• 1777 - San Jose, California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California.
• 1781 - The crew of the slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea in order to claim insurance.
• 1830 - November Uprising: An armed rebellion against Russia's rule in Poland begins.
• 1845 - The Sonderbund is defeated by the joint forces of other Swiss cantons under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour.
• 1847 - Whitman Massacre: Missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others are killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians, causing the Cayuse War.
• 1850 - The treaty, Punctation of Olmütz, signed in Olomouc means diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to Austrian Empire, which took over the leadership of German Confederation.
• 1864 - Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre - Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants inside Colorado Territory.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Spring Hill - Confederate advance into Tennessee misses opportunity to crush Union army. Gen. Hood angered, leads to Battle of Franklin.
• 1872 - Indian Wars: The Modoc War begins with the Battle of Lost River.
• 1877 - Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
• 1890 - The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan and the first Diet convenes.
• 1890 - At West Point, New York, the United States Naval Academy defeats the United States Military Academy 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game.
• 1893 - Ziqiang Institute, today known as Wuhan University, is founded by Zhang Zhidong, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in late Qing Dynasty of China after his memorial to the throne is approved by the Qing Government.
• 1910 - The first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system is issued to Ernest Sirrine.
• 1915 - Fire destroys most of the buildings on Santa Catalina Island, California.
• 1922 - Howard Carter opens the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the public.
• 1929 - U.S. Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole.
• 1934 - The Chicago Bears defeat the Detroit Lions 19-16 in the first nationally broadcast game.
• 1943 - The second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining the post-war ordering of the country.
• 1944 - The first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome is performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.
• 1945 - The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is declared.
• 1947 - The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine (The Partition Plan).
• 1950 - Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea.
• 1952 - Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
• 1961 - Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission - Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico.
• 1963 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
• 1963 - Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 831: A Douglas DC-8 carrying 118, crashes after taking-off from Dorval Airport near Montreal.
• 1965 - Canadian Space Agency launches the satellite Alouette 2.
• 1967 - Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
• 1972 - Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari) releases Pong (the first commercially successful video game) in Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.
• 1983 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.
• 1987 - A Korean Air Boeing 707 explodes over the Thai-Burmese border, killing 155.
• 1990 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing "use all necessary means to uphold and implement" United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 "to restore international peace and security" if Iraq didn't withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.
• 2005 - The new Croatian Communist Party (KPH) is founded in Vukovar.
• 2007 - The Armed Forces of the Philippines lay siege to The Peninsula Manila after soldiers led by Senator Antonio Trillanes stage a mutiny.
• 2007 - A 7.4 magnitude earthquake occurs off the northern coast of Martinique. This affected the Eastern Caribbean as far north as Puerto Rico and as south as Trinidad.

Births