December is the twelfth and last month of the
year in the modern Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. In Latin,
decem means "ten". December was also the tenth month in the Roman calendar until a monthless winter period was divided between January and February.
December is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. December in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to June in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa. In the Northern hemisphere, Winter begins on December 21, the Winter Solstice.
In Roman times, the Winter Solstice was the birthday of
Sol Invictus, the invincible sun, and the cause of much merry-making. Many of the traditions we associate with Christmas had their origins in pagan practices, not just in Rome, which is why the Puritans of old and modern Jehovah's Witnesses eschew the celebration of Christmas. (The PC Thought Police also dislike the holiday but for entirely different reasons: e.g., Santa's obesity "sends the wrong message;" his jolly "ho-ho" is "insulting to women," etc.)
800. Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican. Leo was acquitted, his enemies exiled, and on Christmas Day Leo crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor.
1135. King Henry I of England dies; and soon after, the country plunges into civil war. Henry I was the third son of William the Conqueror and the first born in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106. He was called Beauclerc for his scholarly interests and "Lion of Justice" for refinements which he brought about in the rudimentary administrative and legislative machinery of the time.
Henry's reign is noted for its political opportunism. He engineered his succession while his brother Robert was away on the First Crusade; and the beginning of his reign was occupied by wars with Robert for control of England and Normandy. He successfully reunited the two realms for the first time since his father's death in 1087. Upon his succession he granted the baronage a Charter of Liberties, which formed a basis for subsequent challenges to rights of kings and presaged the Magna Carta, which subjected king to law.
A reformer at heart, Henry established the biannual Exchequer to manage the treasury. He used itinerant officials to curb abuses of power at the local and regional level, winning the praise of the people. The differences between the Anglo-Saxon and Norman populations began to break down during his reign and he himself married a daughter of the old Saxon royal house. But he could not smooth out his succession after the disastrous loss of his eldest son William in the wreck of the White Ship. His named his daughter, the Empress Matilda, his successor but his death was followed by civil war known as the Anarchy.
1420. Henry V of England enters Paris. After military experience fighting various lords who rebelled against his father, Henry IV, Henry came into political conflict with the increasingly ill king. After his father's death, Henry rapidly assumed control of the country and embarked on war with France. From an unassuming start, his military successes in the Hundred Years' War, culminating with his famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt, saw him come close to conquering France. After months of negotiation with Charles VI of France, the Treaty of Troyes recognized Henry V as regent and heir to the French throne, and he was subsequently married to Charles' daughter, Catherine of Valois. Following Henry V's sudden death in France of dysentery, he was succeeded by his infant son, who reigned as Henry VI.
1521. Pope Leo X dies. Born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, Leo X was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest (only a deacon) to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses. He was the second son of Lorenzo de' Medici, the most famous ruler of the Florentine Republic, and Clarice Orsini. His cousin, Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, would later succeed him as Pope Clement VII (1523–34).
1640. Portugal regains its independence from Spain and João IV of Portugal becomes king.
1768. The slave ship
Fredensborg sinks off Tromøy in Norway during a storm.
1779. General George Washington's army settles into a second season at Morristown, New Jersey. Washington's personal circumstances improved dramatically as he moved into the Ford Mansion and was able to conduct his military business in the style of a proper 18th-century gentleman. However, the worst winter of the 1700s coupled with the collapse of the colonial economy ensured misery for Washington's underfed, poorly clothed and unpaid troops as they struggled for the next two months to construct their 1,000-plus "log-house city" from 600 acres of New Jersey woodland
Life was similarly bleak for the war-weary civilian population. With an economy weakened by war, household income declined 40 percent. Farmers faced raids from the British and their Indian allies. Merchants lost foreign trade. Even a great victory, such as the capture of British General John Burgoyne's army in October 1777, led to 7,800 more mouths to feed. As in 1776, the troops were eager to go home and many did. Although enlistment papers showed 16,000 men in Washington's ranks, only 3,600 men stood ready to accept his commands.
The British army faced a similar crisis. Civilians at home no longer shared British King George III's determination to keep the colonies within the empire. They too suffered from lost trade and increased debt endemic to war. To fill the royal army, the crown had to tolerate Catholics, which engendered religious violence. The war of attrition was quickly becoming one of contrition for both sides.
