Events

• 284 – Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers.

• 473 – The future Zeno I is named associate emperor by Emperor Leo I.

• 1183 – Battle of Mizushima.

• 1292 – (O.S.) John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.

• 1493 – Christopher Columbus lands on Puerto Rico.

• 1511 – Spain and England ally against France.

• 1558 – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.

• 1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.

• 1659 – Peace of the Pyrenees is signed between France and Spain.

• 1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Mozart, age 15.

• 1777 – Articles of Confederation are submitted to the states for ratification.

• 1796 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Arcole – French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.

• 1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.

• 1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.

• 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Krasnoi.

• 1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula is later named after him).

• 1827 – The Delta Phi fraternity, America's oldest continuous social fraternity, is founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York.

• 1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Greater Colombia.

• 1855 – David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia-Zimbabwe.

• 1856 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.

• 1858 – Modified Julian Day zero.

• 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins – Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee under siege.

• 1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony.

• 1871 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.

• 1876 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's patriotic Slavonic March is given its première performance in Moscow, to a warm reception by the Russian people.

• 1878 – First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy.

• 1903 – The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").

• 1905 – The Eulsa Treaty is signed between Japan and Korea.

• 1911 – The Omega Psi Phi fraternity, the first African-American fraternity at a historically black college or university, is founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

• 1919 – King George V of the United Kingdom proclaims Armistice Day (later Remembrance Day). The idea is first suggested by Edward George Honey.

• 1922 – Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI goes into exile in Italy.

• 1933 – United States recognizes Soviet Union.

• 1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. In addition, all Czech universities are shut down and over 1200 Czech students sent to concentration camps.

• 1939 – The Rome-Rio de Janeiro air route is created.

• 1947 – The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

• 1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain observed the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th Century.

• 1950 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is enthroned as the leader of Tibet at the age of fifteen.

• 1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland are evacuated to the mainland.

• 1957 – G-AOHP of British European Airways crashed at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause was a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft.

• 1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C. region.

• 1967 – Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports he is given on November 13, US President Lyndon B. Johnson tells his nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress."

• 1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator George Papadopoulos.

• 1968 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.

• 1969 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.

• 1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai massacre.

• 1970 – Luna program: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.

• 1970 – Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse.

• 1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook".

• 1973 – The Athens Polytechnic Uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.

• 1974 – Aliança Operário-Camponesa (Worker-Peasant Alliance) founded in Portugal, as a front of PCP(m-l).

• 1979 – Brisbane Suburban Railway Electrification. The first stage from Ferny Grove to Darra commissioned.

• 1983 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded.

• 1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29).

• 1990 – Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan becomes active again and erupts.

• 1997 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre (The police then kill the assailants).

• 2000 – A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills 7, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.

• 2000 – Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.

• 2004 – Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion USD and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.

• 2005 – Italy's national anthem, Il Canto degli Italiani, becomes official for the first time, almost 60 years after it is provisionally chosen following the birth of the republic.

Births

• 9 – Vespasian, Roman Emperor (d. 79)

• 1502 – Atahualpa, last emperor of the Inca (d. 1533)

• 1503 – Agnolo Bronzino, Italian painter (d. 1572)

• 1576 – Roque Gonzales, Paraguayan missionary (d. 1628)

• 1587 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch poet (d. 1679)

• 1612 – Dorgon, Manchu prince (d. 1650)

• 1681 – Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian (d. 1776)

• 1685 – Pierre Gaultier, French-Canadian trader and explorer (d. 1749)

• 1729 – Maria Antonietta of Spain, queen of Sardinia (d. 1785)

• 1749 – Nicolas Appert, French inventor (d. 1841)

• 1755 – Louis XVIII of France (d. 1824)

• 1765 – Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald, French marshal (d. 1840)

• 1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician (d. 1868)

• 1793 – Charles Lock Eastlake, British painter (d. 1865)

• 1799 – Titian Peale, American artist (d. 1885)

• 1816 – August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian composer (d. 1876)

• 1827 – Petko Slavejkov, Bulgarian writer (d. 1895)

• 1835 – Andrew L. Harris, governor of Ohio (d. 1915)

• 1854 – Hubert Lyautey, French general (d. 1934)

• 1857 – Joseph Babiński, Polish-French neurologist (d. 1932)

• 1866 – Voltairine de Cleyre, American anarchist (d. 1912)

• 1868 – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist (d. 1918)

• 1877 – Frank Calder, the first NHL President (d. 1943)

• 1878 – Grace Abbott, American social worker (d. 1939)

