Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1600

Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a formal charter to the London merchants trading to the East Indies, hoping to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade.

1775

The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery was killed.

1781

The first modern bank in the U.S., the Bank of North America, was organized by Robert Morris and received its charter from the Confederation Congress. It began operating in Philadelphia.

1805

The French Revolutionary calendar (Republican calendar) in use since 1793, was last used officially.

1857

Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.

1862

President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union.

1879

Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric incandescent light in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1897

Brooklyn, New York, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.

1911

Marie Sklodowska Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her isolation of the element of metallic radium. She was the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize twice having also received it eight years earlier.

1923

In London, the chimes of Big Ben were broadcast by the BBC for the first time.

1946

President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.

1960

The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.

1961

The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.

1964

Donald Campbell breaks the world water speed record, the only man to break both land and water speed records in the same year.

1965

California became the largest state in population.

1974

Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.

1978

Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, marking the end of diplomatic relations with the United States.

1986

A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 97 and injured 140 people.

1990

Titleholder Gary Kasparov of the USSR won the world chess championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

1993

Entertainer Barbra Streisand performed her first paid concert in 22 years, singing to a sellout crowd at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

1995

Bill Watterson's comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" ends syndication which started on November 18, 1985.

1999

Boris Yeltsin has resigned as Russian president and says Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will take over immediately.

1999

Panama assumed control of the Panama Canal, according to the treaty of 1979.

1720

Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender" to the British throne.

1815

George Gordon Meade, Union general who defeated Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg.

1869

Henri Matisse, French painter, designer.

1880

George Marshall, U.S. Secretary of State, designer of Marshall Plan, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II.

1884

Elizabeth Arden, Canadian-born American cosmetic executive.

1947

Burton Cummings, pianist and showman, he was the lead singer for the Canadian rock band "The Guess Who."

1959

Val Kilmer, American stage and film actor.

1985

Ricky Nelson, singer, actor, and one of America's first teen idols. He and six other people were killed when fire broke out aboard a DC-3 that was taking the group to a New Year's Eve performance in Dallas. He was 45 years old.

1997

Michael Kennedy, 39-year-old son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.

1997

Floyd Cramer American Hall of Fame pianist who was one of the architects of the "Nashville Sound."