1822. Peter I is crowned Emperor of Brazil.
1824. Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the U.S. presidential election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task to decide the winner (as stipulated by the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution).
The previous few years had seen a one-party government in the United States, as the Federalist Party had dissolved, leaving only the Democratic-Republican Party. In this election, the Democratic-Republican party splintered as four separate candidates sought the presidency. The faction led by Andrew Jackson would evolve into the Democratic Party, while the factions led by John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay would become the National Republican Party and later the Whig Party.
This election is notable for being the only time since the passage of the Twelfth Amendment that the presidential election was thrown into the House of Representatives, as no candidate received a majority of the electoral vote. It is also often said to be the first election in which the president did not win the popular vote. This is hard to determine because a quarter of the states did not conduct a popular vote, but instead had the state legislature choose their electors.
As per the Twelfth Amendment, only the top three candidates in the electoral vote were candidates in the House: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William Harris Crawford. Left out was Henry Clay, who happened to be Speaker of the House. Clay detested Jackson and had said of him, "I cannot believe that killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the … duties of the First Magistracy." So Clay threw his support to Adams. John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, on the first ballot.
Adams' victory shocked Jackson, who expected that, as the winner of a plurality of both the popular and electoral votes, he should have been elected President. When President Adams appointed Clay his Secretary of State, essentially declaring him heir to the Presidency -- Adams and his three predecessors had all served as Secretary of State -- Jackson and his followers accused Adams and Clay of striking a "corrupt bargain." The Jacksonians would campaign on this claim for the next four years, ultimately leading to Jackson's victory in the Adams-Jackson rematch in 1828.
1862. President Abraham Lincoln delivers his State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress and speaks some of his most memorable words as he discusses the Northern war effort.
Lincoln used the address to present a moderate message concerning his policy towards slavery. Just ten weeks before, he had issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that slaves in territories still in rebellion as of January 1, 1863, would be free. The measure was not welcomed by everyone in the North -- it met with considerable resistance from conservative Democrats who did not want to fight a war to free slaves.
The November elections were widely interpreted as a condemnation of the emancipation plan. The Democrats won the New York governorship and 34 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, though the Republicans gained five Senate seats and maintained control of most state legislatures. Lincoln used the State of the Union address to present a more moderate position on emancipation. He mentioned gradual, compensated emancipation of slaves, which many moderates and conservatives desired, but he also declared that the slaves liberated thus far by Union armies would remain forever free.
1884. The Frisco Shootout takes place in the town of Frisco (now Reserve), New Mexico. Deputy Sheriff Elfego Baca arrested a carousing cowboy who had actually shot at him. The man's companions demanded his release, but Baca refused. Following threats from the cowboys, Baca took refuge in the house of Geronimo Armijo. A standoff with the cowboys ensued and some 80 cowboys gathered to attack the house. The cowboys fired more than 4,000 shots into the house, until the adobe building looked like Swiss cheese. Incredibly, not one of the bullets struck Baca. (The floor of the home was slightly lower than ground level; thus Baca was able to escape injury.) During the siege, Baca shot and killed four of his attackers and wounded eight others. After about 36 hours, the battle ended when the cowboys ran out of ammunition. When they had left, Baca walked out of the house unharmed.
In May 1885, Baca was charged with murder for the death of the one of the cowboys killed in the attack on the cabin. He was jailed to await his trial. In August 1885, Baca was acquitted after the door of Armijo's house was entered as evidence. It had more than 400 bullet holes in it.
1885. Although the exact date is unknown, the U.S. Patent Office acknowledges December 1st, 1885 as the first day Dr. Pepper was served.
1913. The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line. On the same day, the first drive-in automobile station opens in Pittsburgh.
1913. The Buenos Aires Subway starts operating in Argentina, it is the first underground railway system in the southern hemisphere and in Latin America.
1918. Iceland becomes a self-governing kingdom, yet remains united with Denmark. Transylvania unites with Romania, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed. The last is an uneasy marriage of historically antagonistic ethnic groups, artificially created by the victors of World War I. It did not withstand the test of time.
