On this day in History - Dec. 21

• 0069 - Vespasian becomes the fourth Roman Emperor in the Year of the four emperors following Galba, Otho and Vitellius.
• 0235 - Papa Antero, 19th pope is elected.
• 1118 - Thomas Becket was born (d. 1170). Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1295 - Marguerite Berenger of Provence dies. Queen of Louis IX of France.
  
• 1308 - Henry I of Hesse dies (b. 1244).
• 1375 - Giovanni Boccaccio dies at his home in Certaldo (b. 1313). Italian poet (Vita di Dante).
• 1401 - Tommaso Masaccio was born (d. 1428). Florentine painter.
• 1504 - Bertold von Henneberg-Römhild dies (d. 1442). German archbishop and elector.
• 1549 - Marguerite of Navarre dies (b. 1492). Queen of Henry II of Navarre.
• 1579 - Vicente Masip dies. Spanish painter.
• 1596 - Peter Mogila was born (d. 1646). Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia.
• 1597 - Petrus Canisius dies (b. 1521). Dutch Jesuit.
• 1598 - Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile; all Spanish cities south of the Biobio river are eventually taken by the Mapuches, and all conquest of Mapuche territories by Europeans practically ceases, until the 1870s "Pacification of Araucania".
• 1603 - Roger Williams was born (d. 1684). English theologian and colonist.
• 1620 - Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• 1714 - John Bradstreet was born (d. 1774). Canadian-born soldier.
• 1778 - Anders Sandøe Ørsted was born (d. 1860). Danish politician.
• 1795 - Leopold von Ranke was born (d. 1886). German historian.
• 1804 - Benjamin Disraeli was born (d.1881). Prime Minister of Great Britain (1868, 1874-80). He instituted reforms in housing, public health and factory regulations.
• 1805 - Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage dies in Lisbon (b. in Setúbal 1765). Portuguese poet.
• 1805 - Thomas Graham was born (d. 1869). Scottish chemist.
• 1807 - John Newton was born (d. 1725). English cleric and hymnist.
• 1811 - Archibald Campbell Tait was born (d. 1882). Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1815 - Thomas Couture was born (d. 1879). French painter and teacher.
• 1818 - Amalia of Oldenburg was born (d. 1875). Queen of Greece.
• 1824 - James Parkinson dies (b. 1755). English physician, geologist, paleontologist, and political activist.
• 1832 - John H. Ketcham was born (d. 1906). American politician.
• 1843 - Thomas Bracken was born (d. 1898). New Zealand writer.
• 1844 - The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.
• 1846 - A primeira cirurgia com o uso de anestesia é realizada na Grã-Bretanha no University College por Robert Liston.
• 1850 - Zdeněk Fibich was born (d. 1900). Czech composer.
• 1850 - William Wallace Lincoln was born (d. 1862). Son of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln.
• 1851 - Thomas Chipman McRae was born (d. 1929). American politician, 34th Governor of Arkansas.
• 1859 - Gustave Kahn was born (d. 1936). French poet.
• 1861 - Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
• 1863 - Alfredo Carneiro da Cunha was born in Fundão (d. 25 Nov. 1942). Portuguese poet.
• 1865 - Kappa Alpha Order is founded under the name of Phi Kappa Chi at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia.
• 1866 - Indians led by Red Cloud and Crazy Horse killed Captain William J. Fetterman and 79 other men - Fetterman Massacre or Battle of a Hundred Slain.
• 1872 - Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth.
• 1872 - Don Lorenzo Perosi was born (d. 1956). Italian composer.
• 1872 - Albert Payson Terhune was born (d. 1942). American author.
• 1872 - Sidney Ainsworth was born (d. 1922). British actor.
• 1873 - Blagoje Bersa was born (d. 1934). Croatian composer.
• 1873 - Francis Garnier dies (b. 1839). French explorer.
• 1876 - Jack Lang was born (d. 1975). Australian politician.
