1118 Aragon's Alfonso the Battler takes Saragossa December 18 from the Almoravid king Ali ibn-Yusuf, whose father defeated Castile's Alfonso VI in 1086

1661 The "S.S.Elizabeth" of Burntisland lost off the English coast with the Scottish records aboard, being returned from London to which they had been taken by Oliver Cromwell.

1737 Antonio Stradivari, world-famous violin maker, dies in Cremona, Italy.

1745 Skirmish at Clifton where retreating Jacobite forces under Lord George Murray, defeated General Bland's Hanoverian troops. The last battle to be fought on English soil.

1774 Jews expelled from Prague, Bohemia and Moravia by Empress Maria Theresa

1777 First national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating Burgoyne's surrender

1787 New Jersey becomes 3rd state to ratify constitution

1796 First US newspaper to appear on Sunday, Baltimore Monitor

1799 George Washington's body interred at Mount Vernon

1813 British take Fort Niagara in the War of 1812

1839 First celestial photograph (of the moon) made in US, John Draper, New York NY

1846 Copper first discovered in Western Australia.

1849 William Bond obtains first photograph of Moon through a telescope

1859 South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth"

1862 The first orthopedic hospital is organized in New York City (The Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled).

1865 Slavery is abolished in the US as the 13th Amendment to the Consitution is ratified.

1872 Opals first discovered in Australia, at Listowel Downs, Queensland.

1890 Frederick Lugard occupies Uganda for British East Africa Company.

1894 South Australian women given the vote.

1898 At a site near Paris, France, Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the world's first official automobile land speed record of 39 miles per hour.

1915 President Wilson, widowed the year before, marries Edith Bolling Galt

1916 The Battle of Verdun (France), one of the bloodiest WWI engagements, ends after 10 months and massive losses to both sides.

1923 International zone of Tangier set up in Morocco

1935 The $1 silver certificate is issued.

1936 Giant panda imported into US

1939 Thousands watched from the shore as the German Pocket Battleship, Graf Spee is scuttled by her crew.

1940 Munitions Minister C.D.Howe and 152 other survivors of the torpedoed lines SS Western Prince arive in Britian

1944 Destroyers "Hull," "Spence" and "Monaghan" sink in typhoon (Phillippines)

1945 Uruguay joins the United Nations

1956 Japan admitted to UN

1957 Shippingport Atomic Power Station, first nuke plant to generate electricity

1957 The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, goes online.

1958 First voice from space recorded Christmas message by Eisenhower

1958 Niger gains autonomy within French Community (National Day)

1958 Project SCORE, the world's first experimental communications satellite, was launched

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