| On his way home from the Holy Land in March of 1192, Richard was shipwrecked, captured, and handed over to Emperor Henry VI. A large portion of the 150,000-mark ransom was raised through heavy taxing of the people of England, and Richard was freed in February of 1194. |  |
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| Three small ships, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, departed London under the command of Capt. Christopher Newport. In May of 1607, the royally chartered company established the first permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown (Virginia). The Virginia Company of London received a charter from the newly-crowned King James I. The Virginia Company was a joint-stock company, which sold shares. All who purchased shares at a cost of £12 10s shared in the success or failure of the venture. |
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| This day the Long Finn called Marcus Jacobson was by warrant put on board Mr. Cousseau's ship called the Fort Albany to be transported and sold at the Barbadoes according to the sentence of Court at Delaware for his attempting rebellion. He had been a prisoner in the State house since the 20th day of December last. Marcus Jacobson was condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery. |
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| In 1699, Peter also abolished the traditional Russian calendar, in which the year began on September 1, in favor of the Julian calendar, in which the year began on January 1. Traditionally, the years were reckoned from the purported creation of the World, but after Peter's reforms, they were to be counted from the birth of Christ. Russia moved to Julian calendar just as the rest of Europe was moving to the Gregorian calendar. Russia would stay on the Julian calendar until the October Revolution in 1918. |
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| Stearns made the calculations for the first nautical almanac in this country, which he published, 20 December, 1782. He edited the "Philadelphia Magazine" in 1789, and published "Tour to London and Paris" (London, 1790); "Mystery of Animal Magnetism" (1791); "American Oracle" (1791); and "The American Herbal, or Materia Mediea" (Walpole, New Hampshire, 1801). He labored twenty-eight years on a "Medical Dispensatory," and to obtain information for it travelled for nine years in Europe and this country, but died before its completion. |
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| In 1790, the first successful cotton spinning machines built using American resources began production of cotton yarn in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Samuel Slater was first in the U.S. to reliably duplicate British cotton spinning machines. Slater had emigrated secretly from England (1789) with details of Richard Arkwight's machines memorized while an apprentice in a mill. |
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| Thomas Jefferson selected William Charles Cole Claiborne, former governor of the Mississippi territory and highest-ranking civilian official in the vicinity, to govern lower Louisiana. Backing Claiborne with military power was General James Wilkinson. On December 20, 1803 these two commissioners signed the transfer document with Laussat, giving lower Louisiana officially to the United States. The United States took formal possession of the full territory of Louisiana in St. Louis three months later, when France handed over the rights to upper Louisiana. |
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| At the beginning of the 19th century, banking was still something only done by those that had assets or wealth that needed safekeeping. The first savings bank in the United States, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, was established on December 20, 1816, and by the 1830s such institutions had become widespread. |
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| In 1879, Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, New Jersey. He had invented the lamp on Oct 21, 1879 after 13 months of experimentation to discover a suitable material for the filament. He found carbonized cotton filaments could operate for 40 hours in a vacuum inside a glass bulb. |  |
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| In 1880, New York's Broadway was first lighted by electricity and became known as the "Great White Way." Charles F. Brush successfully demonstrated his arc lamps along Broadway. His arc lights preceded Edison's incandescent light bulb in commercial use. Arc lights were suited to applications where a bright light was needed, such as street lights and lighting in commercial and public buildings. |
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| In 1883, the international cantilever railway bridge at Niagara Falls was opened with a ceremony before a gathered crowd estimated at more than 10,000 persons. From each of two steel towers which rose from the water level below were built two lever arms, one reaching the shore while the other was extended over the gorge. With an ordinary truss bridging the gap between the cantilevers, the bridge span was 495-ft. The railway was 240-ft above the Niagara River, with a double track and weight capacity for two trains. |
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| On December 1, 1891 at Sohmer Park in Montreal, before some 10,000 people Cyr resisted the pull of four draught horses, two each side, pulling away at his clenched hands, regardless of grooms cracking their whips to encourage the horses to pull harder and strain their haunches. Cyr was a big man in all ways, both heart and size, being a great trencherman, eating more than four normal men. Up to 6 lbs. of meat at one meal...a genuine gourmand, increasing weight enormously in his later years. His lightest bodyweight was when he competed against August Johnson, then just 270 lbs., although his normal contest condition was nearer 320 lbs. |
