1971 - Libya announced the nationalization of British Petroleum's assets.

2002 - Iraq delivered its arms declaration to the United Nations. The 12,000-page report denied that Iraq had any weapons of mass destruction.

2004 - Egypt's state-run news agency, MENA, reported that it had arranged a way to end Israeli-Palestinian violence and move toward a peace accord. The report said that Cairo would call for a July 2005 peace conference in Washington that would include all parties (Israel, the Palestinians, the United States and the European Union).

2005 - In Baghdad, Iraq, the trial of Saddam Hussein adjourned for two weeks until December 21. Hussein did not attend the public session.






"I am not afraid of execution."
- Saddam Hussein during his trial on December 5, 2005.  



0185 - Emperor Lo-Yang, China sees supernova (MSH15-52?)
0283 - St Eutychian ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1354 - Margaretha van Bavarian's son earl Willem V signs peace treaty
1646 - Princess Louise Henriette (19) marries monarch Frederik Henry
1741 - Elisabeth Petrovna becomes tsarina of Russia
1783 - Theatre Royal opens in Covent Garden, London
1783 - William Pitt Jr (24) becomes British premier
1787 - Delaware becomes 1st state to ratify constitution
1808 - James Madison elected US pres/George Clinton vice-pres
1835 - German railway Neurenberg-Furth opens
1836 - Martin Van Buren elected 8th president
1842 - NY Philharmonic's 1st concert
1862 - Battle of Hartsville, TN
1862 - Battle of Prairie Grove, AR
1864 - Skirmish at Ebenezer Creek/Cypress Swamp, Georgia
1868 - Jesse James gang robs bank in Gallatin Missouri, kills 1
1872 - HMS Challenger sets sail on 3«-year world oceanographic cruise
1875 - Natives Sons of the West organized
1876 - NY Mutuals and Phila A's expelled from NL for not completing sked
1877 - Thomas A Edison demonstrates the gramophone
1885 - 49th Congress (1885-87) convenes
1889 - Gilbert and Sullivans "Gondoliers," premieres in London
1891 - 52nd Congress (1st to appropriate $1 billion) holds 1st session
1895 - Battle at Amba Alagi: Abyssinians beat Italian armies
1907 - Eugene Corri becomes 1st referee in a boxing ring
1909 - Leo Baekeland, Yonkers, patents 1st thermosetting plastic (Bakelite)
1911 - Natl Hockey Assn forms with New Westminister, Vancouver and Victoria
1911 - Leslie J Stuarts musical "Betsy," premieres in NYC
1912 - Bust of Queen Nefertete found in El-Amarna, Egypt
1916 - British govt of David Lloyd George forms
1916 - David Lloyd George replaces resigning H H Asquith as British PM
1917 - US becomes 13th country to declare war on Austria during World War I
1920 - NSW make 802 against South Australia, then Mailey takes 8-81
1920 - USPD-KPD parties merge into Vereinigte Communist Party of Germany
1921 - KWG-AM in Stockton CA begins radio transmissions
1924 - German election (Social Democrats win/Nazis and Communists lose)
1925 - Biltmore Theater opens at 261 W 47th St NYC
1925 - No‰l Coward's "Easy Virtue," premieres in NYC
1926 - Gas refrigerator patented
1929 - Bradman scores 124 for Woodfull's XI against Ryder's XI 166 mins
1929 - Leo Diegel wins PGA golf tournament
1930 - 13th PGA Championship: Tommy Armour at Fresh Meadows CC Flushing
1931 - Bradman scores 219 NSW v South Africa, 234 mins, 15 fours
1932 - 1st gyro-stabilized vessel to cross Atlantic arrives in NY
1934 - Wiley Post discovers jet stream
1935 - CFL Grey Cup: Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Ham Tigers, 18-12 at Hamilton
1937 - Dutch Minister Romme proclaims married women are forbidden to work
1937 - Red Sox acquire the contract of 19-year-old Ted Williams
1937 - Russian chess player Aljechin recaptures world title from Max Euwe
1938 - Philip Barry's "Here Come the Clowns," premieres in NYC
1938 - W9XZY broadcasts facsimile of St Louis Post-Dispatch by radio
1939 - William Walton's violinist concert premieres in Cleveland
1939 - Lou Gehrig, 36, is elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
1940 - 28th CFL Grey Cup (Game 2): Toronto Balmy Beach defeats Ottawa, 12-5
1940 - North Africa: British counter offensive under general O'Connor
1941 - 1st Japanese submarine sunk by a US ship (USS Ward)
1941 - Nacht and Nebel Erlass, resistance fighter sent to concentration camps
1941 - Japanese attack Pearl Harbor (a date that will live in infamy)
1941 - German siege of Tobruk after 8 months ends
1941 - Futshida's air fleet passes coastline of Oahu
1941 - Australian bombers land on Timor/Ambon
1943 - Cairo: president Roosevelt travels back to the US
1944 - General Radescu forms Romanian government
1944 - Convention on International Civil Aviation drawn up in Chicago
