On This Day And In Previous Years (Brief Events In History)

[Captain WH Rollins]

10th December 1684 - Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley

10th December 1901 - first Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Red Cross founder Jean Henri Dunant and peace activist Frederic Passy

10th December 1936 - Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up the British throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson

10th December 1941 - British battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse sunk following Japanese aerial attacks off Malaya

10th December 1961 - US performs nuclear underground test at Carlsbad New Mexico

10th December 1964 - Nobel Peace Prize presented to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in Oslo

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

11th December 1620 - 102 Mayflower Pilgrims and about 30 crew land at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts

11th December 1792 - France's King Louis XVI goes on trial, accused of high treason and crimes against the state

11th December 1936 - Edward VIII announces in a radio broadcast that he is abdicating the British throne to marry Wallis Simpson

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

14th December 1542 - Princess Mary Stuart succeeds her father James V and becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland at 6 days old

14th December 1774 - the first incident of American Revolution, 400 attack Fort William and Mary, New Hampshire

14th December 1903 - the Wright brothers attempt to fly the Wright Flyer for the first time at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

14th December 1911 - Norwegian Roald Amundsen's expedition is the first to each the South Pole

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Deleted member 9675]

Last year some horrific actions against some close to me ruined my spirit of the holiday season.
This year as another close to us, died 2 months ago due to the stress of it all, Christmas and the holidays to come are once again ruined.
Can I forget? NEVER
Can I forgive? God says I should.
Will I? I still am unable to answer that question.

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

16th December 1431 - King Henry VI of England crowned king of France

16th December 1653 - Parliamentarian General Oliver Cromwell appointed as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland

16th December 1689 - English Parliament passes Bill of Rights establishing limits on crown powers and requirement for regular elections

16th December 1773 - Boston tea party incident, Sons of Liberty protesters throw tea shipments into Boston harbour in protest against British imposed Tea Act

16th December 1880 - the beginning of the First Boer War between British Empire and Boer South African Republic

16th December 1944 - Nazi Germany launches a counteroffensive against the Allies in the Ardennes region of Belgium, beginning the 'Battle of the Bulge"

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

17th December 1777 - George Washington's army returned to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

17th December 1903 - the Wright brothers made the first sustained motorized aircraft flight at 10:35 am, piloted by Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

17th December 1946 - US V-2 rocket reached 183 km, White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico

17th December 1980 - Great Britain performed nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

18th December 1603 - the first fleet of the Dutch East India Company under Admiral Steven van der Haghen departs for the East-Indies

18th December 1888 - Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Anasazi ruins of Mesa Verde, Colorado

18th December 1920 - the first US postage stamps printed without the words United States or US

18th December 1957 - the world's first full scale nuclear power plant for only peacetime use begins to generate electricity, at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania

18th December 1969 - House of Lords votes to abolish the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

19th December 1924 - the last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England

19th December 1958 - the first radio broadcast from space, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower Christmas message "to all mankind, America's wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere"

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

20th December 1522 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepted surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who were allowed to evacuate. They eventually settled in Malta, become known as the Knights of Malta

20th December 1780 - Britain declared war on Holland

20th December 1919 - Canadian National Railways established

20th December 1941 - World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, known as the "Flying Tigers"

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

21st December 1620 - 102 Mayflower Pilgrims and about 30 crew land at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts

21st December 1898 - French Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium

21st December 1906 - British Parliament pass two important pieces of social legislation: The Trades Disputes Bill, legalizing peaceful picketing, and The Workingmen's Compensation Act, broadening employers' liability for accidents

21st December 1961 - US President Kennedy and British PM MacMillan meet in Bermuda

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

22nd December 1877 - Thomas Edison's Phonograph is announced by Scientific American

22nd December 1944 - Germans demand surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium

22nd December 1965 - Great Britain sets national maximum road speed at 70 miles per hour

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

23rd December 1688 - King James II, last Roman Catholic British monarch flees to France from William of Orange

23rd December 1690 - English astronomer John Flamsteed observed Uranus without realizing it was undiscovered

23rd December 1783 - US General George Washington resigned his military commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army to Congress

23rd December 1888 - Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear with a razor, after an argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin

23rd December 1941 - American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese

23rd December 1954 - the first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

24th December 1515 - Thomas Wolsey appointed Lord Chancellor of England

24th December 1814 - Treaty of Ghent signed, ending the War of 1812 between the United States, the United Kingdom and their allies

24th December 1914 - German plane drops bombs on Dover, England

24th December 1936 - the first radioactive isotope medicine administered in Berkeley, California

24th December 1943 - US President FDR appointed General Eisenhower Supreme Commander of the Allied forces

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

25th December 1066 - William the Conqueror is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, completing the Norman conquest of England

25th December 1741 - astronomer Anders Celsius introduced the Centigrade temperature scale

25th December 1868 - despite bitter opposition, US President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all persons involved in Southern rebellion (Civil War)

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

26th December 1492 - the first Spanish settlement La Navidad in the New World is founded by Christopher Columbus

26th December 1799 - George Washington is eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as "first in war, first in peace and first in hearts of his countrymen"

26th December 1914 - US Government protests British interference with American merchant ships at sea, on the same day Germans announce they will treat food as contraband, subject to seizure; weakens America's protest

26th December 1943 - British sink German battle cruiser Scharnhorst

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

28th December 1612 - the first observation of Neptune - Galileo observes and records a "fixed star" without realising it is a planet

28th December 1867 - the US claims Midway Island, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits

28th December 1915 - the British Cabinet recognized the true nature of the war by deciding to institute compulsory military service, with single men to be conscripted before married ones

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

30th December 1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield, Duke of York killed and his forces defeated by forces for King Henry VI

30th December 1873 - the American Metrological Society forms (NYC) weights, measures & money

30th December 1924 - Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announces existence of other galactic systems at meeting of the American Astronomical Society

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

31st December 1695 - a window tax is imposed in England

31st December 1744 - English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth's nutation motion

31st December 1775 - the Battle of Quebec in American Revolutionary War; Americans defeated trying to take British stronghold

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

1st January 1600 - Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1st instead of 25th March

1st January 1863 - Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in US confederate states

1st January 1892 - Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station

1st January 1896 - German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen announced his discovery of x-rays

1st January 1909 - in Great Britain, the Old Age Pension Law is finally instituted, providing pensions for every British subject over 70 with low income

Regards
Captain WH Rollins

 

[Captain WH Rollins]

2nd January 1941 - World War II: German bombs severely damaged the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales

2nd January 1905 - Elara, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine in San Jose, California

2nd January 1944 - the first use of helicopters during warfare

Regards
Captain WH Rollins