Events Pre-1600 533 – Vandalic War: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Tricamarum. 687 – Pope Sergius I is elected as a compromise between antipopes Paschal and Theodore. 1025 – Constantine VIII becomes sole emperor of the Byzantine Empire, 63 years after being crowned co-emperor. 1161 – Jin–Song wars: Military officers conspire against the emperor Wanyan Liang of the Jin dynasty after a military defeat at the Battle of Caishi, and assassinate the emperor at his camp. 1167 – Sicilian Chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion. 1256 – Mongol forces under Hulagu enter and dismantle the Nizari Ismaili (Assassin) stronghold at Alamut Castle (in present-day Iran) as part of their offensive on Islamic southwest Asia. 1270 – The Nizari Ismaili garrison of Gerdkuh, Persia surrender after 17 years to the Mongols. 1467 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia. 1546 – The town of Ekenäs () is founded by King Gustav Vasa of Sweden.
1601–1900 1651 – Castle Cornet in Guernsey, the last stronghold which had supported the King in the Third English Civil War, surrenders. 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia. 1791 – The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly. 1836 – The U.S. Patent Office building in Washington, D.C., nearly burns to the ground, destroying all 9,957 patents issued by the federal government to that date, as well as 7,000 related patent models. 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Fredericksburg ends in a Union defeat as General Ambrose Burnside withdraws the Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock River. 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Nashville begins at Nashville, Tennessee, and ends the following day with the destruction of the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General John Bell Hood as a fighting force by the Union Army of the Cumberland under General George H. Thomas. 1869 – The short-lived Republic of Ezo is proclaimed in the Ezo area of Japan. It is the first attempt to establish a democracy in Japan. 1871 – Sixteen-year-old telegraphist Ella Stewart keys and sends the first telegraphed message from Arizona Territory at the Deseret Telegraph Company office in Pipe Spring. 1890 – Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre. 1893 – Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World" the "New World Symphony") by Antonín Dvořák premieres in a public afternoon rehearsal at Carnegie Hall in New York City, followed by a concert premiere on the evening of December 16.; 1899 – British Army forces are defeated at the Battle of Colenso in Natal, South Africa, the third and final battle fought during the Black Week of the Second Boer War.
1901–present 1903 – Italian American food cart vendor Italo Marchiony receives a U.S. patent for inventing a machine that makes ice cream cones. 1905 – The Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin. 1906 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens. 1914 – World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army. 1914 – A gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hōjō coal mine, in Kyushu, Japan, kills 687. 1917 – World War I: An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed. 1933 – Anarchist insurrection suppressed in Zaragoza, Spain. 1939 – Gone with the Wind (highest inflation adjusted grossing film) receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. 1941 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobytsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal campaign. 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Arawe begins during the New Britain campaign. 1944 – World War II: a single-engine UC-64A Norseman aeroplane carrying United States Army Air Forces Major Glenn Miller is lost in a flight over the English Channel. 1945 – Occupation of Japan/Shinto Directive: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan. 1960 – Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy. 1960 – King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule. 1961 – Eichmann trial: Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization. 1965 – Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7. 1967 – The Silver Bridge collapses, killing 46 people. 1970 – Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet. 1973 – John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10. 1973 – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan). 1981 – A suicide car bombing targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, levels the embassy and kills 61 people, including Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon. The attack is considered the first modern suicide bombing. 1989 – Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights relating the abolition of capital punishment is adopted. 1993 – The Troubles: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. 1997 – Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 crashes in the desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, killing 85. 2000 – The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down. 2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean. 2005 – Introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor into USAF active service. 2010 – A boat carrying 90 asylum seekers crashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing 48 people. 2013 – The South Sudanese Civil War begins when opposition leaders Dr. Riek Machar, Pagan Amum and Rebecca Nyandeng vote to boycott the meeting of the National Liberation Council at Nyakuron. 2014 – Gunman Man Haron Monis takes 18 hostages inside a café in Martin Place for 16 hours in Sydney. Monis and two hostages are killed when police raid the café the following morning. 2017 – A 6.5earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Java in the city of Tasikmalaya, resulting in four deaths.
