Milestones

[admihoek]

and yep Tree some pics

[

and 0f course....................................a redhead .....................with a message

​

 

[Eulalia]

That's very behind the times, these days museums and art galleries
have to be interactive, hands on experiences

 

[admihoek]

That's very behind the times, these days museums and art galleries
have to be interactive, hands on experiences

but a message it is

 

[admihoek]

December 9
December 9 is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 22 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events

• 480 – Odoacer, first King of Italy, occupies Dalmatia. He later establishes his political power with the co-operation of the Roman Senate.
• 536 – Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flee the capital.
• 730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, Al-Jarrah Ibn Abdallah Al-Hakami.
• 1425 – The Catholic University of Leuven is founded.
• 1531 – The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.
• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: British troops lose the Battle of Great Bridge, and leave Virginia soon afterward.
• 1793 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
• 1824 – Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
• 1835 – Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio, Texas.
• 1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal.
• 1856 – The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
• 1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African-American governor of a U.S. state.
• 1875 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, "America's Oldest Active Gun Club", is founded.
• 1897 – Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper La Fronde in Paris.
• 1905 – In France, the law separating church and state is passed.
• 1911 – A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.
• 1917 – World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem, Palestine.
• 1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.
• 1931 – The Constituent Cortes approves a constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.
• 1935 – Walter Liggett, American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder.
• 1935 – The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, is awarded for the first time. The winner is halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.
• 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanjing (Nanking).
• 1940 – World War II: Operation Compass: British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.
• 1941 – World War II: The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.
• 1941 – World War II: The American 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.
• 1946 – The "Subsequent Nuremberg trials" begin with the "Doctors' trial", prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.
• 1946 – The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.
• 1948 – The Genocide Convention is adopted.
• 1950 – Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
• 1953 – Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.
• 1956 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.
• 1958 – The John Birch Society is founded in the United States.
• 1958 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 131 is adopted.
• 1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
• 1961 – Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
• 1962 – The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.
• 1965 – Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; witnesses report something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh. In 2005 NASA admits that it examined the object.
• 1965 – A Charlie Brown Christmas, first in a series of Peanuts television specials, debuts on CBS.
• 1966 – Barbados joins the United Nations.
• 1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
• 1969 – U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.
• 1971 – The United Arab Emirates join the United Nations.
• 1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.
• 1973 – British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland.
• 1979 – The eradication of the smallpoxvirus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.
• 1987 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
• 1988 – The Michael Hughes Bridge in Sligo, Ireland, is officially opened.
• 2003 – A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
• 2008 – The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-electBarack Obama's election to the Presidency.
• 2013 – At least seven are dead and 63 are injured following a train accident near Bintaro, Indonesia.

 

[admihoek]

Holidays and observances
Anna's Day, marks the day to start the preparation process of the lutefisk to be consumed on Christmas Eve, as well as a Swedish name day, celebrating all people named Anna. (Sweden and Finland)
Christian feast day:
Feast of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by St. Anne (Orthodox Church)

• • Juan Diego
  • Leocadia
  • Nectarius of Auvergne
  • Peter Fourier
  • December 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Independence Day (Tanzania), celebrates the independence of Tanganyika from Britain in 1961
• International Anti-Corruption Day (International)
• National Heroes Day (Antigua and Barbuda), formerly V.C. Bird Day
• Remembrance for Egill Skallagrímsson (The Troth)

Yuri's Day in the Autumn (Russian Orthodox Church)

​

 

[Schlumpie]

frightening as lean!

 

[Naraku]

December 8 is the 342nd day of the year (343rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 23 days remaining until the end of the year.
Events

• 1980 – John Lennon is murdered by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota in New York City.

Still imagining.

 

[thehangingtree]

Still imagining.

I was in Midland, Texas, in a Holiday Inn drinking scotch when the news came across...

His attorneys argue that he is mentally ill... really??? If you shoot someone in cold blood does society owe you crap to get 'get you head straight'...

I've no sympathy for John Lennon's killer or anyone who kills in cold blood nor support the court systems that coddle them.

Tree

 

[admihoek]

December 10
December 10 is the 344th day of the year (345th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 21 days remaining until the end of the year.

