1163 - Hurricane hits villages in Holland/Friesland, causing floods
1620 - 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock
1650 - Johan de Witt installed as Dutch pension advisor of Dordrecht
1784 - John Jay becomes 1st US Secretary of State (foreign affairs)
1788 - Hue Tay Son becomes emperor Quang Trung of Vietnam
1829 - 1st stone arch railroad bridge in US dedicated, Baltimore
1835 - HMS Beagle sails into Bay of Islands (New Zealand)
1864 - General Sherman conquers Savannah
1866 - Cheyennes, Arapho's, Sioux, Fetterman Massacre
1891 - 18 students play 1st basketball game (Springfield College)
1898 - Scientists Pierre & Marie Curie discover radium
1907 - Dutch government of De Master falls due to war budget
1909 - University of Copenhagen rejects Cook's claim that he was 1st to North Pole
1910 - Explosion in coal mine in Hulton England, 344 mine workers dies
1912 - Denmark, Norway & Sweden declare neutrality in Comende war
1913 - 1st crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) printed in New York World
1919 - J Edgar Hoover deports anarchists/feminist Emma Goldman to Russia
1921 - Supreme Court rules labor injunctions & picketing unconstitutional
1923 - Nepal changes from British protectorate to independent nation
1929 - 1st US group hospital insurance plan instituted, Dallas TX
1933 - Newfoundland reverts to being a crown colony
1937 - 1st feature-length color & sound cartoon premieres (Disney's Snow White)
1939 - Hitler named Adolf Eichmann leader of "Referat IV B"
1941 - German submarine U-567 sinks
1942 - US Supreme court declares Nevada separation legal
1946 - Earthquake in South Japan, kills 1,086; Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" premieres
1948 - State of Eire (formerly Irish Free State) declares its independence
1949 - Dutch 1st Chamber accept soeveregnty of Indonesia
1951 - Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement
1952 - Broadway Tunnel opens in San Francisco
1954 - Dr Sam Sheppard is convicted of his wife, Marilyn's murder
1957 - Indonesia proclaims end to state of war
1958 - Charles De Gaulle wins 7 year term as 1st President of 5th Republic of France
1959 - Citizens of Deerfield IL block building of interracial housing
1961 - JFK & British PM MacMillan meet in Bermuda
1962 - US & Cuba accord, releases bay of pigs captive
1966 - USSR launches Luna 13; soft-landed in Oceanus Procellarum
1968 - Apollo 8 (Frank Borman, Jim Lovell & Bill Anders) 1st manned Moon voyage
1969 - Vince Lombardi (Redskins) coaches his last football game, losing
1971 - UN Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim as 4th Secretary General
1972 - Soviet Union signs a separate peace with East Germany
1973 - Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, US & USSR meet in Geneva
1975 - Madagascar adopts constitution
1976 - Patricia R Harris named Secretary of HUD; UN General Assembly passes a resolution declaring 1979-Year of Child
1978 - Police in Des Plaines IL, arrest John Wayne Gacy Jr for murder
1979 - Zimbabwe adopts constitution
1984 - USSR launches Vega 2 for fly-by of Halley's Comet
1985 - ARCO Anchorage runs aground near Port Angeles WA
1987 - Soyuz TM-4 carries 3 cosmonauts (Musa Manarov, Anatoly Levchenko & Vladimir Titov) to space station Mir
1988 - New York bound Pan Am jumbo jet (Flight 103) explodes over Scotland, killing all 259 people on the plane and 11 people on the ground; Vladimir Titov, Anatoly Levchenko & Musa Manarov return to earth (a year) with Chretien
1989 - Romania's dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's final speech (he is executed 12/25); US invades Panamá and ousts General Noriega; Vice-President Quayle sends out 30,000 Xmas cards with word beacon spelled beakon
1991 - El Sayid Nosair acquitted of killing Meir Kahane; Soviet Union formally dissolves 11 of 12 republics sign treaty forming Commonwealth of Independent States
1994 - Bomb goes off on #4 train on Fulton Street NYC

