Unix Timestamp: 976406400
Sunday, December 10. 2000, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The Channel Island of Sark, a BritishCrown Dependency, holds its first fully democratic elections under a new constitutional arrangement, becoming the last European territory to abolish feudalism.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announces at a party meeting that he will support Dmitry Medvedev as his successor in the March 2008 presidential election. //news.smh.com.au/russias-putin-anoints-deputy-premier-as-presidential-frontrunner/20071210-1g8m.html ("The Sydney Morning Herald")

The United Nations deadline for a negotiated settlement on the future of Kosovo passes without an international agreement.

New Zealand bans smoking in all public places, including bars.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, located in New York, reversed a lower court ruling that found the federal death penalty unconstitutional because it amounted to the state-sponsored murder of innocent people.

The High Court of Australia hands down its judgement in the Internetdefamation dispute in the case of Gutnick v Dow Jones.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked the accreditation of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, for financial irregularities.

The capital of Kazakhstan is moved from Almaty to Astana.

A variety of Soviet space program paraphernalia are put to auction in Sotheby's New York, and sell for a total of US$6.8M. One of the items is Lunokhod 1 and its spacecraft Luna 17 they sell for $68,500.

id Software releases "Doom", a seminal first-person shooter that uses advanced 3D graphics for computer games.

Chilean presidential election, 1993: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is elected with 58% of the vote.

A variety of Soviet space program paraphernalia are put to auction in Sotheby\\'s New York, and sell for a total of US$6.8M. One of the items is Lunokhod 1 and its spacecraft Luna 17 they sell for $68,500.

Military rule ends and democracy is restored in Argentina, with the beginning of Raúl Alfonsín's first term as President of Argentina

El Mozote massacre: In El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians.

Boxing: Muhammad Ali loses to Trevor Berbick this proved to be Ali's last-ever fight.

During the Ministerial Session of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, Spain signs the Protocol of Accession to NATO.

Samoa joins the United Nations.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.

Denis Healey announces to the British Parliament that he has successfully negotiated a £2.3bn loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved 300 million yen robbery, occurs in Tokyo.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

In the United States, the X-20 Dyna-Soarspaceplane program is cancelled. Also on this date: Chuck Yeager while testing an NF-104A rocket-augmented aerospace trainer, he narrowly escaped death when his aircraft went out of control at 108,700 feet (nearly 21 miles up) and crashed. He parachuted to safety at 8,500 feet after vainly battling to gain control of the powerless, rapidly falling craft. In this incident he became the first pilot to make an emergency ejection in the full pressure suit needed for high altitude flights.”

David Lean's epic film "Lawrence of Arabia", featuring Peter O\\\' Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Anthony Quinn premieres in London. Six days later, it opens in the U.S.

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci "Mona Lisa" was assessed for insurance purposes at US$100 million, before the painting toured the United States for several months. It is the highest insurance value for a painting in history. However, the Louvre chose to spend the money that would have been spent on the insurance premium on security instead.

The last execution by hanging in Canada takes place.

U.S. spacecraft Mariner 2 flies by Venus, becoming the first probe to successfully transmit data from another planet.

David Lean's epic film "Lawrence of Arabia", featuring Peter O' Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Anthony Quinn premieres in London. Six days later, it opens in the U.S.

In West Germany, a coalition government of Christian Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Free Democrats is formed.

Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity by a panel of 3 Israeli judges.

The Vietnam War officially begins, as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.

The Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with Albania.

Canadian diplomat Lester B. Pearson receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his peackeeping efforts in the United Nations.

Albert Schweitzer is given the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.

Robert Menzies elected prime minister of Australia.

The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Legendary Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini leads a concert performance of the first half of Beethoven's "Fidelio" (minus its spoken dialogue) on NBC Radio, starring Rose Bton. He chooses this opera for its political message ndash a statement against tyranny and dictatorship. Conducting it in German, Toscanini intends it as a tribute to the German people who are being oppressed by Hitler. The second half is broadcast a week later. The performance is later released on LP and CD, the first of 7 operas that Toscanini conducts on radio.

