On Dec. 29, 1940, during World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

December 29th
 

1890 ~ Defeat at the Battle of Wounded Knee effectively ended Native American resistance to white settlement!


1170 ~ Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by four knights acting under the orders of Henry II.


1845 ~ Texas became the 28th state in the United States.


1851 ~ The first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) opened in Boston.


1937 ~ The Constitution of Ireland, changing the Irish Free State into Eire, went into effect.


1989 ~ Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.


1996 ~ A peace agreement was signed, ending 36 years of conflict in Guatemala.

December 30th
 

It's New Years Eve Eve, today!! :D


1916 ~ Rasputin, the "Mad Monk" was finally killed by a group of Russian aristocrats, after being; poisoned (cakes AND wine!), shot (twice), bludgeoned and then stabbed. Still not dead, he was tied up and thrown in the River Neva, where his body was washed up several weeks later!


1853 ~ The United States bought some 45,000 sq mi of land from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase.


1896 ~ Jose Rizal, national hero of the Philippine Revolution, was executed by firing-squad by the Spanish.


1911 ~ Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.


1922 ~ The Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics was established through the confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine, and Transcaucasian Federation.


1924 ~ Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.


1972 ~ President Nixon halted the heavy bombing on North Vietnam.


1993 ~ Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement of mutual recognition to put an end to Jewish-Christian hostilities.

1981 GRETZKY SHATTERS RICHARD RECORD
Edmonton Alberta - Wayne Gretzky scores five goals, including his 50th of the season into an empty net, leading the Oilers to a 7-5 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Scoring in only his 39th game of the season, Gretzky becomes the first player to reach the mark in fewer than 50 games, shattering Maurice Richard's NHL record.

December 31st
 

1964 ~ Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record, becoming the only man to break the world land and water speed records in the same year.

(Wow, jseal - that guy was a daredevil, eh? I'll have to look him up!)

1946 President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

December 31st
 

404A.D. ~ The last EVER gladitorial contest takes place in Rome


1879 ~ Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.


1938 ~ The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis.


1946 ~ President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.


1961 ~ The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.



1963 ~ Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formally dissolved.


1987 ~ Robert Mugabe sworn in as Zimbabwe's president.


2003 ~ Have a DAMN GOOD New Year, everybody!! DM & CA :D

January 1st
 

Happy New Year !!!


1735 ~ Paul Revere was born.


1863 ~ Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.


1908 ~ The ball signifying the New Year was dropped for the first time at Times Square in New York City.


1914 ~ The world's first airline, St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line, starts operation in St. Petersburg, Florida.


1959 ~ Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries took over Cuba and toppled Fulgencio Batista's regime.


1975 ~ John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman were convicted of obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair.


1993 ~ Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.


1994 ~ The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.


2002 ~ Euro coins and notes went into circulation in twelve European nations.

On Jan. 2, 1905, Japanese General Nogi received from Russian General Stoessel at 9 p.m. a letter formally offering to surrender, ending the Russo-Japanese War.

January 2nd
 

1944 ~ Helicopters were first used in war today, as part of the British Atlantic patrol


1492 ~ Muhammad XI, the leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain, surrendered to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.


1788 ~ Georgia was admitted to the Union as the 4th state.


1839 ~ Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre took the first photograph of the Moon.


1905 ~ The Russo-Japanese war ended.


1923 ~ The African-American town of Rosewood, Fla., was burned by a white mob.


1935 ~ The Bruno R. Hauptmann trial began for the kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby.


1959 ~ The first spacecraft to orbit the Sun, Mechta (Luna 1) was launched by the USSR.


1994 ~ Rudolph Giuliani is inaugurated as New York City's mayor.

January 3rd
 

Busy day, today! :)


1943 ~ Stalingrad - 23 German generals, 2,000 officers and 130,000 soldiers surrender to the Russians. Only 5,000 survived captivity.


1966 ~ A successful coup d'etat took palce in Burkina Faso.... today now known as Revolution Day!


1521 ~ Martin Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X.


1777 ~ George Washington defeated Cornwallis's forces at the Battle of Princeton.


1833 ~ Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands.


1870 ~ Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began.


1920 ~ The "curse of the Bambino" haunted the Boston Red Sox after they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.


1947 ~ Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time.


1958 ~ Sir Edmund Hillary reached the South Pole overland.


1959 ~ Alaska became the 49th state in the United States.


1962 ~ Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro.


1987 ~ Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


1990 ~ Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces.

January 4th
 

1967 ~ Donald Campbell died just before breaking his own water speed record in his jet-powered boat, the Bluebird K7.

January 4th
 

1981 ~ Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper", is arrested and admits to 13 murders.


1790 ~ President George Washington delivered the first "State of the Union" address.


1885 ~ Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is thought to be the first appendectomy


1896 ~ Utah was admitted as 45th state in the United States.


1904 ~ In Gonzales v. Williams, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that citizens of Puerto Rico are not aliens and can enter the U.S. freely.


1948 ~ Burma (Myanmar) gained independence from Great Britain.


1951 ~ During the Korean War, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul.


1965 ~ President Johnson outlined his "Great Society" in his State of the Union address.


1999 ~ Former wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota's governor.


Also in 1999 ~ The U.S. Mint began distributing the 50 State Quarters.

On Jan. 5, 1914, Henry Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company, introduced a minimum wage scale of $5 per day.

January 5th
 

From today on, the first post of the day will be SOME kind of anniversary from around the world... revolutions, institution days, stuff like that! Todays is.....

Granada, Spain ~ Dia de la Toma....."Day of the Taking". Commemorates the day Spain recaptured the Andalucian hot-spot from the Moors in 1492.


1896 ~ A German newspaper reported German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of X-rays.


1914 ~ Henry Ford introduced the $5-a-day minimum wage.


1925 ~ Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman governor of a state (Wyoming).


1972 ~ President Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle


2000 ~ INS Commissioner Doris Meissner ruled that 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez must be returned to Cuba.