On this day

November 29th

1775 - USA: In an important naval victory the American cruiser Lee captured the British brig Nancy, which was laden with guns and ammunition destined for Quebec. Nancy was renamed Congress and played a key role in forcing the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776.

1903 - Washington: An official report into the US postal service revealed the loss of millions of dollars through fraud.

1907 - London: King Edward VII appoints Florence Nightingale with the Order of Merit.

1915 - London: Women are employed as permanent staff for the first time at Scotland Yard.

1920 - Ireland: The IRA kills 15 army cadets.

1923 - Germany: An international commission under US banker William Dawes is set up to examine Germanys economy.

1929 - Antarctica: The first flight over the South Pole is completed by Lt. Commander Richard E. Byrd. The flight from a base at Little Antarctica over the Pole and back, with a stop at an advance fuelling station lasted 19 hours.

1933 - Berlin: An appeal court rules that being Jewish is insufficient grounds for sacking an employee.

1934 - London: Prince George, the Duke of Kent, marries Princess Marina of Greece.

1939 - Madrid: Spain ratifies its friendship pact with Germany, adding secret clauses allowing Germany to use Spanish ports, and promising co-operation on police and propaganda.

1940 - Berlin: The German High Command completes its planning for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia.

1942 - Tunisia: British paratroopers land near Oudna, but are repulsed by German forces.

1943 - New Guinea: Australian forces capture the Japanese supply base at Bonga.

1944 - Kumano Sea: The supposedly unsinkable Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano is sunk by the US submarine Archerfish.

1953 - Sudan: The pro-Egyptian National Unionist Party wins the first Sudanese General Election.

1954 - Washington: The US National Cancer Institute claims their is a definite link between Cancer and cigarette smoking.

1959 - USA: Winners at the Grammy Awards included, Best album - Come Dance With Me by Frank Sinatra; Best record, "Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin, Best Male Vocalist, Frank Sinatra, and Best Female Vocalist, Ella Fitzgerald.

1961 - New York: The USSR vetoes Kuwait's entry to the UN, pleasing the Iraqis, who claim Kuwait as part of Iraq.

1967 - London: Roy Jenkins becomes Chancellor in succession to James Callaghan who becomes Home Secretary.

1974 - London: The Prevention of Terrorism Act becomes law.

1976 - UK: The Sex Pistols gig at Lancaster Polytechnic is cancelled by the local council, with a spokesman saying "They didn't want that sort of filth in the town limits.

1980 - UK: Abba get their ninth and last UK no.1 single with "Super Trooper"

1985 - UK: Cricketer Ian Botham completes a charity walk from John O' Groats to Lands End for Leukaemia research.

1989 - Belgium: The government rejects Britain's plea to extradite Patrick Ryan a former priest accused of IRA terrorist offences.

1993 - London: Revelations that the government has been conducting secret negotiations with the IRA causes uproar in the House of Commons.

2002 - London: Three paintings by Sir Paul McCartney were bought for just £35 each at the Secret Postcard Sale at London's Royal College of Art. Members of the public gambled on whether they were buying works by celebrity artists at a fraction of their value, as each picture's creator was only made known after it was sold.

2009 - Somalia: Somali pirates capture the Greek owned oil tanker Maran Centaurus, 1,300 kilometres off the coast of Somalia.

2010 - London: Workers at the London Underground go on strike for 24 hours, causing widespread peak-hour disruption in the capital.

2011 - Los Angeles: Dr Conrad Murray is sentenced to four years involuntary manslaughter in connection to the death of Michael Jackson in 2009.

(29-11-2013 19:43 )4evadionne Wrote:  November 29th

1775 - USA: In an important naval victory the American cruiser Lee captured the British brig Nancy, which was laden with guns and ammunition destined for Quebec. Nancy was renamed Congress and played a key role in forcing the British evacuation of Boston in March 1776.

{SNIP}

A fighting ship called Nancy
I'm not surprised they renamed it.

November 30th

1913 - USA: Charlie Chaplin makes his film debut in Mack Sennett's "Making A Living."

1917 - France: The US 42nd "Rainbow" Division with troops from every state in the Union, arrive in France.

1922 - Munich: A crowd of around 50,000 people hear Adolf Hitler address a National Socialist Party Rally.

1924 - USA: Wireless transmission of photographs from London to New York were demonstrated by the Radio Corporation of America. It took 20 to 25 minutes for each photograph to be transmitted.

