0401 - St Anastasius I dies, ending his reign as Catholic Pope 1055 - Seldjuken under Toghril Beg occupy Baghdad 1154 - King Henry II of England crowned 1370 - Urban V, [Guillaume de Grimoard], 1st Avignon Pope (1362-70), dies 1551 - Dutch west coast hit by hurricane 1562 - Battle at Dreux: Anne de Montmorency & huguenots under Cond� captured 1686 - Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Defoe) 1688 - King James II's wife & son flee to France 1732 - Benjamin Franklin under the name Richard Saunders begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanack" 1776 - Thomas Paine published his 1st "American Crisis" essay, in which he wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls" 1777 - Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge, Pa for winter 1783 - English government of Pitt Jr forms 1788 - Chinese troops occupy capital Thang Long Vietnam 1795 - 1st state appropriation of money for road building, Kentucky 1823 - Georgia passes 1st US state birth registration law 1828 - South Carolina declares right of states to nullify federal laws 1835 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin approaches New Zealand 1842 - US recognizes independence of Hawaii 1843 - Charles Dickens publishes "A Christmas Carol," in England 1854 - Allen Wilson of Conn patents sewing machine to sew curving seams 1861 - Battle of Black Water 1862 - Skirmish at Jackson/Salem Church, Tenn (80 casualties) 1867 - Victims of "Angola Horror" burned to death (Angola NY) 1871 - Albert L Jones (NYC), patents corrugated paper 1884 - Italy recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State 1887 - Jake Kilrain & Jem Smith fight 106 round bare knuckle draw 1888 - Stanley's expedition reaches Fort Bodo, East-Africa 1889 - Bishop Museum founded in Hawaii 1890 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Beryl Coronet" (BG) 1891 - 1st Negro Catholic priest ordained in US, Charles Uncles, Baltimore 1891 - Canadian Rugby Union forms 1903 - Williamsburg suspension bridge opens between Brooklyn & Manhattan 1907 - 239 workers died in a coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania 1907 - Gas explosion at Jacobs Creek Pa, coal mine kills 239 1910 - 1st city ordinace requiring white & black residential areas (Baltimore) 1910 - Rayon 1st commercially produced; Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania 1913 - Jack Johnson fights Jim Johnson to a draw in 10 for hw boxing title 1916 - Suriname Bauxite Company forms in Paramaribo 1917 - 1st NHL game played on artificial ice (Toronto) 1917 - Quebec Bulldogs play their 1st professional hockey game 1918 - Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column (NY Globe) 1919 - American Meteorological Society found 1920 - 1st US indoor curling rink opens (Brookline, Mass) 1922 - Mrs Theres Vaughn, 24, confessed in court to being married 62 times 1924 - Test Cricket debut of Bill Ponsford, who scored 110 in 1st innings 1928 - 1st autogiro (predecessor of helicopter) flight in US 1930 - James Weldon Johnson resigns as executive secretary of NAACP 1931 - Bradman scores 112 Australia v South Africa at cricket SCG 1931 - Joseph A Lyons (C) becomes premier of Australia 1932 - British Broadcasting Corp begins transmitting overseas 1933 - Electric Home & Farm Authority Inc, authorized 1934 - Japan agress to fleet treaty of 1922 & 1930 1939 - Russian air & ground attack against Finnish positions near Summa 1941 - German submarine U-574 sinks 1941 - Hitler takes complete command of German Army 1941 - US Office of Censorship created to control info pertaining to WW II 1943 - Military coup in Bolivia 1945 - Austrian Republic re-establishes 1946 - War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi 1948 - 2nd political action of Java/Sumatra 1948 - 8th largest snowfall in NYC history (15.3") 1948 - Cleveland Browns beats Buffalo Bills 49-7 in AAFC championship game 1948 - Philadelphia Eagles shutout Chicago Cards 7-0 in NFL championship game 1949 - Luxury passenger ship Aquitania demolished in Garelock Scotland 1950 - General Eisenhower named NATO commander 1950 - Tibet's Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion 1951 - Nazi General Christiansen leaves Netherlands 1955 - Carl Perkins records "Blue Suede Shoes" 1958 - 1st radio broadcast from space (President Eisenhower voice "To all mankind, America's wish for Peace on Earth & Good Will to Men Everywhere") 1959 - Walter Williams, claimed to be last survivor of Civil War, dies at 117 1959 - 1st Liberty Bowl game-Penn State beats Alabama 7-0 1960 - Fire aboard USS Constellation, under construction at Brooklyn (50 die) 1960 - Frank Sinatra's 1st session with Reprise Records (Ring-A-Ding-Ding) 1960 - Mercury-Redstone 1A reaches 210 km in test flight 1961 - British government begins decimal coin system 1961 - Indonesian President Sukarno proclaims general mobilization 1962 - Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia & Nyasaland 1962 - Street signs in Golden Gate Park approved by Park Commission 1962 - Transit 5A1, 1st operational navigational satellite, launched 1963 - Zanzibar becomes independent from UK 1965 - French president De Gaulle re-elected (Mitterrand gets 45%) 1968 - Norman Thomas, founder of the ACLU and the Socialist Party dies at 84 1969 - Beatle's 7th Christmas album is released 1971 - CBS airs "Homecoming: A Christmas Story," (introducing the Waltons) 1971 - NASA launches Intelsat 4 F-3 for COMSAT Corp 1971 - Stanley Kubrick's X-rated "A Clockwork Orange" premieres 1972 - Apollo 17 (last of Apollo Moon landing series) returns to Earth 1973 - Grenada adopts constitution 1974 - Dave Kryskow scores Washington Capitals 1st NHL shorthanded goal 1974 - Nelson A Rockefeller sworn-in as 41st Vice President 1975 - John Paul Stevens becomes a Supreme Court Justice 1975 - Ron Wood joined the Rolling Stones 1976 - Jo Ann Washam/Chi Chi Rodriguez wins Pepsi-Cola Mixed Team Golf Champ 1976 - President Brezhnev receives his 5th Lenin order 1976 - Piper Cherokee crashes into Balt Memorial Stadium upper stands, 10 minutes after Colts lose 40-14 to Steelers. No one seriously hurt 1977 - Nellie Tayloe Ross, 1st female governor, dies at 101 1977 - Dutch government of Van Agt/Wiegel forms 1978 - France performs nuclear test 1978 - Indira Gandhi ambushed in India 1980 - Anguilla becomes a British dependency separate from St Kitts 1980 - Iran requests $24 billion in US guarantees to free hostages 1984 - China PR Premier Zhao Ziyang & Margaret Thatcher sign Hong Kong Treaty 1984 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC 1984 - Fire at Wilberg Mine in central Utah killed 27 people 1984 - Scotty Bowman becomes NHL's all time winningest coach 1984 - UK signs agreement with China to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 1984 - Wayne Gretzky, 23, is 18th & youngest NHL-er to score 1,000 points 1985 - Mary Lund is 1st woman to receive a Jarvik VII artificial heart 1985 - STS 61-C scrubbed at T -13s because of SRB auxiliary power problem 1986 - USSR frees dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile 1986 - Jack Morris agrees to salary arbitration with former team Tigers & accuses owners of collusion against free agency 1986 - Michael Sergio, who parachuted into Shea Stadium during game 6 of the World Series, sentenced to 100 hrs of community service & fined $500 1987 - Gari Kasparov becomes world chess champion 1988 - NASA unviels plans for lunar colony & manned missions to Mars 1988 - Oklahoma's College football team gets 3 year probation 1988 - Unexploded WW II bomb found in Frankfurt, Germany-5,000 evacuated 1989 - American Airlines purchases Eastern Airline's Latin American route 1989 - Larry Bird (Celtics) begins NBA free throw streak of 71 games 1991 - Boris Yeltsin takes control of Kremlin 1991 - NY Yankee pitcher Steve Howe arrested for cocaine possession 1993 - Guinee General Lansana re-elected president 1995 - Queen Elizabeth askes Prince Charles & Diana to divorce
