World Bulletin / News Desk
| 54 | Nero succeeds his great uncle Claudius, who was murdered by his wife, as the new emperor of Rome. | |
| 1307 | Members of the Knights of Templar are arrested throughout France, imprisoned and tortured by the order of King Philip the Fair of France. | |
| 1399 | Henry IV of England is crowned. | |
| 1670 | Virginia passes a law that blacks arriving in the colonies as Christians cannot be used as slaves. | |
| 1775 | The Continental Congress authorizes construction of two warships, thus instituting an American naval force. | |
| 1776 | Benedict Arnold is defeated at Lake Champlain. | |
| 1792 | President George Washington lays the cornerstone for the White House. | |
| 1812 | At the Battle of Queenston Heights, a Canadian and British army defeats the American who have tried to invade Canada. | |
| 1849 | The California state constitution, which prohibits slavery, is signed in Monterey. | |
| 1903 | Boston defeats Pittsburgh in baseball's first World Series. | |
| 1904 | Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is published. | |
| 1942 | In the first of four attacks, two Japanese battleships sail down the slot and shell Henderson field on Guadalcanal, in an unsuccessful effort to destroy the American Cactus Air Force. | |
| 1943 | Italy declares war on Germany. | |
| 1944 | Troops of the advancing Soviet Army occupy Riga, capital of Latvia. | |
| 1946 | The Fourth Republic begins in France; will continue to 1958. | |
| 1958 | First appearance of Paddington Bear, now a beloved icon of children's literature. | |
| 1967 | First game of the fledgling American Basketball Association; Oakland Oaks beat Anaheim Amigos 134-129 in Oakland, Cal. | |
| 1972 | Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes Mountains, near the Argentina-Chile border; only 16 survivors (out of 45 people aboard) are rescued on Dec. 23. | |
| 1976 | Dr. F.A. Murphy at Center for Disease Control obtains the first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle. | |
| 1983 | The Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying seven, the largest crew to date, lands safely at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. | |
| 1990 | The Lebanese Civil War ends when a Syrian attack removes Gen. Michel Aoun from power. | |
| 2010 | After being underground for a record 69 days, all 33 miners trapped in a Copiapo, Chile, mine are rescued. |
