| In 1829, first stone arch railroad bridge in US was dedicated at Baltimore - the Carrollton Viaduct, straddling a wooded stretch of Gwynn's Falls. The viaduct is named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, who laid the first stone of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on July 4, 1828. Overall, the bridge is about 62 feet tall, and 300 feet long. |  |
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| On December 21, 1846, the first British operation under anaesthesia was undertaken by Robert Liston at University College Hospital. Liston used ether to amputate the leg of a butler, Frederick Churchill. The amputation took 28 seconds. Liston's admirers claimed that "the gleam of his knife was followed so instantaneously by the sounds of sawing as to make the two actions appear almost simultaneous". |
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| On December 21, 1849, a number of gentlemen who enjoyed skating on the frozen rivers and lakes of the Philadelphia area met at Sigman's Hotel, on George Street (now Sansom) above Sixth Street, and launched the first skating club in North America. It was called "The Skater's Club of the City and County of Philadelphia." |
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| In 1872, the HMS Challenger set sail. This expedition was led by Charles Wyville Thomson, a Scottish marine biologist, and was "the first expedition organized specifically to gather data on a wide range of ocean features, including ocean temperatures, seawater chemistry, currents, marine life, and the geology of the seafloor" |  |
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| The process began at what is now known as Springfield College, in Springfield, Mass., under the direction of physical education superintendent Luther H. Gulick. He gave Naismith 14 days to come up new indoor game. The new game was explained by 13 basic rules and was played with a soccer ball, peach baskets and nine to a side. There have been major changes to the game since that first contest, which is believed to have been played Dec. 21, 1891. |
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| Radium was discovered in 1898 when Marie Curie (1867-1934) the Polish-born wife of French physicist Pierre Curie (1859-1906), noticed that the radioactivity of pitchblende, a uranium ore, exceeded the radioactivity of the uranium it contained. This led the Curies to isolate the cause of this radioactivity in two elements, one which they called polonium after Marie’s native land, and the other which they called radium for its power to irradiate. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics with her husband and Henri Becquerel in 1903. |
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| McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA became the first authorized junior-high schools in the U.S. (grades 7,8 and 9). The schools were actually identified as introductory high schools. |
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| The commission stated: “These gentlemen very quickly reported that Cook’s statement was the same as that printed in a New York newspaper; that the copy of his notebooks contained “no original astronomical observations whatsoever, but only results;” that the documents presented were “Inexcusably lacking in Information which would prove that the astronomical observations therein referred to were really made;” and that they contained “no details regarding the practical work of the expedition and the sledge journey which would enable the committee to determine their reliability.” |
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| On Dec. 21, 1913, the Sunday "New York World" printed a puzzle called a "word-cross," devised by Liverpudlian Arthur Wynne. The puzzle was an immediate success and became a weekly feature. The name evolved into the more euphonious "cross-word," and finally, the hyphen was dropped. Despite the success, the World was the only paper printing the puzzles until 1924 when a fledgling publishing house put out a collection of the World's puzzles in book form. A craze was launched, along with the publishing company of Simon & Schuster. |
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| “Tillie's Punctured Romance” was the first feature-length comedy film from Keystone Film Company and the Christie Film Company, produced in 1914. A silent film directed by Mack Sennett, the film stars Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, and Charlie Chaplin, as well as the Keystone Kops. |  |
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| In 1921 the Supreme Court ruled that the Clayton Act does not legalize boycotts and does not protect unions against injunctions against them for restraint of trade. |
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| The precursor to Blue Cross was founded in 1929 by a group of Dallas teachers who contracted with Baylor University Hospital to provide 21 days of hospitalization for a fixed $6.00 payment. The Baylor plan developed as a way to ensure that people paid their bills. |
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| Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, although minor players, danced in their first joint movie together, RKO's Flying Down to Rio. With King Kong, this film saved RKO from bankruptcy. The climax of the movie is “Flying Down to Rio,” a song and dance number with Ginger and a bevy of beauties dancing strapped to the wings of airplanes. |  |
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| In 1933, dried human blood serum was prepared for the first time in the U.S. at the school of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. It was prepared by Drs. Earl W. Flosdorf, an experienced refrigeration engineer, and Stuart Mudd who created a glass apparatus to freeze-dry serum, the clear fluid in the blood that contains the proteins and antibodies formed by the body's immune system to protect against infection. Dried blood serum was used during WW II. |
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| Shirley Temple's first contract was with Educational Pictures Inc., for whom she worked in 1932 and 1933. She appeared in a short movie entitled "Baby Burlesks," followed by a two-reeler, "Frolics of Youth," that would lead to her being contracted by the Fox Film Corporation at a salary of $150 per week. The first full-length feature that she appeared in for Fox was "Carolina" (1934). It was another Fox release of that year that made her a star: "Stand Up and Cheer." |
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| In 1937, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," Walt Disney's first full-length (83 minutes), animated film opened in Los Angeles, California. It was the first commercially successful film of its kind. This pioneering film made use of the multi-plane camera to achieve an effect of depth, introduced human characters modeled on live actors, and used larger painted cels. After two years and a then astronomical $1.5 million to create, it was released for its premiere during Christmas of 1937. Disney had to mortgage his house to pay for the film's production. This followed within a span of just 12 years since the first black and white talking Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (1928). |
