November 7th
 

1665 ~ The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language journal, was first published.

1867 ~ Birthday of Marie Curie, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1903, and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.

1874 ~ The Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant for the first time, in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly magazine.

1886 ~ Birthday of Aron Nimzowitsch, chess grandmaster.

1913 ~ Birthday of Albert Camus, writer, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.

1917 ~ Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky lead revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky.

1922 ~ Birthday of Al Hirt, Musician.

1926 ~ Birthday of Dame Joan Sutherland, Opera singer.

1934 ~ Premiere of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at Baltimore, Maryland.

1940 ~ The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed in a windstorm.

November 8th
 

1674 ~ Death of John Milton, English poet.

1847 ~ Birthday of Bram Stoker, Irish novelist.

1884 ~ Birthday of Hermann Rorschach, psychiatrist.

1895 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen discovered x-rays.

1942 ~ World War II: Operation Torch – U.S. and UK forces landed in French North Africa.

1950 ~ Korean War: The first dog fight between jet aircraft.

1986 ~ Death of Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician.

1994 ~ The U.S. Republican Party took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

2002 ~ Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, requiring Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences". (requires Adobe Acrobat)

2006 ~ The U.S. Democrtic Party took control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

November 9th
 

1731 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Banneker, American scientist.

1888 ~ Jack the Ripper killed Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim.

1918 ~ As a result of the German Revolution, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated and went into exile in the Netherlands.

1934 ~ Birthday of Carl Sagan, American Astronomer & Writer.

1936 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Tal, World Chess Champion.

1938 ~ Nazi Germany's first large-scale act of physical anti-Jewish violence, Kristallnacht, began.

1953 ~ Death of Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet.

1965 ~ Several U.S. states and parts of Canada were hit by blackouts.

1970 ~ Death of Charles de Gaulle, French general and politician.

1989 ~ East Germany allowed its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time since 1961.

November 10th
 

1483 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther, a leader of the Protestant Reformation.

1775 ~ The Continental Congress passed a resolution creating the Continental Marines, later renamed the United States Marine Corps.

1871 ~ Henry Morton Stanley located missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika saying "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

1919 ~ Birthday of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet inventor, AK-47.

1925 ~ Birthday of Richard Burton, Actor.

1938 ~ Death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Turkey.

1951 ~ Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service began in the United States.

1975 ~ The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior. Gordon Lightfoot's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song about the tragedy.

1982 ~ The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. opened to public.

1995 ~ Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and human rights activist.

November 11th
 

1821 ~ Birthday of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist.

1855 ~ Death of Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher.

1880 ~ Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly was hung in Melbourne.

1885 ~ Birthday of George Patton, American general.

1904 ~ Birthday of Alger Hiss, Spy.

1918 ~ The end of World War I: Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies.

1965 ~ Rhodesia proclaimed its independence from Britain.

1992 ~ The Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.

2000 ~ A cable car full of skiers and snowboarders, many of them children, caught fire in Austria, killing 155 people.

2004 ~ Death of Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority.

November 12th
 

1035 ~ Death of King Canute.

1833 ~ Birthday of Alexander Borodin, Russian composer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Auguste Rodin, French sculptor.

1942 ~ The WWII naval Battle of Guadalcanal began.

1944 ~ The German battleship Tirpitz was sunk off the coast of Norway.

1954 ~ Ellis Island closed.

1955 ~ Hovercraft patented by British engineer Christopher Cockerell.

1970 ~ The famous exploding whale incident.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

2001 ~ Taliban forces abandoned Kabul ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.

November 13th
 

354 ~ Birthday of Saint Augustine of Hippo, Theologian.

1850 ~ Birthday of Robert Louis Stevenson, Novelist.

1868 ~ Death of Gioacchino Rossini, Composer.

1940 ~ The animated film Fantasia was released.

1956 ~ U.S. Supreme Court declared Alabama laws requiring segregated buses illegal.

1985 ~ A mudslide triggered by the Nevado del Ruiz volcano buried the city of Armero, Colombia, killing some 23,000 people.

1990 ~ Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first known World Wide Web page.

1998 ~ President Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000, ending the four-year legal battle over her sexual harassment lawsuit that spurred impeachment proceedings against him. Clinton did not admit guilt or apologize.