• 1878 – Lise Meitner, Austrian physicist (d. 1968)

• 1887 – Bernard Montgomery, British World War II commander (d. 1976)

• 1894 – Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi, Austrian politician (d. 1972)

• 1895 – Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher (d. 1975)

• 1895 – Gregorio López y Fuentes, Mexican author (d. 1966)

• 1896 – Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist (d. 1934)

• 1897 – Frank Fay, American actor (d. 1961)

• 1899 – Douglas Shearer, Canadian film sound engineer (d. 1971)

• 1901 – Walter Hallstein, German politician (d. 1982)

• 1901 – Lee Strasberg, Austrian director (d. 1982)

• 1902 – Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)

• 1904 – Isamu Noguchi, American sculptor (d. 1988)

• 1905 – Queen Astrid of the Belgians (d. 1935)

• 1905 – Mischa Auer, American actor (d. 1967)

• 1906 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese automobile pioneer (d. 1992)

• 1906 – Rollie Stiles, American baseball player (d. 2007)

• 1907 – Israel Regardie, Aleister Crowley's secretary (d. 1985)

• 1911 – Christian Fouchet, French diplomat (d. 1974)

• 1916 – Shelby Foote, American historian (d. 2005)

• 1920 – Camillo Felgen, Luxembourgish singer (d. 2005)

• 1921 – Albert Bertelsen, Danish painter

• 1922 – Stanley Cohen, American biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• 1923 – Bert Sutcliffe, New Zealand cricketer (d. 2001)

• 1923 – Hubertus Brandenburg, Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockholm

• 1923 – Mike Garcia, American baseball player (d. 1986)

• 1923 – Aristides Pereira, 1^st President of Cape Verde

• 1925 – Rock Hudson, American actor (d. 1985)

• 1925 – Charles Mackerras, Australian-born conductor

• 1927 – Robert Brown, American actor

• 1927 – Robert Drasnin, American musician and composer

• 1928 – Rance Howard, American actor

• 1929 – Norm Zauchin, baseball player (d. 1999)

• 1930 – Bob Mathias, American decathlete (d. 2006)

• 1933 – Orlando Peña, Cuban baseball player

• 1934 – Fenella Fielding, English actress

• 1934 – James Inhofe, American politician, senior senator from Oklahoma

• 1935 – Bobby Joe Conrad, American football player

• 1935 – Toni Sailer, Austrian skier

• 1936 – Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (d. 2005)

• 1937 – Peter Cook, British comedian (d. 1995)

• 1938 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer

• 1939 – Auberon Waugh, British author (d. 2001)

• 1940 – Luke Kelly, Irish folk music singer and banjo player (d. 1984)

• 1942 – Martin Scorsese, American film director

• 1942 – Khang Khek Leu, Cambodian politician

• 1943 – Lauren Hutton, American actress

• 1944 – Jim Boeheim, Hall of Fame basketball coach

• 1944 – Danny DeVito, American actor

• 1944 – Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect

• 1944 – Lorne Michaels, Canadian producer

• 1944 – Tom Seaver, Baseball player

• 1944 – Gene Clark, American singer and songwriter (The Byrds) (d. 1991)

• 1945 – Elvin Hayes, American basketball player

• 1945 – Roland Joffé, Anglo-French film director

• 1946 – Terry E. Branstad, Governor of Iowa

• 1946 – Martin Barre, English rock musician (Jethro Tull)

• 1947 – Steven E. de Souza, American scriptwriter

• 1947 – Inky Mark, Canadian politician

• 1948 – Howard Dean, American politician

• 1948 – East Bay Ray, American musician

• 1949 – John Boehner, American politician

• 1949 – Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, Prime Minister of Vietnam

• 1950 – Tom Walkinshaw, Scottish race car driver and race team owner

• 1951 – Stephen Root, American actor

• 1951 – Dean Paul Martin, American singer and actor (d. 1987)

• 1951 – Butch Davis, American football coach

• 1952 – Ties Kruize, Dutch field hockey player

• 1954 – Mark Brandon Read, Australian criminal

• 1955 – Dennis Maruk, Canadian hockey player

• 1955 – Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 2007)

• 1957 – Debbie Thrower, news reader

• 1958 – Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, American actress

• 1959 – Terry Fenwick, English footballer

• 1960 – Jonathan Ross, British TV presenter

• 1960 – Kirk Fogg, American actor

• 1960 – RuPaul, American drag entertainer

• 1960 – Mandy Yachad, former South African cricketer

• 1961 – Robert Stethem, U.S. Navy Seabee diver murdered by terrorists on TWA Flight 847 (d. 1985)

