December 10
1799: France adopted the meter as its official unit of length.
1817: Mississippi became the 20th U.S. state.
1868: The first traffic lights were installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. They resembled railway signals and used semaphore arms that were illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
1884: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1835-1910) was published for the first time, in Canada and the United Kingdom, by Charles L. Webster And Company.
1901: The first Nobel Prizes were awarded.
1955: Mighty Mouse Playhouse premiered on national television.
1964: Born this day: Food Network celebrity chef Bobby Flay; and actor George Newbern (Father of the Bride, Friends).
1965: The Grateful Dead performed its first concert under this new name, in San Jose, Calif., during one of author Ken Kesey’s “Acid Tests,” a notorious series of LSD-fueled parties.
1968: Japan’s biggest heist, the still-unsolved “300 million yen robbery,” was carried out in Tokyo. (Equivalent to $817,520.)
December 11
630: Muhammad (570-632) led an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.
1775: Martha Washington (1731-1802) joined her husband George (1732-1799) in Cambridge, Mass., at the winter headquarters of the Continental Army.
1789: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.
1816: Indiana became the 19th U.S. state.
1934: Bill Wilson (1895-1971), co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, took his last drink and entered treatment for the last time.
1968: The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featuring The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull (band), The Who, Taj Mahal (musician), Marianne Faithfull, The Dirty Mac, Yoko Ono, Sir Robert Fossett’s Circus, and the Nurses, was filmed at the Intertel (V.T.R. Services) Studio, Wycombe Road, Wembley.
1972: Apollo 17 became the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon.
2008: Bernard Madoff (born 1938) was arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, the largest ever.
December 12
1787: Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1862: USS Cairo became the first armored ship sunk by an electrically detonated mine, in the Yazoo River in Mississippi.
1901: Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) received the first transatlantic radio signal, the letter ‘S’ in Morse Code, at Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
1917: Father Edward J. Flanagan (1886-1948) founded Boys Town in Nebraska as a farm village for wayward boys.
1941: The U.S. Marine Corps F4F Wildcats sank the first four major Japanese ships of World War II, near Wake Island.
2000: The U.S. Supreme Court released its 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore, which made George W. Bush the 43rd president.
December 13
1636: The Massachusetts Bay Colony organized three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the National Guard of the United States.
1769: Dartmouth College was founded in Hanover, New Hampshire.
1903: Born this day: U.S. civil rights activist Ella Baker (mentored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., died 1986); and Spanish classical guitarist Carlos Montoya (created modern Flamenco-style music, died 1993).
1948: Born this day: rock musicians Jeff Baxter (Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers); and Ted Nugent.
1950: Born this day: actress Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me); actress Heather North (voice of “Daphne Blake” in Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo); actor Afemo Omilami (drill sergeant in Forrest Gump); and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (took office 2009).
1962: NASA launched Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
1967: Born this day: actor Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained); and actress NeNe Leakes (The Real Housewives of Atlanta).
1972: Apollo 17 astronauts and Harrison Schmitt (born 1935) and Eugene Cernan (born 1934) became the 11th and 12th humans respectively, and the last humans to date, to set foot on the Moon.
December 14
1975: NBC’s Saturday Night Live was broadcast with a seven-second delay for the first time because producers wanted to bleep out anticipated profanity by guest host Richard Pryor (1940-2005).
1983: Martha Layne Collins (born 1936) was inaugurated as Kentucky’s first female governor.
1911: Roald Amundsen’s team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel and Oscar Wisting, became the first people to reach the South Pole.
1946: Born this day: actresses Patty Duke and Ruth Fuchs; American talent agent Michael Ovitz (co-founded Creative Artists Agency); American tennis player Stan Smith, and singer Joyce Vincent Wilson (Tony Orlando and Dawn).
1972: Astronaut Eugene Cernan became the last human to date to walk on the moon as the Apollo 17 mission prepared to depart the lunar surface.
2008: Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at then U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
December 15
1791: The U.S. Bill of Rights became law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
1918: President Woodrow Wilson arrived in Paris to begin talks about forming the League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations.
1933: The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution officially became effective, repealing the 18th Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol.
1939: Gone with the Wind premiered at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.
1942: Born this day: Kathleen Blanco, 54th governor of Louisiana, and Dave Clark, English singer-songwriter, drummer and producer (The Dave Clark Five).
December 16
1707: The last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan occurred.
1773: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians boarded a British ship in Boston Harbor and threw overboard the ship’s cargo of tea, to protest the “tea tax.” The event became known as the Boston Tea Party.
1939: The first Lincoln Continental was produced.
1941: Born this day: TV game show host John Davidson (Hollywood Squares, The $100,000 Pyramid); and actress Anouska Hempel (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service).
1945: Born this day: businessman and Tea Party activist Herman Cain (CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, sought GOP nomination for president in 2012); and actress Kathy Garver (Family Affair).
1950: Born this day: actress Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me); actress Heather North (voice of “Daphne Blake” in Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo); actor Afemo Omilami (drill sergeant in Forrest Gump); and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (took office 2009).
1962: NASA launched Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
1967: Born this day: actor Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained); and actress NeNe Leakes (The Real Housewives of Atlanta).
1975: NBC’s Saturday Night Live was broadcast with a seven-second delay for the first time because producers wanted to bleep out anticipated profanity by guest host Richard Pryor (1940-2005).
1983: Martha Layne Collins (born 1936) was inaugurated as Kentucky’s first female governor.
1988: Palestinian murderer and terrorist Yasser Arafat (1929-2004) addressed the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.