Births Pre-1600 AD 37 – Nero, Roman emperor (died 68) 130 – Lucius Verus, Roman emperor (died 169) 1242 – Prince Munetaka, Japanese shōgun (died 1274) 1447 – Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria (died 1508) 1567 – Christoph Demantius, German composer, poet, and theorist (died 1643)
1601–1900 1610 – David Teniers the Younger, Flemish painter (died 1690) 1657 – Michel Richard Delalande, French organist and composer (died 1726) 1686 – Jean-Joseph Fiocco, Flemish violinist and composer (died 1746) 1710 – Francesco Zahra, Maltese painter (died 1773) 1789 – Carlos Soublette, Venezuelan general and politician, 11th President of Venezuela (died 1870) 1832 – Gustave Eiffel, French architect and engineer, co-designed the Eiffel Tower (died 1923) 1846 – Amunda Kolderup, Norwegian opera singer (died 1882) 1852 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1908) 1859 – L. L. Zamenhof, Polish linguist and ophthalmologist, created Esperanto (died 1917) 1860 – Niels Ryberg Finsen, Faroese-Danish physician and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1904) 1861 – Charles Duryea, American engineer and businessman, co-founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company (died 1938) 1861 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Finnish lawyer, judge, and politician, 3rd President of Finland (died 1944) 1863 – Arthur Dehon Little, American chemist and engineer (died 1935) 1869 – Leon Marchlewski, Polish chemist and academic (died 1946) 1875 – Emilio Jacinto, Filipino journalist and activist (died 1899) 1878 – Hans Carossa, German author and poet (died 1956) 1885 – Leonid Pitamic, Slovenian lawyer, philosopher, and academic (died 1971) 1886 – Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz, Polish politician and resistance fighter (died 1968) 1886 – Florence Jepperson Madsen, American contralto singer and professor of music (died 1977) 1888 – Maxwell Anderson, American journalist and playwright (died 1959) 1890 – Harry Babcock, American pole vaulter (died 1965) 1891 – A.P. Carter, American country singer-songwriter and musician (died 1960) 1892 – J. Paul Getty, American-English businessman and art collector, founded Getty Oil (died 1976) 1894 – Vibert Douglas, Canadian astrophysicist and astronomer (died 1988) 1894 – Josef Imbach, Swiss sprinter (died 1964) 1896 – Betty Smith, American author and playwright (died 1972) 1899 – Harold Abrahams, English sprinter, lawyer, and journalist (died 1978)
1901–present 1902 – Robert F. Bradford, American lawyer and politician, 57th Governor of Massachusetts (died 1983) 1903 – Tamanishiki San'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 32nd Yokozuna (died 1938) 1907 – Gordon Douglas, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1993) 1907 – Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect, designed the United Nations Headquarters and the Cathedral of Brasília (died 2012) 1908 – Swami Ranganathananda, Indian monk, scholar, and author (died 2005) 1909 – Sattar Bahlulzade, Azerbaijani-Russian painter (died 1974) 1909 – Eliza Atkins Gleason, American librarian (died 2009) 1910 – John Hammond, American record producer and critic (died 1987) 1911 – Nicholas P. Dallis, American psychiatrist and illustrator (died 1991) 1911 – Stan Kenton, American pianist and composer (died 1979) 1913 – Roger Gaudry, Canadian chemist and businessman (died 2001) 1913 – Muriel Rukeyser, American poet, academic, and activist (died 1980) 1915 – Eila Campbell, English geographer and cartographer (died 1994) 1916 – Miguel Arraes, Brazilian lawyer and politician, Governor of Pernambuco (died 2005) 1916 – Buddy Cole, American pianist and conductor (died 1964) 1916 – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-English physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) 1917 – Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, Indian-Pakistani linguist and lexicographer (died 2005) 1918 – Jeff Chandler, American actor (died 1961) 1918 – Chihiro Iwasaki, Japanese painter and illustrator (died 1974) 1919 – Max Yasgur, American dairy farmer and host of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (died 1973) 1920 – Gamal al-Banna, Egyptian author and scholar (died 2013) 1920 – Kurt Schaffenberger, German-American sergeant and illustrator (died 2002) 1921 – Alan Freed, American radio host (died 1965) 1923 – Pierre Cossette, American producer and manager (died 2009) 1923 – Freeman Dyson, English-American physicist and mathematician (died 2020) 1923 – Uziel Gal, German-Israeli engineer, designed the Uzi gun (died 2002) 1923 – Valentin Varennikov, Russian general and politician (died 2009) 1924 – Frank W. J. Olver, English-American mathematician and academic (died 2013) 1924 – Ruhi Sarıalp, Turkish triple jumper and educator (died 2001)