• 1878 - Jan Łukasiewicz was born (d. 1956). Polish philosopher and mathematician.
• 1879 - Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, aka Joseph Stalin, was born (d. 1956). Joseph Stalin, Communist leader of the Soviet Union.
• 1880 - Isle of Man becomes first political entity that allows women to vote.
• 1883 - The first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army are formed: The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment.
• 1885 - Frank Patrick was born (d. 1960). National Hockey League player and head coach.
• 1889 - Com o objetivo de eliminar resíduos do regime monárquico, a família imperial é banida de todo território brasileiro.
• 1889 - Sewall Wright was born (d. 1988). American biologist.
• 1889 - Friedrich August von Quenstedt dies (b. 1809). German geologist.
• 1890 - Hermann Joseph Muller was born (d. 1967). American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 1891 - The first basketball game, invented at Springfield College in Massachusetts by James E. Naismith, was played.
• 1891 - John William McCormack was born (d. 1980). American politician.
• 1892 - Amy Key Clarke was born (d. 1980). English mystical poet.
  
• 1892 - Rebecca West was born (d. 1983). American writer.
  
• 1892 - Walter Hagen was born (d. 1969). American golfer.
• 1896 - Leroy Robertson was born (d. 1971). American composer.
• 1898 - Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium.
• 1898 - In Germany Emil and Joseph Berliner founded Deutsche Grammophon, dedicated to manufacturing the gramophone record and player invented by Emil.
• 1900 - Roger Wolcott dies (b. 1847). American political figure, 39th Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1901 - Women vote for the first time in Norway.
• 1905 - Anthony Powell was born (d. 2000). British author.
• 1909 - Seicho Matsumoto was born (d. 1992). Japanese mystery writer and journalist.
• 1910 - 2.5 million plague victims were reported in the An-Hul province of China.
• 1910 - Explosion in coal mine in Hulton, England killed 344 mine workers.
• 1911 - Josh Gibson was born (d. 1947). African-American baseball player.
• 1912 - The movie Das Mirakel premiered in Germany.
• 1913 - Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
• 1914 - Ivan Generalić was born (d. 1992). Croatian painter.
• 1915 - Hélio Moro Mariante was born in Caxias do Sul (RS). Brazilian folklorist, journalist and essayst.
• 1915 - Werner von Trapp was born (d. 2007). Member of the Trapp Family Singers.
• 1917 - Meiji Dairies, a Japanese dairy industry company, is founded.
• 1917 - Andre Eglevsky was born in Moscow (d. 1977). Ballet dancer and choreographer (Limelight).
• 1917 - Heinrich Böll was born (d. 1985). German writer and Nobel laureate.
  
• 1917 - Sophie Masloff was born. American politician.
• 1918 - Donald Regan was born. White House staffer and US Secretary of Treasury (1981-85).
• 1918 - Kurt Waldheim was born. 4th Secretary General of the United Nations.
• 1920 - Jean Gascon was born (d. 1988). Canadian actor, director and administrator.
• 1920 - Alicia Alonso was born. Cuban ballerina.
• 1920 - Bob Bindig was born (d. 2007). Cartoonist.
• 1920 - Jean Gascon was born (d. 1988). Canadian actor.
  
• 1921 - John Severin was born. American comics artist.
• 1921 - Maila Nurmi, aka Vampira, was born. Finnish actress.
• 1922 - Paul Winchell was born (d. 2005). American ventriloquist.
• 1923 - Nepal changes from British protectorate to independent state.
• 1923 - Intizar Hussain was born. Urdu writer and colomnist of Pakistan.
  
• 1926 - Joe Paterno was born. American football coach.
• 1926 - Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made their 1st movie together, “Flying Down to Rio”.
• 1932 - Edward Hoagland was born. American essayist.
• 1933 - Dried human blood serum was 1st prepared at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.
• 1933 - Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen was born (d. 1879). Greenlandic polar explorer and anthropologist.
