Today in History January 2nd

1905  The Russo-Japanese war ended.

1923  The African-American town of Rosewood, Fla., was burned by a white mob.

1935  The Bruno R. Hauptmann trial began for the kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby.

1959  The first spacecraft to fly by the Moon and also to orbit the Sun, Mechta (Luna 1) was launched by the USSR.

1994  Rudolph Giuliani is inaugurated as New York City's mayor.

Today in History January 1st

1908   The ball signifying the New Year was dropped for the first time at Times Square in New York City.

1914   The world's first airline, St. Petersburg Tampa Airboat Line, starts operation in St. Petersburg, Florida.

1959   Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries took over Cuba and toppled Fulgencio Batista's regime.

1975   John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman were convicted of obstruction of justice in the Watergate affair.

1993   Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

1994   The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.

2002   Euro coins and notes went into circulation in twelve European nations.

Today in History December 31

1938  The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis.

1946  President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

1961  The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.

1963  Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formally dissolved.

1964  The al-Fatah guerrillas of Yasser Arafat launched their first terrorist raid on Israel.

1987  Robert Mugabe sworn in as Zimbabwe's president.

Today in History December 30

1911  Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.

1922  The Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics was established through the confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine, and Transcaucasian Federation.

1940  California's first freeway opened.

1972  President Nixon halted the heavy bombing on North Vietnam.

1993  Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement of mutual recognition to put an end to Jewish-Christian hostilities.

Today in History December 29

1890  The last major battle of the Indian Wars, at Wounded Knee Creek, took place with hundreds of Indian men, women, and children massacred.

1937  The Constitution of Ireland, changing the Irish Free State into Eire, went into effect.

1940  During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

1989  Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1996  A peace agreement was signed, ending 36 years of conflict in Guatemala.

Today in History December 28

1869  William F. Semple patented chewing gum.

1895  The Lumiere Brothers gave the first commercial movie show at the Grand Cafe in Paris.

1937  Composer Maurice Ravel died in Paris at age 62.

1945  Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.

1981  Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.

Today in History December 27

1900   Prohibitionist Carry Nation smashed her first saloon.

1932   Radio City Music Hall in New York City opened.

1945   The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.

1949   The Netherlands transferred sovereignty to Indonesia after more than 300 years of Dutch rule.

1979   The Soviet Union took control of Afghanistan, installing Afghan politician Babrak Karmal as president.

1996   Rwanda's first genocide trial opened for the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis.

2001   President Bush permanently normalized trade relations with China.

2001   The U.S. announced plans to hold Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Today in History December 26

1776  George Washington defeated the Hessians at Trenton.

1865  James H. Nason received a patent for a coffee percolator.

1966  The first Kwanzaa is celebrated.

1972  The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Mo.

1985  Zoologist Dian Fossey was found murdered in Rwanda.

1996  JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in her Boulder, Colo., home.

2004  In the Indian Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the largest in 40 years, triggered a tsunami that ultimately killed more than 280,000.

Today in History December 25

1066   William the Conqueror was crowned King of England.

1776   George Washington crossed the Delaware River and surprised the Hessians.

1868   President Andrew Johnson granted an unconditional pardon to all persons involved in the Southern rebellion that resulted in the Civil War.

1926   Hirohito became emperor of Japan.

1977   British film actor, director, and producer Charlie Chaplin died in Switzerland at age 88.

1989  Former Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed.

1991   President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned following the disintegration of the Soviet Union

Today in History December 24

1524    Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama died in Cochin, India.

1814    The War of 1812 between America and Britain ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.

1818    "Silent Night" was composed by Franz Joseph Gruber.

1865     The Ku Klux Klan was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee.

1871     Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida premiered in Cairo, Egypt, at the opening of the Suez Canal.

1943     Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of Allied Forces by President Franklin Roosevelt.

1992    President Bush pardoned former defense secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Today in History December 23

1783 :George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army.

1788 :Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the District of Columbia.

1823 :The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("'Twas the night before Christmas"), written by either Clement C. Moore or Maj. Henry Livingston, Jr., was published in the Troy Sentinel of New York.

1913 :President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the Federal Reserve System.

1947 :The transistor was unveiled by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley.

1948 :Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed.

1986 :Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling aboard the experimental airplane Voyager.

