Historical Events On December 17 - On This Day

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• 283 St. Caius begins his reign as Catholic Pope
• 546 Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome by bribing the Byzantine garrison during the Gothic War
• 920 Romanos I is crowned as co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII

• 942 Assassination of William I Longsword, 2nd Duke of Normandy.
• 1206 Crusader Wallon de Sarton presents Bishop of Amiens Richard de Gerberoy with purported skull of John the Baptist, stolen from Constantinople (Amiens cathedral later built to house it)

1398 Tamerlane captures and sacks Delhi, defeating Sultan Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud's armies by setting camels loaded with hay alight and driving them toward the Sultan's armored war elephants

• 1526 Ferdinand of Austria chosen as King of Bohemia

1531 Pope Clement VII publishes the papal bull "Cum ad nihil magis", authorizing the Inquisition in Portugal at Evora, Coimbra, and Lisbon; it is rescinded in 1535

1538 Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII of England

• 1572 Spanish army starts fires in Haarlem, Netherlands
• 1586 Go-Yōzei becomes 107th Emperor of Japan
• 1587 The Earl of Leicester's army leaves Netherlands
• 1637 Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu
• 1638 French and Swedish troops occupy Breisach on the Rhine
• 1718 France, Britain and Austria declare war on Spain (War of the Quadruple Alliance 1718–1720)
• 1728 Congregation Shearith Israel of New York purchases a lot on Mill Street in Lower Manhattan to build the city's first synagogue
• 1777 France recognizes the independence of the British colonies in America
• 1777 George Washington's army returns to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
• 1788 Russian army led by Grigory Potemkin assaults and captures the fortress of Ochakov in modern-day Ukraine after a five-month siege during a major campaign of the Russo-Turkish War
• 1790 Aztec calendar stone is discovered in Mexico City
• 1791 A traffic regulation creates the first one-way street in New York City
• 1792 Opening of the First Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in Quebec City
• 1798 First impeachment trial against a US senator begins (William Blount, Tennessee)
• 1807 France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
• 1819 Congress of Angostura establishes Colombia's independence from Spain
• 1821 Kentucky abolishes debtors' prisons
• 1832 Real Estate developer Samuel Ruggles deeds Gramercy Park to board of trustees to hold as parkland, he is granted tax exempt status by New York City for the park, and develops the surrounding lots ensuring private access only to those properties
• 1836 Colonel William Light chooses the site for the settlement of Adelaide in South Australia
• 1843 Henry Cole, founder of London's V&A Museum, commissions printing of the 1st Christmas card

1845 German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives in Port Essington after a nearly 4,800 km (3,000 mi) overland journey to explore Australia's Northern Territory

• 1852 1st Hawaiian Cavalry is organized
• 1860 Anaheim Township created in Los Angeles County

1862 General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from his military district, which comprises areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky

1865 Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8, "Unfinished Symphony", premieres in Vienna with Johann von Herbeck conducting

• 1875 Violent bread riots in Montreal
• 1885 France declares Madagascar a protectorate
• 1887 Georges Feydeau's "Tailleur Pour Dames" premieres in Paris
• 1892 Tchaikovski's ballet "Casse-noisette" premieres in St Petersburg
• 1893 Russia ratifies Double Alliance with France
• 1894 Day 3 of first cricket test between Australia and England, England 325 all out, 261 behind on 1st innings
• 1895 Anti-Saloon League of America formed, Washington, D.C.
• 1895 George Brownell patents a machine for making paper twine in Massachusetts
• 1900 First prize of 100,000 francs is offered for communication with extraterrestrials, with Martians excluded because they are considered too easy
• 1900 New Ellis Island Immigration station completed costing $1.5 million

1900 Pope Leo XIII closes the 'Holy Door' of St Peter's in Rome, ending the Jubilee Year of 1900

• 1902 Frank Wedekind's play "Der Erdgeist" (Earth Spirit) premieres in Berlin

1903 At 10:35 am, Orville Wright pilots the first sustained, powered, and controlled flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; the flight lasts 12 seconds and covers 120 feet