• 1041 – The son of Empress of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
• 1317 – The "Nyköping Banquet" - King Birger of Sweden treacherously seizes his two brothers Valdemar, Duke of Finland and Eric, Duke of Södermanland, who were subsequently starved to death in the dungeon of Nyköping Castle.
• 1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
• 1510 – Portuguese conquest of Goa: Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque, and local mercenaries working for privateer Timoji, seize Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
• 1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.
• 1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
• 1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter
• 1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley.
• 1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
• 1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
• 1861 – Forces led by Nguyễn Trung Trực, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.
• 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
• 1869 – The Kappa Sigma Fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia.
• 1877 – Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): The Russian Army captures Plevna after a 5-month siege. The garrison of 25,000 surviving Turks surrenders. The Russian victory is decisive for the outcome of the war and the Liberation of Bulgaria.
• 1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published.
• 1896 – Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi premieres in Paris. A riot breaks out at the end of the performance.
• 1898 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
• 1899 – Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
• 1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
• 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
• 1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected.
• 1909 – Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
• 1927 – The phrase "Grand Ole Opry" is used for the first time on-air.
• 1932 – Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy.
• 1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
• 1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
• 1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines: Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on Luzon.
• 1946 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 12 relating to Greek Question is adopted.
• 1948 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
• 1955 – Mighty Mouse Playhouse premieres on American television.
• 1963 – Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
• 1965 – The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under this new name.
• 1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
• 1976 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.
• 1978 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.
• 1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín.
• 1989 – Mongolian Revolution: At the country's first open pro-democracy public demonstration, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Union.
• 1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
• 1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Maurice Baril, military advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, recommends that UNAMIR stand down.
• 1996 – The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela.

Holidays and observances

• Alfred Nobel Day or Nobeldagen (Sweden)
• Christian feast day:
• • Eulalia of Mérida
  • 
    
  • Karl Barth (Episcopal Church (USA))
  • Thomas Merton (Episcopal Church (USA))
  • Translation of the Holy House of Loreto
  • December 10 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Constitution Day (Thailand)
• Human Rights Day (International)

all hyperlinks are working​

 

[thehangingtree]

Happy Eul day!!!

 

[Eulalia]

Thankyou, Tree

​

 

[admihoek]

December 11

December 11 is the 345th day of the year (346th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 20 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events


220 – Cao Pi forces Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate the Han dynasty throne. The Cao Wei empire is established. The Three Kingdoms period begins.

361 – Julian enters Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.

630 – Muhammad leads an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.

969 – Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas is assassinated by his wife Theophano and her lover, the later Emperor John I Tzimiskes.

1282 – Battle of Orewin Bridge: Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, in mid-Wales.

1602 – A surprise attack by forces under the command of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva. (Commemorated annually by the Fête de l'Escalade.)

1688 – Glorious Revolution: James II of England, while trying to flee to France, allegedly throws the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames.

1789 – The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.

1792 – French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.

1815 – The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance.

1816 – Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state.

1868 – Paraguayan War: Brazilian troops defeat Paraguayan at the Battle of Avay.

1899 – Second Boer War: In the Battle of Magersfontein the Boers commanded by general Piet Cronjé inflict a defeat on the forces of the British Empire commanded by Lord Methuen trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.

1905 – A workers' uprising occurs in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire), and establishes the Shuliavka Republic.

1907 – The New Zealand Parliament Buildings are almost completely destroyed by fire.

1917 – World War I: British General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem on foot and declares martial law.

1920 – Irish War of Independence: In retaliation for an IRA ambush, British forces burn and loot numerous buildings in Cork city. Many civilians also reported being beaten, shot at, robbed and verbally abused by British forces.

1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King.

1927 – Guangzhou Uprising: Communist Red Guards launch an uprising in Guangzhou, China, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.

1931 – Statute of Westminster 1931: The British Parliament establishes legislative equality between the UK and the Dominions of the Commonwealth—Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland.

1934 – Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time.

1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India, becomes effective.

1937 – Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Italy leaves the League of Nations.

1941 – World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on them.

1941 – World War II: Poland declares war on the Empire of Japan.

1941 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy suffers its first loss of surface vessels during the Battle of Wake Island.

1946 – The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.

1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194, creating a Conciliation Commission to mediate the conflict.

1958 – French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin), respectively, and joining the French Community.

1960 – French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French President Charles de Gaulle.

1962 – Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.

1964 – Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

1968 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, featuring the Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, the Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and the Dirty Mac with Yoko Ono, is filmed in Wembley, London.

1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon.

1978 – The Lufthansa heist is committed by a group led by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke. It was the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil, at that time.

1980 – The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) is enacted by the U.S. Congress.

1981 – El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.

1990 – Demonstrations by students and workers across Albania begin, which eventually trigger the fall of communism in Albania.

1993 – Forty-eight people are killed when a block of the Highland Towers collapses near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

1994 – First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.

1994 – A bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, en route from Manila, Philippines, to Tokyo, Japan, killing one. The captain is able to safely land the plane.

1997 – The Kyoto Protocol opens for signature.