• 1935 - Edward Schreyer was born. Canadian politician, Premier of Manitoba.
  
• 1935 - John G. Avildsen was born. American film director and editor.
• 1935 - Lorenzo Bandini was born (d. 1967). Italian racecar driver.
  
• 1935 - Phil Donahue was born. American talk show host.
• 1935 - Yusuf Bey (Joseph Stephens) was born. American activist and businessman.
• 1935 - Kurt Tucholsky dies (b. 1890). German journalist and satirist.
• 1936 - First flight of the Junkers JU-88 bomber prototype.
• 1937 - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Walt Disney) premiered as the 1st feature-length color & sound cartoon.
• 1937 - Donald F. Munson was born. American politician.
• 1937 - Elomar Figueira was born. Brazilian musician.
• 1937 - Jane Fonda was born in NYC. American actress (Barbarella, Klute), physical fitness fanatic and activist (Vietnam Protestor).
• 1937 - Frank B. Kellogg dies (b. 1856). United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929.
• 1938 - Frank Moorhouse was born. Australian author.
• 1939 - Carlos do Carmo was born. Portuguese singer (fado).
• 1939 - Lloyd Axworthy was born. Canadian politician.
• 1940 - Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore (d. 1993). Musician, rocker (Mothers of Invention, Catholic Girls).
• 1940 - Ray Hildebrand was born. American singer (Paul & Paula).
• 1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack. Author (Zelda, The Great Gatsby).
• 1942 - Carla Thomas was born. American singer.
• 1942 - Hu Jintao was born. President of the People's Republic of China.
• 1942 - Reinhard Mey was born. German singer.
• 1943 - André Arthur was born. Quebec radio host and politician.
• 1944 - Bill Atkinson was born. English football player.
• 1944 - Michael Tilson Thomas was born. American conductor.
• 1944 - Zheng Xiaoyu was born (d. 2007). Chinese bureaucrat.
  
• 1945 - Gen. George S. Patton dies at the age of 60 in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident (b. 1885).
• 1946 - Frank Capra's : "It's a Wonderful Life," premiered.
• 1946 - An earthquake and tidal wave killed 1,086 in Japan.
• 1946 - Carl Wilson was born (d. 1998). American musician (The Beach Boys).
• 1946 - Christopher Keene was born (d. 1995). American conductor.
• 1947 - Bryan Hamilton was born. Northern Irish football player and manager.
• 1947 - Paco de Lucia was born. Spanish guitarist.
• 1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.
• 1948 - Seishiro Itagaki dies hanged. Japanese General and minister of War.
• 1948 - Dave Kingman was born. American baseball player.
• 1948 - Samuel L. Jackson was born. American actor.
• 1948 - Willi Resetarits was born. Austrian musician and cabaret artist.
• 1949 - Nikolaos Sifounakis was born. Greek politician.
• 1950 - Jeffrey Katzenberg was born. American producer.
• 1950 - Lillebjørn Nilsen was born. Norwegian singer-songwriter.
• 1951 - Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement, baseball player [Hall of fame 1955].
• 1951 - Inauguração da Ponte Marechal Carmona, sobre o Tejo, em Vila Franca de Xira (Portugal).
• 1951 - Nick Gilder was born. English musician (Sweeney Todd).
• 1952 - Joaquín Andújar was born. Dominican baseball player.
• 1953 - Betty Wright was born. American singer.
• 1954 - Dr. Sam Sheppard's wife, Marilyn, was murdered. Sheppard was accused of the crime.
• 1954 - Chris Evert was born. American tennis player.
• 1955 - Jane Kaczmarek was born. American actress.
• 1955 - Kazuyuki Sekiguchi was born. Japanese musician.
• 1956 - Joaquim Leitão was born. Portuguese film director.
• 1956 - Lee Roy Parnell was born. American country singer.
