December 1st, 1955: Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to move to the back of a bus and give her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama.

December 2nd, 1823: US President James Monroe declares the “Monroe Doctrine” opposing European colonialism in the Americas, arguing any European political intervention in the New World would be a hostile act against the United States.

December 3rd, 1818: Illinois becomes the 21st state in the USA (Admission day).

December 4th, 1619: 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish, England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God. Considered by many The First Thanksgiving in the Americas.

December 5th: 2017: Russia is banned from the next Winter Olympics in South Korea over state-sponsored doping.

December 6th, 1865: 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery (except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted). 

December 7th, 1941: Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people.

December 8th, 1857: 1st production of Dion Boucicault’s play “Poor of New York.” 

December 9th, 1805: Comet 3D/1805 V1 (Biela) approaches within 0.0366 AUs of Earth.

December 10th, 1884: “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain was first published in the UK and Canada (US Feb 1885, due to printing error). 

December 11th, 1913: “Mona Lisa” recovered two years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum. 

December 12th, 1899: George F Bryant of Boston patents the wooden golf tee. 

December 13th, 1636: The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. Recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.

December 14th, 1774: First incident of American Revolution – 400 New Hampshire militiamen successfully attack Fort William and Mary. 

December  15th, 1612: German Astronomer Simon Marius is 1st to observe the Andromeda galaxy through a telescope.

December 16th, 1707: Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.

December 17th, 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.” 

December 18th, 1958: Project SCORE, world’s first communications satellite launched from Cape Canaveral. 

December 19th, 1843: “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens was published, 6,000 copies sold.  

December 20th, 1812: “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” or “Children’s and Household Tales” by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm is first published.

December 21st, 1248: Earthquake in England causes Wells’ cathedral roof to collapse. 

December 22nd, 1808: Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 5 and No. 6, Choral Fantasy and Piano Concerto No. 4 (featuring the composer as soloist) premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria.

December 23rd, 1888: Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear with a razor, after argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, and sends to a prostitute for safe keeping.

December 24th, 563: The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.

December 25th, 1: 1st Christmas, according to calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus. 

December 26th, 1833: Gaetano Dinozetti’s opera “Lucrezia Borgia” premieres at La Scala Teatro in Milan, Italy.

December 27th, 537: Hagia Sophia inaugurated by the Emperor Justinian I as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral.

December 28th, 1612: First observation of Neptune – Galileo observes and records a “fixed star” without realizing it is a planet.

December  29th, 1835: Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States. 

December 30th, 1861: Associated Banks in NYC halt gold payments to government and investors, to disrupt Abraham Lincoln’s US bank reform program.

December 31st, 1744: English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble). 

Cites: 

https://www.onthisday.com/ 

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