1926 - New York: "The Desert Song", an operetta by Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Sigmund Romberg, and Frank Mandel, opens at the Casino Theatre. It's title song became one of the years big hits.

1929 - London: The Road Traffic Bill is published, raising the speed limit, and establishing a fitness test for drivers.

1930 - Germany: The Nazis are victorious in municipal elections in Bremen.

1931 - UK: "His Master's Voice" and "Columbia" merge as "Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI).

1933 - London: Examinations of the skeletons of the alleged "Princes in the Tower" indicate they died in the reign of Richard III.

1934 - UK: The Flying Scotsman reaches a record speed of 97.5mph between London and Leeds.

1939 - Finland: The Russo-Finnish War (!939-1940) begins after Russian forces invade Finland. Finnish forces inflicted massive casualties on the Red Army, but the outnumbered Finns were forced to sue for peace in March 1940.

1941 - USSR: Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt is sacked as commander of Army Group South, after abandoning Rostov-on-Don, in contravention of an order from Hitler never to withdraw.

1942 - Europe: Deportation of Polish Jews approaches completion. Since the camps opened, 600,000 Jews have been murdered at Belzec, 360,000 at Chelmno, 250,000 at Sobibor, and 840,000 at Treblinka.

1944 - Chungking: Chiang Kai-shek recalls the Chinese 22nd and 38th Divisions from Burma, to boost the effort to defend Kunming, now threatened by the Japanese.

1950 - New York: The USSR vetoes a UN resolution calling for the withdrawal of Chinese troops from Korea.

1955 - London: The first floodlit international football match is played at Wembley, between England and Spain.

1956 - Chicago: The world heavyweight boxing championship is won by Floyd Patterson, who knocked out Archie Moore in the fifth round to win the title vacated by Rocky Marciano on March 27. Patterson at 21, was the youngest fighter to win the championship.

1963 - UK: "With The Beatles" becomes the first million selling album in the UK.

1968 - USA: Glen Campbell begins a five week run at No.1 on the US album chart with "Wichita Lineman."

1969 - USA: The Monkees make what would be their last live appearance for 15 years when they play the The Oakland Coliseum in California.

1971 - USA: Sly And The Family Stone top the US singles chart with "Family Affair."

1976 - London: The government publishes a bill to create separate assemblies in Scotland and Wales.

1982 - London: A letter bomb addressed to Margaret Thatcher from the Animal Welfare Militia explodes in Downing Street.

1984 - UK: Two miners are charged with murdering cab driver David Wilkie, killed by a concrete block dropped on his vehicle.

1988 - New York: The PLO leader Yasir Arafat, is refused a US entry visa to address the UN.

1989 - West Germany: A terrorist bomb kills Alfred Herrhausen, the head of Deutsche Bank.

1994 - Indian Ocean: The Italian cruise liner "Achille Lauro", hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1985, catches fire and sinks.

1996 - Outer Space: The asteroid "Toutatis" passes within 3 million miles of the Earth, causing alarm with its closeness.

2005 - Iraq: A new campaign against Iraqi insurgents begins with joint US-Iraq troops conducting "Operation Iron Hammer" in western Iraq.

2009 - UK: A new railway station opens in Workington, providing a link across the River Derwent after all but one of the bridges in the town were put out of action by floods.

2011 - UK: Up to two million public sector workers in the UK commence a 24-hour strike over Pension reforms, affecting schools, hospitals, airports, and government offices nationwide.

December 1st

1805 - USA: To renegotiate the Flint River Treaty of November 3, 1804, the United States invite six Creek Indian chiefs to Washington to meet with Secretary of War Henry Dearborn. The government agreed to pay the Creek Indians $206,000 for their 2 million acres of land. But the payments were made over more than ten years instead of in cash.

1905 - St. Petersburg: 20 officers and 230 guards are arrested after a plot to kill the Czar is uncovered.

1918 - Denmark: The Danish parliament passes an act to grant independence to Iceland.

1922 - Warsaw: Joseph Pilsudski resigns as President of Poland.

1935 - Middle East: Turkey, Iraq Iran, and Afghanistan sign a non-aggression pact.

1936 -Spain: 5,000 Germans land at Cadiz to join Franco's rebels.

1938 - London: The Government unveils plans for a "National Register", stating what everyone will do in time of war.

1940 - Southampton: The city undergoes its second night of heavy bombing.

1940 - London: Joseph Kennedy resigns as US ambassador to Britain.