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| On December 9, a day before he was due to return to the United States, Patton was severely injured in a road accident. At 11:45 near Neckarstadt, a 2 1/2 ton truck appeared out of the haze and made a left-hand turn towards a side road. The Cadillac smashed into the truck. General Patton was thrown forward and his head struck a metal part of the partition between the front and back seats. Paralyzed from the neck down, George Patton died of an embolism on 21st December 1945 at the military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. |
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| "Billion Dollar Baby" was a musical about the colorful times and characters of the 20's. A failed Miss America contestant from Staten Island woos various men, including a gangster, a millionaire, and a ferry-man. |  |
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| It's A Wonderful Life (1946) is one of the most popular and heartwarming films ever made by director Frank Capra. It was actually a box-office flop at the time of its release. It is actually a dark, bittersweet post-war tale of a savings-and-loan manager who struggles against a greedy banker and his own self-doubting nature in a small town. Earnest do-gooder George Bailey (James Stewart) recognizes his life as wonderful and truly rich, even in its humdrum and bleak nature, only after suffering many hardships, mishaps and fateful trial. He is given encouragement by a whimsical, endearing, trainee-angel named Clarence (Henry Travers). |
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| "Out of this World" was a musical adaptation of Plautus' comedy Amphitryon. The story revolves around the lives of Greek gods Mercury and Jupiter, who are in search of some entertainment of the human kind. The focus of their attention is a young bride, Helen and her husband, Art. |
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| Cooke was signed to Specialty Records, which was a Gospel label. Cooke's producer, Bumps Blackwell, brought this to Art Rupe, who owned the label. Rupe objected to the use of the choir on this track and was afraid it was too secular and would alienate the label's Gospel fans. He offered Cooke a release from his contract in exchange for outstanding royalties. The song was passed to the Keen label where it sold over 2 million copies. |
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| Tom Landry was the Dallas Cowboys coach for the first 29 years of the team’s existence, leading “America’s Team” to five Super Bowl appearances, two Super Bowl wins, and 20 consecutive winning seasons. |  |
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| "Sweet Georgia Brown" was covered by The Beatles while working as a back-up band for singer Tony Sheridan. A single was issued under the name "The Beatles with Tony Sheridan". A verse was changed by Sheridan which talks about Sweet Georgia Brown criticizing the Beatles' haircuts in Liverpool. “Ready Teddy” was also released during this time period. |  |
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| The nun wrote several tunes that won prizes at religious youth retreats. The LP was commercially released (with the credit to "Soeur Sourire" -- Sister Smile) in Europe to great success. The LP was released in the US as "The Singing Nun," but there was no American reaction until this was released as a single, then both the LP and the single worked their way up to the top of the albums and singles charts. |  |
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| "Good Vibrations" was recorded over a 2 month period. About 90 hours of studio time and 70 hours of tape were used. Because so much tape was recorded for this, there are many alternate versions. The song describes a really good acid trip. Wilson was doing a lot of it when he wrote this, which could be why it sounds so unusual. There is nothing in the lyrics specifically about drugs, however, so radio stations were able to play it and it became a huge hit. |  |
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| The Luna 13 spacecraft was launched toward the Moon from an earth-orbiting platform and accomplished a soft landing on December 24, 1966, in the regionof Oceanus Procellarum. The petal encasement of the spacecraft was opened, antennas were erected, and radio transmissions to Earth began four minutes after the landing. On December 25 and 26, 1966, the spacecraft television system transmitted panoramas of the nearby lunar landscape at different sun angles. Each panorama required approximately 100 minutes to transmit. |
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| Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo space program, in which Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to leave Earth orbit and to orbit around the Moon. It was also the first manned launch of the Saturn V rocket. |  |
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| "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" is the longest running Motown #1 hit. It topped the US chart for 7 weeks. This was Gaye's first #1 hit. He had another 5 years later with "Let's Get It On." Gaye sang this slightly higher than his normal range, which created the strained vocal. Whitfield, who produced this, made him do it over and over until he got it right. |  |
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| Steve Stills, once the brain behind Buffalo Springfield, spent the late 1960s obsessed with the concept of the "supergroup": first he recorded the Supersession with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield, and then he recruited David Crosby (the former Byrds) and Graham Nash (the former Hollies) to form what will become the epitome of the supergroup in the 1970s. |  |
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| In 1968, Vince retired as the Packers coach but retained his general manager's duties. He found the hours "out of action" boring and, in 1969, moved to Washington, where the Redskins were struggling much the way the Packers had 10 years earlier. Remarkably, in his first season with the Redskins, Lombardi created an equally amazing result a 7-5-2 record. |  |
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| Chapin based the song on a poem written by his wife Sandy about Harry's neglectful father. He wrote the song after he got upset because he missed his son's birth while he was touring. The song tells of a father and son who can't schedule time to be with each other and its a warning against putting one's career before family. |  |
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| "Tap Dance Kid" concerns a 10 year old Black kid named Willie who doesn't want to be a lawyer like his stern father; just has to dance , like his uncle, an aspiring Broadway choreographer who is very much Willie's mentor. And, dance he does! |  |
