43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and politician is assassinated in Formiae
1909 – Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry
1941 – Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people
1965 – Pope Paul VI & Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led to split of 2 churches in 1054
1972 – American astronaut Eugene Andrew Cernan commanded the last crewed flight to the Moon, effectively ending the Apollo program.
1975 – Shortly after declaring its independence, East Timor was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces.
1988 – PLO delegation lead by Yasser Arafat proclaims the State of Palestine, recognizing the existence of the State of Israel for the first time
1988 – 6.9 earthquake in Spitak, Armenia kills 25,000-50,000 people and leaves up to 500,000 homeless
1995 – Irish poet Seamus Heaney receives the Novel Prize for Literature at a ceremony in Stockholm
2003 – The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
2004 – Afghan politician Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president.
2005 – U.S. debut of the second part of two-part TV biopic miniseries “Pope John Paul II” on CBS
2010 – Iceland officially leaves the recession with growth of 1.2% in the third quarter
2014 – The Syrian military accuse Israel of carrying out two air strikes on Syria
2014 – Mayor of Paris calls for diesel cars to be banned from the French Capital by 2020, in order to reduce pollution
2014 – Human Rights Watch Asia Division call for investigation into Indonesian security forces shooting of peaceful protesters
2015 – Time Magazine readers name Bernie Sanders their ‘person of the year’
2015 – US Presidential candidate Donald Trump proposes banning all Muslims from entering the US
2017 – Naples’ pizza spinning given UNESCO intangible heritage status along with Germany’s organ music, Kyrgystan’s Kok boru and India’s Kumbh festival
2017 – Australia’s parliament votes to legalize gay marriage
2017 – Virtual currency Bitcoin rises in value, passing $18,440 on some exchanges
2017 – Pantone’s 2018 Colour of the Year is Ultra Violet
2018 – Brazilian spiritual healer João Teixeira de Faria accused of sexual abuse by four women, over 200 more come forward in next week
2018 – Comedian Kevin Hart steps down as 2019 Oscars host after his history of homophobic statements is revealed
Film & TV:
1979 – “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” first movie of the series premieres directed by Robert Wise, starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy
2019 – Greta Gerwig’s film adaption of Louisa May Alcott’s novel “Little Women” premieres at MoMA in New York
2020 – Coca-Cola named the world’s No. 1 plastic polluter, in Break Free From Plastic’s annual brand audit
2020 – Bob Dylan sells his entire songwriting catalog of more than 600 songs to the Universal Music Publishing Group for over $300 million
Music:
1995 – American rock band The Grateful Dead break up
Sport:
2017 – Ballon d’Or: Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo wins his 5th award to equal Lionel Messi’s record; 2nd consecutive win for Ronaldo
Via Britannica / On This Day
