December 14
Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to reach the South Pole ahead of his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott. – 1911.
Some 33,000 striking members of the Machinists end a 69-day walkout at Boeing after winning pay and benefit increases and protections against subcontracting some of their work overseas. – 1995.
A 20-year-old man shoots and kills his mother at their Newtown, Conn., home then drives to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he kills 20 first graders and six school employees before turning a gun on himself. – 2012.
December 15
The Kansas National Guard is called out to subdue 2,000 to 6,000 protesting women who were going from mine to mine attacking non-striking miners in the Pittsburg coal fields. The women made headlines across the State and the Nation: They were christened the “Amazon Army” by The New York Times. – 1921.
Congress approves the labor-backed Age Discrimination in Employment Act. – 1967.
December 16
In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. – 1773.
One of the deadliest earthquakes in history hits the Gansu province of midwestern China and causes massive landslides and the deaths of an estimated 200,000 persons. The earthquake, which measured 8.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, affected an area of some 25,000 square miles, including 10 major population centers. – 1920.
Two airplanes collide over New York City and kill 134 persons on the planes and on the ground. The improbable mid-air collision is the only such accident to have occurred over a major city in U.S. history. – 1960.
December 17
Near Kitty Hawk, N.C., Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight. – 1903.
Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s enigmatic, reclusive dictator, dies of a heart attack. – 2011.
December 18
The British ship Mayflower docks at modern-day Plymouth, Mass., and its passengers prepare to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony. – 1620.
Japanese troops land in British crown colony Hong Kong, China. The Japanese troops are given the order “Take no prisoners” and a slaughter ensues. -1941.
December 19
An explosion in the Darr Mine in Westmoreland County, Pa., kills 239 coal-miners. Seventy-one of the dead share a common grave in Olive Branch Cemetery. December 1907 was the worst month in U.S. coal-mining history, with more than 3,000 deaths. – 1907.
After nearly 14 hours of debate, the House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against president Bill Clinton and charges him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton, the second president in American history to be impeached, vows to finish his term. – 1998.
December 20
More than two years after the Berlin Wall was constructed by East Germany to prevent its citizens from fleeing its communist regime, nearly 4,000 West Berliners are allowed to cross into East Berlin to visit relatives. Under an agreement reached between East Berlin and West Berlin, more than 170,000 passes eventually were issued to West Berlin citizens. – 1963.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) takes effect today. – 1970.
A passenger ferry collides with an oil tanker near Manila in the Philippines and kills 4,000 persons. The ferry, the Dona Paz, was severely overcrowded and carried more than twice its stated capacity, and nearly everyone on board was killed. – 1987.