• 1907 Ugyen Wangchuck became 1st hereditary king of Bhutan

1908 In Turkey the new parliament convenes with reformist Young Turks as the majority

• 1912 Albania's de facto independence from the Ottoman Empire is recognized at the London Conference of Ambassadors
• 1914 Austrian troops beat Russians in Limanova Poland
• 1914 Great Britain declares Egypt a protectorate
• 1914 Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities
• 1918 A conference of workers' and soldiers' councils take control of German government in Berlin, until elections in January selects new national assembly
• 1919 Austrian parliament approves 8-hour working day
• 1920 AL votes to let spitball pitchers to continue using it
• 1920 British Empire receives League of Nations mandate over Nauru
• 1920 Japan receives League of Nations mandate over Pacific islands
• 1920 South Africa receives League of Nations mandate over SW Africa
• 1922 Last British troops leave Irish Free State
• 1924 First US diesel electric locomotive enters service in the Bronx, New York
• 1924 The Hamilton Tigers and Ottawa Senators battle out the first scoreless game in NHL history; Jake Forbes (Hamilton) and Alex Connell (Ottawa) each record shutouts
• 1925 Colonel William "Billy" Mitchell court-martialed for insubordination
• 1925 Soviet Union & Turkey sign non-aggresion pact

1925 Sultan Abdulaziz Ibn Saud conquers Jeddah, the last major stand of the Hashemites against the Saudis

• 1926 Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the ‎1926 coup d'état‎ is successful
• 1926 German Marx government falls due to cooperation with red army
• 1926 KYA-AM in San Francisco CA begins radio transmissions
• 1926 Lithuanian military state under gen Augustine Woldemaras

1927 Australian cricket prodigy Don Bradman scores 118 in his first class debut for New South Wales against South Australia at Adelaide Oval

• 1927 US submarine S-4 sinks after collision killing all 34 aboard
• 1928 John McGraw backs NL President John Heydler's designated hitter idea

1931 First meeting of the Indian Statistical Institute organized by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in Calcutta

• 1932 St. Louis Cardinals trade future Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Jim Bottomley to the Cincinnati Reds for Estel Crabtree and Ownie Carroll
• 1933 Bryan Valentine (136) and Lala Amarnath (102no) score centuries on their Test Cricket debut on Day 3 of 1st Test between England and India at Bombay
• 1933 Spain's 2nd government of Lerroux forms

1935 1st flight of the Douglas DC-3 (C-47 Skytrain/Dakota) airplane.

• 1936 Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and dummy Charlie McCarthy appear on TV
• 1938 Utrecht Central Station destroyed by fire
• 1939 German pocket battleship Graf Spee scuttled by its crew off Uruguay
• 1940 British troops occupy Sollum, Egypt
• 1941 Dutch and Australian troops land on Portuguese Timor
• 1941 German submarine U-31 sunk

1941 German troops led by Erwin Rommel begin retreating in North Africa

• 1941 World War II: Beginning of the Siege of Sebastopol.
• 1942 Allies in London sentence German war criminals
• 1943 Transport 63 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
• 1944 San Francisco M-Ocean View streetcar resumes service & is extended to Market St
• 1944 US Army announces end of excluding Japanese-Americans from West Coast, detainees released
• 1944 US destroyers sink in storm off Philippines, 790 killed
• 1946 Bradman & Barnes complete record 405 run 5th wicket stand, score 234 each in 2nd Cricket Test Australia vs. England in Sydney
• 1946 US V-2 rocket reaches 183 km, White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico

1947 British industrial company BTH receives a patent for holography, invented by Dennis Gabor in their development lab

• 1947 NY struck by a blizzard, resulting with 27" of snow
• 1947 WEWS TV channel 5 in Cleveland, Ohio (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1949 Burma recognizes People's Republic of China
• 1951 Dutch Communist Party members forbidden to be civil servants

1953 Dmitri Shostakovich's 10th Symphony premieres in Leningrad

• 1953 US Federal Communications Commission approves RCA's black & white-compatible color TV specifications
• 1954 1st fully automated railroad freight yard (Gary, Indiana)
• 1954 WEAU TV channel 13 in Eau Claire, WI (NBC) begins broadcasting

1957 Ballon d'Or: Real Madrid forward Alfredo Di Stéfano wins award for best football player in Europe ahead of Englishmen Billy Wright and Duncan Edwards

1957 Last episode of "The Nat King Cole Show" airs on NBC, cancelled due to lack of national sponsorship

• 1957 The largest trade in NHL history at the time in terms of quantity; Chicago Black Hawks move Nick Mickoski, Jack McIntyre, Bob Bailey & Hec Lalonde to Detroit Red Wings for Earl Reibel, Billy Dea, Bill Dineen & Lorne Ferguson
• 1957 US successfully test-fires Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile

1958 Ted Lindsay becomes highest scoring left wing in NHL history, passing Aurel Joliat who retired with 270; scores twice and adds an assist In Chicago Black Hawks' 5-2 win over the Boston Bruins at Chicago Stadium

• 1959 "On The Beach" is the first film to premiere simultaneously on both sides of the Iron Curtain
• 1960 Pablo Casals' oratorio "El Pesebrio" premieres in Acapulco, Mexico
• 1961 India seizes Goa & 2 other Portuguese colonies
• 1961 Niteroi Circus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil catches fire; 323 die after disgruntled employee sets fire to the tent
• 1962 Beatles 1st British TV appearance on "People & Places"
• 1962 Current constitution of Monaco promulgated
• 1963 Ballon d'Or: Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper Lev Yashin wins award for best European football player; beats Milan midfielder Gianni Rivera and Tottenham striker Jimmy Greaves; first Russian national to win trophy
• 1963 Tsjoi Doo Sun forms government in South Korea
• 1963 West & East Berlin sign accord about travel rules

1964 "Goldfinger", 3rd James Bond film, starring Sean Connery and Honor Blackman premieres in London

• 1965 British government proclaims ends oil-embargo against Rhodesia
• 1965 David Levy begins his search for comets
• 1965 Dutch government shuts Limburgs coal mine

1965 First concert held at the Houston Astrodome: Judy Garland headlines, with The Supremes as opening act

• 1965 Largest newspaper-Sunday NY Times at 946 pages (50 cents)
• 1967 Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt vanishes in mysterious circumstances while swimming near Melbourne
• 1967 WEDW TV channel 49 in Bridgeport, Connecticut (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1969 USAF closes its Project Blue Book, concluding there is no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings
• 1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1970 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
• 1970 Workers returning to shipyard in Gdynia, Poland are met by soldiers who shoot at the crowd, killing at least 18, wounding hundreds
• 1971 "Diamonds are Forever", 7th James Bond film, last starring Sean Conner, also starring Jill St. John is 1st released in West Germany
• 1971 Cease fire between India & Pakistan in Kashmir
• 1971 Radio Bangladesh begins transmitting
• 1972 New line of control agreed to in Kashmir between India & Pakistan
• 1972 WGVC (now WUCX) TV channel 35 in Grand Rapids, MI (PBS) 1st broadcast
• 1973 Arabs terrorists shoot passengers on Boeing 737 to Kuwait
• 1975 John Paul Stevens appointed to the US Supreme Court
• 1975 Lynette Fromme sentenced to life for attempt on US President Ford's life
• 1975 NHL NY Islanders shut-out NY Rangers, for 1st time in 3-0 win with Billy Smith in goal
• 1976 NYC's Grand Central Terminal train station is added to the National Register of Historic Places [1]
• 1976 Superstation WTBS in Atlanta went national
• 1977 Bobby Simpson scores 176 Australia v India at the WACA, aged 41

1977 Elvis Costello & The Attractions make their first US TV appearance on "Saturday Night Live"

• 1977 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll
• 1977 Rookie defenseman Barry Beck scores first career hat trick and adds an assist in Colorado Rockies' 5-1 win v Minnesota North Stars; sets NHL record for rookie defensemen with a goal in his 6th straight game
• 1978 OPEC raises oil prices by 18% and agrees on a 14.5% petroleum price increase for 1979, to be implemented quarterly
• 1978 Referendum approves new constitution of Rwanda
• 1978 The Workers' Party of Jamaica is founded by Trevor Munroe
• 1979 Budweiser rocket car reaches 1190 km/h (739.66 mph) but is widely disputed because the speed is not measured under official land speed record conditions, and the methodology is questionable
• 1980 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1980 Mauritania provisional constitution published
• 1981 Members of Red Brigades kidnap Brigadier General James L Dozier
• 1983 Disco in Madrid catches fire; 83 die

1983 In his 352nd NHL game, Wayne Gretzky scores a goal & 5 assists in 8-1 rout of Quebec Nordiques to record his 800th point and 500th assist; averages 2.27 points, 1.42 assists, 0.85 goals per game to start career

• 1983 The Provisional IRA bombs Harrods department store in London, killing six people and injuring 90

1984 "A Christmas Carol" directed by Clive Donner starring George C. Scott premieres in the US

