Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, officially opened in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. 2010. 

Poet and literary critic T.S. Eliot, a leader of the Modernist movement in poetry with such works as The Waste Land (1922), died in London. 1965. 

Novelist and playwright Albert Camus, who received the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature, was killed in an automobile accident in France. 1960. 

Burma—today called Myanmar—formally gained independence from Great Britain, completing the peaceful transfer of power negotiated by Burmese leader Aung San and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1947. 1948. 

Solomon Northrup, a free Black man who had been kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and sold into slavery, legally obtained his freedom. He later wrote about his experiences in Twelve Years a Slave, which became the basis for an Oscar-winning movie. 1853. 

Louis Braille, who developed a system of printing and writing that is extensively used by the blind and that was named for him, was born near Paris. 1809. 

A first for the Queen of Soul

Aretha Franklin became the first woman voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. More than 80 other women have entered the hall since her induction was announced on this day in 1987. 1987.

Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to U.S. federal charges of fraud connected to his role as CEO of a cryptocurrency exchange. He was later tried, convicted, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. 2023. 

The Chinese lunar probe Chang’e 4, carrying the Yutu-2 rover, landed on the Moon‘s far side, the first spacecraft to do so. 2019. 

Hillary Clinton was sworn in as a U.S. senator from New York, having become the first first lady in U.S. history to win elective office. 2001

Apple was incorporated by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. It went on to become one of the most recognizable brands in the world. 1977.

First photo taken of the Moon (probably)

Louis Daguerre, a French artist and chemist who was one of photography‘s earliest pioneers, is thought to have taken the first photograph of the Moon on this day in 1839. It was destroyed when his studio burned down soon afterwards. 1839.

NASA’s spacecraft Stardust collected dust grains from the comet Wild 2. The cometary material was later revealed to contain the amino acid glycine, an essential building block of life. 2004.

Russian forces surrendered Port Arthur (later Lüshun, China) to the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War. 1905. 

Ferdinand II and Isabella I, the first monarchs of unified Spain, captured Granada, ending a centuries-long series of military campaigns waged by Christian states against Muslim rulers in Spain and Portugal. 1492. 

When Europe Changed Its Money Overnight

Eleven European Union countries changed their money to the euro on this day in 1999. All electronic transactions switched to the new monetary unit, although coins and banknotes stayed unchanged in these countries until January 1, 2002. 1999. 

The World Trade Organization was formally established. 1995. 

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, eliminating most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. 1994. 

Dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba after his regime was toppled by rebel forces led by Fidel Castro. 1959. 

The Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people in the Confederacy (the states in rebellion against the Union during the American Civil War), was issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. 1863. 

The first print run of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus—500 copies, with no author identified—was produced by a largely unknown publisher in London. The novel soon gained wide popularity, which prompted 20-year-old Mary Shelley to go public as its author. 1818

Haiti declared its independence from France, bringing the Haitian Revolution to an end and making Haiti the only country to be founded as a result of a rebellion by formerly enslaved people. 1804.

The World Health Organization first learned of “viral pneumonia” cases in Wuhan, China. The disease was later determined to be COVID-19, which became a global pandemic the following year. 2019. 

Taipei 101 opened in Taipei, Taiwan. At 1,667 feet (508 metres), it was the tallest building in the world until the Burj Khalifa was completed in 2007. 2004. 

The United States officially handed over control of the Panama Canal to Panama. 1999. 

Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became acting president; Putin was elected to the post the following year. 1999. 

The Soviet Union legally ceased to exist, Russia and other former Soviet republics having declared themselves independent and having founded the Commonwealth of Independent States on December 21, 1991. 1991. 

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established, with its capital in Moscow. 1922.

José Rizal—a physician, man of letters, and leading spokesman of the Philippine reform movement—was publicly executed by the Spanish rulers of the country, enraging and uniting Filipinos. He had been convicted of sedition after an insurrection in the Philippines in which he had no direct role. 1896. 

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley married, two years after they had eloped to France while Shelley was still married. She would publish Frankenstein about a year later, and her poet husband would drown six years later. 1816. 