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| In 1892, the first U.S. patent issued for a pneumatic automobile tire that could readily and easily be detached or mounted to the rim of a wheel. The inventors were Alexander T. Brown and George Stillman of Syracuse, New York. They claimed as their improvement a wheel with an exterior grooved rim with flanges to retain a tire with an inflatable tube. Peripheral metal bands embedded in the tire are designed to form a bead that will be forced by air pressure upon inflation to be seated and retained in the grooved rim. Thus no permanent connection between the tire and the wheel is necessary, and no tools for tightening are required, other than those used for inflation. |
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| In 1900, Michel Giacobini in France discovered a comet, which was rediscovered by a German, Ernst Zinner, on October 23, 1913, and since named the Giacobini-Zinner comet. It returns to the vicinity of the earth every six and two-thirds years. This comet became the first to be visited by a spacecraft. The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) flew through its gas tail on September 11, 1985, at a speed of 21 km/sec some 7,800-km downstream from the nucleus. The nucleus was estimated to be 2.5-km across at its widest diameter. Instruments detected carbon monosulfide and hydroxyl molecules in the comet. The comet is the progenitor of the Draconid meteor shower, visible annually in early October, which produced intense meteor displays in 1933 and 1946. |
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| In 1912 Manners’ popularity exploded with the production of his most enduring play, “Peg o’ My Heart. “ It catapulted not only him, but the star of the play, Laurette Taylor, whom he wed the same year, into the spotlight . From then on, Manners and his wife were a team as he wrote play after play that showcased her acting ability and endeared her to theatre goers. |  |
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| Hope was born in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons. His English father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer but later had to find work as a cleaning woman. In 1907, Leslie's father brought the family to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1920, by virtue of his father's naturalization, 17 year old Bob and his brothers became US citizens. |  |
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| American League votes to return to best-of-7 World Series, while National League votes best-of-9. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis casts deciding vote for best-of-7. Landis was granted absolute power over the game as commissioner in 1920 after the Black Sox scandal had tainted the game. He exercised his authority tyrannically until his death in 1944, with no recourse from his decisions available or public criticism of them permitted. Although he was harsh and narrow-minded, and often arbitrary and inconsistent, he persuaded most Americans that the integrity of the national pastime had been restored. |
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| The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics united Russia, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, and Transcaucasia into one federation. Under the reorganization, the member states retained some cultural autonomy, but political power was firmly concentrated in Moscow. |
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| These famous dogs were the only team of genuine black-head Eskimo dogs in the world. They carried the first International dog team mail from Lewiston, ME, to Montreal and return, as the American Snowshoe Union, with letters grom various dignitaries. |
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| Among the many songs popularized by Jolson were "You Made Me Love You," "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody," "Swanee" (songwriter George Gershwin's first success), "April Showers," "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye," "California, Here I Come," "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along," "Sonny Boy" and "Avalon." |  |
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| Zworykin’s iconoscope led to modern televison cameras and Zworykin's kinescope was the basis for the modern television picture tube. His other inventions included a form of the electric eye and his infrared image tube led to the sniperscope and the snooperscope. |  |
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| As a 29-year-old in 1942, Mikhalkov's work drew the attention of the Soviet Union's leader Joseph Stalin, who commissioned him to write lyrics for a new national anthem. At the time, the country was deeply embroiled in World War II and Stalin wanted a Russian theme for the national anthem, to replace the "Internationale." Mikhalkov penned words to accompany a musical score by the composer Alexander Alexandrov (1883-1946) that became known as the National Anthem of the Soviet Union or the "Hymn". The new anthem was presented to Stalin in the summer of 1943 and was introduced as the country's new anthem on January 1, 1944. |
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| On the previous day four Germans had appeared under a flag of truce with a written demand for the Americans' surrender. When shown the message, General McAuliffe had just been awakened and uttered a one-word contemptuous reply. This word has been variously reported, but there is no disagreement as to what he wrote on the paper delivered to the Germans. It was the now famous "Nuts", which had to be explained to the Germans, and incidentally, also to civilian Belgian and French friends. |