• 1956 - Don Lorenzo Perosi dies (b. 1872). Italian composer.
• 1957 - Tom Henke was born. American baseball player.
• 1957 - Ray Romano was born. American comedian and actor.
• 1957 - Eric Coates dies (b. 1886). English composer.
• 1958 - French presidential election, 1958: Charles de Gaulle is elected President of France as his Union des Démocrates pour la République party gain 78.5% of the vote.
• 1958 - Lion Feuchtwanger dies (b. 1884). German writer.
• 1959 - Florence Griffith Joyner was born in Los Angeles. American track and field runner (Olympic-3 gold-1988).
• 1959 - Rosanjin dies (b. 1883). Japanese calligrapher, restaurateur and ceramicist.
• 1960 - Rei Saud assume o governo da Arábia Saudita após a renúncia do primeiro-ministro, o Príncipe Faisal.
• 1960 - Andy Van Slyke was born. American baseball player.
• 1960 - Louis Demetrius Alvanis was born. London-based pianist.
• 1960 - Roger McDowell was born. Former Major League Baseball Pitcher.
• 1961 - Francis Ng was born. Hong Kong actor.
• 1961 - Ryuji Sasai was born. Japanese composer.
• 1962 - Argentina: creación de la AAcademia Porteña del Lunfardo.
• 1962 - A US and Cuba accord released Bay of Pigs captives.
• 1962 - Rondane National Park, the first national park in Norway, was established.
• 1964 - Britain’s House of Commons voted to ban the death penalty. Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty. The vote was in part due to the country’s unease over the 1953 Bentley hanging.
• 1964 - Fabiana Udenio was born. Argentine actress.
• 1964 - Rob Kelly was born. English football manager.
• 1964 - Carl Van Vechten dies (b. 1880). American writer and photographer.
• 1965 - Four pacifists were indicted in New York for burning draft cards.
• 1965 - Andy Dick was born. American actor and comedian.
• 1965 - Anke Engelke was born. German comedian.
• 1965 - Claude Champagne dies (b. 1891). Quebec composer.
• 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland was born. Canadian actor.
• 1966 - Karri Turner was born. American actress.
• 1966 - Sophie Ward was born. English actress.
• 1966 - USSR launched Luna 13. It soft-landed on the Moon’s Oceanus Procellarum.
• 1967 - Louis Washkansky, the world's first heart transplant patient dies. The heart was obtained from a 24-year-old motor-accident victim, Denise Darvall, and was transplanted by Dr Christiaan Barnard only 18 days 1968 -David Crosby, Stephen Stills & Graham Nash premiered together in California.
• 1967 - Ervin Johnson was born. American basketball player.
• 1967 - Mikhail Saakashvili was born. President of Georgia.
• 1967 - Terry Mills was born. American basketball player.
• 1967 - Stuart Erwin dies (b. 1903). American actor.
• 1968 - Apollo program: Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At 2h:50m:37s Mission elapsed time (MES), the crew performs the first ever manned Trans Lunar Injection and become the first humans to leave Earth's gravity.ith astronauts Borman, Lovell & Anders was launched on the 1st mission to orbit the moon.
• 1969 - Diana Ross made her final TV appearance as a Supreme on the Ed Sullivan Show.
• 1969 - Julie Delpy was born. French actress.
• 1969 - Mihails Zemļinskis was born. Latvian football player.
• 1970 - Elvis Presley met with president Richard Nixon in the White House to discuss the war on drugs.
• 1970 - Jamie Theakston was born. English television presenter.
• 1971 - UN Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim as 4th secretary general (on his 53rd birthday).
• 1971 - Mathieu Chedid was born. French musician, singer and songwriter.
• 1971 - Fenton Keogh was born. Australian celebrity chef.
• 1971 - Brett Scallions was born. American singer (Fuel, The X's).
• 1972 - Latroy Hawkins was born. American baseball player.
• 1972 - Dustin Hermanson was born. American baseball player.
