Chief political strategist of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
• 2006 - Mike Evans dies (b. 1949). American actor.
• 2006 - Sivuca dies (b. 1930). Brazilian musician.
• 2008 – President George W. Bush made his fourth and final (planned) trip to Iraq as president and almost got struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during a farewell conference in Baghdad.
• 2008 - Kathy Staff dies (b. 1928). English Actress played Nora Batty in Yorkshire based comedy Last of the Summer Wine.