UN
Day
United
Nations Day for South-South Cooperation
Events
of the day
211 β Publius Septimius
Geta, co-emperor of Rome, is lured to come
without his bodyguards to meet his brother
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla), to
discuss a possible reconciliation. When he
arrives the Praetorian Guard murders him and
he dies in the arms of his mother Julia Domna.
324 β Licinius abdicates his position as Roman
Emperor.
1154 β Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster
Abbey.
1490 β Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married
to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
1606 β The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and
the Discovery depart England carrying settlers
who found, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first
of the thirteen colonies that became the United
States.
1776 β Thomas Paine publishes one of a series
of pamphlets in the Pennsylvania Journal titled
The American Crisis.
1777 β American Revolutionary War: George
Washington's Continental Army goes into winter
quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
1796 β French Revolutionary Wars: Two British
frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and
two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo
Stuart engage in battle off the coast of Murcia.
1828 β Nullification Crisis: Vice President
of the United States John C. Calhoun pens
the South Carolina Exposition and Protest,
protesting the Tariff of 1828.
1843 β Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
goes on sale.
1900 β Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General
of Australia John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun,
appointed Sir William Lyne as premier of the
new state New South Wales, but he is unable
to persuade other colonial politicians to
join his government and is forced to resign.
1907 β A group of 239 coal miners die during
a mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.
1912 β William H. Van Schaick, captain of
the steamship General Slocum which caught
fire and killed over 1,000 people, is pardoned
by U.S. President William Howard Taft after
three-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison.
1916 β World War I: Battle of Verdun β On
the Western Front, the French Army successfully
holds off the German Army and drives it back
to its starting position.
1920 β King Constantine I is restored as King
of the Hellenes after the death of his son
Alexander I of Greece and a plebiscite.
1924 β The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is
sold in London, England.
1927 β Three Indian revolutionaries viz. Ram
Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla
Khan were executed by the British government.
1932 β BBC World Service begins broadcasting
as the BBC Empire Service
1941 β World War II: Adolf Hitler becomes
Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
1941 β World War II: Limpet mines placed by
Italian divers sink the HMS Valiant (1914)
and HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913) in Alexandria
harbour.
1946 β Start of the First Indochina War.
1956 β Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams
is arrested in connection with the suspicious
deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually
he is convicted only of minor charges.
1961 β India annexes Daman and Diu, part of
Portuguese India.
1963 β Zanzibar gains independence from the
United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy,
under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
1964 β The South Vietnamese military junta
of Nguyen Khanh dissolved the High National
Council and arrested some of the members.
1967 β Prime Minister of Australia Harold
Holt is officially presumed dead.
1972 β Apollo program: The last manned lunar
flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan,
Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt, returns to
Earth.
1975 β John Paul Stevens is appointed a justice
of The United States Supreme Court.
1981 β Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee
lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster
Union Star in heavy seas.
1983 β The original FIFA World Cup trophy,
the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the
headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation
in Rio de Janeiro.
1984 β The Sino-British Joint Declaration,
stating that the People's Republic of China
would resume the exercise of sovereignty over
Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore
Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1,
1997 is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping
and Margaret Thatcher.
1986 β Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet
Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife
from exile in Gorky.
1995 β The United States Government restores
federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron
Band of Potawatomi Indian tribe.
1997 β SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the
Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing
104.
1998 β Lewinsky scandal: The United States
House of Representatives forwards articles
I and III of impeachment against President
Bill Clinton to the Senate.
2000 β The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of
the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist
attack a Nationalist Movement Party office
in Istanbul, killing one person and injuring
three.
2001 β A record high barometric pressure of
1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel,
KhΓΆvsgΓΆl Province, Mongolia.
2001 β Argentine economic crisis: December
2001 riots β Riots erupt in Buenos Aires.
Holidays
and observances
Christian
Feast Day:
O Radix
Pope Anastasius I
Liberation day (Goa)
Opalia (Roman Empire)
United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation
(International)
For details, contact Datacentre