History Today : White House first to install light, Bowling ball invested, US Leave UNESCO

• 1705 Prosper Jolyot's "Idomenée," premieres in Paris
• 1708 Great Alliance occupies Gent
• 1778 British troops occupy Savannah, Georgia
• 1782 1st nautical almanac in US published by Samuel Stearns, Boston
• 1786 French Revolution: The Assembly of Notables is convoked
• 1812 The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle.
• 1813 British burn Buffalo, NY during War of 1812
• 1835 The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States
• 1837 Canadian militia destroy Caroline, a US steamboat docked at Buffalo
• 1837 Steam-powered threshing machine patented, Winthrop, Maine
• 1841 King/grand duke Willem II installs Order of Eikenkroon
• 1845 Texas admitted as 28th state of the Union
• 1848 Gas lights 1st installed at White House (Polk's administration)
• 1851 1st American Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) chapter opened in Boston Massachusetts.
• 1852 Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants
• 1862 Bowling ball invented
• 1864 Fire Dept celebrates 1st annual ball
• 1867 1st telegraph ticker used by a brokerage house, Groesbeck & Co, NY
• 1876 11 passenger cars crash in a ravine near Ashtabula Ohio, 92 die
• 1890 US 7th Cavalry massacre 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee, SD
• 1891 Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio)
• 1895 Dr L S Jameson begins failed raid on Johannesburg
• 1899 British fleet seizes German Imperial Mail Steamer Bundesrath accused of carrying contraband
• 1900 General Viljoen surprise attack British garrison to Helvetia
• 1903 French Equatorial Africa separates into Gabon, Chad & Ubangi-Shari
• 1906 Montreal Wanderers beat New Glasgow (NS) for Stanley Cup (2nd of 1906)
• 1908 Patent granted for a 4-wheel automobile brake, Clintonville, Wisc
• 1911 Proclamation restores "Dei Gratia" from Canada's coins
• 1911 San Francisco Symphony forms
• 1911 Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China.
• 1911 Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty.
• 1913 1st movie serial "Adventures of Kathlyn" premieres in Chicago
• 1920 The Netherlands/Venezuela recover diplomatic relations
• 1920 Yugoslav government bans communist party
• 1934 1st collegiate basketball doubleheader (Madison Square Garden)
• 1934 Federico Garcia Lorca's "Yerma" premieres in Madrid
• 1934 Japan renounces Wash Naval Treaty of 1922 & London Treaty of 1930
• 1937 2nd Irish constitution comes into effect; Irish Free State renamed Erie
• 1937 Lou Thesz beats Everett Marshall in St Louis, to win National Wrestling Ass.World heavyweight title - youngest ever
• 1937 Pan Am starts service between San Francisco and Auckland, New Zealand
• 1938 Construction on Lake Washington Floating Bridge, Seattle, begins
• 1939 First flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber prototype
• 1940 Germany drops its 1st incendiary bombs on London during the Blitz
• 1940 NFL Pro Bowl: Chicago Bears beats NFL All-Stars 28-14
• 1944 Belgian Nazi Leon Degrelle sentenced to death
• 1947 Ship carrying Jewish immigrants driven away from Palestine
• 1948 "Rape of Lucretia" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 23 performances
• 1948 Canada recognizes Israel
• 1948 US State Dept announces work on placing objects into Earth orbit
• 1949 1st UHF television station operating regular basis (Bridgeport Ct)
• 1949 Hungary nationalized its industries
• 1951 Flying Enterprise in difficulty in Canal
• 1952 1st transistorized hearing aid offered for sale (Elmsford NY)
• 1954 Kingdom of Netherlands, with Netherlands & Netherlands Antilles as autonomous parts, comes into being
• 1957 Detroit Lions beat Cleveland Browns 50-14 in NFL championship game
• 1957 Singers Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme wed in Las Vegas
• 1958 Balt Colts beat NY Giants 23-17 in NFL championship game
• 1958 TV soap "Young Dr Malone" debuts
• 1959 Saul Levitt's "Andersonville Trial" premieres in NYC
• 1962 Doug Walters makes 1st-class debut for NSW 17 yrs 8 days
• 1962 13th Formula One WDC: Graham Hill wins by 12 points
• 1963 52nd Davis Cup: USA beats Australia in Adelaide (3-2)
• 1963 Chicago Bears win NFL championship, defeating New York Giants 14-10 in Chicago
• 1965 CBS purchases NFL TV rights for 1966-68 at $18.8 million per year
• 1965 Supremes release "My World is Empty Without You"
