Today in History

1220		After promising to go to the aid of the Fifth Crusade within nine months, Frederick II is crowned emperor by Pope Honorius III.
1542		New laws are passed in Spain giving Indians in America protection against enslavement.
1757		The Austrian army defeats the Prussians at Breslau in the Seven Years War.
1847		In New York, the Astor Place Opera House, the city’s first operatic theater, is opened.
1902		A fire causes considerable damage to the unfinished Williamsburg bridge in New York.
1915		The Anglo-Indian army, led by British General Sir Charles Townshend, attacks a larger Turkish force under General Nur-ud-Din at Ctesiphon, Iraq, but is repulsed.
1919		A Labor conference committee in the United States urges an eight-hour workday and a 48-hour week.
1928		British King George VI is confined to bed with a congested lung; the queen is to take over his duties.
1935		Pan Am inaugurates the first transpacific airmail service from San Francisco to Manila.
1936		1,200 soldiers are killed in a battle between the Japanese and the Mongolians in China.
1942		Soviet troops complete the encirclement of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad.
1943		President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin does not attend the Cairo Conference (code-named Sextant) out of concern that his meeting with Chiang will cause friction between the Soviet Union and Japan.
1948		Ho Chi Minh‘s Democratic Republic of Vietnam requests admittance to the UN.
1963		Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president.
1964		Almost 40,000 people pay tribute to John F. Kennedy at Arlington Cemetery on the first anniversary of his death.
1973		Great Britain announces a plan for moderate Protestants and Catholics to share power in Northern Ireland.
1980		Eighteen Communist Party secretaries in 49 provinces are ousted from Poland.
1982		Reagan calls for defense-pact deployment of the MX missile.
1986		The Justice Department finds a memo in Lt. Col. Oliver North’s office on the transfer of $12 million to the Contras of Nicaragua from an Iranian arms sale.
1988		The first prototype of a B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bomber is unveiled for public viewing.
1989		Lebanese President Rene Moawad is killed when a bomb explodes near his motorcade in West Beirut.
1990		Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher confirms the end of her premiership by withdrawing from the leadership election of the Conservative Party.
1995		The first feature-length film created entirely with computer generated imagery – Toy Story – premiers.
2004		The Orange Revolution, protesting a primary election believed to have been rigged, begins in the Ukraine. On Dec 26 Ukraine’s Supreme Court orders a revote.
2005		Angela Merkel becomes the first woman ever to be Chancellor of Germany; the former research scientist had previously been the first secretary-general of the Christian Democratic Union.
2008		Hamas and Israel begin a cease-fire following eight days of violence and 150 deaths.