2001 ~ Afghanistan's ruling Taliban abandoned the capital Kabul without a fight, allowing Northern Alliance fighters to take over the city.

2002 ~ Saddam Hussein's government agreed to the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq.

November 14th
 

1716 ~ Death of Gottfried Leibniz, Philosopher & Mathematician.

1719 ~ Birthday of Leopold Mozart, Austrian musician, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

1832 ~ Death of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Declaration of Independence signer.

1840 ~ Birthday of Claude Monet, French impressionist painter.

1851 ~ Herman Melville's novel “Moby-Dick” was first published in the U.S.

1900 ~ Birthday of Aaron Copland, Composer.

1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began radio service in the UK.

1972 ~ The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 1,000 for the first time.

1991 ~ Indictments handed down against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.

2001 ~ Northern Alliance fighters entered Kabul.

November 15th
 

1630 ~ Death of Johannes Kepler, astrologer, astronomer and mathematician.

1787 ~ Death of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Composer.

1887 ~ Birthday of Georgia O'Keeffe, Painter.

1891 ~ Birthday of Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal.

1920 ~ First assembly of the League of Nations was held in Geneva.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe destroyed most of the English town of Coventry during World War II.

1942 ~ Birthday of Daniel Barenboim, Pianist & Conductor.

1960 ~ The Polaris missile became operational on the USS George Washington (SSBN-598).

1969 ~ The Soviet submarine K-19 collided with the American submarine USS Gato.

1971 ~ Intel released the first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

November 16th
 

1849 ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky sentenced to death; his execution was canceled at the last minute.

1885 ~ Louis Riel, Canadian rebel leader and "Father of Manitoba", executed for high treason.

1895 ~ Birthday of Paul Hindemith, Composer.

1922 ~ Birthday of Gene Amdahl, computer scientist.

1933 ~ The U.S. and the USSR established diplomatic relations.

1959 ~ The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''The Sound of Music'' opened on Broadway.

1960 ~ Death of Clark Gable, Actor.

1965 ~ The Soviet Union launched the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.

1979 ~ Sir Anthony Blunt, a former security service officer, identified as the "fourth man" in the Philby affair.

November 17th
 

1777 ~ Articles of Confederation submitted to the states for ratification.

1869 ~ The Suez Canal was opened.

1887 ~ Birthday of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

1917 ~ Death of Auguste Rodin, Sculptor.

1929 ~ Death of Herman Hollerith, Statistician.

1959 ~ Death of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian Composer.

1970 ~ In one of the greatest successes of the Soviet lunar exploration program, The USSR landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1.

1970 ~ Douglas Engelbart received a patent for the first computer mouse.

1997 ~ An Islamic extremist group killed 60 tourists at Luxor, Egypt.

2003 ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger was inaugurated Governor of California.

November 18th
 

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1836 ~ Birthday of Sir William S. Gilbert, Dramatist.

1883 ~ American and Canadian railroads instituted four standard continental time zones.

1916 ~ World War I: First Battle of the Somme, which started on July 1, ended in stalemate – Approx. 1,120,000 casualties, 310,000 killed or missing.

1928 ~ Release of Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, featuring the Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

1945 ~ Operation Paperclip: The first of more than 700 German scientists arrived in the U.S. to help the development of rocket technology.

1976 ~ Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after the dictatorship of General Franco.

1978 ~ Jonestown, Guyana mass suicide: 914 die, including 276 children.

2002 ~ UN weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.

2004 ~ The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry.

November 19th
 

1493 ~ Christopher Columbus became the first European to go ashore on what would become Puerto Rico.

1805 ~ Birthday of Ferdinand de Lesseps, Suez Canal engineer.

1828 ~ Death of Franz Schubert, Austrian Composer.

1863 ~ U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

1884 ~ Birthday of José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban Chess Grand Master.

1917 ~ Birthday of Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India.

1941 ~ World War II: The Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sank each other off the coast of Western Australia.

1969 ~ The second Apollo mission, Apollo 12, landed on the Moon – in “the Ocean of Storms”.

1977 ~ Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.

1998 ~ Lewinsky scandal: The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee began impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton.

November 20th
 

1889 ~ Birthday of Edwin Hubble, Astronomer.

1908 ~ Birthday of Alistair Cooke, Journalist.