• 1962 – Dédé Fortin, Canadian singer (Les Colocs) (d. 2000)

• 1963 – Randy Black, Canadian drummer (Annihilator)

• 1964 – Ralph Garman, American actor and radio personality

• 1964 – Mitch Williams, Baseball player

• 1965 – Amanda Brown, Australian musician (The Go-Betweens) and composer

• 1966 – Jeff Buckley, American musician (d. 1997)

• 1966 – Sophie Marceau, French actress

• 1966 – Daisy Fuentes, Cuban model and actress

• 1966 – Kate Ceberano, Australian singer

• 1966 – Richard Fortus, American guitarist (Guns N' Roses)

• 1968 – Amber Michaels, German pornographic actress

• 1968 – Sean Miller, American basketball coach

• 1969 – Jean-Michel Saive, Belgian table tennis player

• 1969 – Ryotaro Okiayu, Japanese voice actor

• 1970 – Paul Allender, British guitarist (Cradle of Filth)

• 1972 – Leonard Roberts, American actor

• 1972 – Joanne Goode, English badminton player

• 1972 – Kimya Dawson, American singer

• 1973 – Andreas "Vintersorg" Hedlund, Swedish singer (Vintersorg)

• 1973 – Eli Marrero, American baseball player

• 1973 – Bernd Schneider, German footballer

• 1973 – Alexei Urmanov, Russian figure skater

• 1974 – Leslie Bibb, American actress

• 1974 – Berto Romero, Spanish humorist

• 1975 – Lord Infamous, Rapper

• 1976 – Diane Neal, American actress

• 1976 – Brandon Call, American actor

• 1977 – Paul Shepherd, English footballer

• 1977 – Ryk Neethling, South African swimmer

• 1978 – Glen Air, Former Rugby League player for London Broncos

• 1978 – Zoë Bell, New Zealand actress-stuntwoman

• 1978 – Reggie Wayne, American football player

• 1978 – Rachel McAdams, Canadian actress

• 1979 – Matthew Spring, English footballer

• 1980 – Brad Bradley, American professional wrestler

• 1980 – Isaac Hanson, American musician (Hanson)

• 1980 – Mercedes Martinez, American professional wrestler

• 1981 – Sarah Harding, English singer (Girls Aloud)

• 1982 – Katie Feenstra, American basketball player

• 1982 – Yusuf Pathan, Indian cricketer

• 1983 – Yiannis Bourousis, Greek basketball player

• 1983 – Ryan Braun, American baseball player

• 1983 – Trevor Crowe, American baseball player

• 1983 – Scott Moore, American baseball player

• 1983 – Nick Markakis, American baseball player

• 1983 – Harry Lloyd, English actor

• 1983 – Christopher Paolini, American novelist

• 1984 – Park Han-byul, South Korean actress

• 1987 – Kat DeLuna, American singer

• 1990 – Shanica Knowles, American actress

• 1992 – Darian Weiss, American actor

• 1994 – Raquel Castro, American actress

Deaths

• 375 – Valentinian I, Roman Emperor (b. 321)

• 594 – Gregory of Tours, bishop and historian (b. c. 530s|539)

• 641 – Emperor Jomei of Japan (b. 593)

• 680 – Hilda of Whitby (b. 614)

• 885 – Queen Liutgard of Saxony (b. c. 845)

• 1231 – Elisabeth of Hungary, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary (b. 1207)

• 1302 – St. Gertrude the Great (b. 1256)

• 1326 – Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, English politician (b. 1285)

• 1494 – Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)

• 1558 – Mary I of England (b. 1516)

• 1558 – Reginald Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1500)

• 1562 – Antoine de Bourbon, father of Henry IV of France (b. 1518)

• 1592 – John III of Sweden (b. 1537)

• 1600 – Kuki Yoshitaka, Japanese naval commander (b. 1542)

• 1632 – Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, Bavarian field marshal (b. 1594)

• 1643 – Jean-Baptiste Budes, Comte de Guébriant, Marshal of France (b. 1602)

• 1648 – Thomas Ford, English composer

• 1665 – John Earle, English bishop

• 1668 – Joseph Alleine, English preacher (b. 1634)

• 1690 – Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier, French soldier (b. 1610)

• 1708 – Ludolf Backhuysen, Dutch painter (b. 1631)

• 1713 – Abraham van Riebeeck, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1653)

• 1720 – Calico Jack, English pirate (b. 1682)

• 1747 – Alain-René Lesage, French writer (b. 1668)

• 1768 – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1693)

• 1776 – James Ferguson, British astronomer (b. 1710)