1941 - Lithuania: Colonel Karl Jaeger of the SS Einsatzkommando reports his force has killed 230,000 Baltic Jews since June.

1942 - USA: Nationwide petrol rationing begins.

1943 - New Guinea: Australian troops capture Huanko on the Huon Peninsula.

1944 - Germany: The Third US Army under General Patton reach the main German defensive line on the Saar river.

1945 - Nuremberg: Rudolf Hess, after admitting he faked amnesia is ordered to stand trial with his fellow Nazis.

1954 - UK: Old Age Pension is raised 7/6d a week to £2.

1958 - USA: A catastrophic school fire, the third worst on record, sweeps through "Our Lady of the Angels Roman Catholic Parochial School" in Chicago, killing 87 children and three nuns.

1966 - UK: Tom Jones is No.1 on the UK singles chart with "Green Green Grass of Home. It stayed at No.1 for seven weeks, giving Decca its first million-selling single by a British artist.

1967 - UK: Tony O'Conner becomes Britain's first black headmaster at Warley School in Worcestershire.

1971 - USA: The Atomic Energy Commission reports that Twenty four underground nuclear tests have been carried out during the year at a Nevada Test site.

1973 - USA: Golfer Jack Nicklaus wins the Disney World Open, becoming the first professional golfer to hit a career total of $2,000,000.

1974 - Virginia: A jet airplane bound for Washington D.C, crashes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, killing 92 people.

1976 - London: The Criminal Law Bill is published, aiming to end jury trials for minor crimes such as petty theft.

1978 - El Salvador: Guerrillas kidnap two British Bankers.

1980 - London: Talking Heads play London's Hammersmith Palais, supported by U2.

1982 - UK: Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album is released. It spent 190 weeks on the UK album charts, and became the biggest selling pop album of all time, with sales of over 25 million.

1987 - USA: A Kentucky teacher loses her appeal in the US Supreme Court over her sacking after showing Pink Floyd's film "The Wall" to her class. The court decided that the film was not suitable for minors due to its bad language and sexual content.

1991 - UK: Shops across England and Wales open and defy the Sunday trading laws.

1993 - Paris: The obelisk in the Place de la Concorde is covered by a 22-metre condom to mark World AIDS Day.

1995 - Brussels: Javier Solana, Spain's Foreign Minister, is appointed as the new secretary-general of NATO.

1998 - London: Chris Ofili wins the £20,000 Turner Prize for his lively paintings, which include resin-coated elephant dung.

2005 - USA: A Buddhist Manuscript written on birch bark from the 1st or 2nd century, passes from a private collection to the University of Washington Library, becoming part of the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project.

2008 - Afghanistan: A suicide bomb attack kills 10 people including two policeman in Helmand's southern province.

2011 - USA: A mass shooting takes place in East Texas. Four children are killed, all less than five years old.

December 2nd

1865 - USA: Adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery, became a certainty when Alabama became the 27th state to ratify it, raising state ratifications to the necessary two-thirds. The declaration of ratification was issued on Dec 18.

1867 - USA: Charles Dickens gave his first reading in a theatre in New York City. It was his second visit to the US. Before the box office opened, people were standing in two lines, almost a mile long, waiting for tickets. 31 different editions of Dicken's collected works were published in 1867.

1907 - Canada: 730 people are rescued from the shipwrecked liner "Mount Temple" off Nova Scotia.

1915 - Western Front: General Joseph Joffre is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the French Army.

1921 - South Africa: The British Army hands over to the Union Forces, ending 125 years of South African service.

1926 - London: Stanley Baldwin ends emergency powers, assumed during the General Strike.

1929 - London: Britain's first 22 public telephone boxes come into service.

1936 - UK: Labour lose 81 seats in local elections.

1939 - UK: Conscription is extended to all men between the ages of 19 and 41.

1940 - Atlantic: The armed merchant cruiser HMS Forfar sinks the U-boat U-99 in the western approaches.

1941 - Libya: Rommel's troops recapture Sidi Rezegh to join the Panzer divisions previously cut off by the British.

1943 - USA: Fifteen atomic scientists, including the Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs, arrive from Britain to join the US atomic research project.

1944 - Burma: The 11th East African Division reaches the Chindwin at Kalewa.

1953 - UK: Two million engineering workers stage a 24-hour strike for more pay.

1954 - USA: Senator Joseph McCarthy is condemned in a vote of a special session of the US Senate over his conduct in Senate Committees.

