December 7th
1941 - Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, a date that will live in infamy
December 8th
1941 - U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan, U.S. enters WW II
December 9th
1980 - 61 degrees F in Boston at 1 AM
December 10th
1907 - Ruyard Kipling receives Nobel prize for literature
December 11th
1986 - South Africa censors press
December 12th
1913 - “Mona Lisa,” stolen from Louvre Museum in 1911, recovered
December 13th
2003 - American forces capture Saddam Hussein outside of Tikrit
December 14th
1968 - Jackson Five made their first appearance on “Ed Sullivan Show”
December 15th
1792 - 1st life insurance policy issued in U.S. in Philadelphia
December 16th
1913 - Charlie Chaplin began his film career at Keystone for $150 a week
December 17th
1961 - India seizes Goa and 2 other Portuguese colonies
December 18th
1898 - Automobile speed record set-63 kph (39 mph)
December 19th
1950 - Tibet’s Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion
December 20th
1941 - First Japanese bombing of Calcutta
December 21st
1937 - First feature-length color and sound cartoon premieres (Snow White)
December 22nd
1882 - First string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison
December 23rd
1888 - Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear
December 24th
1942 - Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints General Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
December 25th
352 - First definite date Christmas was celebrated on Dec 25th
December 26th
1981 - TIME’s Man of the Year is a computer
December 27th
2007 - Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a bomb blast in Rawalpindi, Pakistan
December 28th
1895 - World’s First movie theater opens in Paris
December 29th
1930 - Fred P Newton completes longest swim ever (1826 miles), when he swam in the Mississippi River from Ford Dam, Minn, to New Orleans
December 30th
2006 - Saddam Hussein is hanged in Baghdad
December 31st
1984 - Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his arm in a car crash