December 31st History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 31st History HighlightsThe first word most people say every year is “happy.”1600 – The British East India Company was chartered. At one point it had a hand in 50% of the whole world’s trade and business.1907 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration was held in Times Square… Read More
Tag: December
December 30th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 30th History Highlights1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois killed at least 605 people.1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was murdered by a group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was found in a Moscow… Read More
December 29th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 29th History Highlights1851 – The first American YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) opened in Boston, Massachusetts.1890 – The US Cavalry killed 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.1916 – James Joyce’s book Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was publishedIf… Read More
December 28th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 28th History Highlights1895 – Louis and Auguste Lumiere screened a series of short movie scenes from everyday French life (and charged admission for the viewing) at the Grand Cafe in Paris.1958 – Baltimore Colts defeated the New York Giants in the first (ever) National Football League sudden-death overtime… Read More
December 27th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 27th History Highlights1927 – Kern and Hammerstein’s musical play Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.1945 – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was founded with an agreement by 29 nations.1947 – The Howdy Doody TV show premiered… Read More
December 26th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 26th History Highlights1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announced the isolation of radium.1908 – Jack Johnson became the first black heavyweight boxing champion, after defeating Tommy Burns in Australia.1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union formally dissolved the Soviet Union.If you were born on December 26th,You… Read More
Christmas History, Trivia, and Fun FactsChristmas History HighlightsSt. Nicholas lived in Turkey, where he served as a bishop in the town of Myra, during the fourth century. Sinter Klaas (St. Nicholas) brought gifts at Christmastime, according to legend, either through an open window or down a chimney. He was generous, often supplying dowries for young… Read More
December 25th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 25th History Highlights800 – The coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.1066 – William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy was crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.1758 – Halley’s Comet was sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, per Edmund Halley’s prediction.1776 – George Washington crossed the… Read More
December 24th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 24th History Highlights1814 – Representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.1818 – The first performance of Silent Night took place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria1851 – The Library of Congress in Washington,… Read More
December 23rd History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 23rd History Highlights1913 – The Federal Reserve Act was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.1947 – The transistor was demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York topped out at 1,368… Read More
December 22nd History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 22nd History HighlightsDecember 22, **** Birthday (fictional) Queen Elsa of Arendelle, Frozen, Disney1956 – Colo, born at the Columbus, Ohio Zoo, was the first gorilla born in Peru.December 22, 2012 (fiction) After a lot of planning, the alien colonization began on Earth on The X-Files, TV.1990 – Lech… Read More
December 21st History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 21st History Highlights1620 – The Pilgrims reached Plymouth.1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full-length animated feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre.1988 – Pan American Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two hundred fifty-nine people on board the New York-bound Boeing 747 were… Read More
December 20th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 20th History Highlights1832 – England’s HMS Clio, under the command of Captain Onslow, arrived at Port Egmont, taking possession of the Falkland Islands1971 – The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders was founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.1989 – The United States… Read More
December 19th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 19th History Highlights1776 – Thomas Paine published one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled The American Crisis.1998 – President Bill Clinton was impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached.1917 – The first… Read More
December 18th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 18th History Highlights1958 – Project SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite, was launched.1912 – Piltdown Man’s skull was found in a gravel pit in Sussex, England. At first, it was believed to be the ‘missing link’ between man and early primates but was later discovered to be a… Read More
December 17th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 17th History Highlights1843 – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published.1903 – The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.1969 – Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closed its study of UFOs.2101 – The… Read More
December 16th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 16th History Highlights1773 – The Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty, disguised as Mohawk Indians, dumped hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.1944 – The Battle of the Bulge1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain… Read More
December 15th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 15th History Highlights1791 – The Bill of Rights was added to the United States Constitution.1933 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.1973 – The American Psychiatric Association voted 13 to 0 to remove… Read More
December 14th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 14th History Highlights1287 – St. Lucia’s flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapsed, killing over 50,000 people.1780 – Alexander Hamilton married Elizabeth Schuyler at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York. #hamilton1900 – Max Planck presented a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law. (Quantum Mechanics)1962… Read More
December 13th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 13th History Highlights1294 – Saint Celestine V resigned from the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.1962 – NASA launched Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in Earth orbit.1972 – Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt began the third… Read More
December 12th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 12th History Highlights1787 – Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the United States Constitution.1901 – Guglielmo Marconi sent the first Atlantic wireless (radio) transmission (three beeps) from Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland, Canada.1913 – Originally stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris on August 11, 1911: Leonardo da… Read More
Over 100 Christmas JokesWhere do snowmen keep their money?In a snowbank.What’s the Grinch’s least favorite band?The Who!How is Christmas exactly like your job?You do all the work, and some fat guy in a suit gets all the credit.What does Santa suffer from if he gets stuck in a chimney?Claustrophobia!What do you call an obnoxious reindeer?Rude-olph.Who… Read More
December 11th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 11th History Highlights1789 – The University of North Carolina was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.December 11, 1941 – Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.1946 – UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) was founded.2001 – The People’s Republic of China joined the World… Read More
December 10th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 10th History Highlights1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was published.1884 – Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published.1901 – The first Nobel Prizes were awarded. President Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt became the first person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.If you were born on… Read More
December 9th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 9th History Highlights1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street, the world’s longest-running television soap opera, was broadcast in the United Kingdom.December 9, 19** Birthday (fictional) Jimmy Olsen, DC ComicsDecember 9, 19** Birthday (fictional) Green Arrow, Oliver Queen, DC Comics1979 -The eradication of the smallpox virus was certified.If… Read More
December 8th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 8th History Highlights1952 – On the CBS show I Love Lucy, a pregnancy was acknowledged in a TV show for the first time, with the announcement that ‘Me and my husband are about to have a blessed event.’1886 – The American Federation of Labor was founded2013 – Metallica… Read More
December 7th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 7th History Highlights1787 – Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.December 7, 1891 Birthday (fictional) Vito Corleone, The Godfather1941 – Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA attacked by Japan.2002 – In Amsterdam, Netherlands, two Van Gogh paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum. The two… Read More
December 6th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 6th History Highlights1897 – London became the world’s first city license taxicabs.December 6, 1928 Birthday (fictional) Hagrid, Harry Potter1969 – The Altamont Free Concert, featuring Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the Rolling Stones. It also had several deaths, and… Read More
December 5th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 5th History Highlights1766 – In London, auctioneer James Christie held his first sale/auction.1955 – The Montgomery Bus Boycott began, led by E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks.1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL – CIO.1865 – The 13th… Read More
December 4th History, Trivia, and Fun FactsDecember 4th History HighlightsThe National Grange was founded in 1786.1918 – President Woodrow Wilson sailed for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.December 4, 1942 Birthday (fictional) The Dude, The Big Lebowski1954 – The first Burger… Read More