• 1780 – Bernardo Bellotto, Italian painter (b. 1720)

• 1794 – Jacques François Dugommier, French general (b. 1738)

• 1796 – Catherine II of Russia, Empress of Russia (b. 1729)

• 1808 – David Zeisberger, Moravian missionary (b. 1721)

• 1818 – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of King George III (b. 1744)

• 1835 – Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, French painter (b. 1758)

• 1849 – Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest and miracle-worker (b. 1794)

• 1858 – Robert Owen, British father of the cooperative movement (b. 1771)

• 1865 – James McCune Smith, African-American doctor and abolitionist (b. 1813)

• 1897 – George Hendric Houghton, American Protestant Episcopal clergyman (b. 1820)

• 1902 – Hugh Price Hughes, Methodist Social Reformer (b. 1847)

• 1905 – Adolphe of Luxembourg, (b. 1817)

• 1910 – Ralph Johnstone, pioneer pilot, 1st 'American' pilot killed in the crash of an airplane, Denver, Colorado (b. 1886)

• 1917 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (b. 1840)

• 1921 – Pa Chay Vue, Hmong Nationalist

• 1922 – Robert Comtesse, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1847)

• 1928 – Lala Lajpat Rai, Indian author, politician, & freedom fighter (b. 1865)

• 1929 – Herman Hollerith, American statistician (b. 1860)

• 1936 – Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Austrian contralto (b. 1861)

• 1937 – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer (b. 1860)

• 1938 – Ante Trumbić, Croatian politician (b. 1864)

• 1940 – Eric Gill, British sculptor (b. 1882)

• 1940 – Raymond Pearl, American biologist (b. 1879)

• 1942 – Ben Reitman, American anarchist, physician (b. 1879)

• 1947 – Victor Serge, Russian anarchist, novelist, and historian (b. 1890)

• 1955 – James P. Johnson, American pianist and composer (b. 1894)

• 1958 – Mort Cooper, baseball player (b. 1913)

• 1959 – Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer (b. 1887)

• 1968 – Mervyn Peake, British writer (b. 1911)

• 1973 – Mirra Alfassa, "The Mother", Sri Aurobindo Ashram (b. 1878)

• 1979 – John Glascock, British bassist (Jethro Tull) (b. 1951)

• 1980 – Jacqueline Hill – last victim of the Yorkshire Ripper in Headingley, Leeds

• 1982 – Eduard Tubin, Estonian composer (b. 1905)

• 1982 – Leonid Borisovitch Kogan, Russian violinist (b. 1924)

• 1986 – Georges Besse, French automobile executive (b. 1927)

• 1987 – Paul Derringer, baseball player (b. 1906)

• 1989 – Gus Farace, American gangster (b. 1960)

• 1990 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)

• 1992 – Audre Lord, Caribbean-American writer, poet, and activist (b. 1934)

• 1993 – Gérard D. Lévesque, Canadian politician (b. 1926)

• 1995 – Alan Hull, English Rock Musician (Lindisfarne) (b. 1945)

• 1998 – Esther Rolle, American actress (b. 1920)

• 2000 – Louis Eugène Félix Néel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)

• 2001 – Michael Karoli, German guitarist (b. 1948)

• 2002 – Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat (b. 1915)

• 2002 – Frank McCarthy, American artist and realist painter (b. 1924)

• 2003 – Arthur Conley, American singer (b. 1946)

• 2003 – Don Gibson, American singer (b. 1928)

• 2004 – Mikael Ljungberg, Swedish wrestler (b. 1970)

• 2004 – Alexander Ragulin, Russian hockey player (b. 1941)

• 2005 – Marek Perepeczko, Polish actor (b. 1942)

• 2006 – Ruth Brown, American blues singer (b. 1928)

• 2006 – Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer (b. 1927)

• 2006 – Bo Schembechler, American football coach (b. 1929)

• 2006 – Flo Sandon's, Italian singer (b. 1924)

• 2008 – Pete Newell, American basketball coach (b. 1915)

• 2008 – George Stephen Morrison, American admiral and father of The Doors' lead singer Jim Morrison (b. 1919)

Holidays and observances

• International Students' Day – Commemorates the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague.

• Czech Republic and Slovakia – Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day – Commemorates the beginning of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

• Greece – Polytechneio (Πολυτεχνείο) – Commemorates the 1973 student protests against the junta of the colonels.

• Japan – Shogi Day. (More accurately 17th day on Kannazuki; 17th November in modern calendar)

• R.C. Saints – Elisabeth of Hungary; Gregory of Tours; Hilda of Whitby; Hugh of Lincoln; Acisclus