Events

• 1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies.
• 1807 - The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.
• 1809 - The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, passes the U.S. Congress.
• 1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is called off at the last second.
• 1851 - The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
• 1864 - Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".
• 1885 - Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1894 - The Dreyfus affair begins, in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason, on antisemitic grounds.
• 1920 - The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.
• 1937 - The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.
• 1940 - World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
• 1942 - World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
• 1944 - World War II: Battle of the Bulge--German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"
• 1944 - World War II: Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
• 1947 - The Constituent Assembly of Italy approves its constitution.
• 1956 - Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.
• 1963 - Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
• 1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.
• 1964 - First flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird).
• 1965 - In the United Kingdom, a 70mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
• 1974 - Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
• 1974 - Ted Heath's house is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.
• 1978 - The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.
• 1984 - Subway vigilante Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four African-American men on an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City.
• 1988 - Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.
• 1989 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.
• 1989 - Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
• 1989 - Kempsey bus crash: Two tourist coaches collide on the Pacific Highway north of Kempsey, New South Wales
• 1990 - Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship.
• 1997 - Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces.
• 1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (Zaragoza) another van loaded by ETA with 750 kg of explosives (see related event on December 21 1999).
• 2001 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
• 2001 - Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
• 2003 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits near San Simeon, California; see San Simeon earthquake

Births