Unix Timestamp: 1071187200
Friday, December 12. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Canada announces that it will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, because the country would face large penalties because of treaty violations.//www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/12/us-kyoto-withdrawal-idUSTRE7BB1X420111212 (Reuters)

Switzerland becomes the 25th European country to join the Schengen Agreement, whereby cross-border passport checks will be abolished. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7778022.stm (BBC News)

The International Olympic Committee strips sprinter Marion Jones of five medals from the 2000 Summer Olympics after she admits to having taken banned substances. //www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSL1220829120071212 (Reuters)

Scientists announce that they have created mice with small amounts of human brain cells in an effort to make realistic models of neurological disorders.

Hans Enoksen is elected Prime Minister of Greenland.

"Bush v. Gore": The U.S. Supreme Court stops the Florida presidential recount, effectively giving the state, and the Presidency, to George W. Bush, although some sources claimed Gore had won, by many overvotes, rejected by computer, showing votes for Gore plus write-in Gore.

Demonstrations occur in the state capitals of Australia against the WTO and IMF.

Uday Hussein is seriously injured in an assassination attempt.

Canadian Prime Minister Kim Cbell resigns as head of the Conservative Party, to be succeeded by Jean Charest.

Downing Street Declaration: The United Kingdom commits itself to the search for an answer to the problems of Northern Ireland.

Péter Boross becomes Prime Minister of Hungary following the death of József Antall.

The Majilis of Kazakhstan approves the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and agrees to dismantle the more than 100 missiles left on its territory by the fall of the USSR.

The Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks reach a successful conclusion after 7 years.

An earthquake hits Flores, Indonesia, leaving 2,500 dead.

Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR denounced Union Treaty of 1922 and ratified Belavezha Accords instead.

The Clapham Junction rail crash kills 35 and injures 132.

Arrow Air Flight 1285, a Douglas DC-8, crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256, 248 of whom were U.S. servicemen returning to Fort Cbell, Kentucky from overseeing a peacekeeping force in Sinai.

Women's peace protest at Greenham Common: 30,000 women hold hands and form a human chain around the 14.5 km (9 mi) perimeter fence.

A landslide in western Colombia leaves 200 dead.

The Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana) takes place. A U.S. Navy officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett is later investigated for possible involvement.

Kenya becomes independent, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister.

The U.S. Navy's Commander Leroy Heath (the pilot) and Lieutenant Larry Monroe (the bombardier/navigator) establish a world flight-altitude record of 91,450 feet (27,874 m), with payload, in an A-5 Vigilante twinjet bomber carrying a 1,000 kilogram payload, and they better the previous world record by over four miles (6 km).

While EmperorHaile Selassie I of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his Imperial Bodyguard leads a military coup against his rule, proclaiming that the emperor's son, Crown PrinceAsfa Wossen, is the new emperor.

The Supreme Court of the United States upholds a lower Federal Court ruling that the State of Louisiana's laws on racial segregation laws are unconstitutional, and overturns them.

The countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua announce the formation of the Central American Common Market.

Japan becomes a member of the United Nations.

Paula Ackerman becomes the first woman in the United States to serve a congregation as a Rabbi.

21 December - 400,000 slaughtered during mass migration of Hindus and Muslims into the new states India and Pakistan.

The first practical electronic transistor is demonstrated by Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley of the United States.

The Italian Constituent Assembly votes to accept the new Constitution of Italy.

The Iranian Royal Army takes back power in the Azerbaijan province.

December 13 ndash WWII: British units attempt to take the hilltop town of Tossignano, but are repulsed.

The United States seizes the French ship .

Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.

The Kimura Detachment of the Japanese Imperial forces is occupied in Legaspi, Albay in Eastern Philippines.

British India declares war on the Empire of Japan.

Plutonium is first synthesized in the laboratory by a team led by Glenn T. Seaborg and Edwin McMillan at the University of California, Berkeley.

Royal Navy Fairey Swordfish based on Malta bomb Tripoli.

nd December 15 ndash WWII: Sheffield Blitz ndash The Yorkshire city of Sheffield is badly damaged by German air-raids.

WWII British destroyers sink an Italian submarine off Bardia.

WWII: "HMS Duchess" sinks after a collision with "HMS Barham" off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.

In Italy, the Po River dam bursts, killing 600.

In the Dolomites, an avalanche buries 18,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers.

Chinese president Yuan Shikai declares himself Emperor.

The New York Stock Exchange re-opened, having been closed since 1 Aug 1914 except for bond trading.

Vincenzo Perugia tries to sell the "Mona Lisa" in Florence and is arrested.

Merger of the thrones of Sicily and Naples into the throne of the Two Sicilies under Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

The Nguyễn Dynasty Emperor Gia Long changes his country's official name from Đại Việt to Việt Nam.

Matthew Flinders recommends that New Holland be renamed "Australia" (from the Latin australis meaning of the south).

Père Lachaise Cemetery a cemetery in Paris, France is founded.

