This Day in History

[omeg]

<em class="date">Nov 27, 1095: Pope Urban II orders first Crusade </h2>On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of &quot;Deus vult!&quot; or &quot;God wills it!&quot;

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Nov 28, 1520: Magellan reaches the Pacific </h2>After sailing through the dangerous straits below South America that now bear his name, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Nov 29, 1947: U.N. votes for partition of Palestine </h2>Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations votes for the partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish state.

 

[omeg]

Nov 30, 1886: Folies Bergere stage first revue </h2>Once a hall for operettas, pantomime, political meetings, and vaudeville, the Folies Berg

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 1, 1990: Chunnel makes breakthrough </h2>Shortly after 11 a.m. on December 1, 1990, 132 feet below the English Channel, workers drill an opening the size of a car through a wall of rock. This was no ordinary hole--it connected the two ends of an underwater tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in more than 8,000 years.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 2, 2001: Enron files for bankruptcy </h2>On this day in 2001, the Enron Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New York court, sparking one of the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 3, 1947: A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway </h2>On this day in 1947, Marlon Brando's famous cry of &quot;STELLA!&quot; first booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 4, 1991: Hostage Terry Anderson freed in Lebanon </h2>On this day in 1991, Islamic militants in Lebanon release kidnapped American journalist Terry Anderson after 2,454 days in captivity.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 5, 1945: Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle </h2>At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 6, 1884: Washington Monument completed </h2>On this day in 1884, in Washington, D.C. , workers place a nine-inch aluminum pyramid atop a tower of white marble, completing the construction of an impressive monument to the city's namesake and the nation's first president, George Washington .

 

[omeg]

<em class="date-loc">Just before 8 on the morning of December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 8, 1980: John Lennon shot </h2>John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock group that transformed popular music in the 1960s , is shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City . The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment building when Mark David Chapman shot him four times at close range with a .38-caliber revolver. Lennon, bleeding profusely, was rushed to the hospital but died en route. Chapman had received an autograph from Lennon earlier in the day and voluntarily remained at the scene of the shooting until he was arrested by police. For a week, hundreds of bereaved fans kept a vigil outside the Dakota--Lennon's apartment building--and demonstrations of mourning were held around the world.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 9, 1992: U.S Marines storm Mogadishu, Somalia </h2>On this day in 1992, 1,800 United States Marines arrive in Mogadishu, Somalia, to spearhead a multinational force aimed at restoring order in the conflict-ridden country.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 10, 1901: First Nobel Prizes awarded </h2>The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be &quot;annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.&quot; Although Nobel offered no public reason for his creation of the prizes, it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 11, 1936: Edward VIII abdicates </h2>After ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He chose to abdicate after the British government, public, and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorc

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 12, 1980: Da Vinci notebook sells for over 5 million </h2>On this day in 1980, American oil tycoon Armand Hammer pays $5,126,000 at auction for a notebook containing writings by the legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 13, 2000: Al Gore concedes presidential election </h2>Vice President Al Gore reluctantly concedes defeat to Texas Governor George W. Bush in his bid for the presidency, following weeks of legal battles over the recounting of votes in Florida , on this day in 2000.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 16, 1773: The Boston Tea Party </h2>In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 17, 1903: First airplane flies </h2>Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 18, 1620: Mayflower docks at Plymouth Harbor </h2>On December 18, 1620, the British ship Mayflower docked at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, and its passengers prepared to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 19, 1998: President Clinton impeached </h2>After nearly 14 hours of debate, the House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton, the second president in American history to be impeached, vowed to finish his term.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 20, 1957: Elvis Presley is drafted </h2>On this day in 1957, while spending the Christmas holidays at Graceland, his newly purchased Tennessee mansion, rock-and-roll star Elvis Presley receives his draft notice for the United States Army.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland </h2>On this day in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. The disaster, which became the subject of Britain's largest criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack against the United States. One hundred eighty nine of the victims were American.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 22, 1956: First gorilla born in captivity </h2>On this day in 1956, a baby gorilla named Colo enters the world at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, becoming the first-ever gorilla born in captivity. Weighing in at approximately 4 pounds, Colo, a western lowland gorilla whose name was a combination of Columbus and Ohio, was the daughter of Millie and Mac, two gorillas captured in French Cameroon, Africa, who were brought to the Columbus Zoo in 1951. Before Colo's birth, gorillas found at zoos were caught in the wild, often by brutal means. In order to capture a gorilla when it was young and therefore still small enough to handle, hunters frequently had to kill the gorilla's parents and other family members.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 23, 1888: Van Gogh chops off ear </h2>On this day in 1888, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, suffering from severe depression, cuts off the lower part of his left ear with a razor while staying in Arles, France.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 24, 1979: Soviet tanks roll into Afghanistan </h2>On December 24, 1979, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty of 1978.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date-loc">Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion. Popular customs include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. December 25Christmas Dayhas been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 27, 1932: Radio City Music Hall opens </h2>At the height of the Great Depression, thousands turn out for the opening of Radio City Music Hall, a magnificent Art Deco theater in New York City. Radio City Music Hall was designed as a palace for the people, a place of beauty where ordinary people could see high-quality entertainment. Since its 1932 opening, more than 300 million people have gone to Radio City to enjoy movies, stage shows, concerts, and special events.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 28, 1895: First commercial movie screened </h2>On this day in 1895, the world's first commercial movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris. The film was made by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, two French brothers who developed a camera-projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere brothers unveiled their invention to the public in March 1895 with a brief film showing workers leaving the Lumiere factory. On December 28, the entrepreneurial siblings screened a series of short scenes from everyday French life and charged admission for the first time.

 

[omeg]

<em class="date">Dec 29, 1890: U.S. Army massacres Indians at Wounded Knee </h2>On this day in 1890, in the final chapter of America's long Indian wars, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.