1294 – Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
1545 – The Council of Trent begins.
1577 – English seaman Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, with five ships and 164 men on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World and explore the Pacific Ocean. Three years later, Drake's return to Plymouth marks the first circumnavigation of the earth by a British explorer.
1621: Under the care of Robert Cushman, the first American furs to be exported from the continent left for England aboard the Fortune. One month before, Cushman and the Fortune had arrived at Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts with 35 settlers, the first new colonists since the settlement was founded in 1620. During Cushman's return to England, the Fortune was captured by the French, and its valuable cargo of furs was taken. Cushman was detained on the Ile d'Dieu before being returned to England. Within a few years of their first fur export, the Plymouth colonists, unable to make their living through cod fishing as they had originally planned, began concentrating almost entirely on the fur trade. The colonists developed an economic system in which their chief crop, Indian corn, was traded with Native Americans to the north for highly valued beaver skins, which were in turn profitably sold in England to pay the Plymouth Colony's debts and buy necessary supplies.
1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the National Guard of the United States.
1642 – Abel Tasman reaches New Zealand.
1643 – English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
1758 – The English transport ship Duke William sinks in the North Atlantic, killing over 360 people.
1769 – Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth.
1774 – American Patriots Paul Revere and Wentworth Cheswell ride to warn Portsmouth of the approach of British warships.
1776 – American General Charles Lee left his army, riding in search of female sociability at Widow White's Tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Fredericksburg: Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia repulsed a series of attacks by Union Major General Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The defeat was one of the most decisive loses for the Union army, and it dealt a serious blow to Northern morale in the winter of 1862-63.
1867 – A Fenian bomb explodes in Clerkenwell, London, killing six.
1916: A powerful avalanche killed hundreds of Austrian soldiers in a barracks near Italy's Mount Marmolada. Over a period of several days, avalanches in the Italian Alps killed an estimated 10,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers in mid-December.
1918: After nine days at sea aboard the SS George Washington, President Woodrow Wilson arrived at Brest, France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office, and traveled by land to Versailles, to take part in World War I peace negotiations and to promote his plan for a League of Nations, an international organization for resolving conflicts between nations.
1928 – George Gershwin's An American in Paris is first performed.
1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: The city of Nanjing, defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to Japanese forces, and the Chinese government flees to Hankow, further inland along the Yangtze River. This is followed by the Nanking Massacre, in which, to break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane orders that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city is burned, and Japanese troops launch a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In what became known as the "Rape of Nanking," the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male "war prisoners," massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. Shortly after the end of World War II, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed.
1938 – The Holocaust: The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, Germany.
1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate: Captain Hans Langsdorff of the German Deutschland-class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles.
1941 – World War II: The Kingdom of Hungary and Kingdom of Romania declare war on the United States.
1942: Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels recorded in his journal his contempt for the Italians' treatment of Jews in Italian-occupied territories. "The Italians are extremely lax in their treatment of Jews. They protect Italian Jews both in Tunis and in occupied France and won't permit their being drafted for work or compelled to wear the Star of David."
1943 – World War II: The Massacre of Kalavryta by German occupying forces in Greece.
1949 – The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.
1952 – The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were transferred to the National Archives. Officials chose December 13 as the transfer date because they wanted to unveil the documents on December 15, Bill of Rights Day. The formal enshrining ceremony was presided over by Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, and attended by President Harry Truman and other dignitaries.
1959 – Archbishop Makarios III becomes the first President of Cyprus.
1960 – While Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his Imperial Bodyguard seizes the capital and proclaims him deposed and his son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, Emperor.
1962 – NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
1967 – Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels.
1968 – Brazilian President Artur da Costa e Silva issues AI-5 (Institutional Act No. 5), enabling government by decree and suspending habeas corpus.
1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.
1974 – Malta becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.
1974: North Vietnamese General Tran Van Tra ordered 7th Division and the newly formed 3rd Division to attack Phuoc Long Province, north of Saigon. This attack represented an escalation in the "cease-fire war" that started shortly after the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973. The North Vietnamese wanted to see how Saigon and Washington reacted to a major attack so close to Saigon. President Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford, had promised to come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese launched a major attack. With Nixon's resignation and Ford facing an increasingly hostile Congress, Hanoi was essentially conducting a "test" attack to see if the U.S. would honor its commitment to Saigon. The attack was much more successful than the North Vietnamese anticipated: the South Vietnamese soldiers fought poorly and the U.S. did nothing.
1977 – A DC-3 aircraft chartered from the Indianapolis-based National Jet crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff and boosters of the team.