1910 ~ Death of Leo Tolstoy, Novelist.

1924 ~ Birthday of Benoît Mandelbrot, Mathematician.

1945 ~ The trials of 20 German Nazi leaders charged with war crimes during World War II started at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.

1947 ~ The Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.

1995 ~ Diana, Princess of Wales, admitted to adultery during a TV interview.

1998 ~ The first module of the International Space Station, Zarya, was launched.

1998 ~ A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declared accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regards to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

2003 ~ Michael Jackson was arrested charges of child molestation.

November 21st
 

1695 ~ Death of Henry Purcell, Composer.

1787 ~ Birthday of Samuel Cunard, Shipping Magnate.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound.

1898 ~ Birthday of René Magritte, Belgian painter.

1953 ~ Authorities at the British Natural History Museum announced that the skull of the "Piltdown Man" was a hoax.

1964 ~ Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened.

1969 ~ The first ARPANET link was established.

1980 ~ Lake Peigneur drained into an underlying salt deposit.

1985 ~ U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested for giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison.

1995 ~ Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.

November 22nd
 

1718 ~ English pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard was killed in battle off the coast of Virginia.

1890 ~ Birthday of Charles de Gaulle, General, President of France.

1900 ~ Death of Arthur S. Sullivan, Composer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Britten, Composer.

1963 ~ Death of C. S. Lewis, Author.

1963 ~ Death of Aldous Huxley, Author. (Brave New World)

1963 ~ President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1968 ~ The Beatles released The White Album.

1977 ~ British Airways began London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.

1990 ~ UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned.

November 23rd
 

1860 ~ Birthday of Billy the Kid, Bandit.

1869 ~ The clipper ship "Cutty Sark" was launched. It is the only surviving example.

1887 ~ Birthday of Boris Karloff, Actor.

1888 ~ Birthday of Harpo Marx, Comedian.

1936 ~ The first edition of Life was published.

1943 ~ U.S. Marines seized control of the Tarawa and Makin atolls from the Japanese.

1955 ~ Death of Shemp Howard, actor, comedian (The Three Stooges)

1963 ~ The first episode of the sci-fi TV series "Doctor Who" aired on the BBC.

1971 ~ The People's Republic of China was given the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council.

2004 ~ Dan Rather announced he would step down as principal anchorman of "The CBS Evening News".

November 24th
 

1642 ~ Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the island of Tasmania.

1853 ~ Birthday of Bat Masterson, Gunslinger, Policeman, Sports Reporter.

1859 ~ British naturalist Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species", a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection.

1868 ~ Birthday of Scott Joplin, Musician.

1941 ~ Birthday of Pete Best, original drummer of The Beatles.

1947 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve citations of contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10 after they refused to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1963 ~ Death of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassination suspect.

1991 ~ Death of Freddie Mercury, musician (Queen).

1993 ~ In the UK, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the murder of 2-year-old James Bulger.

1998 ~ America Online announced it would acquire Netscape Communications.

November 25th
 

1783 ~ American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

1844 ~ Birthday of Karl Benz, Engineer.

1913 ~ Birthday of Lewis Thomas, Physician & Essayist.

1926 ~ Birthday of Poul Anderson, Science Fiction writer.

1940 ~ Woody Woodpecker first appeared in the film "Knock Knock"

1947 ~ New Zealand ratified the Statute of Westminster and became independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.

1968 ~ Death of Upton Sinclair, Journalist, Politician, Writer.

1973 ~ Greek President George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup.

1986 ~ The Iran-Contra affair became public knowledge.

1999 ~ Six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida.

November 26th
 

1778 ~ Captain James Cook discovered Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands.

1862 ~ Lewis Carroll sent the handwritten manuscript of “Alice's Adventures Underground” to 10-year-old Alice Liddell.

1894 ~ Birthday of Norbert Wiener, mathematician, founder of cybernetics.

1922 ~ Birthday of Charles M. Schulz, Cartoonist.

1922 ~ Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon viewed the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

1942 ~ The film Casablanca premiered in New York City.

1942 ~ President Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing, beginning in December.

1968 ~ Cream played their farewell concert.

1976 ~ The Band played their farewell concert.

2003 ~ Last ever flight by Concorde.

