1803 The Middlesex Canal opens to connect the Merrimack River with Boston Harbor

1861 Congress authorizes the Medal of Honor, the Nation's highest award, for Naval personnel.

1891 18 students play first basketball game (Springfield College)

1898 Scientists Pierre & Marie Curie discovers radium

1909 University of Copenhagen rejects Cook's claim that he was first to North Pole

1913 The first crossword puzzle (with 32 clues) printed in New York World

1914 First feature-length silent film comedy, "Tillie's Punctured Romance" released. (Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin)

1915 25.83 cm (10.17") of rainfall, Glenora, Oregon (state record)

1921 Supreme Court rules labor injunctions and picketing unconstitutional

1923 Nepal changes from British protectorate to independent nation

1929 First group hospital insurance plan effected, Dallas TX

1932 SS Gateshead, sunk in a storm off Seaham Harbour, Durham after a collision with the Norwegian vessel Miranda. Most of the crew including the Captain, Matthew W. Hall lost their lives.

1933 Dried human blood serum first prepared, University of Pennsylvania

1933 Newfoundland reverts to being a crown colony

1937 Snow White the first feature-length color and sound cartoon premiers

1941 HMS AUDACITY, sunk east of Azores by 3 torpedoes from German U-751.

1943 USS Grayling (SS-208) sinks fourth Japanese ship since 18 December.

1951 First helicopter landing aboard a hospital ship, USS Consolation.

1968 Launch of Apollo 8 with Captain James A. Lovell, Jr. as Command Module Pilot. During the mission Lovell was one of the first two people to see the far side of the moon. The mission lasted 6 days and 3 hours, and included 10 moon orbits. Recovery was by HS-4 helicopters from USS Yorktown (CVS-10).

1971 UN Security Council chooses Kurt Waldheim as 4th secretary general

1972 Soviet Union signs a separate peace with East Germany

1973 Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, US & USSR meet in Geneva

1975 First New York Jet to gain 1,000 yards rushing (John Riggins)

1976 UN General Assembly passes a resolution declaring 1979-Year of Child

1978 Police in Des Plaines IL, arrested John W Gacy Jr for murder

1979 Gary Unger plays in record 914th consecutive NHL game

1983 Loretta Swit weds Dennis Holahan

1984 USSR launches Vega 2 for fly-by of Halley's Come

1985 ARCO Anchorage runs aground near Port Angeles, WA

1987 3 white New York teens convicted of manslaughter in death of a black man

1987 Soyuz TM-4 carries 3 cosmonauts to space station Mir

1988 Drexel agrees guilt to security felonies, pays a $650 million fine

1988 Pan Am "Flight 103" explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270

1989 Romania's dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's final speech (executed 12/25)

1989 US invades Panama and ousts General Noriega

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