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Events
69 – The Roman Senate declares Vespasian as Roman emperor, the last in the Year of the Four Emperors.
1124 – Pope Honorius II is elected.
1140 – Conrad III of Germany besieged Weinsberg.
1237 – The city of Ryazan is sacked by the Mongol army of Batu Khan.
1361 – The Battle of Linuesa is fought in the context of the Spanish Reconquista between the forces of the Emirate of Granada and the combined army of the Kingdom of Castile and of Jaén resulting in a Castilian victory.
1598 – Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile.
1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. whatwasthere.com photo (see also Dec. 18)
1784 – John Jay (The first U.S. Chief Justice) becomes the acting Secretary of State.
1826 – American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declare their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion.
1832 – Egyptian–Ottoman War: Egyptian forces decisively defeat Ottoman troops at the Battle of Konya.
1844 – The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers commences business at its cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.
1861 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
1861: Lord Lyons, the British minister to the United States, met with Secretary of State William Seward concerning the fate of James Mason and John Slidell, Confederate envoys arrested by the U.S. Navy aboard the Trent, a British mail steamer. During the meeting, Lyons took a hard line against Seward and forced President Abraham Lincoln's administration to release the Confederates a few days later.
1864: During the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their “March to the Sea,” which had begun in Atlanta on Nov. 15 and ended with the capture of Savannah, Georgia.
1866: Determined to challenge the growing American military presence in their territory, Indians in northern Wyoming lure Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his soldiers into a deadly ambush. With 81 fatalities, the Fetterman Massacre was the army's worst defeat in the West until the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Further Indian attacks eventually forced the army to reconsider its commitment to protecting the Bozeman Trail, and in 1868 the military abandoned the forts and pulled out. It was one of only a handful of clear Indian victories in the Plains Indian Wars.
1872 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England.
1879 – World première of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1883 – The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment, the first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army, are formed.
1907 – The Chilean Army commits a massacre of at least 2,000 striking saltpeter miners in Iquique, Chile.
1909 – In Berkeley, California the first junior high school is established.
1910 – An underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit in Over Hulton, Westhoughton, England, kills 344 miners.
1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, with 32 clues, is published in the New York World.
1915: Shortly after Sir Douglas Haig was installed as the new commander-in-chief of the British forces, his steadfast supporter, Sir William Robertson, was appointed the new chief of the Imperial General Staff, with King George's backing and over the head of the embattled British war secretary, Sir Horatio Kitchener.
1919 – American anarchist Emma Goldman is deported to Russia.
1923 – United Kingdom and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship, called the Nepal–Britain Treaty of 1923, which superseded the Treaty of Sugauli signed in 1816.
1936 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 88 multi-role combat aircraft.
1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre.
1941 – World War II: A formal treaty of alliance between Thailand and Japan is signed in the presence of the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.
1945: General George S. Patton, commander of the U.S. 3rd Army, died from injuries suffered not in battle but in a freak car accident. He was 60 years old.
1946 – 1946 Nankai earthquake: An undersea earthquake in Nankaidō, Japan, sets off a powerful tsunami that devastates Honshu, Japan. About 2,000 people perished and half a million were left homeless. This was particularly devastating to a community that was already reeling from the horrors of World War II. The earthquake that shook at 4:19 a.m. was centered only 27 miles south of Honshu's Kii Peninsula. The tremor had a magnitude of 8.5 and caused some buildings on Honshu to collapse, including some housing being used by U.S. occupation forces. Even worse, three major tsunamis headed toward Honshu and the smaller islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. Local geographic features determined how intense the waves were when they hit land and how much damage they caused. In some places, the water receded severely first, providing a warning to local residents who were familiar with the signs of an imminent tsunami. When the tsunami hit Honshu, 20-foot waves obliterated buildings from shorelines and about 2,000 ships were capsized as they were thrown around by the mass of water. In all, 60,000 square miles were flooded by the waves and 40,000 homes were completely destroyed.
1958: Three months after a new French constitution was approved, Charles de Gaulle is elected the first president of the Fifth Republic by a sweeping majority of French voters. The previous June, France's World War II hero was called out of retirement to lead the country when a military and civilian revolt in Algeria threatened France's stability.
1962 – Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.