November 27th
 

8 BC ~ Death of Horace, poet. Remembered for, among other things, “carpe diem” (seize the day).

1095 ~ Pope Urban II preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont.

1895 ~ Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he died.

1907 ~ Birthday of L. Sprague de Camp, Science Fiction writer.

1921 ~ Birthday of Alexander Dubcèk, Czech politician.

1942 ~ Birthday of Jimi Hendrix, musician.

1946 ~ Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appealed to the U.S. and the USSR to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster".

1953 ~ Death of Eugene O'Neill, playwright.

1990 ~ John Major followed Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the UK.

2001 ~ A hydrogen atmosphere was detected on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the HST, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.

November 28th
 

1520 ~ Ferdinand Magellan became the first to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

1632 ~ Birthday of Jean-Baptiste Lully, Composer.

1820 ~ Birthday of Friedrich Engels, social philosopher.

1859 ~ Death of Washington Irving, writer.

1905 ~ Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Féin with a goal of independence for all of Ireland.

1939 ~ Death of James A Naismith, creator of basketball.

1954 ~ Death of Enrico Fermi, Physicist.

1969 ~ The Rolling Stones released the classic album Let It Bleed.

1989 ~ Velvet Revolution - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced it would give up its monopoly on political power.

2000 ~ The eighth tar drop fell in the University of Queensland pitch drop experiment.

November 29th
 

1643 ~ Death of Claudio Monteverdi, Composer.

1797 ~ Birthday of Gaetano Donizetti, Opera Composer.

1832 ~ Birthday of Louisa May Alcott, Writer.

1898 ~ Birthday of C. S. Lewis, Writer.

1947 ~ The UN passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews.

1975 ~ The name "Micro-soft" (for "microcomputer software") is first used in a letter from Bill Gates to Paul Allen.

1981 ~ Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, California.

1982 ~ The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 37/37, stating that the Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.

1990 ~ The UN Security Council passed Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

2001 ~ Death of George Harrison, musician.

November 30th
 

1667 ~ Birthday of Jonathan Swift, Writer & Satirist.

1835 ~ Birthday of Mark Twain, Writer (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court).

1872 ~ First international soccer match played at Hamilton Crescent, Scotland.

1874 ~ Birthday of Sir Winston Churchill, British political leader & Writer.

1936 ~ In London, the Crystal Palace was destroyed in a fire. It had been built for the 1851 Great Exhibition.

1900 ~ Death of Oscar Wilde, Writer.

1954 ~ In Sylacauga, Alabama, an 8.5 pound meteorite crashed through her roof and hit Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio. This is the only documented case of anyone being hit by a meteorite.

1993 ~ President Bill Clinton signed into law the Brady bill, which requires a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.

1999 ~ The anti-globalization movement caught police unprepared and forced the cancellation of opening ceremonies of a WTO meeting.

2004 ~ Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings lost, having won more than $2,500,000.

December 1st
 

1083 ~ Birthday of Anna Comnena, Byzantine historian.

1640 ~ Portugal regained its independence from Spain.

1824 ~ U.S. presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the House of Representatives was given the task to decide the winner, as stipulated by the Twelfth Amendment.

1835 ~ Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.

1918 ~ Founding of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia).

1935 ~ Birthday of Woody Allen, Film Director & Actor &Comedian.

1955 ~ Rosa Parks refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws.

1959 ~ The Antarctic Treaty signed, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity.

1990 ~ English and French Channel Tunnel workers met beneath the English Channel.

1991 ~ Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.

Oh my god, that was 1990 for the tunnel in the English Channel?

December 2nd
 

1547 ~ Death of Hernán Cortés, Spanish explorer and conqueror.

1814 ~ Death of Marquis de Sade, Writer.

1859 ~ Militant abolitionist leader John Brown was hanged for his October 16th raid on Harper's Ferry.

1923 ~ Birthday of Maria Callas, Opera Singer.

1942 ~ Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

1954 ~ Senator McCarthy was censured for conduct unbecoming to a senator.

1961 ~ Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.

1990 ~ War on Drugs: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot and killed in Medellín.

1991 ~ Apple release the first version of QuickTime.

2001 ~ Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

December 3rd
 

1815 ~ Death of John Carroll - First Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S.

1857 ~ Birthday of Joseph Conrad, Writer.