Birthdays
1117 - Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury
1518 - Mark van Vaernewijck, Flemish nobleman/politician
1537 - Johan III, king of Sweden (1569-92)
1804 - Benjamin Disraeli (Tory), British PM (1868, 1874-80)
1832 - John Henry Ketcham, Union Brevet Major General
1860 - Henrietta Szold,founder (Hadassah)
1874 - Juan Bautista Sacasa,President of Nicaragua (1932-36)
1879 - Joseph Stalin (Dzoegashvili), Russian dictator; murdered 11,000,000
1890 - Fred M. Vinson, US Supreme Court Justice (1946-53)
1891 - John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House (1962-70)
1896 - Carl Romme, Dutch catholic foreman/KVP-Minister of Socialist Business; Constantine Rokossovski Russian marshal/vice-premier of Poland
1898 - Ira S. Bowen, US physicist/astronomer (Mount Wilson/Palomar)
1909 - George Ball, lawyer/UnderSecretary of state
1918 - Donald Regan, White House staffer/US Secretary of Treasury (1981-85); Kurt Waldheim, Nazi/4th UN Secretary-General (1972-81)/Austrian President (1986-92)
1945 - Millie Hughes-Fulford, astronaut (STS 40)
1948 - Willem Vermeend, Dutch economist/UnderSecretary of Finance (1994-)

Passings
0918 - Conrad I, Duke of Franconia/German King (911-918)
1308 - Henry I the Child, 1st landgrave of Hessen (1256-1308)
1429 - Jacquemart de Bléharies Tournay, "heretic", burned to death
1597 - Petrus Canisius, Dutch jesuit/saint, dies at 76
1674 - Rutger van Haersolte, viceroy of Overijsselse, dies at about 66
1921 - P.B.S. Pinchback, major Reconstruction politician, dies at 84
1928 - Luigi Cadorna, Italian fieldmarshal (WWI, Caporetto), dies at 78
1937 - Frank Kellog, US foreign minister (Nobel 1929), dies at 80
1940 - F[rancis] Scott [Key] Fitzgerald, author (Great Gatsby, Zelda), of a heart attack in Hollywood at 44
1945 - George S. Patton, US general (Sicily/Normandy), in car accident in Heidelberg at 60
1994 - Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State, dies at 85
1997 - Michael Lyne air-marshal, dies at 78

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Glenn, Danny Elloy, USN (OK); A4C shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Commander - alive and well as of 1998

1967
Scurlock, Lee D., US Army SF (OH); shot while on rope ladder during extraction, and fell

1968
Allee, Richard K., USAF (NY); F105D shot down, remains returned 1996 - ID'd April, 1998

1972
The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their B52G was shot down:
Bebus, Charles J. (MN); gunner, remains returned November, 1988

Beens, Lynn R. (UT); crew, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Major - alive as of 1998

Heggen, Keith R. (IA); crew, Killed in Captivity - remains returned March, 1974

Johnson, Edward Harvey (OR); crew, remains returned May, 1989

Lynn, Robert Ray (IL); EWO, remains returned October, 1988

Nagahiro, James Y. (HI); pilot, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive as of 1998

Walsh, Donovan K. (NE); co-pilot, remains returned Ocgtober, 1988 - ID'd December, 1988

The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their B62G was shot down:
Craddock, Randall J. (OK); remains returned May, 1989

Darr, Charles E. (AR); remains returned 1988

Kirby, Bobby A. (GA); remains returned July, 1989

Lockhart, George B. (TX); remains returned April, 1989

Lollar, James Leon (MS); released by DRV March, 1973 - alive as of 1998

Perry, Ronald D. (TN); remains returned December, 1975

The following USAF personnel reported MIA when their AC130A was shot down:
Birch, Joel Ray (AZ); partial remains recovered in 1972

Dickens, Delma E., (GA); remains returned February, 1985

Elliott, Robert T. (AR); remains returned February, 1985

Fenter, Charles F. (AZ); remains returned February, 1985 - family disputes

Fuller, James R. (TX); remains returned February, 1985 - ID rescinded

Hart, Thomas T. III (FL); remains returned February, 1985 - ID rescinded

Kroboth, Stanley N. (GA); remains returned February, 1985

Lagerwall, Harry R. (NY); remains returned February, 1985

Liles, Robert L., Jr. (LA); remains returned February, 1985

MacDonald, George D. (IL); remains returned February, 1985 - ID rescinded

Meder, Paul O. (NY); remains returned February, 1985

Reaid, Rollie K. (AL); remains returned February, 1985

Walsh, Francis A. (CT); remains returned February, 1985

Winningham, John Q. (CA); remains returned February, 1985

Also reported MIA in 1972
Caffarelli, Charles J., USAF (PA); F111A shot down (w/Stafford)

Gould, Frank A. USAF (NY); B52G shot down (radar navigator), likely KIA - all other crew rescued)

Graustein, Robert Stewart, USN (ME); A6A shot down - remains returned December, 1985
Stafford,

Higdon, Kenneth H., USN (CA); A6A shot down(w/Nakagawa), released by DRV February, 1973 (injured) - alive as of 1999

Nakagawa, Gordon R., USN (CA); A6A shot down (pilot, w/Higdon), released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive as of 1998

Wade, Barton Scott, USN (IN); A6A shot down - remains returned December, 1985