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| At the first meeting of the Combined Chiefs of Staff in February, 1942, all the British Chiefs, except one, had five star ranks thereby “out ranking” the four stars on the shoulders of their American counterparts. In September 1944, President Roosevelt immediately notified Congress that he wanted the five star bill passed. But what about General Pershing? The solution was to leave Pershing alone the title “General of the Armies” and the new five star ranks would carry the title, “General of the Army.” Congress went back to work on the revised bill and passed it on the 12th of December. Eisenhower was awarded his fifth star on December 20. |
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| Tires were rationed to save the rubber for the military, for their tires, hoses, air lines, etc. People on the homefront now had to go to their local ration board to petition for tires over their set allotment. Physicians, surgeons, police officers, visiting nurses, veterinarians, and mail carriers could easily get new passenger tires though. Essential industries such as the lumber mills and mines could also get new tires easier than those that had to petition the Ration Board. Regardless of the ease of getting tires, all those petitioning and buying tires, retreads or new, all had their names and amount of tires posted in the local newspaper. |
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| “The Yearling” gives a bit of perspective about the way things were on a family farm in the late 1800's. It features Gregory Peck as the understanding father of his outgoing son, a young Claude Jarman; Jane Wyman plays Peck's wife, the overprotective mother of their only surviving son. |  |
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| Elwood P. Dowd (James Stewart) has a best friend who is a six foot tall rabbit that only he can see. Elwood's sister (Josephine Hull) decides she must have Elwood committed to a mental hospital, but there's a mix-up, and she finds herself committed instead. |  |
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| In 1951, the first electricity ever generated by atomic power began flowing from the EBR-1 turbine generator when Walter Zinn and his Argonne National Laboratory staff of scientists brought EBR-1 to criticality (a controlled, self-sustaining chain reaction) with a core about the size of a football. The reactor was started up and the power gradually increased over several hours. The next day, Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 generated enough electricity to supply all the power for its own building. Additional power and core experiments were then conducted until its decommissioning in Dec 1963. |
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| Boyd was only 13 years old when he recorded this song. When this was released in 1953, some people thought it was a little too risque, the thought of a married woman, possibly having an affair. A closer listen implies that Santa Claus is actually the child's father, but this didn't stop radio stations in some cities, including Boston, from banning it when it came out. |  |
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| The Montgomery bus boycott ended after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling integrating the Montgomery bus system was implemented. The boycott by African Americans had begun on December 5, 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man. |  |
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| On December 20, 1957 Presley received a draft notice for a 2-year duty with the United States Army while home at Graceland for the Christmas holidays. He received no special treatment. He sailed to Europe on the USS General George M. Randall, and served in Germany in Company D, 32nd Tank Battalion, 3rd Armor Corps, from October 1, 1958, to March 5, 1960. |  |
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| Along with some high school friends, Phil put together The Teddy Bears, and wrote this so their new vocalist, Annette Kleinbard, would have something new to sing at a recording session. The recording session was produced by Spector and took only 20 minutes and two takes, quite a contrast to Spector's later production efforts. |  |
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| Starting with the December 20th, 1962 show a “youthful barbershop harmony group from Ogden, Utah” who made their appearance on a “Disneyland” television special months earlier. The Osmond Brothers sang “I’m a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas” and “Side By Side” on the show; they stayed with Williams for the next nine years. Starting in 1971, the Osmondswith younger brother Donny at the helmwould have a string of “bubblegum” pop hits and a teen following. |
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| In December 1963, the two governments negotiated a method of allowing people to cross the border. It remained open for the holiday season, but closed again on January 6, 1964. 4,000 people crossed over to visit relatives during this period. |
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| NBA Commissioner Walter J. Kennedy announces that Seattle is awarded the league's newest franchise city. The new team will play it's games in the Seattle Center Coliseum, which seats 14,000. After pouring over 5, 000 in a week long name-the-team contest, franchise general manager Don Richman announces that Seattles new NBA club will be called the "Seattle Supersonics." The winning entry is submitted by Seattle school teacher Howard Schmidt and his son Brent. |
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| The Graduate (1967) is one of the key, ground-breaking films of the late 1960s, and helped to set in motion of new era of film-making. The influential film is a biting satire/comedy about a recent nebbish, East Coast college graduate who finds himself alienated and adrift in the shifting, social and sexual mores of the 1960s, and questioning the values of society. |  |