1894 ~ Death of Robert Louis Stevenson, Writer.

1919 ~ Death of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Painter.

1947 ~ ''A Streetcar Named Desire'' by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.

1967 ~ At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, Lewis Washkansky became the first human to receive a heart transplant. The transplant team was headed by Christiaan Barnard.

1984 ~ Bhopal Disaster: A leak from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed nearly 3,000 people in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.

1989 ~ U.S. President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared an end to the Cold War.

1999 ~ NASA lost contact with the Mars Polar Lander just before it entered the Martian atmosphere.

1999 ~ Death of Madeline Kahn, Actress & Comedian.

December 4th
 

1110 ~ The Crusaders captured Sidon.

1642 ~ Death of Cardinal Richelieu , French statesman.

1674 ~ Father Jacques Marquette founded a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan which would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois.

1679 ~ Death of Thomas Hobbes, political philosopher.

1849 ~ Birthday of Crazy Horse, American Indian leader.

1872 ~ The Mary Celeste was found by the British brig Dei Gratia. The ship had been abandoned for 9 days but was only slightly damaged.

1945 ~ The U.S. Senate approved United States participation in the United Nations.

1952 ~ Great Smog of 1952: A "killer fog" descended on London. "Smog" for "smoke" and "fog" becomes a word.

1976 ~ Death of Benjamin Britten, Composer.

1991 ~ Pan American World Airways ceased operations.

December 5th
 

1766 ~ James Christie held his first sale in London. He later founded Christie's, the world's oldest auction house.

1791 ~ Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer.

1839 ~ Birthday of George Armstrong Custer, American general.

1890 ~ Birthday of Fritz Lang, film director.

1901 ~ Birthday of Werner Karl Heisenberg, physicist.

1901 ~ Birthday of Walt Disney, film producer.

1926 ~ Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, debuted.

1933 ~ Prohibition ended: The Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified. This overturned the 18th Amendment, which had outlawed the inter-state sale of alcohol.

1945 ~ A U.S. Navy training flight, Flight 19, was lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

1995 ~ The Sri Lankan armed forces took Jaffna from the Tamil Tigers.

December 6th
 

1768 ~ First edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was published.

1884 ~ The Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, banning slavery, was ratified.

1889 ~ Death of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America.

1920 ~ Birthday of Dave Brubeck, jazz musician.

1929 ~ Birthday of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Conductor.

1933 ~ James Joyce’s novel Ulysses was judged not obscene.

1947 ~ Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Truman.

1989 ~ Marc Lépine killed 14 women in Montreal, Quebec.

1992 ~ In Ayodhya, India, Hindus demolished the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque.

2002 ~ Death of Philip Berrigan, civil rights activist.

December 7th
 

43 BC ~ Death of Cicero, Roman politician and author.

1787 ~ Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1817 ~ Death of William Bligh, British naval officer.

1905 ~ Birthday of Gerard Kuiper, Astronomer.

1928 ~ Birthday of Noam Chomsky, Linguist.

1941 ~ The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II.

1965 ~ Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.

1970 ~ Death of Rube Goldberg, cartoonist.

1972 ~ Launch of Apollo 17, the last manned lunar landing mission.

1975 ~ Indonesia invaded East Timor.

December 8th
 

1542 ~ Birthday of Mary Queen of Scots.

1864 ~ Death of George Boole, Mathematician.

1925 ~ Birthday of Sammy Davis Jr., Actor & Singer.

1939 ~ Birthday of James Galway, Irish flutist.

1978 ~ Death of Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel.

1980 ~ Mark Chapman murdered former Beatle John Lennon.

1987 ~ The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed.

1991 ~ Leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine signed an agreement ending the U.S.S.R. and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1993 ~ U.S. participation in The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law by President Clinton.

1994 ~ U.S. participation in General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was signed into law by President Clinton.

December 9th
 

1608 ~ Birthday of John Milton, Poet & Writer.

1793 ~ New York City's first daily newspaper, the “American Minerva”, is established by Noah Webster.

1868 ~ Birthday of Fritz Haber, German chemist, Nobel prize winner in 1918.

1937 ~ Battle of Nanjing began. The Rape of Nanjing followed.

