Today In History - December 12

1997 Carlos the Jackal, "professional revolutionary" goes on trial in Paris
1997 Florida releases Alex Arias, the last original Marlin
1997 Japanese Maglev train builders claim world speed record at 332 MPH
1997 Red Sox sign Pedro Martinez to record 6 year $69 million contract
1997 SWAT team shoots John E Armstrong in Fla, freeing 2 young hostages
1997 TWA 800 hearings end
1997 Fed judge sentences Autumn Jackson, who claims to be Bill Cosby's daughter, to 26 months for trying to extort $40 million from him
1996 Assassination attempt on Uday (Iraqi's heir to Sadam Hussain)
1996 Marlins sign their 6th free-agent since Nov 22, Moises Alou
1995 CBC announces Radio Canada International service to end on March 31
1995 Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres address both house of U.S. congress
1995 NBA referees return to work after striking
1995 Amendment to make it illegal to physically desecrate the flag turned down by senate 63-36 (need 2/3 vote)
1993 "Any Given Day" closes at Longacre Theater New York City after 32 performances
1993 "Kentucky Cycle" closes at Royale Theater New York City after 34 performances
1993 WAQX 104.3 (Q-104) rock format replaces WNCN classic format in New York City
1992 58th Heisman Trophy Award: Gino Torretta, Miami, Florida (QB)
1992 6.8-7.5 earthquake strikes Flores Island (tsunami kills 3,000)
1992 Japanese crown prince Naruhito announces engagement to Masaka Owada
1992 Julia Kurotchkina, 18, of Russia, crowned 42nd Miss World
1992 New York Giants lose 19-0 to Phoenix Cardinals
1991 Actor Richard Gere marries supermodel Cindy Crawford
1991 New Jersey Nets set NBA record of 22 blocks beating Nuggets 121-81
1991 Orion Pictures filed Chapter 11 for bankruptcy protection
1991 Tampa Bay Bucaneer Dexter Manley, retires after failing drug test
1988 New York City Subway system adds new stations (Z line)
1988 PLO leader Yasi Arafat accepts Israel's right to exist
1988 Sandra Miller of Queens sues Mike Tyson for sexual harassment
1987 Mookie Blaylock sets NBA record of 13 steals in a game
1987 Okla's sets NCAA record of 33 steals vs Centenary
1987 Rollermania at MSG, Eastern Express beats Midwest Pioneers
1986 David Boon's fourth Test century, 103 vs. England at Adelaide
1986 James "Bone Crusher" Smith TKO's WBA champ Tim Witherspoon in MSG
1986 Russian Tupolev-134 crashes in East Berlin, 70 killed
1986 South African journalist Zwelakhe Sisulu arrested
1985 248 U.S. soldiers and 8 crew members die in Arrow Air charter crash
1985 DC-8 crashes near Gander, Newfoundland; 258 die
1985 NASA launches space vehicle S-207
1983 A truck bomb explodes at U.S. Embassy in Kuwait
1982 "Herman Van Veen: All of Him" closes at Ambassador New York City after 6 perf
1982 $9,800,000 in cash stolen from money transport car in New York City
1982 57th Australian Womens Tennis: C Evert beats M Navratilova (63 26 63)
1982 Joanne Carner/John Mahaffey wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
1981 "1st" closes at Martin Beck Theater New York City after 37 performances
1981 Gambia and Senegal sign agreement to be known as Senegambia in Feb 1982
1981 Wayne Gretzky scores quickest 50th goal (game 39)
1980 US's copyright law amended to include computer programs
1979 Gold hits record $462.50 an ounce
1975 Gas stove explodes and starts fire killing 138 (Mecca Saudi Arabia)
1975 Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to trying to kill President Gerald Ford
1970 U.S.S.R. performs underground nuclear test
1969 "Hello Dolly" with Barbra Striesand premieres
1969 Bill Toomey achieves world record-score (8417 points)
1969 Bomb attack on bank in Milan, 14 killed
1968 Arthur Ashe becomes 1st black to be ranked #1 in tennis
1968 Rolling Stones film TV show "Rock 'n Roll Circus"-never aired
1968 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1967 U.S. launches Pioneer 8 into solar orbit
1965 Beatles last Great Britain concert (Capitol Theatre in Cardiff Wales)
1965 Doug Walters makes maiden Test ton in 1st Test, goes on to 155
1965 Gale Sayers of Chicago Bears scores 6 TDs, ties NFL record
1965 Vivian Beaumont Theater opens at 65th St. and Amsterdam Ave New York City
1964 Cleveland Browns' Frank Ryan sets club record of 5 TD passes
1964 Shooting starts for "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage" (Menagerie)
1963 Argentina asks for extradition of ex-president Peron
1963 Frank Sinatra, Jr. returned after being kidnapped
1963 Kenya (formerly British East Africa) declares independence from UK
1962 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1961 Ham radio satellite Oscar 1 launched with military Discoverer 36
1961 Martin Luther King, Jr. and 700 demonstraters arrested in Albany Ga
1959 U.N. Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space is established
1958 Dutch social democratic party-ministers/premier Drees dismissed