During the Maratha Wars, the Maratha chief Daulat Rao Sindhia signed the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon, ceding political power and territory in India to the British. 1803. 

The United States acquired nearly 30,000 square miles (78,000 square km) of northern Mexican territory with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase. 1853. 

LeBron James, one of the greatest all-around basketball players of all time, was born in Akron, Ohio. 1984.

Arrested for wearing pants

On this day in 1852, Emma Snodgrass was arraigned in Boston because she was a woman wearing trousers. This was a time when activists were calling for “rational dress” for women, including bloomers and trousers, as an alternative to long, bulky skirts. 1852. 

Brazilian football (soccer) legend Pelé, one of the sport’s greatest players and among the first athletes to become global celebrities, died at age 82. 2022. 

With the enactment of a new constitution, the Irish Free State became known as Ireland. 1937. 

Knights of King Henry II of England killed the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral. 1170. 

An American IVF milestone

Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American born via in vitro fertilization, was born on this day in 1982. Her mother gave birth to her in Virginia because IVF was illegal in her home state of Massachusetts. 1981

Actress and singer Debbie Reynolds died, a day after the sudden and unexpected death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher, who was a noted actress and writer. 2016. 

John Evans Atta Mills was elected president of Ghana, defeating Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo by a narrow margin. 2008. 

Denzel Washington, who won Academy Awards for his engaging and powerful performances in the films Glory (1989) and Training Day (2001), was born in Mount Vernon, New York. 1954. 

Gustave Eiffel, designer of the famous Eiffel Tower, died at age 91. 1923. 

While imprisoned for participating in a plot to gain Irish independence, Constance Markievicz became the first woman elected to the British House of Commons. She refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the king, however, which prevented her from taking her seat. 1918. 

The Highland outlaw Rob Roy, known as the Scottish Robin Hood, died. 1734. 

The original Westminster Abbey, located in London, was consecrated and opened by Edward the Confessor. It became the site of coronations and other ceremonies of national significance in England. 1065. 

Hagia Sophia consecrated

When it was consecrated on this day in 537 as an Eastern Orthodox church, the Hagia Sophia was the world’s largest church. In subsequent centuries it became a Roman Catholic cathedral, a museum, and a mosque. 537. 

Benazir Bhutto—who became prime minister of Pakistan in 1988, making her the first woman leader of a Muslim nation in modern history—was assassinated in Rawalpindi while campaigning for parliamentary elections. 2007. 

Rebel forces under Che Guevara routed a Cuban government garrison and captured an armored train filled with weapons and ammunition, helping to bring the Cuban Revolution to an end a few days later. 1958. 

The internal passport system, previously denounced by Vladimir Lenin as one of the worst stigmas of tsarist backwardness and despotism, was reinstated in the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin. 1932.

December 25 became Christmas

Pope Liberius celebrated the first official Christmas mass in Rome on this day in 352. The birth of Jesus Christ had been celebrated as many as two centuries earlier, but it was this mass that ensured Christmas’s place on December 25 in the Roman Catholic calendar. 352. 

American singer and songwriter James Brown, known as “the Godfather of Soul,” died at the age of 73. 2006. 

Mikhail Gorbachev resigned the presidency of the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist at the end of the year. 1991. 

The film adaptation of Harper Lee‘s To Kill a Mockingbird premiered and became a classic, especially noted for Gregory Peck‘s portrayal of Atticus Finch. 1962. 

As an important step in the U.S.S.R.’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon, the first Soviet chain reaction took place in Moscow using an experimental graphite-moderated natural uranium pile. The Soviets successfully tested their first nuclear device about two and a half years later. 1946. 

During the American Revolution, General George Washington crossed the Delaware River and surprised the British at Trenton, New Jersey. 1776. 

Bing Crosby debuted Irving Berlin‘s “White Christmas” on The Kraft Music Hall radio program. Crosby later recorded the song for the film Holiday Inn (1942), and it won an Oscar, becoming one of the most popular songs in American history. 1941.

The tinfoil speaking machine

On this day in 1877, the U.S. Patent Office received an application for a “Phonograph or Speaking Machine” from inventor Thomas Edison. He had demonstrated the device for the first time a few weeks earlier, when he played his recorded (and sometimes unintelligible) voice to magazine staffers in New York City. 1877. 