1963 – The episode of intercommunal violence called "Bloody Christmas" begins in Cyprus, ultimately resulting in the displacement of 25,000-30,000 Turkish Cypriots and destruction of more than 100 villages.
1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.
1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, placing its crew on a trajectory for the first manned mission to the moon. Aboard are astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders.
1969: Thailand announces plans to withdraw its 12,000-man contingent from South Vietnam.
1969 – The United Nations adopts the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
1972: The Defense Department announced that eight B-52 bombers and several fighter-bombers had been lost since the commencement of Operation Linebacker II on December 18. These losses included at least 43 flyers captured or killed.
1973 – The Geneva Conference on the Arab–Israeli conflict opens.
1975: In Vienna, Austria, Carlos the Jackal led a raid on a meeting of oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). German and Arab terrorists stormed in with machine guns, killed three people, and took 63 people hostage, including 11 OPEC ministers. Calling his group the "Arm of the Arab Revolution," Carlos demanded that an anti-Israeli political statement be broadcast over radio, and that a bus and jet be provided for the terrorists and their hostages. Austrian authorities complied, and all the hostages were released in Algeria unharmed. OPEC did not hold another summit for 25 years.
1979 – Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Peter Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.
1988 – A bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground.
1991: In a final step signifying the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, 11 of the 12 Soviet republics declare that they are forming the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Just a few days later, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced he was stepping down from his position. The Soviet Union ceased to exist.
1992 – A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport, killing 56.
1994 – Mexican volcano Popocatépetl, dormant for 47 years, erupts gases and ash.
1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.
1999 – The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid, Spain.
2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.
2012: The Walt Disney Company completed its acquisition of Lucasfilm and of the Star Wars franchise.
Saints' Days and Holy Days
O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum, Lapisque angularis qui facis utraque unum: Veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.
O King of the Gentiles, yea, and Desire thereof, O Cornerstone that makest of twain one: come, to save man, whom Thou has made of the dust of the earth!
O THOU on Whom the Gentiles wait,
Who midst the nations shalt be great,
Thy Church's chief and corner-stone,
Who in Thyself hast made all one;
Oh come and save, for Thine own sake,
Mankind whom Thou of dust didst make!
Traditional Western
Contemporary Western
O Oriens
Petrus Canisius
Blue Christmas (Western Christianity)
Petrus Canisius
Blue Christmas (Western Christianity)
Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran
Thomas the Apostle (Anglican Communion)
Eastern Orthodox
Feasts
Saints
Virgin- martyr Juliana of Nicomedia, and with her 500 men by the sword,
and 130 women by beheading.
Venerable Macarius the Faster, Abbot of Khakhuli Monastery (c. 1034)
Pre-Schism Western Saints
as Bishop of Toulouse in France (3rd century)
Saint Severinus of Trier, Bishop of Trier in Germany (c. 300)
Martyrs John and Festus, martyrs honoured in Tuscany in Italy
Saint Baudacarius, A monk at Bobbio Abbey in the north of Italy (650)
Saint Beornwald of Bampton (Bernwald), a righteous priest in Bampton
in Oxfordshire in England (10th century)
Saint John Vincent, born in Ravenna, he became a monk at St. Michael in Chiusa,
then a hermit on Monte Caprario, finally he became Bishop nearby (1012)
Post-Schism Orthodox Saints
Wonderworker of All Russia (1326)
Saint Juliana, Princess of Vyazma (Novotorzhok) (1406)
Blessed Procopius of Vyatka, Fool-for-Christ (1627)
Saint Philaret (Theodosius in schema), metropolitan of Kiev (1857)
New Martyrs and Confessors
New Hieromartyr Sergius, Deacon (1937)
New Hieromartyr Nicetas (Pribytkov), Bishop of Belev (Belevsk) (1937)
New Hieromartyr Leontius, Deacon (1940)
Other commemorations
Repose of Blessed Peter “the Nose,” of Kama (c. 1938)
Repose of Schemamonk Michael of Harbin (1939)
Finding of the relics (1950) of New Monk-martyr Ephraim of Nea Makri (1426)
Repose of Mother Stavritsa the Missionary, missionary in Kenya (2000)
Repose of Schemamonk Michael of Harbin (1939)
Finding of the relics (1950) of New Monk-martyr Ephraim of Nea Makri (1426)
Repose of Mother Stavritsa the Missionary, missionary in Kenya (2000)
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