1945 - Microwave oven patented
1946 - Fire at Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, kills 119
1949 - 15th Heisman Trophy Award: Leon Hart, Notre Dame (E)
1949 - Chiang Kai-shek flees to Taiwan
1952 - KKTV TV channel 11 in Colorado Spgs-Pueblo, CO (CBS) 1st broadcast
1953 - Israel's PM Ben-Gurion retires
1953 - WCCB TV channel 18 in Charlotte, NC (IND/ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 - Japanese government of Joshida, resigns
1954 - KCTS TV channel 9 in Seattle, WA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1955 - Clement Attlee resigns as chairman of England's Labour Party
1956 - Helen O'Connell joins Today Show panel
1957 - Tony Kubek of the Yanks selected as AL Rookie of the Year
1958 - R¢mulo B‚tancourt elected pres of Venezuela
1959 - "Saratoga" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 80 performances
1960 - Ivory Coast claims independence from France
1962 - Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - Ian Meckiff no-balled for throwing against the South Africans
1964 - George Harrison changes his company's name from Mornyork to Harrisongs
1965 - Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that led to split of 2 churches in 1054
1967 - "How Now, Dow Jones" opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 220 perfs
1967 - Otis Rescue records "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay"
1968 - Richard Dodd returns a library book his great grandad took out in 1823
1968 - Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 launched into Earth orbit
1968 - M Dodd returns a library books his Great grandfather took out in 1923
1970 - Taizan Maezumi Roshi, head of LA Zen Center, receives dharma
1970 - West Germany and Poland normalize relations
1971 - "Wild and Wonderful" opens/closes at Lyceum Theater NYC
1971 - Wings release their 1st album "Wild Life"
1972 - Apollo 17 (US), final manned lunar landing mission, launched
1972 - Philippine's 1st lady Imelda Marcos stabbed and wounded by an assailant
1973 - Wings release "Band on the Run"
1973 - Phillies sell infielder-outfielder Cesar Tovar to the Texas Rangers
1973 - Orioles sell pitcher Eddie Watt to the Phillies
1975 - 10th Islander shut-out opponent-Glenn Resch 3-0 vs Sabres
1975 - Archbishop Makarios returns Cyprus
1975 - Indonesian army occupies East Timor
1975 - Pat Bradley wins Colgate-Far East Ladies Tournament Golf Tournament
1976 - UN Security Council endorses Kurt Waldheim, sec-gen for 2nd 5 yr term
1977 - Islander Billy Smith's 10th shut-out opponent-Black Hawks 4-0
1978 - Islander's Mike Bossy's 1st career hat trick
1981 - Spain becomes a member of the NATO
1982 - Suriname army under Desi Bouterse fires on radio station building
1983 - 2 jets collided at Madrid Airport killing 93
1983 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1984 - Allan Border's 1st Test Cricket match as captain (v WI Adelaide)
1985 - 51st Heisman Trophy Award: Bo Jackson, Auburn (RB)
1985 - Atlantis returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB
1986 - Pres Jean-Claude Duvalier flees Ha‹ti
1986 - Juli Inkster/Tom Purtzer wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
1987 - 43 die in Pacific Southwest Airline crash in Calif (man shot pilots)
1987 - Gorbachev arrives in US for a summit meeting
1987 - Pacific Southwest crashes near Los Angeles, kills 43
1987 - Palestinian uprising against Israel in West Bank
1988 - Rangers sign free-agent pitcher Nolan Ryan to a one-year contract
1988 - NY Islanders fire Simpson, Arbour new coach
1988 - Mikhail Gorbachev cheered by Wall St crowds upon arrival in NYC
1988 - Gorbachev announces 10% unilateral Soviet troop reductions at UN
1988 - Earthquake in Armenia (>25,000 killed, 5,000,000 homeless)
1988 - Armenian SSR rocked by earthquake, 8 on Richter scale (55,000 die)
1988 - 6.9 earthquake in Armenia, Spitak destroyed, 60,000 killed
1989 - C Coleman and D Zippel's musical "City of Angels," premieres in NYC
1990 - Iraqi parliment endorses Saddam's decision to free hostages
1990 - Ted Turner and Jane Fonda announce their engagement
1991 - A J Kitt, US, wins World Skiing Cup
1992 - Galileo spacecraft passes North Pole of Moon (Peary Crater)
1993 - Robert Goulet undergoes prostate cancer surgery
1993 - Henri Konan B‚di‚ names himself President of Ivory coast
1994 - 5th Billboard Music Awards
1994 - Radio personality Howard Stern talks a man out of attempting suicide
1995 - NBA settles strike of referees, refs to return on Dec 12
1995 - US space probe Galileo begins orbiting Jupiter
1996 - Space Shuttle STS 80 (Columbia 21), lands
1997 - Amy Fruhwirth and Clarence Rose win LPGA J C Penney Classic