Today in History - Famous Events

🏰 On this day in History - December 13, 2025

1967 United Soccer Assn & Natl Pro Soccer League merge into NASL

1934 Mark Hellinger Theater (Warner Bros) opens at 237 W 51st St NYC

1993 Dow Jones hits record 3764.43

1879 1st federal fish hatching steamer lauched (Wilmington Delaware)

1997 63rd Heisman Trophy Award: Charles Woodson, Michigan (CB)

1936 Green Bay Packers win NFL championship

1975 1st time Saturday Night Live uses a time delay (Richard Pryor hosts)

1971 John Sinclair (sentence: 10 yrs, sold 2 marijuana joints) is freed

1947 Maine Turnpike opens to traffic

1964 Shirley Englehorn & Sam Snead wins Haig & Haig Mixed Foursome Golf

1969 Arlo Guthrie releases "Alice's Restaurant"

1939 Battle at La Plata - 3 British cruisers vs German Graf Spee

1944 Japanese kamikaze crashes into US cruiser Nashville, kills 138

1981 Polish govt declares martial law, arrests Solidarity activists

1959 Archbishop Makarios elected 1st president of Cyprus

1987 Belgium Christian Democrats (CVP) loses parliamentary election

1992 FCC fines Infinity Broadcasting $600,000

1983 British Airways incorporates

1973 World Football League grants 1st franchise (Detroit)

1980 "Perfectly Frank" closes at Helen Hayes Theater NYC after 16 perfs

1889 Belgium rules on women/child labor law

1742 Willem KH Friso tests his mothers potatoes

1864 Battle of Ft McAllister, GA

1983 9,655 see highest-scoring NBA game: Detroit 186, Denver 184 (3 OT)

0863 Boudouin with the Iron Arm weds Charles de Kales' daughter Judith

1920 F Pease's interferometer measures 1st stellar diameter (Betelgeuse)

1913 Mona Lisa stolen in Aug 1911 returned to Louvre

1984 Artificial heart recipient William Schroeder suffers 1st stroke

1833 HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port Deseado, Patagoni‰

1979 "Oklahoma!" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 301 performances

1961 Jimmy Dean's Big Bad John album is country music 1st million $ seller

1962 Relay 1 communication satellite launched

1572 Spanish army beats Geuzen fleet under admiral Lumey

1953 KOAM TV channel 7 in Pittsburg-Joplin, KS (CBS) begins broadcasting

1816 Patent for a dry dock issued to John Adamson, Boston

1991 Both Koreas sign an accord calling for reconcilliation

1938 Los Angeles freezes at 28шF

1769 Dartmouth College in New Hampshire received its charter

1961 Gideon Hausner in Jerusalem demands death penalty for Adolf Eichmann

1978 Susan B Anthony dollar, 1st US coin to honor a woman, issued

1950 James Dean begins his career with an appearance in a Pepsi commercial

1668 Jean Racines "Britannicus," premieres in Paris

1961 Beatles sign a formal agreement to be managed by Brian Epstein

1936 Final Boston Redskin NFL game, lose to Packers 21-6, move to Wash DC

1920 Netherland breaks contact with kingdom of Serbia, Croatia & Slavia

1903 Italo Marcioni patents ice cream cone (NJ)

1992 "Show Off" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 45 performances

1966 1st US bombing of Hanoi

1928 Clip-on tie designed

1930 Theodore Steeg forms French govt

1985 Test debut of Merv Hughes, Geoff Marsh & Bruce Reid (v India)

1968 Playland at Beach reopens

1966 Test debut of Clive Lloyd, v India Bombay, 82 & 78

1545 Council of Trent (19th ecumenical council) opens

1941 Lawine battlers destroy Haaraz, Peru; about 3,000 die

1965 Algerian president Boum‚dienne visits Moscow

1992 Dawn Coe-Jone wins Pizza-La LPGA Match Play Golf Championship

1982 71st Australian Mens Tennis: Johan Kriek beats Steve Denton (63 63 62)

1982 Earthquake hits Northern Yemen; 2,000 die

1907 George Gunn scores 119 on Test debut v Australia SCG

1941 German occupiers forbid National Front & Netherland Union

1942 Seyss-Inquart allows Dutch Nazi Anton Mussert to call himself Leader

1294 Pope Coelestinus V ends term

1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, VA (Marye's Heights)

1947 "Caribbean Carnival" closes at International NYC after 11 perfs

1943 150 US Marauders bomb Schiphol

1988 3 men end 29-hr all-466-station subway ride in NYC

1964 In El Paso, Tx, LBJ & M‚xican Pres Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion diverting Rio Grande, to reshape US-M‚xico border

1990 "Peter Pan" opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC for 45 performances