1925. The final Locarno Treaty is signed in London, establishing past-World War I territorial boundaries. The Locarno Treaties were regarded as the keystone of the improved western European diplomatic climate of the period 1924-1930, though tension persisted in eastern Europe. The "spirit of Locarno" was seen in Germany's September 1926 admission to the League of Nations, the international organization established under the Versailles treaty to promote world peace and co-operation, and in the subsequent withdrawal (completed in June 1930) of Allied troops from Germany's western Rhineland.
1934. In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot dead at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad by Leonid Nikolayev.
Kirov was close friends with Sergo Ordzhonikidze, and together they formed a moderate bloc to Stalin in the Politburo. Later in 1934, Stalin asked Kirov to work for him in Moscow. One theory suggests that he did this in order to keep a closer eye on him, this despite of the supposed fact that Stalin entirely controlled the NKVD. Kirov refused, however, and according to the same theory he became a competitor in Stalin's eyes.
On December 1, 1934, Kirov was killed by Leonid Nikolaev in Leningrad. Stalin claimed that Nikolayev was part of a larger conspiracy led by Leon Trotsky against the Soviet government. This resulted in the arrest and execution of Lev Kamenev, Grigory Zinoviev, and fourteen others in 1936. The death of Kirov ignited the great purge where supporters of Trotsky and other suspected enemies of the state were arrested. It has been speculated that Stalin was the man who ordered the murder of Kirov, but this has never been proven.
1941. During World War II, Mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, and the director of the Office of Civilian Defense sign an order creating the Civil Air Patrol. The United States was not yet in the war but Pearl Harbor was just days away.
1944. Edward R. Stettinius Jr. becomes Franklin Roosevelt's last secretary of state by filling the Cabinet spot left empty by the retirement of Cordell Hull. In November 1944, having enjoyed the longest tenure of any secretary of state, and in ailing health, Hull retired to devote his time to the creation of an international peace organization, which would become the United Nations.
Stettinius' tenure in that Cabinet post was unremarkable, consisting mostly of implementing a foreign policy to which he contributed little in the way of original ideas. Shortly after FDR's death, Harry S. Truman replaced Stettinius with James F. Byrnes, leaving Stettinius to become chairman of the first U.S. delegation to the United Nations. It was Cordell Hull, however, who would win the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the creation of the United Nations.
1955. In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the birth of the Civil Rights Movement.
1958. A fire a the Our Lady of Angels School in Chicago kills 90 students.
1960. American supermodel Carol Alt (see pictures) is born in East Williston, Long Island, New York.
Alt's first big break in modeling in 1980, when she was featured on the cover of
Harper's Bazaar magazine, but she gained real fame in 1982 when she was featured on the cover of the
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She has also been a consultant with the "Le Mirador" skin-care line. Alt was one of the first models to parlay fame in that area into success in other fields, such as acting, launching product lines, and book writing.
1963. The Beatles' first single,
I Want to Hold Your Hand, is released in the United States. Thus began the "English Invasion" that changed music in America for the rest of the decade.
1969. The first draft lottery since World War II is held in the United States.
1971. Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.
1974. A Boeing 727 carrying TWA Flight 514 crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on-board.
1981. A Yugoslavian Inex Adria Aviopromet DC-9 crashes in Corsica, killing 178.
1982. At the University of Utah, retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark Barney becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart. 61-year-old Clark survived for 112 days after it was implanted.
1989. East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist party the leading role in the state.
1991. Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
1992. "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher is sentenced to prison for shooting and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco, the wife of her lover, Joey Buttafuoco.
Fisher served seven years and has since carved out a career as a stripper. (See picture.)
2000. Vicente Fox is sworn in as President of Mexico, ending the 75 year control of the ruling PRI.
2004. Tom Brokaw anchors his last broadcast of
NBC Nightly News.
2010. Two walls collapse at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii during heavy rains, the third such incident in a month.
2011. A mass shooting occurs in east Texas, United States. Four children are killed, all less than 5 years old. Meanwhile, one person dies and 16 others are injured in three separate chain-reaction crashes involving 176 cars in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.
