| 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 |  |
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| 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. |
An off-duty police officer who was holding a baby in his arms had a
shootout with two suspected robbers at a pharmacy in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Video of the altercation went viral and has amassed over 5,000 views as of Monday. 