Spain declares war on Britain

World population reaches 1 billion people.

Morphine is first isolated from the opium poppy by the German pharmacist, Friedrich Sertürner.

Pennsylvania becomes the second U.S. state.

Founding of Phillips Exeter Academy

Bank of North America is chartered by the Continental Congress.

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor abolishes serfdom.

Second Battle of Ushant: A British fleets defeats French ships.

Reverend Samuel Peters publishes his "General History of Connecticut", using the term blue law for the first time.

Jeremy Bentham formulates utilitarian ethics.

Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovers tungsten.

Charles Messier publishes the final catalog of Messier objects.

Immanuel Kant publishes his "Critique of Pure Reason".

Desai Atash Behram is established in Navsari, India.

The first chocolate factory in the United States is established by Dr. James Baker at Dorchester, Massachusetts.

James Watt makes a breakthrough in the development of the steam engine by constructing a model with a separate condenser.

The first true restaurant opens in Paris, where a tavern-keeper named Boulanger sells cooked dishes at an all-night place on the Rue Bailleul.

In Lisbon, the "auto-da-fé" parade (often an excuse for violence against Jews or Christian'heretics') is abolished.

The "Pennsylvania Gazette" reports that Dr. Huston, the recently instated Distributor of Sts for the Royal Colony of North Carolina, has resigned his post in protest at the St Act.

A fire in Wapping, England destroys 150 houses.

Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, is demoted from his office as Secretary of State for the Northern Department in the British government and replaced by James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope.

Natchez, one of the oldest towns on the Mississippi, is founded.

Tsar Peter the Great of Russia studies with the physician Herman Boerhaave at Leiden University.

The Kangxi Dictionary is published, laying the foundation of most references to Han characters studied today.

The town of Crieff, Scotland, is burned to the ground by Jacobites returning from the Battle of Sheriffmuir.

Pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach) raids shipping in the Caribbean.

The Virgin Mary, in the guise of Our Lady of Guadalupe, allegedly appears to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec convert to Catholicism.

ConquistadorFrancisco de Montejo claims Chichen Itza as capital of Spanish-ruled Yucatán.

The University of Sarajevo is founded by Gazi Husrev-beg.

Kõpu Lighthouse is completed.

The Comet Halley appears (Perihelion: August 26).

An enormous drought in Henan province, China, coupled with a gigantic swarm of locusts in the summer, forces many in destitute agricultural communities to turn to cannibalism instead of dying by starvation.

Witch-hunt in the town of Schiltach, Germany

Andrea Alciato publishes the first part of his "Emblemata".

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor abolishes the worst abuses of the encomienda system by pressure of Bartolomé de las Casas.

Amerigo Vespucci maps the two stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, as well as the stars of the constellation Crux, which are below the horizon in Europe.

Alexander Jagiellon becomes King of Poland.

Michelangelo returns to his native Florence to begin work on the statue "David".

The Florentine political theorist, statesman, and writer Niccolò Machiavelli marries Marietta Corsini, who will bear him six children.

Czar Ivan III of Russia invades the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars.

Rodrigo de Bastidas, sailing westward from Venezuela in search of gold, becomes the first European to explore the Isthmus of Panama.

The Swiss cantons of Basel and Schaffhausen secede from the Holy Roman Empire and join the Old Swiss Confederacy.

Martin Luther enters the University of Erfurt.

Gaspar Corte-Real, Portuguese navigator, makes the first documented European landing in North America since c. 1000 A.D.

The Republic of Venice enacts a decree that new and inventive devices, once put into practice, have to be communicated to the Republic to obtain the right to prevent others from using them, the first modern patent "system".

Upon the death of Henry IV of Castile, a civil war ensues between his designated successor Isabella I of Castile and her sister Juana, who is supported by her husband, Alfonso V of Portugal. Isabella wins the civil war after a lengthy struggle when her husband, Ferdinand II of Aragon, the newly crowned king of Aragon, comes to her aid.

Marsilio Ficino finishes his work on Platonic Theology.

The Treaty of Utrecht put an end to the Anglo-Hanseatic War.

Construction is begun on the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht.

The Catholic dogma of purgatory is clarified and so named by the Catholic Church.

Pope Alexander IV succeeds Pope Innocent IV as the 181st pope.

The Huang Chao rebellion is suppressed by the Tang Dynasty of China, with the help of the Shatuo Turks.

Charles the Fat becomes King of Western Francia, thus for the last time reuniting the Frankish kingdom.

Frodo becomes King of Denmark.

Emperor Yozei of Japan is deposed, and succeeded by his paternal great-uncle Emperor Kōkō.

Battle of Nineveh: Emperor Heraclius defeats the Persians, ending the Roman-Persian Wars.

Third Perso-Turkic War: Tong Yabghu of the Western Gokturks storms and sacks the Caspian Gates at Derbent.

Yathrib (Medina): Battle of the Trench: Muhammad successfully withstands a siege by Meccan forces, whose allies, the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, ultimately surrender to Muhammad.