On This Day January 1

Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean is the most remote island in the world. It was discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier on January 1, 1739 (see picture below). The nearest land is the uninhabited Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, over 1,600 km (994 mi) away to the south. The nearest inhabited lands are Tristan da Cunha, 2,260 km (1,404 mi) away and South Africa, 2,580 km (1,603 mi) away.

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On This Day December 31

Thomas Edison made the first public demonstration of his incandescent light bulb on December 31 1879, in Menlo Park. British chemist Joseph Swan had already invented the lamp but Edison wanted to produce a longer lasting one. The American inventor worked thousands of hours on the electric light bulb experimenting with 1,200 different varieties of bamboo before finding a carbonized bamboo fiber that remained lit for over 1,000 hours in a vacuum.

"Edison Lightbulb Museum of Letters and Manuscripts" by Tieum512 

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On This Day December 30

When Frank Sinatra opened at New York's Paramount Theatre on December 30, 1942, he was dubbed "The Sultan of Swoon," as teen girls screamed and cried. Sinatra became the idol of "bobbysoxer" teenage fans everywhere, culminating in the "Columbus Day Riot" of 1944, when 35,000 teenage girls mobbed the New York Paramount to see him sing.

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On This Day December 29

Edmond Audran (1840-1901) was a church organist in the French city of Marseilles who also wrote comic operas. He penned a popular comic operetta about a country girl whose extraordinary good fortune could not be due to mere chance but must have been caused by some supernatural agent. Titled La Mascotte, it premiered on December 29, 1880. Translated into English as The Mascot, it introduced into the English language "mascot," a word for any animal, person, or object that brings good luck.

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On This Day December 28

In 1836 a fleet of eight ships under John Hindmarsh, first Governor of South Australia, camped at Holdfast Bay. South Australia was officially proclaimed as a new British colony on December 28, 1836, near The Old Gum Tree in what is now the Adelaide suburb of Glenelg North.

European settlers with Aborigines, 1850

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On This Day December 27

The Cave of Swallows in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico is the largest known cave shaft in the world. The floor of the cave is a 1092 feet (333-meter)) freefall drop from the lowest side of the opening, with a 370-meter (1,214 ft) drop from the highest side. The first documented exploration was on December 27, 1966 by T. R. Evans, Charles Borland and Randy Sterns.

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On This Day December 26

The modern parachute was invented by French chemist and physicist Louis-Sébastien Lenormand. His intended use for the parachute was to help entrapped occupants of a burning building to escape unharmed. Lenormand used his 14-foot contraption with a rigid wooden frame to make the first recorded public parachute jump, when he leaped from the tower of the Montpellier observatory, in France, on December 26, 1783.

Lenormand jumps from the tower of the Montpellier observatory, Wikipedia

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On This Day December 25

Clovis I, King of the Franks, was converted to Christianity, the first barbarian chief of any importance to convert to orthodox Christianity, rather the Arian religion. He was baptized into the Catholic faith on Christmas Day 496, along with his 3,000 strong army at Reims Cathedral. The Bishop Remigius of Rheims declared to him, "bow thy head, proud Frank: adore what thou hast burned; burn what thou hast adored."

Clovis roi des Francs by François-Louis Dejuinne (1786–1844) Wikipedia

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On This Day December 24

During World War I there was an unofficial Christmas truce between British and German troops demonstrating the power for good that is inherent in the season. The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when the two sides shouted Christmas greetings to each other and as word spread men from both sides of the Western Front ventured into no man's land to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs.

Christmas Truce By A. C. Michael - The Guardian

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On This Day December 23

On December 23, 1888, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh's painting companion, threatened to leave him alone to spend a hard winter in Arles. In retaliation, the tortured Dutchman came at the French artist with an open razor. He was stopped by Gauguin, but instead cut off part of his own left earlobe. The incident led to Van Gogh's painting Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, which was sold privately in the late 1990s for an estimated US$80/$90 million.

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear

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On This Day December 22

Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky was arrested with 33 others in April 1849 as a Social Revolutionary, after a police informer had slipped into his socialist discussion groups. Originally he was sentenced to be executed on December 22, 1849. At the stake in front of the squad he was told his sentence was a joke and he was to be sent to Siberia for four years instead.  Dostoyevsky was incarcerated at a penal settlement where they were packed in "like herrings in a barrel."

A sketch of the Petrashevsky Circle mock execution

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On This Day December 21

96 days after the Mayflower Pilgrims set sail from Plymouth, England, they landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts on December 21, 1620. The Pilgrims established there the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, after the Jamestown Colony. It's now thought that 12 per cent of all modern day Americans are descended from the Mayflower Pilgrims.

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall 1882

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On This Day December 20

The poet William Wordsworth first encountered Dove Cottage on the edge of Grasmere when on a walking tour of the Lake District with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The house was available for rent, and he, his wife Mary and sister Dorothy took up residence on December 20, 1799 paying £5 a year to John Benson of Grasmere. The primitive Dove Cottage was Wordsworth's cramped home for nine years until 1808.