• 1972 - Erwin Schrott was born. Uruguayan opera singer.
• 1972 - Latroy Hawkins was born. American baseball player.
• 1973 - The Geneva Conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict opens. Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, US and USSR leaders met in Geneva.
• 1973 - Irakli Alasania was born. Georgian politician and diplomat.
• 1973 - Karmen Stavec was born. German-born Slovenian singer.
• 1973 - Mike Alstott was born. American football player.
• 1974 - Karrie Webb was born. Australian golfer.
• 1974 - James Henry Govier dies (b. 1910). British artist.
• 1974 - Richard Long dies (b. 1927). American actor.
• 1975 - In Austria there was a terrorist kidnapping of Saudi oil minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani and other ministers at the OPEC gathering in Vienna, Austria. Three people were killed and 11 taken hostage. The oil ministers were taken to North Africa in a hijacked plane in a $1 billion ransom drama. Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, later admitted to planning the attack. In 2001 Germany sentenced Hans-Joachim Klein to 9 years for his role in the attack.
• 1975 - Paloma Herrera was born. Argentine ballet dancer (American Ballet Theatre).
• 1976 - The Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant ran aground near Nantucket Island, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.
• 1976 - Lukas Rossi was born. Canadian rock musician, lead singer for Supernova.
• 1976 - Mirela Manjani was born. Greek javelin thrower.
• 1977 - Jim Carson was born. American music producer and disc jockey.
• 1977 - Toby Rand was born. Australian singer (Juke Kartel).
• 1978 - Mike Vitar was born. American actor.
• 1979 - Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Dr S C Mundawarara.
• 1979 - Jay Ross was born. Manager of Network Operations for LATTV.
• 1979 - Tuva Novotny was born. Swedish actress and singer.
• 1980 - Lee Eun Ju was born (d. 2005). Korean actress.
• 1980 - Royce Ring was born. American baseball player.
• 1980 - Nelson Rodrigues dies (b. 1912). Brazilian dramatist and writer (“Vestido de noiva”, "Dorotéia" e "O Casamento").
• 1981 - Dima Bilan was born. Russian singer.
• 1981 - Cristian Zaccardo was born. Italian football player.
• 1981 - Frankie Abernathy was born (d. 2007). American actress, The Real World: San Diego.
• 1981 - Lynda Thomas was born. Mexican singer.
• 1981 - Sajid Mahmood was born. English cricketer.
• 1981 - Allan Dwan dies (b. 1885). Canadian-born American director and screenwriter.
• 1982 - Erica Hayden was born. American journalist and radio personality.
• 1982 - Iljo Keisse was born. Belgian cyclist.
• 1982 - Mike Gansey was born. American basketball player.
• 1982 - Philip Humber was born. American baseball player.
• 1983 - Paul de Man dies (b. 1919). Belgian-born literary critic.
• 1984 - Darren Potter was born. Irish football player.
• 1984 - Jackson Rathbone was born. American actor.
• 1985 - James Stewart Jr. was born. American motorcycle racer.
• 1985 - Jessica Athaide was born. Portuguese actress and model.
• 1985 - Yanagi Kotarou was born. Japanese actor.
• 1986 - Presidente José Sarney anuncia o Plano Cruzado II.
• 1986 - Over 50,000 students demonstrate in Shanghai's Peoples Square, for democracy and freedom in China.
• 1987 - The passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing 1,565.
• 1987 - Valerie Concepcion was born. Filipino actress.
• 1987 - John Spence dies (b. 1969). Founding No Doubt member.
• 1988 - A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 (Flight 103) over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Libya was accused of responsibility for the bombing.
• 1988 - Drexel pleaded guilty to security felonies and paid a $650 million fine.
• 1988 - Edward Speelers was born. British actor.
• 1988 - Bob Steele [Robert Bradbury] dies at 60 after short illness. Radio broadcaster.