• 1965 54th Davis Cup: Australia beats Spain in Sydney (4-1)
• 1966 Pirate Radio Phoenix, 1st transmission (Worcester, Mass)
• 1967 Star Trek's "Trouble With Tribbles" 1st airs
• 1967 Turkish-Cypriot government forms in Cyprus
• 1968 Balt Colts beat Cleveland Browns 34-0 in NFL championship game
• 1968 Israeli commandos destroy 13 Lebanese airplanes
• 1968 NY Jets beat Oakland Raiders 27-23 in AFL championship game
• 1969 NY Times reports Curt Flood will sue baseball & challenge the reserve clause
• 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act (United States) signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon
• 1972 Eastern Tristar Jumbo Jet crashes near Everglades killing 101
• 1972 Life magazine ceases publication
• 1972 Test Cricket debut of Jeff Thomson & Max Walker v Pakistan at MCG
• 1972 President of Sinn Féin Ruairi O Bradaigh is arrested and held under new legislation in Republic of Ireland
• 1974 Murray Schisgal's "All Over Town" premieres in NYC
• 1974 AFC Championship Game: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Oakland Raiders 24-13
• 1974 NFC Championship Game: Minnesota Vikings beat Los Angeles Rams 14-10
• 1975 11 killed, 75 hurt by terrorist bomb at LaGuardia Airport in NYC
• 1977 Ronald Ribman's "Cold Storage" premieres in NYC
• 1978 Shah of Iran, asks Shapour Bahktiar to form a civilian government
• 1978 Spain constitution goes into effect
• 1978 Test Cricket debut of Allan Robert Border, v England at the MCG
• 1979 Red Army beats NY Islanders 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum
• 1980 Shuttle STS-1 moves from Vandenberg AFB to Launch Complex 39A
• 1982 Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant ends his career with Alabama (323 wins)
• 1983 Gavaskar makes the highest Test Cricket score by an Indian, 236* v WI
• 1983 Graeme Yallop completes 268 v Pakistan at cricket MCG
• 1983 US announced withdrawal from UNESCO
• 1983 2nd College Football Holy War: Notre Dame beats Boston College 19-18 in Memphis
• 1984 5th United Negro College Fund
• 1984 Blues took 27 shots against Islanders in 1 period
• 1984 Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi claims victory in parlimetary elections
• 1988 Soviet Red Army Team edges NY Islanders, 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum
• 1988 Victorian Post Office Museum in Australia closes
• 1989 Jane Pauley says goodbye to NBC's "Today" show
• 1989 Vaclav Havel becomes president of Czechoslovakia
• 1989 Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
• 1991 "Christmas Carol" closes at Eugene O'Neill Theater NYC after 14 performances
• 1991 12th United Negro College Fund
• 1991 Boeing 747-200F of China Airlines crash into mountain at Taipei
• 1992 Gov Cuomo grants Jean Harris (Scarsdale Diet Dr killer) clemency
• 1993 Todd Bridges arrested for transporting methamphetamine (speed)
• 1994 B737-400 flies into a mountain at Edremit East Turkey, 54 killed
• 1994 Bangladesh government of Zia resigns
• 1994 Last Dutch electro-magnetic telephone exchange shuts down
• 1994 Shane Warne takes a hat-trick v England at cricket MCG
• 1996 "Dreams & Nightmares" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC
• 1996 "Skylight" closes at Royale Theater NYC after
• 1996 "Taking Sides" closes at Atkinson Theater NYC
• 1997 Carquest Bowl 8: Georgia Tech beats West Virginia, 35-30
• 1997 Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu
• 1997 Orville Lynn Majors, 36, arrested for many deaths under his care
• 1997 Russia signs agreement to build a $3B nuclear power plant in China
• 1997 Cricket Women's World Cup: Australia defeats New Zealand by 5 wickets
• 1998 Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over a million people
• 2001 Mesa Redonda shopping center fire, Lima, Peru, at least 291 killed.
• 2003 50th National Film Awards (India): "Mondo Meyer Upakhyan" wins the Golden Lotus
• 2012 200 people are executed by the Syrian army in Homs
• 2012 21 security personnel are killed by Pakistani Taliban near Peshawar
• 2012 5 people are killed in a Tupolev Tu-204 plane crash in Moscow
• 2013 The volcano, Chaparrastique,  erupts in El Salvador
• 2013 16 people are killed and 40 are wounded by a suicide bomb attack at Volgograd-1 railway station, Russia
• 2013 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says barrel bombs on Aleppo have killed 517 people since 15th December
• 2015 Ebola epidemic in Guinea declared over by WHO, 2,500 died over 2 years