1962 - USA: A new source of nuclear fuel is identified, equal in potential to US Uranium reserves. Deposits of Thorium, a radioactive element in the White Mountains of New Hampshire were found to be ten times greater than previously estimated.

1965 - USA: A two-hour power blackout hits a 13,200 square-mile area of the Southwest, affecting 50 cities, and four military bases in southwest Texas, southern New Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

1969 - Aberdeen: 98 people are arrested after pitch invasions during a Springbok match.

1970 - London: MPs reject a move to keep British Summertime in winter.

1975 - USA: A federal law prohibiting the mailing of firearms that could be hidden on one's person's was upheld by the Supreme Court.

1979 - Tripoli: The US embassy is attacked and set on fire by around 2,000 demonstrators.

1981 - UK: The TV licence goes up £12 to £46 for colour, and up £3 to £15 for black and white.

1982 - UK: Channel Four goes on the air.

1986 - USSR: 400 are feared dead after a Soviet liner sinks in the Black Sea.

1987 - London: Peter Brooke is appointed to succeed Norman Tebbit as Chairman of the Conservative Party.

1991 - Ukraine: Voters in the former Soviet republic, vote for independence.

1993 - Medellin: Columbian drug baron Pablo Escobar is trapped by the police and dies in a hail of bullets.

1995 - Singapore: Nick Leeson, the rogue trader responsible for the collapse of Barings Bank is sentenced to six and a half years in jail on two charges of fraud.

2000 - London: Thieves break in to Madonna's London home, forcing their way through a basement door, taking a set of car keys and loading up her fiancée Guy Ritchie's car with some of their possessions before driving off.

2004 - India: India announces a new survey and effort to decontaminate the area affected by the 1984 Bhopal Disaster.

2010 - California: The Boeing X-37B US Air force unmanned space plane, lands autonomously at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after seven-and-a half-months in space.

2012 - Scotland: The Scottish Premier League announces its expansion to 24 teams, split into two divisions of twelve.

December 3rd

1850 - USA: A new theatre, Brougham's Lyceum (later Wallack's Theatre) opens in New York City.

1868 - USA: The treason trial of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, began in Richmond, Virginia, before Circuit Court Judges Salmon P. Chase and John C. Underwood. The charge was dropped on February 15 1869 after President Andrew Johnson's proclamation of amnesty.

1875 - USA: Commissioner of Indian Affairs Edward Smith notifies all of his Cheyenne and Sioux agents to order any Indians off the reservations to return by January 31 1876, or face military action.

1900 - Philippines: 2,000 rebels surrender to US troops in northern Luzon.

1902 - South Africa: The British South Africa Company announces it is to spend £2 million on railways in Rhodesia.

1916 - Western Front: General Joffre is replaced by General Robert Nivelle as head of the French forces on the Somme, following an offensive failure.

1923 - UK: Seven people are killed and 46 are injured, after an accident at Nunnery Colliery in Sheffield.

1925 - New York: Police smash the biggest liquor ring since the start of prohibition, making 20 arrests.

1939 - South Africa: The Royal Navy Battlecruiser Renown and aircraft carrier Ark Royal arrive at Cape Town.

1940 - UK: The Food Ministry announces extra rations of four ounces of sugar and two ounces of tea per person for Christmas.

1942 - USSR: Soviet troops break through German positions west of Rzhev.

1943 - Warsaw: In reprisal for an act of sabotage, the SS and Gestapo execute 300 tram workers.

1946 - London: Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, and Lord Louis Mountbatten are made Knights of the Garter.

1955 - Cairo: Britain and Egypt sign an agreement granting independence to the Sudan.

1956 - USA: Guy Mitchell is at No.1 on the US singles chart with his version of the Marty Robbins song "Singing The Blues."

1965 - USA: Rolling Stone's Keith Richards is knocked unconscious by an electric shock on stage at the Memorial Hall in Sacramento, California, when his guitar makes contact with his microphone.

1966 - USA: President Lyndon Johnson visits the Armistad Dam a $78,000,000 joint US-Mexican project located between the two countries. He had a four-hour meeting with President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.

1971 - Switzerland: The Montreux Casino in Switzerland burns to the ground during a gig by Frank Zappa. Deep purple who were recording an album in the casino, immortalized the incident in their song "Smoke On The Water."

1975 -USA: Scientists claim uterine cancer is linked to Oestrogen taken for period pains.

1976 - Jamaica: An attempt was made on Bob Marley's life when seven gunmen burst into his Kingston Home injuring Marley, his wife Rita and manager Don Taylor. The attack was believed to be politically motivated.

