43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated.
574 – Byzantine Emperor Justin II retires due to recurring seizures of insanity. He abdicates the throne in favor of his general Tiberius, proclaiming him Caesar.
1724 – Tumult of Thorn: Religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.
1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England.
1776 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general.
1782 – Hyder Ali, warrior of Mysore, passed away in a camp near Chittur.
1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
1907 – The First Egyptian Nationalist Congress meets under the leadership of Mustafa Kamil Pasha
1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1941 – World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor – The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (For Japan’s near-simultaneous attacks on Eastern Hemisphere targets, see December 8.)
1946 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.
1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Government of the Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei, Taiwan.
1949 – The Armed Forces Flag Day or the Flag Day of India is a day dedicated to India towards collection of funds from people of India for the welfare of the Indian Armed Forces personnel. Over the years, it has become a tradition to commemorate this day as an honour to the soldiers, airmen and sailors of India.
1960 – Ivory Coast claims independence from France
1962 – Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality’s constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.
1963 – Instant replay is used for the first time in a Army-Navy game.
1971 – Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a coalition government with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister.
1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.
1981 – Spain becomes a member of the NATO
1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
1983 – An Iberia AirlinesBoeing 727 collides with an AviacoDC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 93 people.
1987 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
1987 – Palestinian uprising against Israel in West Bank
1988 – Mikhail Gorbachev cheered by Wall St crowds upon arrival in NYC
1988 – Spitak earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.8 (surface wave magnitude) kills more than 25,000, injures 30,000 and leaves 500,000 homeless out of a population of 3,500,000.
1990 – Iraqi parliment endorses Saddam Hussein’s decision to free hostages
1992 – Religious riots swept across India in the wake of the destruction of the ancient Babri Masjid mosque by rampaging Hindu fanatics in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya yesterday. More than 800 people had been killed and hundreds injured as Muslim and Hindu mobs stabbed, shooted and beat each other. The violence had thrown the government into chaos and had spilled into the neighboring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh. The army had been called out to restore order in Bombay, where street battles left 41 dead. The stock market had been closed down and Parliament forced to adjourn. Advani quit as the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.
1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
2003 – The Conservative Party of Canada is officially registered, following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
2005 – Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
2015 – The JAXA probe Akatsuki successfully enters orbit around Venus five years after the first attempt.
2015 – US Presidential candidate Donald Trump proposes banning all Muslims from entering the US