Unix Timestamp: 1041033600
Saturday, December 28. 2002, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The UK Government gives the go-ahead to plans to allow popular online petitions to be debated in Parliament within a year. //www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12084525 (BBC)

The Ukrainian transport minister, Heorhiy Kirpa, is found shot dead, in a suspected suicide.

Alan Bond's Bond Corporation goes into receivership with the largest debt in Australian history.

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13 people.

The wreck of the \'\'Lady Elgin\'\' is discovered off Highland Park, Illinois by Harry Zych.

Riots break out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.

The last Golden Toad is seen, the species is now classified extinct.

Soviet submarine K-173 ("Chelyabinsk") is commissioned.

Nikkei 225 for Tokyo Stock Exchange hits its all-time intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high at 38,915.87.

The NIOS board is established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India.

The global concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere reaches 350 ppm (parts per million) by volume.

Kamchatka opens to Russian civilian visitors.

Richard C. Duncan introduces the Olduvai theory, about the collapse of the Industrial Civilization.

The first national park in the Netherlands is established in Schiermonnikoog.

The Alize propeller-driven anti-submarine planes are retired from active carrier service in the French Navy.

The Japan Fantasy Novel Award is established.

Václav Havel is elected president of Czechoslovakia.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is founded in Culver City, California by David and Diana Wilson.

Homosexual acts between consenting adults are decriminalized in Western Australia.

Ebenezer Floppen Slopper's Wonderful Water slides in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois closes down after an incident on one of the slides.

A Soviet cruise missile plunges into Inarinjärvi lake in Finnish Lapland. Finnish authorities announce the fact in public on January 3, 1985.

Crack, a smokeable form of cocaine, is first introduced into the Los Angeles area and soon spreads across the United States in what becomes known as the Crack Epidemic.

Famine in Ethiopia begins and kills a million people by the end of 1984. (1984 Famine in Ethiopia).

The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia.

California's sodomy law is repealed.

Diffie-Hellmancryptography is proposed.

Random Breath Testing introduced in Victoria (Australia)

Legendary guitarist Freddie King dies.

In late March 1976, the first truly complete recording of the opera "Porgy and Bess" is released in a 3-LP set, by Decca Records in England and by London Records in the U.S. It stars Willard White and Leona Mitchell. The orchestra is the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel.

The Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) was established by the University of California (UC) in response to the State Legislature's recommendation to expand post-secondary opportunities to all of California’s students including those who are first-generation, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and English-language learners.University of California EAOP, 2003 in Review. University of California, 2009-10 Budget for Current Operations Budget Detail, as Presented to the Regents for Approval.

The New Jersey State Legislature passes legislation legalizing casinos in the shore town of Atlantic City commencing in 1978. After signing the bill into law, Governor Brendan Byrne declares The mob is not welcome in New Jersey! referring to the Mafia's influence at casinos in Nevada.

The term memetics is first proposed by Richard Dawkins in his book "The Selfish Gene".

The first laser printer is introduced by IBM (the IBM 3800).

Plans to move the Nigerian capital from Lagos to Abuja are approved.

The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.

The bones of Martin Bormann are identified in Berlin.

The Young Lords took over the First Spanish Methodist Church in East Harlem.

Italian Foreign Minister Amintore Fanfani resigns.

President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia announces that Zambia and the United Kingdom have agreed on a deadline before which the Rhodesian white government should be ousted.

Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.

The Baltimore Colts beat the New York Giants 23–17 to win the NFL Chionship Game, the first to go into sudden deathovertime and The Greatest Game Ever Played.Barnidge, Tom. //www.nfl.com/insider/story/6032205 1958 Colts remember the 'Greatest Game', nfl.com, reprinted from Official Super Bowl XXXIII Game Program, accessed March 21, 2007.

IBM Israel begins operating in Tel Aviv.

Oceania: 12,812,000.

Latin America: 167,097,000

Total world population:

The first TV remote control, Zenith Radio's "Lazy Bones", is marketed.

Africa: 221,214,000

CanadiansHarry Wasylyk, Larry Hansen and Frank Plomp introduce the plastic bin bag for garbage collection.

France institutes a government-guaranteed minimum wage.

President Harry Truman sends United States military advisers to Vietnam to aid French forces.

The first pagers are developed.

Knox\'s Translation of the VulgateOld Testament (commissioned by the Catholic Church) is published.

Myxomatosis is introduced into Australia in an attempt to control the escalating rabbit population.