1979 - USA: A rock concert disaster claimed the life of 11 youths who were trampled to death at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. Fans were scrambling to get seats to see The Who.

1984 - USA: Billy Ocean starts a two week run at No.1 on the US Singles Chart with "Caribbean Queen."

1987 - Australia: David Bowie plays the first of eight sold-out nights at the Entertainment Centre in Sydney. The shows were part of the 87 date "Glass Spider" world tour.

1988 -UK: Junior Health Minister Edwina Currie states most of the UK's egg production is infected with salmonella.

1992 - Manchester: Two IRA bombs explode, injuring 64 people.

1993 - London: Princess Diana announces she is to withdraw from public life.

1997 - London: The government announces its intention to ban the sale of beef on the bone.

2006 - Philippines: 804 people are feared dead or missing after the result of Typhoon Durian.

2009 - The Hague: Nigerian farmers sue SHELL over claims the oil firm polluted their land in the Niger Delta region.

2011 - USA: NASA announces that the Voyager 1 spacecraft launched in 1977 has almost reached the edge of the solar system. and is about to pass through the heliosphere into interstellar space.

December 4th

1844 - USA: James K. Polk is elected President of the United States.

1865 - USA: A Joint Committee on Reconstruction is established under the guidance of Republican Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, who became its chairman. Stevens led the radical Republicans, who were opposed to President Andrew Johnson's attempts to follow Abraham Lincoln's plans for reconciliation with the South. Stevens, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, and others were determined to reduce the South to territorial status unless it permitted black suffrage and accepted other pro-Republican conditions.

1905 - New York: 125,000 Jews march in sympathy over the plight of Jews in the Russian Empire.

1912 - Balkans: Turkey concludes an armistice with all Balkan allies except Greece, who refuse to sign.

1913 - Ireland: Royal Proclamation bans the import of arms into Ulster.

1914 - France: King George V meets King Albert of Belgium during a visit to the British Expeditionary Force.

1928 - London: A Council of State is appointed to act in the King's place as his health deteriorates further.

1934 - UK: The government announces return rail fares are to be cut to a penny a mile.

1939 - Moscow: Russia rejects a Swedish offer to mediate in the war with Finland.

1941 - China: A Japanese invasion force sails from Hainen and heads for Malaya.

1942 - Guadalcanal: US Marines complete a month of foraging in which they killed 400 Japanese at the cost of 17 of their own.

1943 USA: A Utah polygamy case, the first such case prosecuted by the federal government in many years, ended in the conviction of John Zenz, his wife, and his son on charges of transporting a 15-year girl over state lines for "purposes of debauchery." The elder Zenz had married her in a religious ceremony.

1951 - UK: 23 people are killed when a bus ploughs into a company of Marine cadets at Chatham.

1953 - Australia: A large oilfield is struck in North Western Australia.

1961 - UK: The government announces the birth control pill is available on the NHS.

1964 - USA: The FBI arrest 21 Mississippians on charges of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of three civil rights workers found murdered on August 4. On December 10 the charges against 19 of the men were dropped in Meridian, Mississippi. Charges against the other two were dropped at the federal government's request.

1965 - USA: Gemini 7, piloted by Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Commander James A. Lovell Jnr, is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 14-day, 206-orbit mission and rendezvous in space with Gemini 6.

1967 - London: Britain announces a ban on meat from countries with foot and mouth disease.

1968 - USA: A new medical definition of death was formulated by the American Medical Association in an effort to resolve controversy arising from organ-transplant operations. The AMA declared that a death had to be declared irreversible by two independent physicians before an organ could be removed from an apparently dead patient for transplanting. The term brain death was introduced by Dr Henry K. Beecher of Harvard on December 12 to denote irreversible death.

1969 - USA: Fred Hampton, Illinois chairman of the Black Panther Party, is shot and killed along with another party member in a pre-dawn police raid in Chicago.

1971 - UK: Led Zeppelin begin a two week stint at No.1 on the UK album chart with "Four Symbols", featuring the eight minute track "Stairway to Heaven" it stayed on the chart for one week short of five years, selling over 11 million copies.

1976 - UK: EMI record packers go on strike, after refusing to package the Sex Pistols single "Anarchy in the UK."

1981 - USA: Covert domestic intelligence operations by the CIA and other agencies were authorized for the first time in an executive order issued by President Ronald Reagan.