Today in History December 13

1642 :New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman.

1918 :President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Europe while in office.

1978 :The U.S. Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, the first U.S. coin honoring a woman.

1981 :The Polish government imposed martial law in an attempt to crush the Solidarity movement.

1989 :South African President F. W. de Klerk met with Nelson Mandela for the first time.

1996 :Kofi Annan of Ghana chosen to become UN secretary-general.

2000 :George W. Bush accepted presidency 36 days after election; Al Gore, Jr., conceded.

2003 :American forces captured Saddam Hussein who was hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit.

Today in History December 22

1772 :Construction of the first schoolhouse west of the Allegheny Mountains was started in Schoenbrunn, Ohio, by Moravian missionaries.

1807 :The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act.

1864 :During the Civil War, Union general William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln saying, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

1894 :French army officer Capt. Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial.

1989 :Playwright Samuel Beckett died at age 83.

1989 :Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown.

2001 :Hamid Karzai sworn in as president of Afghanistan.

2010 :President Obama officially repealed the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy.

Today in History December 21

1620 :The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1891 :The first basketball game, invented at Springfield College in Massachusetts by James E. Naismith, was played.

1898 :Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium.

1913 :The first crossword puzzle was printed in the New York World.

1937 :Disney's Snow White, the first feature length color and sound cartoon, premiered.

1970 :Elvis Presley met with president Richard Nixon in the White House.

1988 :A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

1991 :Eleven of the former Soviet republics form the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1995 :Palestinians took over the control of the city of Bethlehem.

Today in History December 20

1790 :Samuel Slater built the nation's first cotton mill in Pawtucket, R.I.

1803 :The United States purchased the Louisiana territory from France for $15 million.

1860 :South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.

1968 :Author John Steinbeck died at age 66.

1989 :The United States invaded Panama and installed a new government but failed to capture General Manuel Antonio Noriega.

1996 :Astronomer Carl Sagan died at age 62.

Today in History December 19

1732 :Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac.

1776 :Thomas Paine published his first American Crisis essay, in which he wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls."

1843 :Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol."

1946 :War broke out in Indochina when Ho Chi Minh attacked the French.

1972 :Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

1984 :Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

1998 :President Bill Clinton impeached on two counts by the House of Representatives.

2003 :Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya announced that his country would discontinue development of weapons of mass destruction.

Today in History December 18

1737 :Violin maker Antonio Stradivari died in Cremona, Italy.

1787 :New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1865 :Slavery was abolished with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

1892 :Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" premiered at St. Petersburg's Maryinksy Theatre.

1944 :The Supreme Court upheld the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans.

1956 :Japan was admitted to the United Nations.

1957 :The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania became the first civilian nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States.

1969 :The British Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.

2000 :George W. Bush received 271 votes in the delayed Electoral College balloting.

Today in History December 17

1777 :France recognized American independence.

1903 :Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first flight in a heavier-than-air plane at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

1944 :The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of holding Japanese-Americans in internment camps, allowing "evacuees" to return home.

1969 :The U.S. Air Force ended its "Project Blue Book" and concluded that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial activity behind UFO sightings.

1992 :North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Today in History December 16

1653 :Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

1773 :The Boston Tea Party took place.

1916 :Grigori Rasputin assassinated by a group of noble Russian conspirators.

1920 :One of the deadliest earthquakes in history hit the Gansu province in China. The 8.6 quake killed 200,000 people.

1944 :The Battle of the Bulge during World War II began in Belgium.

1990 :Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti in the country's first democratic elections.

2000 :Colin Powell was selected to become the first African-American secretary of state.

Today in History December 15

1791 : The Bill of Rights took effect with Virginia's ratification of it.

1890 :Sioux Indian chief Sitting Bull was killed by Native American police.

1916 :The French defeated the Germans in the Battle of Verdun.

1939 :The movie Gone With the Wind premiered in Atlanta, Georgia.

1944 :Band leader Glenn Miller disappeared in a plane crash over the English Channel.

1961 :Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death by an Israeli court for organizing the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.

1964 :Canada adopted its national flag, a red maple leaf on a white background.

1966 :Animated-cartoon pioneer and movie producer Walt Disney died in Los Angeles.

1989 :A demonstration that turned into a popular uprising in Romania began the downfall of Nicolae Ceausescu.