This Month in History

We are in December, the last month of 2006

1 1960 Patrice Lumumba caught in the Congo

2 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte crowned 1st emperor of France in Paris by Pope Pius VII

3 1984 Oldest groom - Harry Stevens, 103, weds Thelma Lucas, 83, in Wisconsin

4 1843 Manila paper (made from sails, canvas & rope) patented, Massachusetts

5 1349 500 Jews are massacred at Nüremberg in Black Death riots

6 1956 Nelson Mandela & 156 others arrested for political activities in South Africa

December, 7 1965 The Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches formally reconciled themselves by reversing a mutual excommunication of each other, dating back (over 900 years!) to July 1054.

8 1993 30 killed at religious rebellion in Algeria

9 1994 Kim II Sung President of North Korea (1945-94), dies at 82

10 1901 1st Nobel Peace Prizes (to Jean Henri Dunant, Frederic Passy)

11 1909 Colored moving pictures demonstrated at Madison Square Garden, New York NY

12 1800 Washington DC established as capital of US

13 1988 Yasser Arafat addresses UN in Geneva

14 1981 The modern nation of Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights, which had been captured from Syria during the 1967 War

15 1970 South Korean ferry Namyong-Ho sinks in Strait of Korea, 308 killed

16 1631 Mount Vesuvius, Italy erupts, destroys 6 villages & kills 4,000

17 1917 Confiscation of the property of the Russian Orthodox Church and abolition of religious instruction in schools was announced by the Bolshevik government

18 1972 US begins its heaviest bombing of North Vietnam

19 1884 Italy recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State

20 1999 Portugal returns Macau to China

21 1804 Benjamin Disraeli (Tory) British PM (1868, 1874-80) is born

22 1989 After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Nicolae Ceausescu

23 1950 Pope Pius XII declared that the tomb of St. Peter had been discovered beneath St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

24 1993 Norman Vincent Peale (Author of the Power of Positive Thinking), dies at 95

25 0004 -BC- Jesus of Nazareth religious leader/philosopher is born

26 1890 King Mwanga of Uganda signs contract with East Africa Company

27 1983 Pope John Paul II pardons man who shot him (Mehmet Ali Agca)

28 1976 Winnie Mandela banished in South Africa

29 1891 Edison patents "transmission of signals electrically" (radio)

30 1975 Tiger Woods, world No.1 golfer is born

31 1946 US President Harry Truman officially proclaims end of WWII

Ends…