Unix Timestamp: 1008028800
Tuesday, December 11. 2001, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. The Moon appears to be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the year's other full moons. The next time these two events coincide will be in 2016.ref name=Bewerewolves: Fullest Moon in 15 Years Tonight

Bernard Madoff is arrested by U.S. federal authorities on charges of running a massive decades-long Ponzi scheme swindling thousands of investors - the largest financial fraud in history.

Switzerland becomes the 25th European country to join the Schengen Agreement, whereby cross-border passport checks will be abolished.ref name=Swiss accession

Felipe Calderón sends the Mexican military to combat the drug cartels and put down the violence in the state of Michoacán, initiating the Mexican Drug War.

The 2005 Cronulla riots occur in Sydney, Australia, involving up to 5,000 youths.

Tests show that Ukrainian opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with a large dose of dioxin.

First flight of the ESC-A variant of the Ariane 5 is a failure, with the rocket and the two communications satellites it was carrying destroyed a few minutes after lift-off from Kourou, French Guiana.

The Kyoto Protocol is adopted by a United Nationscommittee.

Tung Chee Hwa is appointed to become the new leader of Hong Kong after it reverts to Chinese rule in 1997.

The International Trans-Antarctica Expedition, a group of six explorers from six nations, reaches the South Pole.

CERCLA is enacted by the U.S. Congress.

The Ta Bay Buccaneers of the NFL win their very first game against the New Orleans Saints. They had lost their first 26 games before the win.

Apollo 17 lands on the Moon.

The film "Man of La Mancha", based on the hit musical, begins a roadshow run in New York City. Most critics savage it, partly because the cast is made up of mostly non-singing actors who nevertheless sing in the film. The only actor to have his singing voice dubbed is Peter O'Toole, who stars as Cervantes and Don Quixote. Gino Conforti is the only member of the original cast to repeat his role. The film is a box office flop, but more than twenty years later, its reputation starts to improve when it is released on video and public response is enthusiastic.

Nihat Erim forms the new government of Turkey (34th government, Nihat Erim had served two times as a prime minister)

The film "Oliver!", based on the hit London and Broadway musical, opens in the U.S. after being released first in England. It goes on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

"The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" is also filmed on this date, but not released until 1996.

Supersonic airliner Concorde is unveiled in Toulouse, France.

Che Guevara addresses the U.N. General Assembly.

MGM's "The Wizard of Oz" is rerun on CBS only a year after its previous telecast, thus beginning the tradition of annual telecasts of the film.

December 13 ndash The Maria Hertogh riots occur in Singapore, leaving 18 dead and 173 injured.

12 ndash Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali massacre: Scots Guards shoot 24 Chinese villagers in Malaya

UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund) is founded.

Léon Blum founds a government of socialist parties in France.

The United Nations severs relations with Franco's Spain and recommends that member countries sever diplomatic relations.

Iranian troops recapture the Azerbaijan province and the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, both of which had seceded earlier in the year.

WWII: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The U.S. responds in kind.

Mae West makes a risque guest appearance on the NBC "Chase and Sanborn Hour" that eventually results in her being banned from radio.

Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.

USS "Panay" incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat .

The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster, which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.

End of the trial of Frederick Bywaters and Edith Thompson at the Old Bailey. Both found guilty and sentenced to death.

Finland joins the League of Nations.

Martial law is declared in Ireland.

An 8.6 Richter scaleHaiyuan earthquake causes a landslide in Gansu Province, China, killing 180,000.

British troops take Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Jerusalem.

The U.S. Congress creates the House Appropriations Committee and the Committee on Banking and Commerce, reducing the tasks of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of an analytical engine, a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime.

Medical School of Louisiana is founded, later to become Tulane University in New Orleans.

The British East India Company monopoly on China trade ends.

Athens becomes Greece's capital city.

The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is chartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.

The Sixth Xhosa War is characterized by severe clashes between white settlers and Bantu peoples in Cape ColonyDutch-speaking settlers colonize the area north of Orange River.

Thomas Davenport, the inventor of the first American DC electrical motor, installs his motor in a small model car, creating one of the first electric cars.

A pro-republic uprising fails in Piedmont one of the activists is Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Indiana is admitted as the 19th U.S. state.

Prime Minister of Great Britain William Pitt refuses to recognize Belgian independence.

The first United States federal budget bill is introduced by Alexander Hamilton.

Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792: 26,000 Turkish soldiers lose their lives during Suvorov's storm of Izmail.

The 1790 United States Census is taken.

The University of North Carolina, the oldest public university in the United States, is founded.

Having led his army to Salisbury and been deserted by his troops, James VII and II attempts to flee to France.