• 1988 - After a record 365 days in space, two Russian and one French cosmonaut return to Earth.
• 1988 - Nikolaas Tinbergen dies (b. 1907). Dutch ornithologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 1989 - Kentuckian Larry Mahoney was convicted on 27 counts of manslaughter for a 1988 collision with a church bus. It was the nation's most deadly drunken-driving accident.
• 1989 - Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu delivered what turned out to be his final public speech. The hard-line Communist ruler was visibly stunned as his listeners began booing. Ceausescu fled from power and was executed four days later.
• 1989 - Mark Ingram Jr. was born. American football player.
• 1989 - Tamannaah Bhatia was born. Indian actress.
• 1990 - In Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis participated in an evacuation drill to test war readiness.
• 1990 - Mark Simpson was born. British rockstar.
• 1991 - Cable TV and sports magnate Ted Turner married actress Jane Fonda near Capps, Fla. They divorced in May 2001.
• 1991 - In Bosnia-Herzegovina a Serb minority held an unofficial referendum opposing separation from Yugoslavia. Local Serb leaders proclaimed a new republic separate from Bosnia.
• 1991 - Eleven of the former Soviet republics form the Commonwealth of Independent States.
• 1991 - Primeras elecciones legislativas en Taiwán en 40 años, con amplia victoria del gubernamental Kuomitang (Partido Nacionalista), que reformará la Constitución.
• 1991 - Charilaos Florakis is elected honorary president of the Communist Party of Greece.
• 1992 - A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, burst into fire at landing on Faro, Portugal killing 56 people.
• 1992 - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic won re-election. He defeated the American entrepreneur Milan Panic in elections that were «decidedly unfair».
• 1992 - Albert King dies (b. 1924). American musician.
• 1992 - Nathan Milstein dies (b. 1903). Ukrainian violinist.
• 1992 - Stella Adler dies (b. 10 Feb 1901). American actress.
• 1993 - Boris Nikolaievich Yeltsin, político e ingeniero ruso, firma un decreto por el que desaparece el legendario servicio del KGB [Komisariat Gosudarstvennoye Bezopasnosti] crea en su lugar el Servicio Federal de Contraespionaje de Rusia (SFCR).
• 1994 - Acceptance and Acession Agreement is signed in Accra, Liberia.
• 1994 - A firebomb on the #4 train at Fulton St. New York City subway injured 48 people; unemployed computer programmer Edward Leary was later convicted of attempted murder.
• 1994 – Mexican volcano Popocatepetl awakes from its 47-year sleep with an eruption of gases and ash.
• 1995 - A train collision outside Cairo, Egypt, claimed 75 lives.
• 1995 - The city of f Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
• 1996 - Dr. David Ho, AIDS researcher, was named ‘Man of the Year” by Time Magazine.
• 1996 - China’s rulers named 60 pro-Beijing stalwarts to a new interim legislature of Hong Kong to replace the panel elected in 1995.
• 1997 - It was reported that Andrew S. Grove, chairman and CEO of Intel Corp., was named time magazine’s “Man of the Year”.
• 1997 - Johnny Coles (71), jazz trumpeter, died in Philadelphia. His records included “The Warm Sound of Johnny Coles” and “Little Johnny C.”.
• 1997 - In Serbia Milan Milutinovic of the ruling Socialists claimed victory in the runoff election against Vojislav Seselj, but it wasn’t clear if the turnout exceeded 50%.
• 1997 - Amie Comeaux dies (b. 1976). American country music singer.
• 1998 - In China 3 dissidents were sentenced to prison terms of 11-13 years. Xu Wenli received 13 years, Wang Youcai 11 years and Qin Yongmin 12 years for subversion, i.e. trying to organize an opposition party.
• 1998 - Israel's parliament voted 81-30 for early elections, signaling the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ailing hard-line government. Peace policies were rejected 56-48.