1950 ~ Harry Gold sentenced to thirty years in jail for stealing United States nuclear weapon secrets for the Soviet Union.

1961 ~ Adolf Eichmann found guilty of war crimes in Israel.

1987 ~ First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

1992 ~ Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation.

1996 ~ Death of Mary Leakey, Archeologist & Anthropologist.

2004 ~ Canada's Supreme Court ruled that homosexual marriage was constitutional.

December 10th
 

1815 ~ Birthday of Ada Lovelace, first computer programmer.

1822 ~ Birthday of César Franck, Composer & Organist.

1830 ~ Birthday of Emily Dickinson, Poet.

1896 ~ Death of Alfred Nobel, chemist, founder of the Nobel Prize.

1901 ~ Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize.

1941 ~ Japanese forces landed in the Philippines, captured Guam and sank the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse.

1953 ~ Dr. Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1965 ~ The Grateful Dead played their first concert, at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

1978 ~ Prime Minister Menachem Begin and President Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2002 ~ The High Court of Australia hands down its judgment in the internet defamation case of Gutnick v Dow Jones.

December 11th
 

1725 ~ Birthday of George Mason, "Father of the Bill of Rights".

1803 ~ Birthday of Hector Berlioz, Composer.

1882 ~ Birthday of Max Born, physicist and 1954 Nobel laureate.

1918 ~ Birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, 1970 Nobel laureate.

1931 ~ The Statute of Westminster gave legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland.

1941 ~ Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

1943 ~ King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.

1981 ~ Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes UN Secretary-General.

1994 ~ A small bomb exploded on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing was a test of explosives that would have been used in Project Bojinka.

1994 ~ Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.

December 12th
 

1531 ~ Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City.

1911 ~ The capital of India moved from Calcutta to New Delhi.

1913 ~ Mona Lisa recovered in Florence, 2 years and 3 months after it was stolen.

1915 ~ Birthday of Frank Sinatra, Singer & Actor.

1927 ~ Birthday of Robert Noyce, one of the men credited with the invention of the integrated circuit.

1963 ~ Kenya gained its independence from the UK. Uhuru!

1967 ~ Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones avoided a prison term for narcotics.

1996 ~ Uday Hussein is seriously injured in an assassination attempt.

1999 ~ Death of Joseph Heller, Author.

2003 ~ Death of Keiko, the killer whale in the “Free Willy” movies.

December 13th

1204 ~ Death of Maimonides, Sephardi Philosopher.

1577 ~ Sir Francis Drake began his circumnavigation from Plymouth, England.

1642 ~ Abel Janszoon Tasman reached New Zealand.

1784 ~ Death of Samuel Johnson, Essayist.

1903 ~ Birthday of Carlos Montoya, Spanish-American guitarist who popularized flamenco guitar music.

1925 ~ Birthday of Dick Van Dyke, Actor & Comedian.

1941 ~ Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.

1981 ~ Martial law imposed in Poland to try to control the Solidarity labor movement.

1996 ~ Kofi Annan elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

2003 ~ Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured near Tikrit.

December 14th
 

1503 ~ Birthday of Nostradamus, Astrologer & Mathematician.

1546 ~ Birthday of Tycho Brahe, Astronomer.

1799 ~ Death of George Washington, first U.S. President.

1900 ~ Max Planck published his study of the quantum theory.

1911 ~ First expedition reached the South Pole, led by Roald Amundsen.

1939 ~ USSR expelled from the League of Nations.

1946 ~ The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

1962 ~ Birthday of Ginger Lynn Allen, Actress.

1981 ~ Israel annexed the Golan Heights.

1995 ~ The Dayton Agreement was signed in Paris to end the Yugoslav wars.

December 15th
 

37 ~ Birthday of Nero, Roman emperor.

1791 ~ The U.S. Bill of Rights ratified.

1832 ~ Birthday of Gustave Eiffel, civil engineer.

1852 ~ Birthday of Antoine Henri Becquerel, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics.

1916 ~ France defeated Germany in Battle of Verdun.

1958 ~ Death of Wolfgang Pauli, Physicist.

1961 ~ An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentenced Adolph Eichmann to death.

1966 ~ Death of Walt Disney, Animator & Cartoonist.

1982 ~ Spain reopened the border with Gibraltar.

1994 ~ Netscape Navigator 1.0 first released.