Indian cricketer Virat Kohli scored his first century, in a one-day international match against Sri Lanka. 2009. 

Hijackers took control of Indian Airlines flight 814 and demanded that it be rerouted from New Delhi to Lahore. Days later, negotiations between the Indian government and the hijackers, who were linked a Pakistan-based Islamist group, resulted in an exchange of jailed militants for passengers being held hostage. 1999. 

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to aid the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anti-communist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War. 1979. 

Stephenie Meyer—author of the popular Twilight Saga, a series of vampire-themed novels for teenagers—was born in Hartford, Connecticut. 1973. 

Idris I became the first king of newly independent Libya. 1951. 

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II. 1943. 

American manufacturer, aviator, and film producer Howard Hughes, who became better known for his reclusiveness than for the uses to which he put his vast wealth, was born in Houston, Texas. 1905

The United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium, ending the War of 1812. The treaty did not resolve the issues that led to war, but a newfound sense of patriotism in many Americans, who were convinced that they had won, pushed the U.S. to pursue its national goals. 1814. 

The incident at the Yellow House

Vincent van Gogh cut off part of his own left ear on this day in 1888 after a heated argument with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, with whom he had been sharing a house in the south of France. Van Gogh reportedly then delivered his ear to a nearby brothel. Art historians have debated the incident for decades. 1888. 

Argentina announced the suspension of payments on its external debt—the biggest debt default in history to date. 2001. 

Eighty-two crewmen of the USS Pueblo were released after being held in captivity for 11 months by North Korea, which claimed the U.S. Navy intelligence ship had crossed into its waters. 1968. 

Early in World War II, invading Japanese forces defeated U.S. troops at the Battle of Wake Island. 1941. 

The first comprehensive constitution of the Ottoman Empire went into effect, giving the sultan full executive power. 1876. 

Brandenburg Gate reopened

On this day in 1989, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was reopened as East and West Germany continued moving toward reunification. Berliners had been unable to use the gate since 1961, when the newly built Berlin Wall blocked access to it. 1989. 

The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was promulgated, granting such civil rights as freedom of speech, religion, information, and association, as well as guaranteeing the equality of nationalities. 1990. 

Rescue helicopters arrived at the crash site of Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 and evacuated a first group of survivors, two months after the plane went down in the Andes Mountains in Argentina. Of the 45 people aboard the plane, only 16 survived. 1972. 

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Washington, D.C., to discuss World War II, two weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack. 1941

Srinivasa Ramanujan, a self-taught Indian mathematician who made many pioneering discoveries and whose story was told in the movie The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015), was born in Erode in what is today Tamil Nadu. 1887. 

Frank B. Kellogg, a U.S. secretary of state who won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1929, was born in Potsdam, New York. 1856. 

Jean-Michel Basquiat (born December 22, 1960, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.—died August 12, 1988, New York City) was an American painter known for his raw gestural style of painting with graffiti-like images and scrawled text.

The first basketball game

Gym teacher James Naismith organized the first game of basketball, which was played on this day in 1891 in a school in Springfield, Massachusetts. Chaos reigned and a fight broke out, which prompted Naismith to develop the sport’s original rules. 1891. 

The music video for South Korean singer PSY‘s pop song Gangnam Style became the first video on YouTube to get one billion views. 2012. 

Pan Am flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 more on the ground. Years later, an employee of Libyan Arab Airlines was convicted of the terrorist attack, and the government of Libya agreed to pay damages to the families of the victims. 1988. 

The movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered. It was Walt Disney‘s first feature-length animated film, and its critical and commercial success determined his company‘s path forward for decades. 1937. 

Future Nobel Prize winners Marie Curie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive chemical element radium, a silvery white metal used in early cancer treatment. 1898

The Battle of Firoz Shah began between British and Sikh forces during the First Sikh War. 1845. 

Benjamin Disraeli, the statesman and novelist who was British prime minister twice (1868, 1874–80), was born in London. 1804. 