1958 Fergie Gupte takes 9-102 with leggies vs. West Indies at Kanpur
1957 Maj Adrian Drew flies 1,943 kph in F-101 Voodoo
1957 US announces manufacture of Borazon (harder than diamond)
1957 Jerry Lee Lewis weds his cousin Myra Gale Brown, 13, while still married to his 1st wife Jane Mitcham
1955 1st prototype of hovercraft patented by British eng Christoper Cockerell
1953 Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A rocket plane
1952 Dallas Texans (former Boston Yanks) play last game, last original team
1951 Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement
1950 16th Heisman Trophy Award: Vic Janowicz, Ohio State (HB)
1949 AL votes 7-1 rejecting legalizing the spitball
1947 United Mine Workers union withdrew from AFL
1946 Ice plant collapses, shearing a tenement building and burying 38
1946 Tide detergent introduced
1945 Special Court of justice convicts NSB-leader Mussert to death
1942 German offensive in South Western Stalingrad
1941 European reservists on Java mobilizes
1941 German occupying army do a house search in Paris looking for Jews
1941 Russian 20th army recaptures Soljetsjnogorsk
1940 British troops conquer Sidi el-Barrani
1939 Russ Indigirka capsizes in blizzard off Japanese coast; 750 die
1937 NBC and RCA sends 1st mobile-TV vans onto the streets of NY
1937 Washington Redskins win NFL championship
1937 Japanese aircraft shell and sink U.S. gunboat Panay on Yangtze River in China. (Japan apologized and eventually paid U.S. $2.2M in reparations)
1936 Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek declares war on Japan
1932 S N Behrmans "Biography," premieres in New York City
1932 U.S.S.R. and China resume diplomatic relations
1931 Japanese Government of Imukai forms
1930 Baseball Rules Committee greatly revises the rule book
1930 Baseball changes rule, ball bounces into stands not a HR, now a double
1930 Start of the 1st Australia vs. West Indies Test (at Adelaide)
1928 Nichols/Brownes "Wings over Europe," premieres in New York City
1926 Leningrad: premier of Dmitri Sjostakovitsj' 1st Pianoconcert
1925 Arthur Heinman coins term "motel," opens Motel Inn, San Luis Obispo
1925 Cossack officer/ex-premier Reza Chan becomes shah of Persia
1925 Last Qajar Shah of Iran deposed; Rexa Shah Pahlavi takes over
1920 Maurice Ravels ballet "La Valse," premieres in Paris
1917 French troop train derails in French Alps killing 543
1917 Rev Edward Flanagan forms Boys Town outside Omaha, Neb
1916 Worst train disaster ever (Modane France-543 killed)
1915 1st all-metal aircraft (Junkers J-1) test flown at Dessau Germany
1915 Aristide Briand forms French war government
1915 Russian troops overrun Hamadan, Persia
1913 "Mona Lisa," stolen from Louvre Museum in 1911, recovered
1913 Hebrew language officially used to teach in Palestinian schools
1912 R Friml/O Harbachs musical "Firefly," premieres in New York City
1906 Oscar Straus, 1st Jewish government member, appointed Sec of Commerce
1904 CMS McClellans "Leah Kleschna," premieres in New York City
1903 Roger Casement completes report about abuses in Belgian Congo
1901 Marconi receives 1st transatlantic radio signal, England to US
1900 National Negro Anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," composed
1899 1st case of plague on Oahu, Hawaii
1897 Anti-Jewish violence breaks out in Bucharest Romania
1897 Rudolph Dirks' 1st Katzenjammer cartoon strip in New York Journal
1884 1st Test match played at the Adelaide Oval
1878 Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing "St. Louis Dispatch"
1871 Jules Janssen discovers dark lines in solar corona spectrum
1870 Joseph Rainey (SC) became 1st black sworn into House of Reps
1862 Naval Engagement at Yazoo River, MS (USS CAIRO torpedoed)
1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia (Marye's Heights)
1858 1st Canadian coins circulated (1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent and 20 cent)
1822 Mexico officially recognized as an independent nation by US
1800 Washington D.C. established as capital of US
1792 In Vienna, Ludwig Von Beethoven (22) receives 1st lesson in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn
1791 Bank of U.S. opens
1787 Pennsylvania becomes 2nd state to ratify U.S. constitution
1769 Pope Clement XIV proclaims a universal jubilee
1715 Russian/Prussian troops occupy Stralsund
1700 Utrecht/Overijssel/Buren/Leerdam/Ijsselstein adopt Gregorian calendar
1677 Brandenburgs army occupies Stettin
1653 Barebone-parliament ends
1527 Composer Adrian Willaert moves from Milan to Venice
1524 Pope Clement VII approves Organization of Jewish Community of Rome
1479 Jews are expelled from Schlettstadt Alsace by Emperor Frederick III
1474 Isabella crowns herself queen of Castilie and Aragon
1098 1st Crusaders capture and plunder Mara Syria
627 Battle at Nineveh: Byzantine emperor Heraclius beats Perze

Today In History - December 12

On This Date in History

Famous Persons Born on This Date in History