1983 -Northern Ireland: Two IRA gunmen are shot dead in a SAS ambush without raising their weapons.

1987 - USA: Madonna files for divorce from actor Sean Penn, then changes her mind a week later.

1989 - London: Lenny Kravitz makes his UK live debut at the Borderline Club.

1994 - Moscow: Sweden win Tennis's Davis Cup for the fifth time.

1996 - USA: NASA's Pathfinder probe blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, en route to Mars.

2006 - Iran: The government blocks Wikipedia. IMDb and nytimes.com, among many sites both commercial and informative.

2010: Easter Island: Dozens of Easter Islanders are injured in conflict of ownership as riot police evict them from there ancestral home.

2012 - USA: NASA announces plans to launch another curiosity-like robotic science rover to Mars in 2020.

December 5th

1782 - UK: The first depiction of the US flag in England was the work of John Singleton Copley, who painted the Stars and Stripes flying over a ship in the background of his portrait of Elkannah Watson, a well known sponsor of agricultural affairs in the US. Copley did this after hearing the speech in which King George III of England formally acknowledged the independence of the US.

1876 - New York: New York City's worst theatre fire occurred at the Brooklyn Theatre. 289 people from an audience of 1,200 were killed.

1904 - Far East: The Japanese destroy the Russian Fleet at Port Arthur, leaving only torpedo boats afloat.

1905 - London: The roof of Charing Cross Station collapses, killing six people, and destroying the Avenue Theatre.

1918 - Versailles: At a Peace Conference British representatives call for an end to conscription throughout Europe.

1921 - Moscow: The Communist Party admits that 20 million Soviet citizens are facing starvation.

1924 - Rome: Benito Mussolini introduces a bill enforcing widespread press censorship.

1929 - UK: 19 people drown at sea and 7 are killed on land as a 94mph hurricane sweeps across Britain.

1934 - Africa: Abyssinian and Italian troops clash on the Somali frontier.

1939 - Finland: Russian Troops reach the Mannerheim Line, Finland's main defensive position.

1940- Germany: Hitler gathers his generals to discuss his initial plans for the invasion of Russia.

1941 - Rastenburg: Hitler halts the Moscow offensive because of bad weather.

1942 - USA: Pilots testing the Thunderbolt fighter plane reach 725 mph, just short of the speed of sound.

1943 - UK: The US Eighth Army Air Force begins "Operation Crossbow" against German "Ski" rocket launch site in northern France.

1944 - Athens: British Tanks open fire on left-wing protest marchers after several days of street fighting.

1949 - New York: The UN votes to require member states to submit information on their military capability.

1950 - Korea: UN troops withdraw from Pyongyang.

1957 - Indonesia: All Dutch nationals are expelled from the country.

1958 - UK: Britain's first stretch of motorway, the eight-mile Preston bypass in Lancashire, is opened by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

1960 - USA: Elvis Presley begins a ten-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with "G.I. Blues."

1961 - USA: Broad participation in exercise by Americans was called for by President J.F. Kennedy. He noted that five of seven men called for the Army were rejected and complained that the US was becoming a nation of spectators rather than a nation of athletes.

1964 - USA: Lorne Greene star of the NBC-TV show "Bonanza" is at No.1 on the US singles chart with "Ringo."

1964 - USA: The Medal of Honour was presented to Captain Roger H. C. Donlon, US Army, for heroism in South Vietnam. He was the first person to receive the medal since the Korean War.

1967 - USA: More than 1,000 anti-war protesters attempt to close down a New York induction center. 264 people are arrested including Dr Benjamin Spock and the poet Allen Ginsberg.

1973 - UK: The government imposes a compulsory 50mph speed limit to save fuel.

1977 - Cairo: Anwar Sadat severs ties with Syria, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen, opponents of his peace move.

1978 - Moscow: The USSR signs a 20-year treaty of friendship with Afghanistan.

1981 - UK: Julio Iglesias is No.1 on the UK singles chart with "Begin The Beguine."

1987 - Birmingham: Hole-in-the-Heart baby David Barber dies 11 days after his operation.

1992 - UK: Whitney Houston starts a 10-week run at No.1 on the UK singles charts with "I Will Always Love You" from the movie "The Bodyguard."

1995 - Sri Lanka: Government forces capture Jaffna, the rebel Tamil Tigers capital for five years.

1998 - USA: R-Kelly begins a six-week stint at No.1 on the US singles chart with "I'm Your Angel" featuring Celine Dion.