WWII: The British battleship HMS \\'\\'Prince of Wales\\'\\' and battlecruiser HMS \'\'Repulse\'\' are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.

WWII: The British battleship HMS "Prince of Wales" and battlecruiser HMS "Repulse" are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.

December 11 ndash King Edward VIII signs an instrument of abdication at Fort Belvedere in the presence of his three brothers, The Duke of York, The Duke of Gloucester and The Duke of Kent.

The Irish Free State passes the External Relations Act to legislate for Edward VIII's abdication in that realm.

The British Parliament passes His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 on behalf of the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Xi'an Incident: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.

Prince Albert, Duke of York, becomes King, reigning as King George VI.

The abdicated King Edward VIII, now HRH Prince Edward, makes a broadcast to the nation explaining his decision to abdicate. He leaves the country for Austria.

The King performs his last act as sovereign by giving royal assent to the Act.

The Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity is founded at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC.

The first Aswan Dam on The Nile is completed.

The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War.

The premiere of Alfred Jarry's absurdist play "Ubu Roi" in Paris causes a near-riot.

German chancellor Otto von Bismarck tries to ban Catholics from the political stage by introducing harsh laws concerning the separation of church and state.

The first American chapter of Kappa Sigma is founded at the University of Virginia.

The Wyoming territorial legislature gives women the right to vote, the first such law in the world.

Léopold II becomes King of the Belgians.

The British Empire establishes bases in Lagos to stop the slave trade.

American Civil War: Kentucky is accepted into the Confederate States of America.

News of Henri Mouhot's discovery of Angkor Wat is published.

In Britain, the death penalty is limited to murder, high treason, espionage, piracy with violence and acts of arson perpetrated upon docks or ammunition depots.

First industrial meat packing plant in Uruguay established at Fray Bentos.

The Ateneo Municipal de Manila is founded.

Mary Institute is founded.

Brisbane is declared the capital of newly separated colony Queensland, Australia.

The "Codex Sinaiticus" is found by Constantin von Tischendorf on his third visit to Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.

Marx publishes "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy".

The Rancho Rincon de Los Esteros Land Grant is confirmed to Rafael Alvisa, (part of the present Santa Clara County, California).

District nursing begins in Liverpool, England, when philanthropist William Rathbone employs Mary Robinson to nurse the sick poor in their own homes.

Queensland separated from New South Wales

The island of Timor is divided between Portugal and the Netherlands.

The University of Michigan Law School is founded.

Bernhard Riemann formulates the Riemann hypothesis, one of the most important open problems of contemporary mathematics.

Prince Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte is elected first president of the French Second Republic.

Sir Robert Peel succeeds Lord Melbourne as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes "Biographia Literaria".

Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, formerly the Mississippi Territory.ref name=TNAn 1820 Claim to Congress: Alabama Territory : 1817, "The Intruders", TNGenNet Inc., 2001, quick webpage: //www.tngenweb.org/tnland/intruders/claim-537 TN-537.

A typhus epidemic occurs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Pernambucan Revolt breaks out in Brazil.

Elgin Marbles are displayed in the British Museum.

John Kidd extracts naphthalene from coal tar.

King Ferdinand VII of Spain, by royal decree, makes the production and sale of tobacco a legal endeavor in Cuba, thus sparking the birth of the Cuban cigar industry.

The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars begins in New South Wales, Australia as a result of deterioration in relations and increasing colonization.

Royal Academy founded in London, with Joshua Reynolds as its first President.ref name=Pocket On This Day

Stede Bonnet is hanged at Charleston after being recaptured.

The Chipperfield's Circus dynasty begins when James Chipperfield introduces performing animals to England at the River Thames frost fairs on the Thames in London.

The Chipperfield\\'s Circus dynasty begins when James Chipperfield introduces performing animals to England at the River Thames frost fairs on the Thames in London.

Pope Innocent XI forms a Holy League with the Habsburg Empire, Venice and Poland to end the Ottoman Turkish rule in Europe.

Japanese poet Saikaku composes 23,500 verses in 24 hours at the Sumiyoshi Shrine at Osaka the scribes cannot keep pace with his dictation and just "count" the verses.

