Events Pre-1600 557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake, which cracks the dome of Hagia Sophia. 835 – Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspires to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot is foiled. 872 – Pope John VIII is elected following the death of Hadrian II. 1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people. 1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of one week on the death of her father, King James V.
1601–1900 1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. 1780 – Founding Father Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York. 1782 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly . 1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia. 1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana. 1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state. 1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends as the "Frostbitten Convention" votes to accept Congress' terms for admitting Michigan as a U.S. state. 1863 – American Civil War: The Confederate victory under General James Longstreet at the Battle of Bean's Station in East Tennessee ends the Knoxville Campaign, but achieves very little as Longstreet returns to Virginia next spring. 1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company. 1900 – Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law (quantum theory) at the Physic Society in Berlin.
1901–present 1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu. 1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 1907 – The , the largest ever ship without a heat engine, runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die. 1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory. 1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole. 1913 – , the fourth and last ship, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II. 1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King of Finland, renounces the throne. 1918 – Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated. 1918 – The 1918 United Kingdom general election occurs, the first where women were permitted to vote. In Ireland the Irish republican political party Sinn Féin wins a landslide victory with nearly 47% of the popular vote.The Irish Election of 1918 . ARK. Retrieved 29 December 2022. 1918 – Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premieres at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. 1925 – Wozzeck, Alban Berg's first opera, is premiered at the Berlin State Opera conducted by Erich Kleiber. 1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland. 1940 – Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California. 1942 – An Aeroflot Tupolev ANT-20 crashes near Tashkent, killing all 36 people on board. 1948 – Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann are granted a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game. 1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109. 1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility. 1960 – Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted. 1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. 1963 – The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California. 1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination. 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistans intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.) 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the most recent person to walk on the Moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission. 1981 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratifies the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the Golan Heights. 1985 – Wilma Mankiller takes office as the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. 1986 – Qasba Aligarh massacre: Over 400 Muhajirs killed in revenge killings in Qasba colony after a raid on Pashtun heroin processing and distribution center in Sohrab Goth by the security forces. 1992 – War in Abkhazia: Siege of Tkvarcheli: A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli is shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia. 1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river. 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the same day, NATO began ground peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 1998 – Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36. 1999 – Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure. 2003 – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt. 2004 – The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France. 2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. 2013 – A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties. 2017 – The Walt Disney Company announces that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion. 2020 – A total solar eclipse is visible from parts of the South Pacific Ocean, southern South America, and the South Atlantic Ocean. 2025 – At least 16 people are killed, including one gunman, and 43 injured in a mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in the deadliest terror incident in Australia.
Births Pre-1600 1009 – Go-Suzaku, emperor of Japan (died 1045) 1332 – Frederick III, German nobleman (died 1381) 1546 – Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and chemist (died 1601) 1599 – Charles Berkeley, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge, English politician (died 1668)
1601–1900 1607 – János Kemény, Hungarian prince (died 1662) 1625 – Barthélemy d'Herbelot, French orientalist and academic (died 1695) 1631 – Anne Conway, English philosopher and author (died 1679) 1640 – Aphra Behn, English playwright and author (died 1689) 1678 – Daniel Neal, English historian and author (died 1743) 1720 – Justus Möser, German jurist and theorist (died 1794) 1730 – Capel Bond, English organist and composer (died 1790) 1738 – Jan Antonín Koželuh, Czech composer and educator (died 1814) 1775 – Philander Chase, American bishop and educator, founded Kenyon College (died 1852) 1775 – Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Scottish admiral and politician (died 1860) 1777 – Du Pré Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon, Irish politician, Lord Lieutenant of Tyrone (died 1839) 1784 – Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily (died 1806) 1789 – Maria Szymanowska, Polish composer and pianist (died 1831) 1791 – Charles Wolfe, Irish priest and poet (died 1823) 1794 – Erastus Corning, American businessman and politician (died 1872) 1816 – Abraham Hochmuth, Hungarian rabbi and educator (died 1889) 1824 – Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter and illustrator (died 1898) 1832 – Daniel H. Reynolds, American general, lawyer, and politician (died 1902) 1851 – Mary Tappan Wright, American novelist and short story writer (died 1916) 1852 – Daniel De Leon, Curaçaoan-American journalist and politician (died 1914) 1856 – Louis Marshall, American lawyer and activist (died 1929) 1866 – Roger Fry, English painter and critic (died 1934) 1870 – Karl Renner, Austrian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Austria (died 1950) 1881 – Katherine MacDonald, American actress and producer (died 1956) 1883 – Manolis Kalomiris, Greek pianist and composer (died 1962) 1883 – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, developed aikido (died 1969) 1884 – Jane Cowl, American actress and playwright (died 1950) 1887 – Virgil Madgearu, Romanian economist, sociologist (died 1940) 1887 – Xul Solar, Argentinian painter and sculptor (died 1963) 1894 – Alexander Nelke, Estonian-American painter and carpenter (died 1974) 1895 – George VI of the United Kingdom (died 1952) 1895 – Paul Éluard, French poet and author (died 1952) 1896 – Jimmy Doolittle, American general and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1993) 1897 – Kurt Schuschnigg, Italian-Austrian lawyer and politician, 15th Federal Chancellor of Austria (died 1977) 1897 – Margaret Chase Smith, American educator and politician (died 1995) 1899 – DeFord Bailey, American Hall of Fame country and blues musician (died 1982)
1901–present 1901 – Henri Cochet, French tennis player (died 1987) 1901 – Paul of Greece (died 1964) 1902 – Frances Bavier, American actress (died 1989) 1902 – Herbert Feigl, Austrian philosopher from the Vienna Circle (died 1988) 1903 – Walter Rangeley, English sprinter (died 1982) 1904 – Virginia Coffey, American civil rights activist (died 2003) 1908 – Morey Amsterdam, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (died 1996) 1908 – Claude Davey, Welsh rugby player (died 2001) 1908 – Mária Szepes, Hungarian journalist, author, and screenwriter (died 2007) 1909 – Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1975) 1911 – Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz, Greek-Polish swimmer and water polo player (died 1943) 1911 – Spike Jones, American singer and bandleader (died 1965) 1911 – Hans von Ohain, German-American physicist and engineer (died 1998) 1914 – Karl Carstens, German lieutenant and politician, 5th President of the Federal Republic of Germany (died 1992) 1914 – Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichord player (died 2003) 1915 – Dan Dailey, American dancer and actor (died 1978) 1916 – Shirley Jackson, American novelist and short story writer (died 1965) 1917 – C.-H. Hermansson, Swedish author and politician (died 2016) 1917 – Elyse Knox, American actress and fashion designer (died 2012) 1917 – June Taylor, American dancer and choreographer (died 2004) 1918 – James T. Aubrey, American broadcaster (died 1994) 1918 – Radu Beligan, Romanian actor and director (died 2016) 1918 – B. K. S. Iyengar, Indian yoga instructor and author, founded Iyengar Yoga (died 2014) 1920 – Clark Terry, American trumpet player, composer, and educator (died 2015)