2006 - USA: An outbreak of E. coli bacteria causes sickness in more than a dozen people on Long Island, including several who ate at Taco Bell.

2007 - Lithuania: Two British citizens are arrested after trying to smuggle 31lbs of the psychological drug "Khat" out of Vilnius.

2010 - Kazakhstan: Three Russian satellites fail to reach orbit after launching from Kazakhstan's Baikour Cosmodrome.

2012 - USA: American jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck dies in Norwalk, Connetticut at the age of 91 from heart failure.

December 6th

1877 - USA: Thomas A. Edison completed work on his phonograph. He filed for a patent for the device on Dec 15. The first full description of the phonograph appeared in Scientific American (Dec 22) at whose New York offices Edison demonstrated its operation.

1905 - Dublin: John Redmond opens the Irish National Convention, with a call for Home Rule.

1907 - USA: A coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia, one of the worst mine disasters in US history, kills 361 people.

1912 - London: Prince Louis of Battenberg and Sir John Jellicoe become First and Second Sea Lords respectively.

1914 - Eastern Front: The Germans capture the Polish city of Lodz.

1918 - London: The government grants an eight-hour day to British railway workers.

1922 - London: King George V proclaims the existence of the Free State of Ireland.

1923 - USA: The first broadcast of an official presidential address was that of President Calvin Coolidge's second annual address to Congress. The transmission was so clear that technicians in St. Louis, telephoned Washington D.C to ask about the occasional rustling noise, which they were told was caused by the President turning the pages of his address. The message was carried by several stations from Rhode Island to Texas.

1928 - South Africa: General Smuts announces his party will fight the coming elections on a platform of votes for women.

1933 - USA: In a major ruling on censorship, the ban on Ulysses by James Joyce was lifted by Federal Judge John M. Woolsey, who wrote in part: "[It is] a sincere and honest book....I do not detect anywhere the leer of a sensualist."

1936 - Mexico City: Mexico grants asylum to Leon Trotsky.

1939 - Germany/Poland: The SS shoot dead the inmates of Stralsund and Chelm mental asylums.

1940 - Italy: Marshal Pietro Badoglio resigns as Chief of the Italian General Staff - a post he held since 1925. He is succeeded by Ugo Cavallero.

1941 - Mediterranean: The British Submarine Perseus is sunk by a mine; one survivor escapes from a depth of 170 feet and swims ten miles to shore.

1942 - Tunisia: German troops push back the US 1st Armoured Division in the Eli Guessa heights.

1943 - Netherlands: Anton Mussert, the Dutch Nazi leader, announces 150,000 Dutch Jews have been deported to eastern Europe.

1944 - London: Queen Elizabeth gives her thanks to women for their war work, stating that their efforts are one of the main factors in the Allied victory.

1957 - USA: The first US attempt to launch a satellite fails when the Vanguard Rocket explodes on take off.

1959 - UK: Gene Vincent makes his live UK debut at the Tooting Granada in London, appearing as a guest on "The Marty Wilde Show."

1962 - USA: Edward Kennedy is elected as a Senator for Massachusetts.

1964 - London: Martin Luther King preaches a sermon in St. Pauls Cathedral.

1967 - USA: At a seminar on art forgery at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the museum revealed that one of its most prized pieces was a forgery. It was an elegant statue of a horse, estimated to be 2,400 years old when it was acquired in 1923. A gamma-ray shadowgraph confirmed that the forgery had been cast by a technique developed in the 14th century, but was probably no more than 50 years old.

1968 - London: Tory chiefs ban Enoch Powell from making a planned speech on Rhodesia.

1973 - London: Share values fall £2,000 million as Arab funds are withdrawn from banks.

1975 - USA: Reverend Charles Boykin of Tallahassee, Florida organizes the burning of records by the Rolling Stones and Elton John, claiming they were sinful. His reaction was from the results of a survey saying that 984 of the 1,000 local unmarried mothers, listened to rock music while having sex.

1978 - New York: Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols smashes a glass in the face of Patti Smith's brother Todd, during a fight at the Hurrah Club.

1983 - London: Swede Lars Ljunberg has Britain's first heart and lung transplant.

1988 - UK: 2,400 jobs are lost with the government closure of the last remaining ship-building yard on Wearside.

1990 - UK: Happy Monday's singer Shaun Ryder books himself into the Priory Clinic Rehabilitation Detox facility in Manchester.

