Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Thursday, December 19, 2002
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.
Saturday, December 19, 1992
Thursday, December 19, 1991
Tuesday, December 19, 1989
Workers in Romanian cities go on strike in protest against the communist regime.
Friday, December 19, 1986
Wednesday, December 19, 1984
The People's Republic of China and United Kingdom sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong.
Tuesday, December 19, 1978
Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who was subsequently convicted of the murder of 33 young men, is arrested.
Argentina started the Operation Soberanía against Chile.
Tuesday, December 19, 1972
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.
Two small earthquakes are felt at about 9:30 and 10:15 local time in Managua, Nicaragua.
Australia establishes diplomatic relations with China and West Germany.
Tuesday, December 19, 1967
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.
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.
Monday, December 19, 1966
Thursday, December 19, 1963
Zanzibar gains independence from Great Britain as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
Wednesday, December 19, 1962
Monday, December 19, 1960
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.
Friday, December 19, 1958
President Dwight D. Eisenhower broadcasts a message from a
Project SCORE satellite.
Thursday, December 19, 1957
Wednesday, December 19, 1956
John Bodkin Adams is arrested for the murder of 2 patients in Eastbourne, Great Britain.
Thursday, December 19, 1946
Viet Minh forces begin a war against French occupying forces in Vietnam, succeeding in 1954 with France's surrender at Dien Bien Phu.
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.
Tuesday, December 19, 1944
The entire territory of Estonia is taken by the Red Army.
Friday, December 19, 1941
Friday, December 19, 1930
Monday, December 19, 1927
Friday, December 19, 1924
German serial killer
Fritz Haarmann is sentenced to death for a series of murders.
Saturday, December 19, 1914
The Battle of Kolubara ends, resulting in a decisive Serbian victory over Austria-Hungary.
Thursday, December 19, 1907
Tuesday, December 19, 1871
Tuesday, December 19, 1843
Wednesday, December 19, 1821
High-quality cotton is introduced in Egypt.
Friday, December 19, 1777
American Revolution: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Sunday, December 19, 1745
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.
Tuesday, December 19, 1741
Wednesday, December 19, 1696
Thursday, December 19, 1675
United colonial forces attack the Narragansetts at the
Great Sw Fight.
Wednesday, December 9, 1562 (Julianian calendar)
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.
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.
Friday, December 10, 1490 (Julianian calendar)
Ashikaga Yoshitane becomes Ashikaga shogun of Japan.
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.
Leonardo da Vinci observes capillary action in small-bore tubes.
Wednesday, December 11, 1387 (Julianian calendar)
Magha II succeeds his brother, Musa II, as Mansa of the Mali Empire.
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.
Wednesday, December 18, 401 (Julianian calendar)
Friday, December 18, 324 (Julianian calendar)
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.
Thursday, December 19, 211
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.
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)