This Day in History
14 Dec 1124
Theobald Buccapecus elected Pope Coelestinus II (he refuses)
14 Dec 1287
During St. Lucias Flood in Northwest Netherlands the Zuiderzee seawall collapses with loss of over 50000 lives. Fifth largest recorded flood in history
14 Dec 1575
Polish Parliament selects Istvan Bathory as king of Poland
14 Dec 1582
Zealand Brabant Netherlands adopt Gregorian calendar tomorrow is 1225
More History
The birth of quantum theory
German physicist Max Planck publishes his groundbreaking study of the effect of radiation on a blackbody substance and the quantum theory of mode...
George Washington dies
George Washington the American revolutionary leader and first president of the United States dies of acute laryngitis at his estate in Mount Vernon Virginia....
Indy “Brickyard†is completed
On this day in 1909 workers place the last of the 3.2 million 10-pound bricks that pave the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway Indiana (a town surrounded...
Amundsen reaches South Pole
Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to reach the South Pole beating his British rival Robert Falcon Scott.Amundsen born in Borge near Oslo ...
Operation Barrel Roll begins
In Laos Operation Barrel Roll the name given to the first phase of the bombing plan approved by President Lyndon B. Johnson on December 1 begins with U.S. pl...
Kennedy announces intent to increase aid to South Vietnam
In a public exchange of letters with South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem President John F. Kennedy formally announces that the United States will increase...
Stan Smith is born
On this day in 1946 the American tennis champion Stan Smith is born in Pasadena California. A three-time All-American at the University of Southern California...
First U.S. President George Washington dies
On this day in 1799 George Washington the man described by fellow soldier and Virginian Henry Lee as first in war first in peace and first in the hear...
George Washington dies at Mount Vernon
A major landholder and promoter of western settlement George Washington dies on this day in 1799 at his Mount Vernon home along the banks of the Potomac.From a...
Saturday Night Fever gets its world premiere and launches a musical juggernaut
In a 2008 interview on BBC Radio 4 Robin Gibb confessed to making it through only the first 30 minutes of the world premiere and to never having seen the rest...
Aphra Behn is baptized
On this day in 1640 Aphra Behn is baptized at Harbledown near Canterbury England. A successful playwright and novelist Behn has been called the first Englis...
King Kong remake debuts
On this day in 2005 King Kong a remake of the classic 1933 film of the same name about a fictional giant ape who climbs New York Citys Empire State Bu...
Blizzard ravages Navajo reservation
On this day in 1967 record snow continues to fall in New Mexico in a blizzard that eventually kills 51 people. In December of that year snow fell almost const...
An unsatisfactory end to a kidnapping
A botched burglary attempt further clouds one of the earliest kidnap-for-ransom cases. As he was about to go to bed wealthy New Yorker Holmes Van Brunt heard b...
CIA issues warning about Soviet arms sales to Third World nations
On this day a CIA report claims that the Soviet Union delivered nearly 7 billion worth of military assistance to Third World nations in 1979 and made over 8...
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