Europe: 547,403,000

Asia: 1,398,488,000

North America: 171,616,000

The Pathet Lao is formed from an unknown insurgency in Laos to overthrow the French Army within the nation and Laos enters the First Indochina War.

The Peak District becomes Britain's first National Park.

A Muslim Brotherhood member assassinates Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi

Mary McLeod Bethune founds the National Council of Negro Women.

"Pravda" publishes a letter from Pavel Postyshev, who revives the New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.

Mahatma Gandhi leaves India enroute to Britain for freedom negotiations.

Black Saturday in Samoa: New Zealand colonial police kill 11 unarmed demonstrators, an event which leads the Mau movement to demand independence for Samoa.ref name=Meleisea, Malama 1987, pp.137-8Meleisea, Malama, "Lagaga: A Short History of Western Samoa", 1987, ISBN 982-02-0029-6, pp.137–8

Constance Markievicz, while detained in Holloway prison, becomes the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons. She did not take her seat, along with the other Sinn Féin TDs members.

The play "Cyrano de Bergerac", by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris.

W. E. B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Auguste and Louis Lumière display their first moving picture film in Paris.

The first Boxer (dog) show is held at Munich, Germany.

Foundation of:

Dundela FC (Belfast, Ireland)

The huge indemnity exacted from China is used to establish the Yawata Iron and Steel Works.

The gold reserve of the U.S. Treasury is saved when J. P. Morgan and the Rothschilds loan $65 million worth of gold to the United States government.

The Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina is completed.

The Duck Reach Power Station opens in Tasmania.

The London School of Economics and Political Science is founded in London, England.

Shelbourne F.C. (Dublin, Ireland)

Grace Chisholm Young becomes the first woman awarded a doctorate at a German university.

German trade unions have c. 270,000 members.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator.

The Swarovski Company opens.

A huge crowd at the Welsh Grand National at Ely Racecourse, Cardiff, almost overwhelms police trying to keep out gatecrashers.

A cholera outbreak occurs in Spain.

Millwall F.C. are founded by workers on the Isle of Dogs as Millwall Rovers.

72 Indian lawyers, academics and journalists gather in Bombay to form the Congress Party.

Bicycle Playing Cards are first produced.

The first skyscraper (the Home Insurance Building) is built in Chicago, Illinois, USA (10 floors).

The Committee of Fifteen tries to expel all remaining Chinese from the Puget Sound area.

C Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' c in America, is founded.

Nikola Tesla sells a number of his patents to George Westinghouse.

Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach produce the Daimler Reitwagen, regarded as the first motorcycle.

Karl Benz produces the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, regarded as the first automobile (patented and publicly launched the following year).

Chile's Matrimony and Civil Registry laws come into effect.

John Kemp Starley demonstrates the Roversafety bicycle, regarded as the first practical modern bicycle.

Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time in what is now the Houghton County Fire Hall.

Frindsbury Cricket Club was founded. Regarded as the home of cricket by most people of Kent.

John Ormsby publishes his new English translation of "Don Quixote", acclaimed as the most scholarly made up to that time. It will remain in print through the 20th Century.

Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association is established in the UK to provide charitable assistance.

Abilene, Texas is founded.

Kinshasa is founded by Henry Morton Stanley as a trading outpost called Léopoldville.

The Pali Text Society is founded.

New York City's oldest independent school for girls, the Convent of the Sacred Heart New York (91st Street), is founded.

Edward Rudolf founds the 'Church of England Central Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays' (now The Children's Society).

Some Vatican archives are opened to scholars for the first time.

The Leyton Orient F.C. is founded.

Culford School, a public school in Suffolk, United Kingdom, is founded.

The League of the Three Emperors is resurrected.

Virgil Earp is ambushed in Tombstone and loses the use of his left arm.

Rafaela, Argentina is formed.

Minto, North Dakota is founded.

The Newcastle United F.C. is founded as the Stanley F.C., with a further name change to Newcastle East End F.C. a few months later.

University College Dublin is established in Ireland.

The United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) is founded, and the first U.S. Tennis Chionships are played.

The Tay Bridge disaster ndash the central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.

Cholera epidemic in England.

Great Famine continues in Ireland.

The portion of the District of Columbia that was ceded by Virginia in 1790 is re-ceded to Virginia.

Fort Wayne Female College is founded it will later be renamed Taylor University.

Abraham Pineo Gesner develops a process to refine a liquid fuel, which he calls kerosene, from coal, bitumen or oil shale.

Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.

Electric Telegraph Company founded in Britain.

Colony of South Australia founded by Captain John Hindmarsh

Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico.

USA: The Second Seminole War breaks out.

For 5 days, fire destroys buildings in Istanbul.

The Hungarians rebel under Prince Francis II Rákóczi.

Isaac Newton becomes the chairman of the Royal Society.

Ahmed III succeeds Mustafa II as Ottoman Emperor.

George Psalmanazar arrives in London.

The value of sales of English manufactured products to the Atlantic economy is £3.9 million.

An inventory made for the Medici family of Florence is the first documentary evidence for a piano, invented by their instrument keeper Bartolommeo Cristofori.

Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester, is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

"approx. date" ndash Lions become extinct in Libya.

Mission San Xavier del Bac is founded in New Spain near Tucson, as a Spanish Roman Catholic mission.

Nam tiến: southward expansion of the territory of Vietnam to cover the entire Indochina Peninsula.

Notorious voyage of the English slave ship "Hannibal" in the Atlantic slave trade out of Benin, ending with the death of nearly half of the 692 slaves aboard.

The Lao empire of Lan Xang unofficially ends.

Queen Mary II of England dies of smallpox aged 32, leaving her husband King William III to rule alone but without an heir. Since he is also without a royal hostess, Mary's sister Princess Anne is summoned back to court (having been banished after an unseemly row with the queen) as his official heiress.

England's Puritan rulers ban Christmas.

Aberystwyth Castle is razed to the ground by Parliamentarian troops.

King Charles of England promises a church reform. This agreement leads to the Second English Civil War.

Johann von Werth tries to take his troops over the Austrian border, but they refuse.

Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune when in conjunction with Jupiter, yet he mistakenly catalogues it as a fixed star because of its extremely slow motion along the ecliptic. Neptune is not truly discovered until 1846, about 234 years after Galileo first sights it with his telescope.

Jamestown: John Rolfe exports first crop of improved tobacco (seeds from Trinidad).

Nagoya Castle is completed.

Thomas Shelton's English translation of the first half of "Don Quixote" is published. It is the first translation of the Spanish novel into any language.

First printing (in Padua) of Mondino de Liuzzi's "Anathomia corporis humani", the first complete published anatomical text.

Battle of Giornico: Swiss troops defeat the Milanese.

Fourth Siege of Krujë: The Fourth Siege of Krujë by the Ottoman Empire of Krujë in Albania occurred in 1478 and resulted in the town's capture after the failure of three prior sieges.

Vladislav II of Bohemia makes peace with Hungary.

Lorenzo de' Medici becomes sole ruler of Florence.

Possibly the first reference to cricket, in criquet, as discovered in France by Rowland Bowen in the 20th century. It has been dismissed by some (most notably John Major) and presaged with Edward II's Creag (1300) by others.

Emperor Hanazono ascends to the throne of Japan.

Sultanate of Rûm ends.

The Capet-Anjou family begins to rule Hungary.

"approx. date" ndash Dante Alighieri begins to write the "Divine Comedy".

Sima Guang, high chancellor of the Chinese Song Dynasty, heads a team of scholars in initiating the compilation of an enormous written universal history of China, known as the "Zizhi Tongjian".

The kingdoms of Galicia and Portugal become independent under the rule of Garcia.

Westminster Abbey is consecrated.

Louis the Pious occupies Barcelona.

The Visigoth king Euric dies and is succeeded by his son Alaric II. Euric has built a rart to protect the city of Carcassonne southeast of Toulouse on a bend of the Aude River.

Childeric I succeeds his father Merovech as king of the Salian Franks. He establishes his capital at Tournai (modern Belgium) and becomes an "foederati" of the Western Roman Empire.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 4,000 Britons are slain at Crecganford in battle against Hengist and his son Aesc.

Victorius of Aquitaine computes new tables for celebrating Easter.

Majorian is crowned emperor of the Western Roman Empire and recognized by pope Leo I. His rule is accepted in Italy, Dalmatia and some territories in Northern Gaul.

Yazdegerd II dies after a 19-year reign. He is succeeded by his son Hormizd III who seizes the Persian throne. His elder brother Peroz I rebels against him in Sistan (Iran). After months of civil war he defeats Hormizd and becomes the seventeenth Sassanid king of the Persian Empire.

Eulalius is elected antipope of Rome. He claims in a letter to Honorius his recognition as pope.

Pope Boniface I succeeds Zosimus as the 42nd pope.