1998 – Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot flying the Airbus A310-300 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation.

2001 – The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.

2005 – The Buncefield Oil Depot catches fire in Hemel Hempstead, England, United Kingdom.

2005 – Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who are not) in Cronulla, New South Wales, Australia. These are followed up by retaliatory ethnic attacks on Cronulla.

2006 – The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran, by then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; nations such as Israel and the United States express concern.

2006 – Felipe Calderón, the President of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacán. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War.

2007 – Insurgency in the Maghreb: Two car bombs explode in Algiers, Algeria, one near the Supreme Constitutional Court and the other near the offices of the United Nations.

2008 – Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

2012 – At least 125 people are killed and up to 200 injured in bombings in the Alawite village of Aqrab, Syria.

2014 – The city of Detroit, Michigan emerges from the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history.[1]

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • Daniel the Stylite
  • Maravillas de Jesús
  • Pope Damasus I
  • Victoricus, Fuscian, and Gentian
  • December 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Human Rights and Peace Day (Kiribati)
• Indiana Day (United States)
• International Mountain Day (International)
• National Tango Day (Buenos Aires)
• One of the four Agonalia, this day in honor of Sol Indiges; also the Septimontium festival (Roman Empire)
• Pampanga Day (Pampanga province, Philippines)
• Republic Day (Burkina Faso), the day when Upper Volta became an autonomous republic in the French Community in 1958. (Burkina Faso)

 

[admihoek]

December 12
December 12 is the 346th day of the year (347th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 19 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • December 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet
  • Feast of the Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexico)
  • Vicelinus
• Croatian Air Force Day
• Constitution Day (Russia, 1993-2005)
• Feast of Masá'il ("Questions"), the first day of the 15th month of the Bahá'í calendar (Bahá'í Faith)
• Jamhuri Day, celebrates the independence of Kenya from Britain in 1963.
• Kanji Day (Japan)
• Day of Neutrality (Turkmenistan)

 

[admihoek]

December 13
December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 18 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • December 13 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Lucy
  • Odile of Alsace

• Acadian Remembrance Day (Acadians)
• Dies Natalis of the temple of Tellus (Ancient Rome)
• National Day (Saint Lucia), celebrates the independence of Saint Lucia from United Kingdom in 1979.
• Republic Day (Malta)
• Sailor's Day (Brazil)
• Saint Lucy's Day (mainly Scandinavia, some regions of Italy (for example, Sicily, Veneto and Trentino), and Malta).

 

[admihoek]

December 14
December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 17 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.
• 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.
• 1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
• 1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
• 1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first military academy in the world.
• 1782 – The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 schooner Thomas W. Lawson 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 – Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class 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 Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
• 1918 – Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated.
• 1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
• 1941 – World War II: Japan signs a treaty of alliance with Thailand.
• 1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York, New York.
• 1947 – Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home of Real Madrid C.F., staged its first football match.
• 1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations.
• 1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility.
• 1960 – Convention against Discrimination in Education is adopted by UNESCO.
• 1961 – Tanganyika joins the United Nations.
• 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 Pakistan 's 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 last 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 occupied Golan Heights.
• 1983 – The third Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.
• 1988 – The ET3 television network is launched in Thessaloniki, Greece.
• 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.
• 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.
• 2008 – Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
• 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.

​

 

[admihoek]

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
  • John of the Cross
  • Nimatullah Kassab (Maronite Church)
  • Spyridon (Western Church)
  • December 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Alabama Day (Alabama)
• Forty-seven Ronin Remembrance Day (Sengaku-ji, Tokyo)
• Martyred Intellectuals Day (Bangladesh)
• Monkey Day (International)

 

[RacingRodent]

Tim Peake is being launched into space this day
Though not the first British Astronaut, that honour belonging to Helen Sharman, he is the first to actually be funded by the British Government. He is due to dock with the International Space Station around 17:24 GMT

I am however waiting for the inevitable Trump tweet that "Britain is so radicalised they are celebrating some guy going off to join ISS"

 

[admihoek]