U.S. President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which established the Space Force, a new branch of the U.S. military. Its motto is Semper Supra (“Always Above”).2019 

Centuries of Portuguese rule ended in Macau when it became a special administrative region under Chinese sovereignty, 12 years after China and Portugal reached an agreement on its status. 1999. 

The initial attack in Operation Just Cause, a U.S. military invasion of Panama, was launched. Its goal was to remove General Manuel Noriega as the country’s de facto leader and extradite him to face U.S. drug trafficking charges. 1989. 

Following the end of the Bangladesh Liberation War and 1971 India-Pakistan War, President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan of Pakistan transferred power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who put him under house arrest. 1971.

Following Abraham Lincoln‘s election as U.S. president, South Carolina became the first U.S. state to secede from the Union. 1860.

The National Liberation Front was formed with the purpose of overthrowing the U.S.-backed government of South Vietnam and reunifying North and South Vietnam. Chaired by Nguyen Huu Tho, it was the political arm of the Viet Cong. 1960.

Bah, humbug!

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published for the first time on this day in 1843. It became an instant classic, its story of Ebenezer Scrooge‘s redemption and the Cratchit family‘s joy often repeated on stage and screen today. 1843. 

Park Geun-Hye became the first female to be elected president of South Korea. She also became the country’s first democratically elected president to be removed from office after she was impeached in 2017. 2012. 

The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton, the second U.S. president to be impeached, was acquitted by the Senate in January 1999. 1998. 

James Cameron‘s Titanic, a drama about the doomed ocean liner starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, premiered. It later became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. 1997. 

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States, succeeding Gerald Ford, who had been elevated to the presidency following the resignation of Richard Nixon. 1974. 

The Viet Minh, a Vietnamese independence group founded by Ho Chi Minh, launched a guerrilla war against French forces in Vietnam, in response to a French naval bombardment of Haiphong several weeks earlier that had killed thousands of civilians. 1946. 

During the American Revolution, General George Washington led 11,000 regulars to take up winter quarters at Valley Forge on the west bank of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, which was occupied by the British. 1777. 

The missing link that wasn’t

A British Museum paleontologist announced on this day in 1912 that an amateur geologist had discovered the fossil remains of an extinct human species in England. The remains, known as the Piltdown man, were presented as the missing evolutionary link between apes and early human beings, but by the 1950s they had been exposed as a fraud. 1912. 

Donald Trump became the third U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives, which charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He was acquitted by the Senate in February 2020. 2019. 

Kim Dae-Jung was elected president of South Korea, the first opposition leader in that country’s history to win that position. 1997. 

Actor Brad Pitt, known for his portrayal of unconventional characters, was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. 1963. 

Director Steven Spielberg—who enjoyed sweeping critical and commercial success with movies ranging from Jaws (1975) and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) to Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and The Fabelmans (2022)—was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. 1946. 

The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution officially entered into force, abolishing slavery in the United States. 1865. 

The debut of The Simpsons

The Simpsons debuted on this day in 1989 with the Christmas special “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire.” Weekly episodes began airing in January 1990, and the show went on to become the longest-running animated television series in U.S. history. 1989. 

The United States and Cuba reestablished diplomatic relations that had been suspended for more than 50 years. 2014. 

North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il died; he was succeeded by his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un. 2011. 

Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after being harassed by municipal officials, giving rise to Tunisia‘s Jasmine Revolution and helping inspire the Arab Spring; he died from his injuries the following month. 2010. 

Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful sustained flights in an airplane—Orville first, gliding 120 feet (36.6 metres) through the air in 12 seconds—at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. 1903. 

The first issue of Vogue was published. Initially a weekly high-society journal, it became a prominent American fashion magazine, with Diana Vreeland and Anna Wintour among its most notable and influential editors. 1892. 

With Napoleon‘s decree of Milan, all neutral countries and allies of France were forbidden to trade with Britain. 1807. 

French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes and King Louis XVI decided to recognize the United States as an independent country, making France one of the first countries to do so. The recognition became official on February 6, 1778, when the two countries signed a treaty of alliance that involved France financially and militarily in the American Revolution. 1777.