This Day in History

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December 14

Today is recognized internationally as Monkey Day. Just remember, don't monkey with another monkey's monkey.

Today is also Forty-Seven Ronin Remembrance Day.

There are 17 days left in 2016.

There are 10 days until Christmas.



Events

557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.

1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.

1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.

1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.

1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.

1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends.

1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.

1940 – Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.

1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.

1963 – The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.

1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.

1968 - Marvin Gaye scored his first US No.1 single when 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine' started a five-week run at the top.

1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.

1998 - Billy Preston pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in a Los Angeles court and agreed to testify against six other defendants who allegedly participated in starting fires, staging thefts and rigging car crashes for which a total of 18 fraudulent insurance claims were filed. Preston received five years of probation and one year in jail to run concurrently with a sentence he was already serving for violating probation on a prior conviction for cocaine possession.

1999 – Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.

2008 – Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.

2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

Births

1546 – Tycho Brahe; 1896 – Jimmy Doolittle; 1902 – Frances Bavier ('Aunt Bee'); 1908 – Morey Amsterdam; 1911 – Spike Jones♪ ♫; 1915 – Dan Dailey; 1922 – Don Hewitt (created 60 Minutes); 1932 – Charlie Rich♪ ♫; 1935 – Lee Remick; 1946 – Patty Duke; 1948 – Dee Wallace; 1954 – Alan Kulwicki(introduced the Polish Victory Lap); 1960 – James Comey; 1971 – Natascha McElhone; 1988 – Vanessa Hudgens

Deaths

1799 – George Washington (1st POTUS); 1920 – George Gipp ("Win just one for the Gipper."); 1943 – John Harvey Kellogg (co-invented corn flakes); 1963 – Dinah Washington♪ ♫; 1964 – William Bendix; 1985 – Roger Maris; 1989 – Jock Mahoney; 1993 – Myrna Loy; 1994 – Orval Faubus; 1998 – Norman Fell ('Mr. Roper' on Three's Company); 2003 – Jeanne Crain; 2006 – Mike Evans ('Lionel Jefferson' on The Jeffersons, co-created Good Times); 2013 – Peter O'Toole; 2014 – Bess Myerson