1997 - London: Counting Crows kick off an eight date UK tour at The Forum.

2000 - UK: The Foo Fighters begin a five-date UK tour at the Manchester Apollo.

2003 - UK: Elvis Costello marries jazz artist Diana Krall at Elton John's UK mansion. It was Costello's third wedding.

2009 - UK: Queen Elizabeth II firmly warns newspaper editors in a letter to cease publication of personal pictures of the British Royal Family after years of being "hounded by Paparazzi."

2012: USA: NASA's twin GRAIL probes reveal the Moon's surface in unprecedented detail, showing unexpectedly deep-cracks, craters, and tectonic structures.

1874 - USA: Around 70 blacks were killed when they attacked the courthouse at Vicksburg, Mississippi. They rioted over the intimidation and ejection of a carpetbag sheriff by the whites of Vicksburg.

1876 - USA: Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin and 100 men of Companies G, H, and I Fifth Infantry find Sitting Bull and his village of 190 lodges. They pursued them south of the Missouri River to the mouth of Bark Creek. The Indians escaped into the Badlands.

1900 - London: The First British delegates are appointed to the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

1916 - Poland: Germans are reported to have deported one million Poles for forced labour.

1918 - Berlin: The Spartacist socialist movement call for a revolution in Germany.

1921 - London: King George V orders the release of all Sinn Fein prisoners following the signing of the Irish Treaty.

1929 - UK: English Turkeys are twopence a pound cheaper than the previous Christmas at 2/- for an eight-pound bird.

1930 - London: 13-year-old Yehudl Menuhin plays to over 5,000 people at the Albert Hall.

1931 - Germany: A report states the Nazis would consider the sterilisation of some races to ensure "Nordic dominance."

1934 - New York: Scientists produce anderosterone, the first hormone to be made artificially.

1939 - Europe: Denmark, Sweden, and Norway declare their strict neutrality in the Russo-Finnish War.

1940 - Germany: The RAF bombs the industrial city of Dusseldorf.

1941 - Poland: 700 Jews are deported from Kolo to nearby Chelmno.

1942 - USA: America's biggest battleship, the USS New Jersey is launched from the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

1943 - Italy: The US II and VI Corps launch a major attack in the Mignano Gap, attacking German positions at San Pietro and on Monte Sammucro.

1944 - Norway: Aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm carry out "Operation Urbane" laying mines and attacking shipping off Stavanger.

1946 - USA: 127 people die and nearly 100 are injured at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. The hotel which had no outside fire escapes or sprinkler systems, became a death trap, when the two elevator shafts and two narrow stairways caught fire. Many leapt to their deaths from the windows of the 15-storey building.

1953 - USA: Washington: The US Supreme Court considers banning racial segregation in US schools.

1958 - UK: RAF police and anti-nuclear protesters clash for the second day at the Thor rocket base at Swaffham.

1961 - London: The LCC approves the construction of 300ft blocks of flats, Britain's highest, in Hammersmith.

1962 - USA: Britain's second underground nuclear test takes place in Nevada.

1967 - USA: The New York Philharmonic celebrated the 125th year of its founding. Leonard Bernstein conducted a program that was a repeat of the orchestra's first program on the same date in 1842.

1972 - USA: Apollo 17, the sixth and last of the Apollo lunar landing missions, was successfully launched. It was crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt. During their lunar excursion (Dec 11-14), Cernan and Schmitt found what they described as orange soil, which was taken to be a possible indication of volcanic activity, and collected some 249lbs of rock and soil samples.

1975 - East Indies: Indonesian troops seize Dili, capital of Portuguese Timor.

1983 - Madrid: 93 people die when two airliners collide on the runway.

1986 - Washington: President Ronald Reagan authorises the use of US helicopters to ferry Honduran troops into battle against Nicaragua.

1991 - USA: U2 hit No.1 on the US album chart with "Achtung Baby."

1992 - USA: Mariah Carey's "MTV Unplugged" EP becomes the first Sony minidisc to be released in the US.

1997: UK: Shane MacGowan spends the night in police cells after being arrested in Liverpool following a show at the University. He was charged after he threw a mike stand into the crowd, injuring a fan.

2003 - USA: James Brown and Loretta Lynn are honoured for their contributions to US culture. They attended a gala by President George Bush at the Kennedy Arts Centre in Washington.

2009 - UK: Swindon becomes the first ever twin town of Walt Disney World in Florida.

2010: Sri Lanka: More than 76,000 people are left marooned following severe floods.