A look at this week in years past
14 December
0644 Osman ibn Affan appointed 3rd kalief of islam
1825 Decembrist uprising in Russia against Tsar Nicholas I begins
1913 Greece formally takes possession of Crete
1924 Chiang Kai-shek occupies Hankou
1927 Iraq gains independence from Britain, but British troops remain
1937 Japanese troops conquer/plunder Nanjing
1939 Soviet Union attacks Finland – League of Nations drops Soviet Union
1944 German occupiers forbid use of electricity in parts of Holland
1950 UN General Assembly establishes High Commissioner for Refugees (Nobel 1954)
1960 Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) forms
1977 Egypt & Israel representatives gather in Cairo for 1st formal peace conference
1981 Israel annexes Golan Heights (seized from Syria in war of 1967)
1988 Spanish general strike to protest austerity measures
15 December
1593 State of Holland grants patent on windmill with crankshaft
1680 Tax revolt on Terschelling due to tax on cereal
1794 Revolutionary Tribunal abolished in France
1877 Thomas Edison patents phonograph
1922 IVVV (association) peace congress on war forms in Hague
1926 Facist national symbol elevated in Italy
1952 Christine Jorgenson is 1st person to undergo a sex-change operation
1961 Adolf Eichmann convicted of crimes against humanity in Israel
1979 Deposed Shah of Iran leaves US for Panamá
1986 150 killed during race riot in Karachi Pakistan
1995 Playboy goes back on sale after 36 year ban in Ireland
16 December
1631 Mount Vesuvius, Italy erupts, destroys 6 villages & kills 4,000
1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland & Ireland
1773 Big tea party in Boston harbor-Indians welcome (Boston Tea Party)
1838 Boers beat Zulu chieftain Dingaan in South Africa
1880 Republic of South-Africa forms
1897 1st submarine with an internal combustion engine demonstrated
1909 US pressure forces Nicaraguan President José Santos Zelaya from office
1915 Albert Einstein publishes his "General Theory of Relativity"
1931 German SPD begins Eiserne Front against fascism
1944 Battle of the Bulge begins in Belgium
1950 Truman proclaims state of emergency against "Communist imperialism"
1969 "War is Over! If You Want It, Happy Christmas from John & Yoko" posters begin appearing
1978 Ronald Reagan denounces President Jimmy Carter’s recognition of China People’s Republic
1997 President Clinton names his Labrador retriever, "Buddy"
17 December
1526 Ferdinand of Austria chosen as King of Bohemia
1718 England declares war on Spain
1777 France recognizes independence of English colonies in America
1862 General US Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
1875 Violent bread riots in Montréal
1914 Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities
1922 Last British troops leave Ireland Freestate
1941 Dutch & Australian troops lands on Portuguese-Timor
1959 "On The Beach" is 1st film to premiere on both sides of Iron Curtain
1963 West & East Berlin sign accord about travel rules
1970 Gdansk, Poland shipworkers strike
1973 Arab terrorists shoot passengers on Boeing 737 to Kuwait
1983 Bomb attack on Harrod’s war house in London, 5 killed, 94 injured
1993 Bangladesh moslems call for murder of feminist Taslima Nasrin
18 December
1719 Thomas Fleet publishes "Mother Goose’s Melodies For Children"
1774 Jews expelled from Prague, Bohemia & Moravia by Empress Maria Theresa
1849 William Bond obtains 1st photograph of Moon through a telescope
1898 Automobile speed record set-63 kph (39 mph)
1917 Soviet regiment (Stalin/Lenin) declares Finland Independent
1944 Nazi occupiers of Amsterdam destroy electricity plants
1956 Japan admitted to the United Nations
1960 General Meeting of United Nations condemns apartheid
1969 Britain abolishes death penalty
1970 Polish uprising fails
1994 Socialist Party (ex-communist) wins Bulgaria parliamentary election
19 December
1055 Seldjuken under Toghril Beg occupy Baghdad
1788 Chinese troops occupy capital Thang Long Vietnam
1843 Charles Dickens publishes "A Christmas Carol" in England
1910 1st city ordinance requiring white & black residential areas (Baltimore)
1941 Hitler takes complete command of German Army
1941 US Office of Censorship created to control info pertaining to WWII
1943 Military coup in Bolivia
1946 War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
1950 Tibet’s Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion
1961 Indonesian President Sukarno proclaims general mobilization
1980 Iran requests $24 billion in US guarantees to free hostages
1984 China People’s Republic Premier Zhao Ziyang & Margaret Thatcher sign Hong Kong Treaty
1991 Boris Yeltsin takes control of Kremlin
20 December
0069 General Vespasianus occupies Rome
1688 Prince Willem III’s troops pull into London
1780 England declares war on Netherlands
1879 Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park
1893 1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia
1922 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)
1924 Adolf Hitler freed from jail early
1939 Radio Australia begins overseas short-wave service
1956 Military coup under colonel Simbolon in Sumatra
1960 Auschwitz-commandant Richard Bär arrested in German Federal Republic
1963 Berlin Wall opens for 1st time to West Berliners
1974 Ethiopia becomes socialist one-party state
1977 1st Space walk made by G Grechko from Salyut
1983 PLO chairman Yasser Arafat & 4,000 loyalists evacuate Lebanon
1989 US troops invade Panamá & oust Manuel Noriega, but don’t catch him
1990 Pentagon warns Saddam Hussein that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15
1991 Paul Keating installed as premier of Australia
1999 Portugal returns Macau to China
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