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| "Born in the USA" is one of the most misinterpreted songs ever. Most people thought it was a patriotic song about American pride,
when it actually cast a shameful eye on how America treated its Vietnam veterans. Springsteen considers it one of his
best songs, but it bothers him that it is so widely misinterpreted. With the rollicking rhythm, enthusiastic chorus,
and patriotic album cover, it is easy to think this has more to do with American pride than Vietnam shame. "Born in the USA", passed Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" to become the second longest-lasting LP in the top 10. It stayed there for 79 weeks. Only "The Sound of Music" with Julie Andrews lasted longer: 109 weeks. |
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| In 1985, Richie put his superstar status to work for a greater good, joining Michael Jackson in co-writing the USA for Africa charity single "We Are the World"; the all-star recording helped raise millions of dollars for famine relief. By the end of the year, he was on top of the charts again with "Say You, Say Me," a ballad recorded for the film White Nights but not included on the soundtrack album. |  |
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| The Commonwealth of Independent States was conceived as the successor to the USSR in its role of coordinating the foreign and economic policies of its member nations. The treaty recognized current borders and each republic's independence, sovereignty, and equality, and established a free-market ruble zone embracing the republics' interdependent economies and a joint defense force for participating republics. |
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| Barry Sanders rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of his 10 seasons with the Detroit Lions (1989-1998). He was the first running back ever to do so. The 1988 Heisman Trophy winner was also just the third person to gain more than 2,000 yards in a season, a feat he accomplished in 1997. |
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Winter begins in the Northern Hemisphere, lasting until March
20. In the Southern Hemisphere today is the beginning of Summer.
1829 First stone arch railroad bridge in US dedicated,
Baltimore
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1846 Anaesthesia was used for the first time during
an operation in London
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1849 First US skating club formed (Philadelphia)
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1872 HMS Challenger sets sail on 3-year world oceanographic cruise
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1891 18 students play first basketball game (Springfield
College)
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1898 Scientists Pierre & Marie Curie discover
radium
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1909 First authorized junior-high schools in the
U.S. (grades 7,8 and 9)
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1909 University of Copenhagen rejects Cook's claim
that he was first to North Pole
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1913 First crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) printed
in New York World
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1914 First feature-length silent film comedy,
"Tillie's Punctured Romance"
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1921 Supreme Court rules labor injunctions &
picketing unconstitutional
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1929 First US group hospital insurance plan instituted,
Dallas TX
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1932 Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers, first joint
movie ("Flying Down to Rio")
More ...
1933 Dried human blood serum first prepared, University
of Pennsylvania
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1933 20th Century Fox signs Shirley Temple, 5,
to a studio contract
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1937 First feature-length color & sound cartoon
premieres (Disney's Snow White)
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1942 US Supreme court declares Nevada separation
legal
1944 Horse racing was banned in the United States
until after World War II
1945 Gen. George Patton died in Germany following
a car accident
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1945 Gould/Comden/Green's "Billion Dollar
Baby" premieres in NYC
More ...
1946 Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life"
premieres
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1950 Cole Porter's musical "Out of this World"
premieres in NYC for 157 performances
More ...
1957 "You Send Me" by Sam Cooke topped
the charts
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1959 Tom Landry accepts coaching job with Dallas
Cowboys (stays until 1988)
More ...
1961 Beatles record "Sweet Georgia Brown"
& "Ready Teddy"
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1963 "Dominique" by Singing Nun topped
the charts
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1966 The Beach Boys received a gold record for
the single, "Good Vibrations"
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1966 USSR launches Luna 13; soft-landed in Oceanus
Procellarum
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1968 Apollo 8 (Frank Borman, Jim Lovell &
Bill Anders) first manned Moon voyage
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1968 "I Heard it Through the Grapevine"
by Marvin Gaye topped the charts
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1968 David Crosby, Stephen Stills & Graham
Nash premiere together in California
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1969 Vince Lombardi (Redskins) coaches his last
football game, losing
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1974 "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry
Chapin topped the charts
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1979 Gary Unger plays in record 914th consecutive
NHL game
1980 Harold Carmichael ends NFL streak of 127
consecutive game receptions
1983 Musical "Tap Dance Kid" premieres
at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 669 performances
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1983 NCAA rules rescinded last 2-minute men's
basketball free throw rule
1985 "Born in the USA" becomes
the second longest-lasting LP in the top 10
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1985 "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie
topped the charts
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1989 Vice-President Quayle sends out 30,000 Xmas
cards with word beacon spelled beakon
1991 Soviet Union formally dissolves
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1993 The KGB (secret Soviet police) abolished
by Boris Yeltsin
1997 Detroit Lions Barry Sanders is 3rd to run
for 2,000 yards in a season
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