History Today:1st Christmas song, child slavery abolishes 1st radioactive isotopes

• 563 The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.
• 640 John IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
• 1046 Pope Clement II, [Suitger] elected
• 1294 Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII
• 1476 400 Burgundian soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy
• 1515 Thomas Wolsey appointed Lord Chancellor of England
• 1565 Compromise of the Nobles in Habsburg Netherlands closes against inquisition
• 1568 Uprising of Moriscos in Granada
• 1593 Storm hits Texel: 40 ships hit, 500 killed
• 1651 John van Riebeeck departs to Cape of Good Hope
• 1715 Swedish troops occupy Norway
• 1814 Treaty of Ghent signed, ending US Britain War of 1812
• 1818 Christmas carol "Silent Night" composed by Franz Xaver Gruber is first sung at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, Austria
• 1832 1st US Negro hospital founded by whites chartered, Savannah, Georgia
• 1832 HMS Beagle anchors in Wigwam Bay at Cape Receiver
• 1851 Fire devastates US Library of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes
• 1860 Joseph Jefferson's "Rip Van Winkle" premieres in NYC
• 1864 Battle of Gordonsville, VA
• 1865 Several Confederate veterans form Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tn
• 1871 Giusseppi Verdi's "Aida" opera premieres in Cairo
• 1874 Pope Pius IX proclaims a jubilee for 1875
• 1884 Austria-Hungary admits King Leopold II's Congo Free State
• 1889 Daniel Stover & William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake
• 1894 Scheveningse fishing boats destroyed by storm
• 1894 Soccer team Achilles '94 forms in Axes
• 1898 Herman Heijermans' "Ghetto" premieres in Amsterdam
• 1900 Herman Heijermans' "Hope of Blessing" premieres in Amsterdam
• 1900 The French Chamber of Deputies and Senate pass a bill calling for an end to agitation or prosecutions against those involved in the Dreyfus affair, which has divided France since 1894
• 1900 Foreign powers present the Chinese Empress with their list of 'irrevocable conditions' before their nations will withdraw troops from China
• 1901 Private companies allowed to use the word "postcard" in the US. Previously they were labelled "Private Mailing Cards" and known as "souvenir cards".
• 1904 German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
• 1906 Reginald A Fessenden became 1st to broadcast music over radio (Mass)
• 1910 Luisa Tetrazzini sings to 250,000 people at Lotta's Fountain
• 1912 Irving Fisher patents archiving system with index cards
• 1914 German plane drops bombs on Dover England
• 1920 Enrico Caruso gives his last public performance (NYC)
• 1922 BBC broadcasts first British radio play "The Truth about Father Christmas"
• 1922 London Coloseum opens
• 1924 1st radio transmission of NCRV in Netherlands
• 1924 Albania becomes a republic (ex-premier Ahmed Zogoe's coup)
• 1924 Richard Rodgers Theater (46th St Chanin's) opens at 226 W 46th NYC
• 1924 School in Babb's Switch, Oklahoma, catches fire, 36 die
• 1927 Test Cricket debut of Walter Hammond, who scored 51 & took 5-36 v S Af
• 1928 George Abbott Theater (Adelphi, 54 St) opens at 152 W 54th St NYC
• 1935 National Council of Negro Women forms
• 1936 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered in Berkeley, California
• 1937 Dutch government recognizes Italian king Emanuel III as emperor of Abyssinia
• 1939 World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
• 1941 First ships of admiral Nagumo's Pearl Harbor fleet return to Japan
• 1942 First powered flight of V-1 'buzz bomb', Peenemunde, Germany
• 1942 Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja & Morozowsk
• 1943 Terence Rattigan's "While the Sun Shines" premieres in London
• 1946 4th French republic established
• 1946 US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor nazis" amnesty
• 1946 France's Fourth Republic is founded.
• 1948 First US completely solar heated house is occupied (Dover, Mass)
• 1948 Greek government disbands due to state of war, press censorship
• 1950 Cleveland Browns beat LA Rams 30-28 in NFL championship game
• 1951 1st televised opera (Amahl & Night Visitor)
• 1951 United Kingdom of Libya gains independence from Italy via UN
• 1953 Two fast express trains crash head-on killing 103 in Czechoslovakia
• 1953 KHOL (now KHGI) TV channel 13 in Kearney, NB (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1953 KOA (now KCNC) TV channel 4 in Denver, CO (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1953 René Coty elected president of France
• 1953 Wellington-Auckland (NZ) express train swept away in flood kills 166
• 1954 Council for the Protection of Children forms in Netherlands
• 1954 Laos gains its independence
• 1956 "I Love Lucy" Christmas show airs, never put in syndication
• 1956 Ferdinand de Lesseps statue blown up in Port Said Egypt
• 1960 Dutch bishops question papacy values
• 1961 Houston Oilers beat San Diego Chargers 10-3 in AFL championship game
• 1962 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
• 1963 Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus
• 1964 Shooting begins on "The Cage" the pilot for Star Trek
• 1966 "Joyful Noise" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 12 performances
• 1966 Soviet spacecraft Luna 13 lands on Moon
• 1966 USAF C144 military charter aircraft crashes near Binh Thai, Vietnam, killing 129
• 1967 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
• 1967 Pirate Radio Pegasus starts broadcasting off New Zealand
• 1968 Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis
• 1968 WATU (now WAGT) TV channel 26 in Augusta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
• 1970 9 Jews are convicted in Leningrad of hijacking a plane
• 1970 Walt Disney's "Aristocats" is released
• 1971 Peruvian Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later
• 1973 Ferryboat capsized off coast of Equador, drowning 200
• 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
• 1974 Cardinals' Lou Brock is named Sportsman of the Year
• 1974 Former US astronaut John Glenn join the Senate for Ohio
• 1977 "Ghost to the Post", Raiders tight end Dave Casper ("The Ghost") catches a 42-yard reception to set up the Raiders' tying field goal near the end of regulation (Raiders win in OT)
• 1979 1st Ariane rocket launched
• 1980 Americans remembered Iran hostages by shining lights for 417 seconds
• 1981 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
• 1982 Chaminade, with a student body of only 850 students, beats #1 ranked Virginia 77-72 in a Honolulu holiday basketball classic
• 1984 Palace coup in Mauritania
• 1986 French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released
• 1986 Iran offensive against Iraqi islands of Shatt al-Arab
• 1989 Charles Taylor enters Liberia to unseat President Samuel K Doe
• 1994 Four Muslim fundamentalists capture Air France pilot in Algiers
• 1997 1st time a Channukah candle is officially lit in Vatican City
• 1997 The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria kills 50-100 people.
• 1997 The Dominican Republic becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
• 2000 The Texas 7 hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot during the robbery.
• 2003 Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
• 2012 11 kindergarten children are killed after a minivan plunges into a roadside pond in Jiangxi, China
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