Smuggled tea is drunk much more than legally imported tea.

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 Edmund Halley.

The British East India Company receives Chinese permission to build a trading station at Canton. Tea sells in Europe for less than a shilling a pound, but the import duty of 5 shillings makes it too expensive for most English people to afford.

Tokyo University, formally registered as a university in 1877, had its predecessor established.

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 Edmund Halley.

John Bunyan writes "The Pilgrim's Progress", Part 2.

An ordinance establishes parish schools in Scotland. The same act of the Privy Council commends the abolition of Gaelic.

Martin Luther writes "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation".

Martin Luther burns a copy of "The Book of Canon Law" (see Canon Law) and his copy of the Papal bull "Exsurge Domine".

Aleksandra Lisowska (Roxelana) is given as a gift to Suleiman I on the occasion of his accession to the throne.

Duarte Barbosa returns to Cananor.

The Franciscan friar Matteo Bassi is inspired to return to the primitive life of solitude and penance as practiced by St. Francis, giving rise to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.

The Castilian War of the Communities begins.

The League of Cambrai is formed as an alliance against Venice between Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon.

After hesitating for several weeks, Murad II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, destroys the Hexamilion wall in an assault that includes cannons. Murad and the Ottoman governor of Thessaly, Turakhan Beg ravage the Peloponnese peninsula at will, with the Sultan devastating the northern shore until Glarentza and Turakhan raiding in the interior. The Despotate of the Morea is turned into an Ottoman vassal state.

In Italy, the siege of Cremona by the condottieri troops of Francesco Piccinino and Luigi dal Verme is raised after the arrival of Scaramuccia da Forlì.

Nuno Tristão is killed by natives in the coast of Senegal.

The Precious Belt Bridge in China is fully reconstructed.

Portuguese navigator Álvaro Fernandes reaches the mouth of the Casamance River in Senegal.

The Blarney Stone is set into a tower of Blarney Castle in Blarney, County Cork in Ireland.

December 11 ndash King Birger of Sweden has his brothers, Dukes Eric and Valdemar, captured and thrown into a dungeon during the Nyköping Banquet, as a revenge for their imprisonment of him in the Håtuna games in 1306. As the dukes soon starve to death in the dungeon, their followers rebel against the king, throwing Sweden into civil war, in which the king is deposed in 1318.

The Great Famine of 1315-1317 comes to an end.

Pope John XXII erects the dioceses of Luçon, Maillezais, and Tulle.

Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.

Worcester rebels against the naval taxes of Harthacanute.

The number of enlisted soldiers in the Song Dynasty Chinese military reaches well over 1,250,000 troops, an increase since 1022 when there were a million soldiers.

Edward the Confessor returns from exile to become the heir of Harthacanute.

Pope Zachary succeeds Pope Gregory III as the 91st pope.

King Vologases VI succeeds his father Vologases V to the throne. His brother Artabanus IV of Media begins a rebellion against him in the Parthian Empire.

Britain is divided in the north, Lower Britain (Britannia Inferior) administered from the fortress at Eburacum (modern York), and in the south, Upper Britain (Britannia Superior) controlled by the legions at Deva Victrix and Isca Augusta, with its capital at Londinium (London).

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus and his brother Publius Septimius Geta Caesar become Roman Consuls.

Liu Bei escapes from Cao Cao at the Battle of Changban.

Ardashir I, ruler of Istakhr (Persia), revolts against his brother and founds the Sassanid dynasty.

Emperor Septimius Severus leads an expedition (20,000 men) in Britannia, crosses Hadrian\\\\\'s Wall and moves through eastern Scotland. The Roman army pushes the Caledonians back to the River Tay and Severus signs a peace treaty. He repairs the Antonine Wall (his repairs are sometimes called the Severan Wall).

Cao Cao writes "Duǎn Ge Xíng".

Zhou Yu and Liu Bei defeat Cao Cao at the Battle of Red Cliffs along with the Battle of Yamen and Battle of Lake Poyang, this is one of the largest naval battles in China's history.

Cao Cao marches south with his army and captures the enemy fleet at Jiangling.