Crossroads

December 1st 1976     Bangladesh General Ziaur Rahman declares himself President of the country.

December 2nd1989     Vishwanath Pratap Singh sworn in as President of India

December 3rd1621

Galileo Galilei invents the telescope

December 4th 1961

Museum of Modern Art hangs Henri Matisse’s Le Bateau upside down for 47 days

December 5th1959

Intikhab Alam bowls Colin McDonald with 1st ball in tests

December 6th

1756     British troops under Robert Clive occupy Fulta India

December 7th 1912

Bust of Queen Nefertiti found in El-Amarna, Egypt

December 8th 1987

US President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles

December 9th 1854

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ published

December 10th 1984

South African Bishop Desmond Tutu receives Nobel Peace Prize

December 11th 1946

U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) established

December 12th1997

Carlos the Jackal, ‘professional revolutionary’ goes on trial in Paris

December 13th 2009

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Burlusconi is knocked to the ground and hit in the face after a political rally in Milan, Italy

December 14th 1992

Lennox Lewis given WBC title, when Riddick Bowe refused to fight him

December 15th 1877

Thomas Edison patents phonograph

December 16th 1972     Bangladesh Constitution goes into effect

December 17th 1900

1st prize of 100,00 francs offered for communications with extraterrestrials. Martians excluded-considered too easy

December 18th 1936

Su-Lin is the first giant panda imported into the US

December 19th 1995

Queen Elizabeth askes Prince Charles and Diana to divorce

December 20th 1993

Donald Trump weds Marla Maples

December 21st1923

Nepal changes from British protectorate to independent nation.

December 22nd 1989

After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Nicolae Ceausescu

December 23rd 1912

Aswan Dam in Nile begins operation

December 24th 1989     Panama’s dictator, Manuel Noriega seeks asylum at Vatican embassy

December 25th 1950     Coronation Stone, taken from Scone in Scotland by Edward I in 1296, stolen from Westminster Abbey and smuggled back to Scotland

December 26th 2004     Greatest earthquake in over 40 years, strikes the Pacific Ocean near Sumatra, triggering a massive Indian Ocean tsunami, killing as many as 266,000 in coastal regions of Asia and Africa

December 27th 1979

Soviet troops invade Afghanistan, President Hafizullah Amin overthrown

December 28th 1984

Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress party wins elections in India

December 29th 1994     Bangladesh government of Khaleda Zia resigns

December 30th 1911

Sun Yat-sen elected 1st President of Republic of China

December 31st 1999

The London Eye, the world’s largest Ferris wheel, opens on the banks of the Thames