1995 Christopher Reeves released from physical rehab center

1985 David Boon's 1st Test century, 123 v India at Adelaide

1968 Pres Da Costa e Silva disbands parliament/grabs power

1922 Charles Ebbets proposes putting numbers on players' sleeves or caps

1941 U-81 torpedoes British aircraft carrier Ark Royal

1930 George Sisler's career ends when Boston Braves release him

1920 League of nations establishes Intl Court of Justice in The Hague

1759 1st music store in America opens (Phila)

1991 Ricky Pierce (Seattle) ends NBA free throw streak of 75 games

1983 KYA-AM in San Francisco CA changes call letters to KOIT

1949 Knesset votes to transfer Israel's capital to Jerusalem

1976 Longest non-stop passenger airflight (Sydney to SF 13h14m)

1976 Golden Gate Bridge District starts ferry service to Larkspur

1975 Jane Blalock wins LPGA 14 Colgate Triple Crown Golf Tournament

1975 Australian Conservatives & Liberals win parliamentary election

1987 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1969 Billy Martin fired as Twins' manager

1963 Capital records signs right of 1st refusal agreement with Beatles

1993 Space shuttle STS-61 (Endeavour 5), lands

1988 Arafat addresses UN in Geneva

1950 "Let's Make an Opera" opens at John Golden Theater NYC for 5 perfs

1949 AL votes down proposal to revive spitball

1979 Strikes against price increases in Gdansk Poland

1843 "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published, 6,000 copies sold

1995 US Federal Court votes that Cable companies must carry local stations

1996 Free agent Roger Clemens signs with Toronto Blue Jays

1734 England & Russia sign trade agreement

1942 Washington Redskins defeat Chic Bears 14-6, to win NFL title

1993 Deadline for Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, they don't

1774 1st incident of Revolution-400 attack Ft William & Mary, NH

1545 Pope Paul III opens council of Trente

1916 Avalanche kills 10,000 Austrian & Italian troops in 24 hrs in Tyrol

1994 American Eagle commuter plane crashes in NC, killing 15

1991 NY assembly speaker Mel Miller is convicted of federal mail fraud

1990 Heavy earthquake strikes Sicily, 18 die

1974 Malta becomes a republic

1956 Dodgers trade Jackie Robinson to Giants for pitcher Dick Littlefield & $35,000 Robinson retires

1977 14 University of Evansville basketball players die in plane crash

1966 1st battle for Bijlmer flats Amsterdam

1928 George Gershwin's "An American In Paris" premieres (NYC)

1895 1st complete execution of Gustav Mahlers 2nd Symphony

1970 Neil Simon's "Gingerbread Lady," premieres in NYC

1987 Browns set club record for most points scored in a quarter, 28

1975 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1918 Wilson, becomes 1st to make a foreign visit as president (France)

1967 Unsuccessful coup against Greek King Constantine II

1975 Roy Fredericks hits 169 v Aust at WACA, hundred in 71 balls

1900 Battle at Nooitgedacht: generals The la Rey/Smuts beat Britten

1974 Jim "Catfish" Hunter wins free agent claim against A's owner Finley

1990 Pres De Klerk of S Afr meets with Mandela to talk of end of apartheid

1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1951 Future British PM Margaret Roberts Thatcher marries Denis Thatcher

1946 L‚on Blum elected French premier

1621 Emperor Ferdinand II delegates 1st anti-Reformation decree

1944 Norman Krasna's "Dear Ruth," premieres in NYC

1861 Battle of Alleghany Summit, WV

1981 70th Davis Cup: USA beats Argentina in Cincinnati (3-1)

1916 Esme Stuart Lennox Robinsons premieres in Dublin

1973 MPLA/FNLA accord about combat against Portuguese Libya

1823 Gioacchino Rossini arrives in London

1993 Fire in textile factory in Fuzjou China, 60 killed

1570 Sweden/Denmark signs Peace of Stettin

1989 Walter Davis (Denver) ends NBA free throw streak of 53 games

1916 French chief of staff Joffre replaced by Nivelle

1642 New Zealand discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman

1983 Islander's Butch Goring scorings 4 goals against Oilers

1919 Ross & Smith land in Australia from a flight from London

1918 US army of occupation crosses Rhine, enters Germany

1924 KOA-AM in Denver CO begins radio transmissions

1577 Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England to go around world

1983 Martha Layne Collins inaugurated as Kentucky's 1st female governor

1970 Greg Chappell scores 108 on Test debut v England at the WACA

1960 Italy beats US in Davis cup (1st time in 24 years US not in finals)

1901 Test debut of S F Barnes v Aust SCG, took 5-65 in 1st innings

1907 German emperor Wilhelm II visits Amsterdam

1906 German chancellor Bernhard von BЃlow disbands the Parliament

1960 Laos General Fumi Nosavang occupies Vientiane

1903 Wright Bros make 1st flight at Kittyhawk

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