1979 – The Canadian Government of Prime Minister Joe Clark is defeated in the House of Commons, prompting the 1980 Canadian election.
1981 – General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
1988 – PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after United States authorities refused to grant him a visa to visit UN headquarters in New York.
1989 – The Troubles: Attack on Derryard checkpoint: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launches an attack on a British Army temporary vehicle checkpoint near Rosslea, Northern Ireland. Two British soldiers are killed and one badly wounded.
2000 – The "Texas Seven" escape from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas, and go on a robbery spree, during which police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot and killed.
2000: Vice President Al Gore reluctantly conceded defeat to Texas Governor George W. Bush in his bid for the presidency, following weeks of legal battles over the recounting of votes in Florida.
2001 – Sansad Bhavan, the building housing the Indian Parliament, is attacked by terrorists. Twelve people are killed, including the terrorists.
2002 – European Union enlargement: The EU announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.
2003 – Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn: After spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.
2006 – Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is adopted.
2011 – A murder–suicide in Liège, Belgium, kills six and wounds 125 people at a Christmas market.
2014 – Landslides caused by heavy rain in Java, Indonesia, kill at least 56 people.
Saints' Days and Holy Days
Traditional Western
Lucy, Virgin and Martyr. Double.
Commemoration of the Octave of the Conception.
Contemporary Western
Lucy
Odile of Alsace
Odile of Alsace
Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran
Eastern Orthodox
Saints
at Sebaste (284-305)
Venerable Ares, monk in the Egyptian desert
Venerable Arsenius the Ascetic of Mt. Latros (c. 8th-10th century)
Pre-Schism Western Saints
Virgin-martyr Lucy of Syracuse (Lucia) (304)
Saint Columba of Terryglass and Holy Island on Lough Derg, Ireland (549)
Saint Judoc (Judocus, Judganoc, Josse), a priest, brother of King Judicäel
of Brittany, became a hermit in Villiers-Saint-Josse (c. 668)
Saint Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai-Arras in France, founded monasteries
including Saint Vaast in Arras (669)
Saint Odilia of Alsace (Otilia, Othilia) (c. 720)
Saint Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet, a disciple of St Mildred, whom she
probably succeeded as Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet in 716 (751)
Saint Tassio, Duke of Bavaria and a great monastic benefactor, became
a monk at Jumièges Abbey, reposed at Lorsch Abbey (c. 794)
Saints Einhildis and Roswinda, nuns at Hohenburg Abbey in Alsace
in France with St Ottilia (8th century)
Saint Wilfrid (Wiffred), a monk and Abbot of the Monastery of St Victor
in Marseilles, France (1021)
Post-Schism Orthodox Saints
disciple of St. Ephrem (1077)
Saints Neophytos, Ignatius, Procopius and Neilos, founders
of the Holy Monastery of Machaira, Cyprus (1145, 1172)
Saint Mardarius, Recluse of the Kiev Caves (13th century)
Hieromartyr Gabriel (Gabriel I of Pec), Archbishop of Serbia (1659)
Saint Dositheus, Metropolitan of Moldavia (Romania) (1693)
Venerable Nicodemus of Romania
Repose of Venerable Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of Alaska (1836)
New Martyrs and Confessors
and Martyr John Menkov (1920)
New Hieromartyr Vladimir Lozina-Lozinsky,
Protopresbyter of St. Petersburg (1937)
New Hieromartyrs Alexander Pospelov and Jacob Gusev, Priests (1937)
New Hieromartyr Nicholas Amasiysky, Priest of Alma-Ata (1938)
New Hieromartyrs Emilian Kireyev and Basil Pokrov, Priests (1941)
Other commemorations
Synaxis of the First Martyrs of the American land:
Hieromartyr Juvenaly (1796) and Peter the Aleut (c. 1815)
(see also September 24 - Synaxis of All Saints of Alaska)
Repose of Schemamonk Panteleimon “the Resurrected,”
of Glinsk Hermitage (1895)
Repose of Blessed Maximus of Ustiug (1906)
Repose of Bishop Theodore, Wonderworker of Trolov Convent
in Kiev (1924)
Repose of Hieromonk Joel of Valaam (1937)
Hieromartyr Juvenaly (1796) and Peter the Aleut (c. 1815)
(see also September 24 - Synaxis of All Saints of Alaska)
Repose of Schemamonk Panteleimon “the Resurrected,”
of Glinsk Hermitage (1895)
Repose of Blessed Maximus of Ustiug (1906)
Repose of Bishop Theodore, Wonderworker of Trolov Convent
in Kiev (1924)
Repose of Hieromonk Joel of Valaam (1937)
Coptic Orthodox
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