1986 American mafia hitman Richard Kuklinski is arrested at a roadblock

• 1986 Davina Thompson makes medical history by undergoing the first combined heart, lung, and liver transplant at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England
• 1986 Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky scores 4 goals, including a natural hat trick in the 1st period and also records an assist as the Oilers win 5-3 over the visiting Quebec Nordiques; his 41st NHL career hat trick
• 1986 US Congress forms "Irangate" committee
• 1987 Czechoslovak party leader Gustav Husak resigns
• 1988 Bryan Murray becomes 17th NHL coach to win 300 games (Washington Capitals)
• 1988 NY Islanders break 12 game losing streak, beat Devils 5-2
• 1988 USS Tennessee, 1st sub to carry Trident 2 missiles, commissioned
• 1988 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan

1989 "The Simpsons," created by Matt Groening, premieres on Fox TV as a full animated series with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"

• 1989 Brazil elects conservative Fernando Collor de Mello as president
• 1990 KTBN, Salt Lake City Utah, begins shortwave radio transmissions
• 1991 Cleveland Cavaliers beat Miami Heat 148-80, by record 68 pts
• 1991 NBA's most lopsided game Cleveland beats Miami 148-80
• 1991 Patrick Manning becomes premier of Trinidad & Tobago
• 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins score team record 8 goals in one period in 2nd session of 10-2 win over NHL expansion San Jose Sharks
• 1991 Soap opera "One Life To Live" airs its 6,000th episode
• 1992 Japanese paleoanthropologist Gen Suwa discovers a tooth of the 4.4 million year old hominid Ardipithecus ramidus
• 1993 "Northern Exposure" star Barry Corbin falls off his horse
• 1993 Kevin Scott skates world record 1000 m (1:12.54)
• 1993 Muslims in Bangladesh call for the murder of feminist Taslima Nasrin
• 1994 KLM's last DC-10 goes out of service

1995 René Préval wins the Haiti presidential elections for the Fanmi Lavalas party

• 1996 "In My Bed" single released by Dru Hill (Billboard Song of the Year 1997)
• 1999 Ray Bourque becomes just the 3rd player in NHL history to score 1,100 assists, and goaltender Byron Dafoe records his 100th NHL victory in Boston Bruin's 3-1 win over the Thrashers in Atlanta
• 1999 The United Nations General Assembly passes resolution 54/134 designating November 25 as the annual International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women
• 2002 Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.
• 2003 International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers established by SWOP-USA human rights organization
• 2003 SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first supersonic flight
• 2003 The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

2003 Third Lord of the Rings film "The Return of the King" is released, earning $72 million on its opening weekend and becoming only the second film to gross over $1 billion worldwide

• 2005 Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong
• 2007 Republic of Lakotah asserts independence from the United States

2008 Independent Democarat US Senator Joe Lieberman endorses Republican Senator John McCain for president

• 2012 10 girls collecting firewood are killed by a mine blast in east Afghanistan
• 2012 17 people are killed and 70 are injured by a blast in a market in the Khyber Agency, Pakistan
• 2012 18 people drown after an overloaded boat sinks in Cotonou, Benin
• 2012 Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world's verified oldest living person at 116 years old
• 2012 NASA completes a successful mission to map the Moon’s gravity field

2013 Angela Merkel is elected Chancellor of Germany for a third term

• 2013 Australia wins the 3rd test to take win the 2013-14 Ashes test cricket series
• 2014 103-year-old Gus Andreone records the 8th ace of his career on the 113-yard, 14th hole of the Lakes Course, Palm Aire, Sarasota, FL; oldest golfer to record a hole-in-one

2014 Sony Pictures cancels the release of "The Interview", starring Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, and James Franco, after a cyber attack on the studio

• 2015 José Mourinho is sacked as manager of British Premier football club Chelsea
• 2015 Libyan warring political factions sign a UN-brokered deal to form a unified government
• 2015 Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals is arrested on fraud charges in New York by the FBI
• 2017 "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" takes more than $450m worldwide in its opening weekend, 2nd largest opening in North America ($220m)

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• Historical Events Calendar
• Dec 18

• 

  The Tower that Twice Defied Hitler

  December 15, 1832
• 

  Melodrama at Theatre Leaves Actor Dead

  December 16, 1897
• 

  Bowled Over by William and Harry

  December 17, 1849
• 

  The Face that Launched a Thousand Quips...

  December 18, 1778

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