Events Pre-1600 887 – Emperor Charles the Fat is deposed by the Frankish magnates in an assembly at Frankfurt, leading his nephew, Arnulf of Carinthia, to declare himself king of the East Frankish Kingdom in late November. 1183 – Genpei War: The Battle of Mizushima takes place off the Japanese coast, where Minamoto no Yoshinaka's invasion force is intercepted and defeated by the Taira clan. 1292 – John Balliol becomes King of Scotland. 1405 – Sharif ul-Hāshim establishes the Sultanate of Sulu. 1494 – French King Charles VIII occupies Florence, Italy.; ; 1511 – Henry VIII of England concludes the Treaty of Westminster, a pledge of mutual aid against the French, with Ferdinand II of Aragon. 1558 – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I.
1601–1900 1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason. 1775 – The city of Kuopio, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden. 1777 – Articles of Confederation (United States) are submitted to the states for ratification. 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Bridge of Arcole: French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy. 1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C. 1810 – Sweden declares war on its ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever takes place. 1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile. 1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.) 1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Gran Colombia. 1837 – An earthquake in Valdivia, south-central Chile, causes a tsunami that leads to significant destruction along Japan's coast. 1856 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase. 1858 – Modified Julian Day zero. 1858 – The city of Denver, Colorado is founded. 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins: During the Knoxville campaign, Confederate forces under General James Longstreet besiege the city of Knoxville, Tennessee and its Union defenders led by General Ambrose Burnside. 1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated. 1878 – First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a leg. 1885 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: The decisive Battle of Slivnitsa begins. 1894 – H. H. Holmes, one of the first modern serial killers, is arrested in Boston, Massachusetts. 1896 – The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, began play at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park Casino.
1901–present 1903 – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority"). 1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and more than 1,200 students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students' Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic. 1940 – The Tartu Art Museum is established in Tartu, Estonia.Estonia's famous "leaning house" displays Georgian artists' work – Agenda.ge 1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath. 1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century. 1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama. 1950 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 89 relating to the Palestine Question is adopted. 1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, County Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland. 1957 – Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. There are no fatalities. 1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region. 1967 – Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson tells the nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress." 1968 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service. 1968 – Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S. 1969 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides. 1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre. 1970 – Luna programme: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft. 1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook." 1973 – The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital. 1983 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico. 1986 – The flight crew of Japan Airlines Flight 1628 are involved in a UFO sighting incident while flying over Alaska. 1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29). 1990 – Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, becomes active again and erupts. 1993 – United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement. 1993 – In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup. 1997 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre. 2000 – A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years. 2000 – Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru. 2003 – Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's tenure as the governor of California begins.Schwarzenegger sworn in as California's governor, Nov. 17, 2003 – Politico 2012 – At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt. 2013 – Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia. 2013 – A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes. 2019 – The first known case of COVID-19 is traced to a 55-year-old man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
Births Pre-1600 AD 9 – Vespasian, Roman emperor (died 79) 1019 – Sima Guang, Chinese politician (died 1086) 1412 – Zanobi Strozzi, Italian painter (died 1468) 1453 – Alfonso, Asturian prince (died 1468) 1493 – John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, English politician (died 1543) 1503 – Bronzino, Italian painter (died 1572) 1576 – Roque González de Santa Cruz, Paraguayan missionary and saint (died 1628) 1587 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch poet and playwright (died 1679)
1601–1900 1602 – Agnes of Jesus, French Catholic nun (died 1634) 1612 – Dorgon, Chinese prince and regent (died 1650) 1681 – Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian and author (died 1776) 1685 – Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Canadian commander and explorer (died 1749) 1729 – Maria Antonia Ferdinanda, Sardinian queen consort (died 1785) 1749 – Nicolas Appert, French chef, invented canning (died 1841) 1753 – Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, American pastor and botanist (died 1815) 1755 – Louis XVIII, king of France (died 1824) 1765 – Jacques MacDonald, French general (died 1840) 1769 – Charlotte Georgine, duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (died 1818) 1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (died 1868) 1793 – Charles Lock Eastlake, English painter, historian, and academic (died 1865) 1816 – August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian composer and historian (died 1876) 1827 – Petko Slaveykov, Bulgarian journalist and poet (died 1895) 1835 – Andrew L. Harris, American general and politician, 44th Governor of Ohio (died 1915) 1854 – Hubert Lyautey, French general and politician, French Minister of War (died 1934) 1857 – Joseph Babinski, French neurologist and academic (died 1932) 1866 – Voltairine de Cleyre, American author and activist (died 1912) 1868 – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist and academic (died 1918) 1877 – Frank Calder, English-Canadian journalist and businessman (died 1943) 1878 – Grace Abbott, American social worker (died 1939) 1878 – Augustus Goessling, American swimmer and water polo player (died 1963) 1886 – Walter Terence Stace, English-American philosopher, academic, and civil servant (died 1967) 1887 – Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, English field marshal (died 1976) 1891 – Lester Allen, American screen, stage, vaudeville, circus actor, and film director (died 1949) 1896 – Lev Vygotsky, Belarusian-Russian psychologist and philosopher (died 1934) 1897 – Frank Fay, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (died 1961) 1897 – Gregorio López y Fuentes, Mexican journalist, author, and poet (died 1966) 1899 – Douglas Shearer, Canadian-American engineer (died 1971)
1901–present 1901 – Walter Hallstein, German academic and politician, first President of the European Commission (died 1982) 1901 – Lee Strasberg, Ukrainian-American actor and director (died 1982) 1902 – Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1995) 1904 – Isamu Noguchi, American sculptor and architect (died 1988) 1905 – Astrid of Sweden (died 1935) 1905 – Mischa Auer, Russian-American actor (died 1967) 1905 – Arthur Chipperfield, Australian cricketer (died 1987) 1906 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and businessman, co-founded the Honda Motor Company (died 1991) 1906 – Rollie Stiles, American baseball player (died 2007) 1907 – Israel Regardie, English occultist and author (died 1985) 1911 – Christian Fouchet, French lawyer and politician, French Minister of the Interior (died 1974) 1916 – Shelby Foote, American historian and author (died 2005) 1917 – Ruth Aaronson Bari, American mathematician (died 2005) 1919 – Kim Heungsou, Korean painter and educator (died 2014) 1920 – Camillo Felgen, Luxembourgian singer-songwriter (died 2005) 1920 – Gemini Ganesan, Indian actor and director (died 2002) 1921 – Albert Bertelsen, Danish painter and illustrator (died 2019) 1922 – Stanley Cohen, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020) 1922 – Jack Froggatt, English footballer (died 1993) 1923 – Hubertus Brandenburg, Swedish bishop (died 2009) 1923 – Mike Garcia, American baseball player (died 1986)