December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 533 – Vandalic War: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Tricamarum.
• 687 – Pope Sergius I is elected.
• 1161 – Jin–Song wars: Military officers conspire against Emperor Hailing of the Jin dynasty after a military defeat at the Battle of Caishi, and assassinate the emperor at his camp.
• 1167 – SicilianChancellorStephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
• 1256 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut Castle (in present-day Iran) as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
• 1467 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
• 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia.
• 1791 – The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville: Union forces under George Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John Hood.
• 1890 – HunkpapaLakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
• 1905 – The Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin
• 1906 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
• 1913 – Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires Convention.
• 1914 – World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
• 1914 – A gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hōjō coal mine, in Kyushu, Japan, kills 687.
• 1917 – World War I: An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed.
• 1933 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution officially becomes effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.
• 1939 – Gone with the Wind receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
• 1941 – The Holocaust: German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobytsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Soviet Union.
• 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
• 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Arawe begins during the New Britain campaign.
• 1945 – Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
• 1946 – U.S.-backed Iranian troops evict the leadership of the breakaway Republic of Mahabad, putting an end to the Iran crisis of 1946.
• 1946 – The first election to the Representative Assembly of French India was held.
• 1954 – The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands is signed.
• 1960 – Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-ElectJohn F. Kennedy.
• 1960 – King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.
• 1961 – Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.
• 1965 – Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
• 1967 – The Silver Bridge over the Ohio River collapses, killing 46 people.
• 1970 – Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully land on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet
• 1970 – The South Korean ferry Namyong Ho capsizes in the Korea Strait, killing over 300 people.
• 1973 – John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10.
• 1973 – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the DSM-II.
• 1976 – Western Samoa becomes a member of the United Nations.
• 1976 – The oil tanker MV Argo Merchant runs aground near Nantucket, Massachusetts, causing one of the worst marine oil spills in history.
• 1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan
• 1981 – A suicide car bombing targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, levels the embassy and kills 61 people, including Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon. The attack is considered the first modern suicide bombing.
• 1993 – The Troubles: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime MinisterJohn Major and Irish TaoiseachAlbert Reynolds.
• 1994 – Palau becomes a member of the United Nations.
• 1997 – Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 crashes in the desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, killing 85.
• 2000 – The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.
• 2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.
• 2005 – Introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
• 2006 – First flight of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
• 2009 – Boeing's 787 Dreamliner makes its maiden flight from Seattle, Washington.
• 2010 – A boat carrying 90 asylum seekerscrashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing 48 people.

2014 – Man Haron Monistakes 18 hostages inside the Martin Place Lindt Café for 16 hours in Sydney. He dies, along with two hostages, when police raid the café the following morning

 

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December 16

December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 15 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 714 – Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the Merovingian palace, dies at Jupille (modern Belgium). He is succeeded by his infant grandson Theudoald while his wife Plectrude holds actual power in the Frankish Kingdom.
• 755 – An Lushan revolts against ChancellorYang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Tang dynasty of China.
• 1431 – Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
• 1497 – Vasco da Gama passes the Great Fish River, where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
• 1575 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.5 strikes Valdivia, Chile.
• 1598 – Seven-Year War: Battle of Noryang: The final battle of the Seven-Year War is fought between the China and the Korean allied forces and Japanese navies, resulting in a decisive allied forces victory.
• 1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
• 1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
• 1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
• 1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kołobrzeg.
• 1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
• 1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.
• 1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
• 1838 – Great Trek: Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zuluimpis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
• 1850 – The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the ConfederateArmy of Tennessee.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville: Major General George Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
• 1880 – Outbreak of the First Boer War betweens the BoerSouth African Republic and the British Empire.
• 1883 – Tonkin Campaign: French forces capture the Sơn Tây citadel.
• 1903 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to the guests.
• 1907 – The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.
• 1912 – First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.
• 1914 – World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
• 1918 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
  

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• 1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.
• 1922 – President of PolandGabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
• 1927 – Donald Bradman makes his debut in first-class cricket for New South Wales against South Australia. Batting at No. 7, he scores a century.
• 1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a 200-strong posse, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.
• 1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.
• 1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honour of the German Mother.
• 1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak.
• 1942 – The Holocaust: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
• 1946 – Thailand joins the United Nations.
• 1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
• 1950 – Korean War: U.S. PresidentHarry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight in support of communistNorth Korea.
• 1957 – Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
• 1960 – A United Airlines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collide over Staten Island, New York and crash, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and 6 more on the ground.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of DefenseRobert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
• 1968 – Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.
• 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India.
• 1971 – The United Kingdom recognizes Bahrain's independence. This is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.
• 1978 – Cleveland, Ohio, becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.
• 1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.
• 1985 – Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of New York's Gambino crime family
• 1986 – Gennady Kolbin replaces Dinmukhamed Konayev as First Secretary of the Kazakh Communist Party, prompting the Jeltoqsan protests which began the next day.
• 1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
• 1989 – U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr.
• 1991 – Kazakhstan declares independence from the Soviet Union.
• 1995 – Official adoption of the name of "Euro".
• 2013 – A bus falls from an elevated highway in the Philippines capital Manila killing at least 18 people with 20 injured.
• 2014 – Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants attacked an Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 145 people.

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