UN
Day
International
Human Solidarity Day
Events
of the day
69 – Vespasian, formerly a general
under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of
emperor.
217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus
I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed
by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of
laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies
any distinction between the three persons of the
Trinity.
1192 – Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and
imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way
home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin
ending the Third crusade.
1522 – Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent
accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights
of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually
settle on Malta and become known as the Knights
of Malta.
1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships
with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown,
Virginia, the first permanent English settlement
in the Americas.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at
a ceremony in New Orleans.
1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state
to attempt to secede from the United States.
1915 – World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated
from Gallipoli.
1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police,
is founded.
1924 – Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison
1941 – World War II: First battle of the American
Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying
Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1942 – World War II: Bombing of Calcutta by the
Japanese.
1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful
Life is first released in New York City.
1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first
nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The
electricity powered four light bulbs.
1952 – United States Air Force C-124 crashes and
burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city
of Wales, United Kingdom.
1959 – The Walker family murders are committed.
1960 – National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam
is formed.
1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson
and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
1971 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto takes over as the fourth
President of Pakistan.
1973 – The Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis
Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb
attack in Madrid.
1977 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.
1984 – The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground
fire in history, as a freight train carrying over
1 million litres of petrol derails near the town
of Todmorden in the Pennines.
1987 – History's worst peacetime sea disaster,
when the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after
colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the
Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated
4,000 people (1,749 official).
1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit
Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
is signed in Vienna.
1989 – United States invasion of Panama: The United
States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government
of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat
use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.
1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian
militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death
for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing
757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali,
Colombia killing 160.
1996 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting
the path to Mac OS X.
1999 – Macau is handed over to the People's Republic
of China by Portugal.
2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth
of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters
of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland,
one of the largest bank robberies in UK history.
2005 – In Durrës, Albania was founded Aleksander
Moisiu University.
2005 – US District Court Judge John E. Jones III
rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent
design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover
Area School District.
2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch
of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria,
who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
2007 – The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch
(1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is
stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along
with O Lavrador de Café by the major Brazilian
modernist painter Candido Portinari.
Holidays
and observances
Abolition
of Slavery Day, also known as Fête des Cafres
(Réunion)
Christian Feast Day:
Dominic of Silos
O Clavis
Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne
Earliest date for Winter solstice's eve:
Yalda (Iran)
International Human Solidarity Day (International)
Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment
Day (Macau)
Bo Aung Kyaw Day (Burma)
For details, contact Datacentre