• 1998 - In Turkey Prime Minister-designate Bulent Ecevit abandoned efforts to form a new government.
• 1998 - Roger Avon dies (b. 1914). English actor.
• 1998 - Karl Denver dies (b. 1931). Scottish singer.
• 1998 - Ernst Gunther Schenck dies (b. 1904). German doctor who joined the Sturmabteilung in 1933.
• 1999 - In Guatemala City a Cubana de Aviacion DC-10 skidded and crashed on landing. At least 26 people were killed.
• 1999 - In Sri Lanka presidential elections were held. At least 7 people were killed in poll violence. Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga won 51% of the vote. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the nearest rival, won 43%.
• 1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts near Calatayud (Zaragoza) a Madrid-bound van driven by ETA and loaded with 950 kg of explosives. The next day, another van loaded with 750 kg is found not far from there. The incident is known as "la caravana de la muerte" (the caravan of death).
• 2000 - El que fuera miembro de la directiva de ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) en los años ochenta, Santiago Arrózpide Sarasola, "Santi Potros", es entregado por las autoridades francesas a la justicia española.
• 2000 - President-elect Bush resigned as governor of Texas; Lt. Gov. Rick Perry was sworn in to replace him.
• 2000 - Final US election results showed Al Gore with 50,996,116 votes vs. Gov. Bush with 50,456,169. Gore led by over 500,000 votes but lost to bush by one electoral college vote.
• 2000 - Christine Todd Whitman, governor of New Jersey, agreed to serve as director of the EPA for Pres.-elect Bush.
• 2000 - A UN report accused Jonas Savimbi and UNITA rebels in Angola of trading diamonds for arms.
• 2000 - In Israel the legislature blocked an attempt by Shimon Peres to run for prime minister. The Feb 6 election pits Ariel Sharon against Ehud Barak.
• 2000 - In Sri Lanka Tamil rebels announced a unilateral month-long cease-fire with hopes of resuming peace talks. Sri Lanka launched a new offensive just hours following the rebel cease-fire.
• 2001 - US warplanes attacked a convoy of trucks heading for the Pakistan border and 65 people were reported killed. 12 were killed in the convoy and 15 in nearby villages. The convoy was said to be heading for Kabul.
• 2001 - In Kabul, Afghanistan, power was officially transferred from Pres. Rabbani to Hamid Karzai.
• 2001 - In Argentina Ramon Puerta head of the Senate, became president following an extraordinary session of both houses.
• 2001 - In Bulgaria at least 7 young people were killed when they rushed the entrance of a Sofia downtown disco.
• 2001 - Dick Schaap dies (b. 1931). American sports journalist.
• 2002 - José Hierro dies at 80. Spanish writer.
• 2003 - Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg dies (b. 1924). Spanish playboy and businessman.
• 2004 - Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.
• 2004 - Autar Singh Paintal dies (d. 1925). Indian medical scientist.
• 2005 - Elrod Hendricks dies (b. 1940). American baseball player and coach.
• 2006 - Scobie Breasley dies (b. 1914). Australian jockey.
• 2006 - Saparmurat Niyazov (b. 1940). President of Turkmenistan.
• 2007 - The Schengen Agreement area increases to include 9 European Union member states; Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Malta on land and sea borders.
• 2007 - Ken Hendricks dies (b. 1941). American businessman.
• 2008 - Football: Manchester United beats LDU 1-0 and wins the FIFA Worldchampionship in clubs.
• 2008 – Ron Hornaday, Sr. dies (b. 1931). American stock car racer.
• Roman festivals - Divalia in hounour of Angerona.
  
• R.C. Saints - Saint Petrus Canisius ; formerly feast day of Thomas the apostle.
• Earliest date for the winter solstice:
  • Earliest date for Yule in the northern hemisphere, and Midsummer in the southern hemisphere. (Neopagan Wheel of the Year)
  • Sanghamitta Day
  • Ziemassvētki (ancient Latvia)