Pride\\\\\'s Purge in England, with elements of the New Model Army, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell invading London and expelling a majority of the Long Parliament, resulting in the creation of the Rump Parliament.

In India, building of the Red Fort in Shahjahanabad is completed.

The Battle of Prague takes place in the Thirty Years' War. The west bank of Prague (including Prague Castle) is occupied and looted by Swedish armies.

Pride's Purge in England, with elements of the New Model Army, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell invading London and expelling a majority of the Long Parliament, resulting in the creation of the Rump Parliament.

George Fox founds the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England.ref name=CCWH

Sabbatai Zevi declares himself the Messiah at Smyrna.

The Ming Chinese embassy of the Wanli Emperor presents tea to the Russian tsar.

The 3,000 seat Teatro Farnese, the first permanent proscenium theatre, is built into the Great Hall of the Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma, Italy.

Osman II deposes his uncle Mustafa I as Ottoman Emperor (until 1622).

Russia and Poland signs Truce of Deulino.

The markgraves of Brandenburg are granted Polish approval to inherit the Duchy of Prussia, creating the state of Brandenburg-Prussia.

The iconoclast and Confucian scholar Li Zhi commits suicide while in a Chinese prison during the late Ming Dynasty he had taught that women were the intellectual equals of men and should be given equal opportunity in education he was charged with spreading dangerous ideas.

Copies are printed of the geographical map of East Asia created by Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit stationed in Ming Dynasty Beijing, China, with Chinese-written labeling and map symbols.

William Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is published.

A surprise attack by forces under the command of the Duke of Savoy and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva (This actually took place after midnight, in the early morning of December 12, but commemorations/celebrations on Fête de l'Escalade are usually held on December 11 or the closest weekend).

Ben Jonson writes "The Poetaster".

Publication of the play "A Larum for London, or the Siedge of Antwerp" in London.

Portuguese expelled from Bahrain.

Russian famine of 1601–1603.

Persia and Spain conclude a defensive alliance and declare war on the Ottoman Empire.

A private trading company is established in Copenhagen, with a monopoly on the trade with Iceland.

King Henry VII gives a city charter to Southwold.

Jeannetto de Tassis is appointed Chief Master of Postal Services in Innsbruck his descendants, the Thurn and Taxis family, later run much of the postal system of Europe.

Typhus sweeps through Spain, in its first appearance in Europe.

A gold coin equal to one pound sterling, called a "sovereign", is issued for Henry VII of England.

Nicosia, Cyprus, becomes a possession of Venice.

Lucas Watzenrode becomes bishop of Warmia.

King Stefan Dragutin of Serbia breaks his leg while hunting and becomes ill he gives the throne to his younger brother Stefan Milutin.

The king of Aragon, Peter III, obtains the support of NasridGranada in preparation for the incoming Aragonese Crusade led by Philip the Fair of France.ref name=JMC

First evidence of the existence of consolidated public debt in Brugges, confirming the expansion of use of life annuities to fund government expendiiture to the Low Countries.

Battle of Vronen: Floris V, Count of Holland defeats the Frisians and retrieves the body of his father, some 26 years dead.

At the Battle of Orewin Bridge in mid-Wales, Llywelyn the Last is killed and the Welsh suffer their final decisive defeat at the hands of the English.

The form for the Trial of the Pyx, during which it is confirmed that newly mintedcoins conform to required standards, is established.

The Archbishop of Canterbury orders all synagogues of London to close, and forbids Jewish doctors from practicing on non-Jews.

December ndash Holy Roman EmperorRudolph I of Germany invests his sons Albert I of Germany and Rudolph II of Austria as co-rulers of the duchies of Austria and Styria, thus founding the Habsburg dynasty in those territories.

Construction of Albi Cathedral in Languedoc begins.

The technology of watermarks is introduced by paper manufacturers of Bologna, Italy.

Hertford College is founded at the University of Oxford.

The most recent eruption of Larderello, a volcano in southern Tuscany, is observed.

Jing Zong succeeds Mu Zong in the Khitan Empire.

John I Tzimiskes becomes Byzantine Emperor after assassinating Nikephoros II Phokas.

Peter I abdicates and retires to a monastery and is succeeded by Boris II as Tsar of Bulgaria.

Conquest of Bulgaria by Sviatoslav I of Kiev.

The Fatimids conquer Egypt and move their capital from Kairouan (in modern Tunisia) to Fustat, subsequently founding a new capital city just north of Fustat, and naming it Cairo.

Emperor En\'yū succeeds Emperor Reizei on the throne of Japan.

Ministers and followers of Constantius II are put to trial at the Chalcedon tribunal.

Julian becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire, he rules from Constantinople and tries to restore paganism. Constantius II is buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles.