Unix Timestamp: 1071792000
Friday, December 19. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, is announced as Time magazine's 2007 Person of the Year.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin is ""Time" magazine's Person of the Year". //www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1697396,00.html ("Time")

U.S. plan to invade Iraq: After reviewing a 12,000 page Iraqi weapons declaration document, U.S. officials state that Iraq has failed to account for all its chemical and biological agents and that Iraq is in material breach of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Rebels in the Côte d'Ivoire seize the key western city of Man from government forces.

State President of South AfricaF. W. de Klerk dismisses or suspends 23 military officers, including six generals, sho were suspected of unauthorized activities designed to disrupt negotiations with the African National Congress.

Paul Keating replaces Bob Hawke as the new prime minister of Australia.

Workers in Romanian cities go on strike in protest against the communist regime.

Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov is permitted to return to Moscow after years of internal exile.

In Malta, Prime Minister Dom Mintoff resigns.

The People's Republic of China and United Kingdom sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong.

Four African-American youths (Barry Allen, Troy Canty, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey) board an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City. They attempt to rob Bernhard Goetz, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime in the United States.

The People\\'s Republic of China and United Kingdom sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong.

Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who was subsequently convicted of the murder of 33 young men, is arrested.

Former Prime Minister of IndiaIndira Gandhi is arrested and jailed for a week for breach of privilege and contempt of parliament.

The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.

Argentina started the Operation Soberanía against Chile.

The Pittsburgh Steelers win their first ever post-season NFL game, defeating the Oakland Raiders 13–7, on a last second play that becomes known as The Immaculate Reception.

A peace delegation that includes singer-activist Joan Baez and human rights attorney Telford Taylor visit Hanoi to deliver Christmas mail to American prisoners of war (they will be caught in the Christmas bombing of North Vietnam).

Two small earthquakes are felt at about 9:30 and 10:15 local time in Managua, Nicaragua.

ZANLA troopers attack Altera Farm in north-east Rhodesia.

Apollo program: "Apollo 17" returns to Earth, concluding the program of lunar exploration.

Australia establishes diplomatic relations with China and West Germany.

East Germany and West Germany recognize each other.

A 6.25 Richter scaleearthquake in Nicaragua kills 5,000–12,000 people in the capital, Managua President Somoza is later accused of pocketing millions of dollars worth of foreign aid intended for relief.

Warner Bros. Pictures becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Seven Arts Productions, thus becoming Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.

The Summer of Love is held in San Francisco.

Lech Wałęsa goes to work in Gdańskshipyards.

Lonsdaleite (the rarest allotrope of carbon) is first discovered in the Barringer Crater, Arizona.

St Christopher\\\\'s Hospice, the world's first purpose-built secular hospice specialising in palliative care of the terminally ill, is established in South London by Cicely Saunders.

The Greekmilitary junta exiles Melina Mercouri.

The first edition of the book, "A Short History of Pakistan", is published by Karachi University, Pakistan.

The Jari project begins in the Amazon.

PAL is first introduced in Germany.

Parker Morris Standards become mandatory for all housing built in New Towns in the UK.

Albania is officially declared an atheist state by its leader, Enver Hoxha.

A lost city is discovered on the island of Thera, buried under volcanic debris. It has been suggested that Plato may have heard legends about this, and used them as the germ of his story of Atlantis.

Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel attempted to jump 141 feet over the Caesars Palace Fountains on the Las Vegas Strip. Knievel crashed on landing and the accident was caught on film.

Gabriel García Márquez's influential novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is published (in Spanish).

Fernand Braudel begins publication of "Civilisation matérielle, économie et capitalisme, XVsupe/sup-XVIIIsupe/sup siècle".

Benjamin Netanyahu joins the Israeli Army.

December 20 Charles Joseph Volcher was born at Saint Francis Hospital in Lynwood California.

The Green Bay Packers become the first team in the modern era to win their third consecutive NFL Chionship, 21-17 over the Dallas Cowboys in what became known as The Ice Bowl.

The University of Winnipeg is founded in Canada.

Professor John Archibald Wheeler uses the term "Black Hole" for the first time.

ADB operations begin.

Zanzibar gains independence from Great Britain as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.

Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland (now Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation.

Fire sweeps through the USS "Constellation", to become the U.S. Navy's largest aircraft carrier, while she is under construction at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 50 workers are killed and 150 are injured.

Fire sweeps through the USS \\'\\'Constellation\\'\\', to become the U.S. Navy's largest aircraft carrier, while she is under construction at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 50 workers are killed and 150 are injured.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower broadcasts a message from a Project SCORE satellite.

Meredith Willson's classic musical "The Music Man", starring Robert Preston, debuts on Broadway.

John Bodkin Adams is arrested for the murder of 2 patients in Eastbourne, Great Britain.

Viet Minh forces begin a war against French occupying forces in Vietnam, succeeding in 1954 with France's surrender at Dien Bien Phu.

Frank Capra's "It\\\\'s a Wonderful Life", featuring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, and Thomas Mitchell, is released in New York.

At least 1,362 people are killed in an earthquake and associated tsunami in Japan.

Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life", featuring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, and Thomas Mitchell, is released in New York.

The entire territory of Estonia is taken by the Red Army.

WWII: Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.

Mount Merapi volcano in central Java, Indonesia, erupts, destroying numerous villages and killing thirteen hundred people.

3 Indian Revolutionaries viz Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil, Thakur Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan were executed by the British Empire 4th Rajendra Nath Lahiri had been executed two day's before i.e. on December 17

Albania becomes a republic.

German serial killer Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death for a series of murders.

An air crash at Croydon Air Field in London kills 8.

A flash fire at a Christmas celebration in a one-room schoolhouse in Babbs, Oklahoma kills 36 people, mostly small children.

The Battle of Kolubara ends, resulting in a decisive Serbian victory over Austria-Hungary.

An explosion in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania kills 239.

The city of Birmingham, Alabama, is incorporated with the merger of three existing towns.

Charles Dickens' novella "A Christmas Carol" is first published.

High-quality cotton is introduced in Egypt.

The Eyjafjallajökullvolcano in Iceland begins to erupt.

American Revolution: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

he Jacobite army led by Bonnie Prince Charlie on retreat from Derby, was defeated by the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Clifton Moor near Penrith, Cumberland.

Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia.

Jean-Francois Regnard's "Le Joueur" premieres in Paris.

United colonial forces attack the Narragansetts at the Great Sw Fight.

Cassini discovers Saturn's Cassini Division.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek begins to use a microscope for observing human tissues and liquids.

Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola publishes "Regola delli cinque ordini d'architettura" "(Rules of the Five Orders of Architecture)" it will become in succeeding centuries the most published book in architectural history.Vignola. "Canon of the Five Orders of Architecture", translated with an introduction by Branko Mitrovic. New York: Acanthus Press, 1999). p. 17. ISBN 0-926494-16-3.

Gresham\'s School is granted a Royal Charter in England.

Gresham's School is granted a Royal Charter in England.

Akbar the Great conquers Malwa and defeats Baz Bahadur.

The earliest English slave-trading expedition (under John Hawkins) goes between Guinea and the West Indies. As a result, the Spanish prohibit English ships from trading at their new world ports.

Battle of Dreux: Huguenot forces under Condé and Coligny, and Catholic forces under Anne de Montmorency and Guise, battle to a draw. The official leaders of both armies (Condé and Montmorency) are captured in the battle.

Ashikaga Yoshitane becomes Ashikaga shogun of Japan.

Merchants carry coffee from Yemen to Mecca, Arabia "(approximate date)".

Leonardo da Vinci develops an oil l: the flame is enclosed in a glass tube placed inside a water-filled glass globe.

Regular postal service connects the Habsburg residences of Mechelen and Innsbruck, the first in Germany.

Perkin Warbeck claims to be the son of King Edward IV of England at the court of Burgundy.

Johann Reuchlin meets Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

Catholicmissionaries arrive in the African Kingdom of Kongo.

Leonardo da Vinci observes capillary action in small-bore tubes.

All Saints' Church, the ''Schlosskirche'' in Wittenberg is begun.

Anne of Brittany is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.

John Colet receives his M.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford.

The Chinese scholar and printer Hua Sui invents bronze-metal movable type printing in China, although the earlier Wang Zhen had experimented with tin movable type in 1298 and the Koreans had separately innovated bronze movable type.

Aldus Manutius moves to Venice.

"Tirant Lo Blanc" by Joanot Martorell and Martí Joan De Galba is published.

Pedro de Covilham arrives in Ethiopia.

Magha II succeeds his brother, Musa II, as Mansa of the Mali Empire.

Timur conquers the Muzaffarid Empire in central Persia and appoints three puppet rulers.

Khan Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde invades the Timurid Empire but has to soon after withdraw due to heavy snow.

Battle of Radcot Bridge: Forces loyal to Richard II of England are defeated by a group of rebellious barons known as the Lords Appellant. Richard II is imprisoned until he agrees to replace all the councillors in his court.

The Mahabharata, a IndianSanskritepic, is finalised.

Pope Anastasius I dies at Rome after a 2-year reign, and is succeeded by Innocent I as the 40th pope proclaiming his universal power over the whole of Christendom.

Licinius abdicates his position as Emperor. He is pardoned by Constantine I as a result of the supplication of his wife Constantia (who is Constantine's halfsister), and banished to Thessalonica as a private citizen.

St Peter's Church is founded in Rome.

Eustathius becomes bishop of Antioch.

Mark is succeeded by Philadelphus as Patriarch of Constantinople.

Caracalla persecutes Geta's supporters and sympathizers, soldiers are allowed to wreak havoc in the streets of Rome. The bloodshed lasts for two weeks, and one contemporary source claims 20,000 people are killed.

Ardashir I becomes king of part of Persia.

Baths of Caracalla are started to be built (approximate date).

Geta is lured to come without his bodyguards to meet Caracalla, to discuss a possible reconciliation. When he arrives the Praetorian Guard murders him and he dies in the arms of his mother Julia Domna.

January ndash Cao Cao writes "Ràng Xiàn Zì Míng Běn Zhì Lìng" (讓縣自明本志令)