- Rosa Parks Day
- Bifocals At The Monitor Liberation Day
- National Pie Day
- Eat A Red Apple Day
- World AIDS Day
- Youth Day-Portugal
- National Day-Romania
- Festival OF Freedom & Democracy-Chad
- On This Day
- 1779 --- General George Washington’s army settles into a second season at Morristown, New Jersey. Washington's personal circumstances improved dramatically as he moved into the Ford Mansion and was able to conduct his military business in the style of a proper 18th-century gentleman. However, the worst winter of the 1700s coupled with the collapse of the colonial economy ensured misery for Washington's underfed, poorly clothed and unpaid troops as they struggled for the next two months to construct their 1,000-plus "log-house city" from 600 acres of New Jersey woodland.
- 1824 --- The House of Representatives convened to decide the presidential election because no candidate had received a majority in the Electoral College. John Quincy Adams was eventually chosen the winner over Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay.
- 1835 --- Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.
- 1878 --- The first telephone was installed in the White House in Washington, D.C. Alexander Graham Bell installed it himself. Rutherford B. Hayes was president.
- 1879 --- Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, H.M.S. Pinafore, opened. Arthur Sullivan conducted the orchestra while William Gilbert played the role of a sailor in the chorus and in the Queen’s Navy.
- 1885 --- Dr. Pepper is sold for the first time.
- 1913 --- Ford Motor Co. began using a new movable assembly line that ushered in the era of mass production. Ford's Model T, introduced in 1908, was simple, sturdy and relatively inexpensive--but not inexpensive enough for Ford, who was determined to build "motor car[s] for the great multitude." ("When I'm through," he said, "about everybody will have one.") In order to lower the price of his cars, Ford figured, he would just have to find a way to build them more efficiently.
- 1919 --- Three weeks after the armistice, and on the same day that Allied troops cross into Germany for the first time, a new state is proclaimed in Belgrade, Serbia. As the great Austrian and German empires were brought low in defeat, the new "Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes" sprung to life, bolstered by the League of Nations promised support for Europe s minority populations. Included in the new state were 500,000 Hungarians and an equal number of Germans, as well as tens of thousands of Romanians, Albanians, Bulgarians and Italians.
- 1934 --- Sergey Kirov, a leader of the Russian Revolution and a high-ranking member of the Politburo, is shot to death at his Leningrad office by Communist Party member Leonid Nikolayev, likely at the instigation of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Whatever Stalin's precise role in the assassination of his political rival Kirov, he used the murder as a pretext for eliminating many of his opponents in the Communist Party, the government, the armed forces, and the intelligentsia. Kirov's assassination served as the basis for seven separate trials and the arrest and execution of hundreds of notable figures in Soviet political, military, and cultural life. Each trial contradicted the others in fundamental details, and different individuals were found guilty of organizing the murder of Kirov by different means and for varying political motives. The Kirov assassination trials marked the beginning of Stalin's massive four-year purge of Soviet society, in which millions of people were imprisoned, exiled, or killed.
- 1942 --- WW II gasoline rationing begins in the U.S.
- 1945 --- Burl Ives made his concert debut. He appeared at New York’s Town Hall. We lovingly listen every year for the voice of this old-time radio personality as the narrator and banjo-pickin’ snowman in TV’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
- 1955 --- In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city's racial segregation laws. The successful Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King Jr., followed Park's historic act of civil disobedience.
- 1956 --- The Leonard Bernstein musical "Candide" opened on Broadway. The work was based on the book by Voltaire.
- 1957 --- Three rock and roll acts made their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show: Buddy Holly & the Crickets ("That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue"), Sam Cooke ("You Send Me"), and the Rays.
- 1958 --- A fire at a grade school in Chicago kills 90 students. The Our Lady of Angels School was operated by the Sisters of Charity in Chicago. There were well over 1,200 students enrolled at the school, which occupied a large, old building. Unfortunately, little in the way of fire prevention was done before December 1958. The building did not have any sprinklers and no regular preparatory drills were conducted. When a small fire broke out in a pile of trash in the basement, it led to disaster.
- 1959 --- Representatives of 12 countries, including the United States, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.
- 1963 --- The Beatles' first single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," was released in the United States.
- 1967 --- The Jimi Hendrix Experience album "Axis: Bold as Love" was released in the U.K.
- 1976 --- The Sex Pistols appeared on the British TV "Today." During the interview, profanity was used by the band members. The result was the Sex Pistols being banned in several British cities.
- 1984 --- Just eight days after his miracle pass to lead Boston College over Miami, Doug Flutie was named Heisman Trophy winner for the year. Flutie was only the 13th quarterback to receive the award.
- 1986 --- President Reagan said he would welcome an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair if it were recommended by the Justice Department.
- 1990 --- British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel from their respective countries drilled through a final piece of rock and shook hands, 22.3 km from the UK, 15.6 km from France.
- Birthdays
- Marie Tussaud
- Rex Stout
- Walter Alston
- Mary Martin
- Woody Allen
- Richard Pryor
- Lou Rawls
- Bette Midler
- Charlene Tilton
- 335th Day of 2014 / 30 Remaining
- Winter Begins in 20 Days
- Sunrise:7:07
- Sunset:4:51
- 9 Hours 44 Minutes
- Moon Rise:1:55pm
- Moon Set:1:55am
- Moon Phase: 76%
- Next Full Moon December 6 @ 4:27am
- Full Cold Moon
- Full Long Nights Moon
During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.
- Tides
- High Tide: 6:19am/7:04pm
- Low Tide:1:00pm
- Rainfall
- This Year to Date:1.97
- Last Year:1.14
- Avg YTD:3.73
- Annual Avg:23.80