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| Jethro Tull was a unique phenomenon in popular music history. Their mix of hard rock; folk melodies; blues licks; surreal, impossibly dense lyrics; and overall profundity defied easy analysis, but that didn't dissuade fans from giving them 11 gold and five platinum albums. |  |
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| John Denver wrote this. First recorded in 1967, this was not released until 1969. This was the biggest hit for Peter, Paul and Mary. |  |
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| in 1971, Walt Disney World presented it's first Candlelight Processional in the Magic Kingdom with Rock Hudson as narrator. Each evening, nearly 400 performers fill the stage to create this mainstay of Disney's holiday festivities. Our orchestra consists of 51 professional musicians from the central Florida area. The choir is comprised of Walt Disney World cast member volunteers, along with high school and community groups from over 30 states. |
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| The "Sunshine Boys" first opened on Broadway in 1972, it was Mr. Simon's 12th consecutive Broadway hit! Lewis and Clark used to work together as a comedy team for 43 years, but they haven't spoken in the eleven years since Lewis retired. Clark wasn't ready for retirement and has held it against Lewis that he broke up the act. It is now 1972 and CBS is inviting the team to reunite for a special on the history of comedy. They will represent the Vaudeville era at its best. At first, against it, Willie Clark is convinced by his nephew, the agent, Ben Silverman to revive one of the old routines one last time. Unfortunately, getting the two old actors into the same room for a rehearsal proves to be nearly disastrous and their shenanigans on the TV set are no less uproarious. |
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| Richard became the ninth player in league history to score 1,000 points during a 2-2 tie in Buffalo on December 20, 1973. He retired after the 1974-75 season with 358 goals and 1,046 points to his credit. Following his last NHL year, he was presented with the Bill Masterton Trophy. |  |
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| After Simon and Garfunkel split in 1970, Simon began to write and record solo material. He released Paul Simon in 1972, and There Goes Rhymin' Simon in 1973, which featured such popular hit songs as "Something So Right" and "Kodachrome." His 1975 album "Still Crazy After All These Years" is considered to be among his finest work, particularly the title track and the hit single "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." |
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| From the mid- to late '70s, the multi-member and racially integrated group led by bandleaders Harry Wayne "KC" Casey and Richard Finch racked up some of the era's biggest and instantly recognizable dance hits. |  |
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| The crew spent 30 days performing experiments. In 1977, Grechko became the first cosmonaut to walk in space to repair a manned vessel. He had to repair an adaptor on the Salyut 6 space station after the Soyuz 25 spacecraft crashed into it. |  |
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| TV experimented, as NBC covered the meaningless NFL game between the New York Jets (4-11) and the Miami Dolphins (8-7). No announcers were in the booth. The only sounds heard were field noise and spectators as the pictures tried to convey the emotion of the game. Headlines the next day read, “Jets Silence Dolphins 24-17.” |
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| By the beginning of the '80s, Rogers' audience was as much pop as it was country, and singles like his cover of Lionel Richie's "Lady" confirmed that fact, spending six weeks at the top of the pop charts. |  |
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| Harry Krieger/Tom Eyen's musical "Dreamgirls" follows the story of a black all-girl singing trio from Chicago called "The Dreams", who become music superstars. It won 6 Tony Awards. |  |
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| Lafleur scored 518 goals and 1,246 points as a Montreal Canadien, putting him as the leading scorer in franchise history. He retired during the 1984-85 season and was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988. Then he unretired and played several more years. |  |
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| Songwriter Liam Sternberg wrote this. He got the idea when he was on a ferry boat, and saw people struggling to keep their balance. The way they held out their arms and jerked around made it look like they were doing Egyptian movements, and if the boat moved suddenly, they would all topple over. This was the biggest hit for The Bangles, but it's one of their least favorite songs. |  |
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| The initial attack took place in darkness on the morning of December 20 and was focused primarily on Noriega's headquarters in Panama City. U.S. forces quickly overcame most organized resistance, but in the following days numerous Panamanian soldiers and civilians looted shops in Panama City and Colón, and some 2,000 U.S. reinforcements were flown in to help establish order. |
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1192 Richard the Lionhearted captured
in Vienna
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1606 The Virginia Company expedition to America
began
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1669 First jury trial in Delaware
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1699 Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year
changed-Sept 1 to Jan 1
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1782 First nautical almanac in US
published by Samuel Stearns, Boston
1790 First successful US cotton mill to spin yarn
(Pawtucket RI)
More ...
