1620 – Mayflower Pilgrims come ashore at in Plymouth Bay, traditionally thought to be at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts [OS=Dec 11]
1898 – French Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium
1913 – The New York World published the first modern crossword puzzle.
1956 -Martin Luther King Jr. and others sit in the new integrated bus
1958 – Charles de Gaulle was elected president of the French Fifth Republic.
1968 – Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Kennedy (Cape Canaveral) and eventually completed 10 lunar orbits.
1988 – Lockerbie disaster: Pan Am Flight 103 destroyed mid air by a terrorist bomb killing all 258 on board over Scotland
1989 – New Zealand is the first country to set a formal inflation target (0-2%) for how much prices should rise each year. Similar targets are subsequently adopted by most developed countries.
1991 – Soviet Union formally dissolves as 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States
1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.
2007 – The Schengen Agreement area increases to include 9 European Union member states; Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia on land and sea borders.
2012 – 39 people are killed in violent clashes in Kenya
2016 – Carl Icahn is announced as Special Advisor to the President on Regulatory Reform, under President Donald Trump
2017 – UN General Assembly votes 128 to 9 to denounce US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital
Film & TV:
1937 – The first full-length animated feature film and the earliest in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre
Music:
1968 – Glen Campbell’s album “Wichita Lineman” goes to #1 in the US
2012 -The music video for South Korean singer Psy’s humorous pop song Gangnam Style became the first video on YouTube to garner one billion views.
Sport:
1891 – 1st game of basketball, based on rules created by James Naismith, played by 18 students in Springfield, Massachusetts