1803 Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from
France to US for $27 million
More ...
1816 First savings bank in US opens (Philadelphia
Savings Fund Society)
More ...
1820 Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried
men between 21 & 50
1879 Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent
light at Menlo Park
More ...
1880 New York's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes
known as "Great White Way"
More ...
1883 International cantilever railway bridge opens
at Niagara Falls
More ...
1891 Strongman Louis Cyr withstands the pull of
4 horses
More ...
1892 Phileas Fogg completes around world trip,
according to Verne
1892 Pneumatic automobile tire patented, Syracuse
NY
More ...
1900 Giacobini discovers a comet (will be first
comet visited by spacecraft)
More ...
1912 J Hartley Manners' "Peg O' My Heart"
premieres in New York NY
More ...
1920 Bob Hope becomes an American citizen
More ...
1921 World Series length controversy
More ...
1922 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic
Republics (USSR)
More ...
1928 First international dogsled mail leaves Minot
ME for Montréal, Québec
More ...
1932 Al Jolson recorded "April Showers"
on Brunswick Records
More ...
1938 Vladimir K Zworykin (Pennsylvania) receives
patent on the Iconoscope TV system
More ...
1940 Connie Mack acquires controlling interest
in the Athletics for $42,000
1943 "International" is no longer USSR
National Anthem
More ...
1944 Battle of Bastogne, Nazis surround 101st
Airborne (NUTS!)
More ...
1944 US Congress gives General Eisenhower his
5th star
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1945 Rationing of auto tires ends in US
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1946 "The Yearling," was copyright
registered
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1949 Harry Belafonte had his second session with
Capitol Records. Included in the session were "Whispering" and "Farewell
to Arms"
1949 Maurice Ravel/John Cranko's ballet "Beauty
& the Beast" premieres
1950 "Harvey", starring James Stewart,
premieres in New York
More ...
1951 EBR-I - first reactor to generate
useable amounts of electricity from nuclear energy
More ...
1952 Jimmy Boyd reached the #1 with "I
Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
More ...
1956 The Montgomery bus boycott ended
More ...
1957 Elvis Presley given draft notice to join
US Army for National Service
More ...
1958 "To Know Him Is To Love Him" by
The Teddy Bears topped the charts
More ...
1962 The Osmond brothers debut on the Andy Williams
Show
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1963 The Berlin Wall was opens for the
holiday season
More ...
1966 NBA awards Seattle Supersonics a franchise
for 1967-68 season
More ...
1967 "The Graduate", starring Dustin
Hoffman & Anne Bancroft, premieres
More ...
1967 Ian Anderson & Glenn Cornick form rock
group Jethro Tull
More ...
1969 Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on
a Jet Plane" reaches #1
More ...
1971 First Candlelight Processional
More ...
1972 Neil Simons "Sunshine Boys" premieres
in New York NY
More ...
1973 Montréal Canadien Henri Richard scores
his 1,000th NHL point
More ...
1975 Paul Simon’s "50 Ways to leave
Your Lover" jumped on U.S. singles charts
More ...
1975 "That's the Way (I Like It)" by
K. C. & the Sunshine Band hits #1
More ...
1977 First Space walk made by G Grechko from Salyut 6
More ...
1980 NBC broadcasts New York Jets' 24-17 win over
Dolphins without audio
More ...
1980 "Lady" by Kenny Rogers topped the
charts
More ...
1981 "Dreamgirls"
premieres in NYC for 1522 performances
More ...
1983 Guy Lafleur, Montréal, becomes 10th
NHLer to score 500 goals
More ...
1983 New York Islanders score their most goals
(11) vs Pittsburgh Penguins
1985 Howard Cosell retires from television sports
after 20 years with ABC
1986 "Walk Like an Egyptian" by Bangles
topped the charts
More ...
1987 "Nuts" with Barbra Streisand premieres
1988 NBC signs lease to stay in NYC, 33 more years
1989 US troops invade Panamá & oust
Manuel Noriega, but don't catch him
More ...
1991 NHL grants permanent membership to Tampa
Lightning & Ottawa Senators