Dove Cottage. By Christine Hasman

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On This Day December 19

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was published on December 19, 1843. Dickens wrote the book in six weeks in such a state of excitement that he could not sleep but walked the streets of London thinking about the story. All 6,000 copies of its first print run were sold in just five days and it was reprinted. However, the extravagance of A Christmas Carol's gilted pages and cloth cover meant despite its success, Dickens only made £130 from the book.

A Christmas Carol-Title page-First edition 1843.

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On This Day December 18

In 1892 the St Petersburg Opera commissioned Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to compose the music to accompany an adaption of their ballet adaption of the 1816 German story, E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The Nutcracker ballet was premièred at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on December 18, 1892. Although the original production was not a success, the 20-minute "Nutcracker Suite" that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was.

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On This Day December 17

From May 1944 to March 1945, Ernest Hemingway was in London and Europe as a war correspondent. On December 17, 1944, a feverish and ill Hemingway had himself driven to Luxembourg to cover what would later be called The Battle of the Bulge. As soon as he arrived, however, he was handed to the doctors, who hospitalized him with pneumonia; by the time he recovered a week later, most of the fighting in this battle was over.

Hemingway with Col. Charles 'Buck' Lanham in Germany, 1944

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On This Day December 16

About fifty members of the Sons of Liberty, some disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded a British vessel in Boston on December 16, 1773. They then emptied 342 tea chests into the harbor as a protest against the Tea Act. Word about their protest against the English tax soon spread and it proved to be a key event in the U.S. War of Independence.

1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor"

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On This Day December 15

The Gone With The Wind movie premiered at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta to cheering crowds on December 15, 1939. There was a parade before the movie premiere. There were also three days of parties in which the stars of the movie wore costumes and many stores in the city were re-decorated to look like they would have been in the Civil War.

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On This Day December 14

George Washington died from acute laryngitis between 10 and 11 p.m. on December 14, 1799 with his wife Martha seated at the foot of his bed. His last words were "It is well. I die hard, but am not afraid to go." The news of Washington's death placed the entire country in mourning. Even Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte ordered ten days of mourning in France.

Washington on his Deathbed. Junius Brutus Stearns 1799

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On This Day December 13

After deciding to follow his religious vocation, Argentine chemist Jorge Bergoglio entered the Society of Jesus in Cordoba in March 1958 as a novice. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 13, 1969.  43 years later, Bergoglio was elected Pope . He chose to be called Pope Francis in order to pay tribute to St. Francis of Assisi.

Pope Francis

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On This Day December 12

On December 12, 1896, radio innovators Guglielmo Marconi and William Preece arranged a demonstration of radio controlled apparatus at Toynbee Hall, a center of social reform in East London. Marconi advertised the event and invited the newspaper press. During the event, the pair amazed the assembled audience by making a bell ring by pushing a button in a box that was not connected by any wires.

British Post Office engineers inspect Marconi's radio equipment on May 13, 1897 Wikipedia

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On This Day December 11

Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor became George VI, King of the United Kingdom, on December 11, 1936 when his elder brother, Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson. George VI was crowned on May 12, 1937. The coronation took place on the date originally set for his brother, Edward VIII, to be crowned, before he abdicated.

George VI of the United Kingdom

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On This Day December 10

Desiring to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson against widespread opposition, Edward VIII abdicated the United kingdom throne on December 10, 1936, the only British monarch to have voluntarily done so since the Anglo-Saxon period. After his abdication, Edward was given the title Duke of Windsor. He married Simpson in a private ceremony near Tours, France on June 3, 1937.

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On This Day December 9

The NLS, a computer collaboration system that was the first to employ the practical use of hypertext, the computer mouse, and other modern computing concepts, was publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco on December 9, 1968. Engineer and inventor Douglas Engelbart's 90-minute 'Mother of All Demos' essentially demonstrated almost all the fundamental elements of modern personal computing.

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On This Day December 8

The United States entered World War II on December 8, 1941 a day after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The US Senate voted for war against Japan by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The sole dissenter was Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a devout pacifist who had also cast a dissenting vote against the US. entrance into World War I.

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On This Day December 7

The outlaw Jesse James first became famous on December 7, 1869, when he and his brother Frank robbed the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. The robbery netted little money, but the daring escape he and his brother made through the middle of a posse shortly afterward, put his name in the newspapers for the first time.

Jesse James portrait

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On This Day December 6

The first recorded successful operation to remove an appendix was on December 6, 1735, at St. George’s Hospital in London, when French surgeon Claudius Amyand took out a perforated appendix from an 11-year-old boy, Hanvil Andersen. The organ had apparently been perforated by a pin he had swallowed. The patient made a recovery and was discharged a month later.

Location of the appendix in the digestion system

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On This Day December 5

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in his home on December 5, 1791 (aged 35) at 1:00 am, while he was working on his final composition, the Requiem (unfinished when he passed away). His last words were "You spoke of a refreshment, Emile: Take my last notes, and let me hear once more my solace and delight". The actual cause of Mozart's death is uncertain.  Dozens of theories have been proposed, which include trichinosis, mercury poisoning, and rheumatic fever.

Posthumous painting by Barbara Krafft in 1819

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On This Day December 4

A month after the Mary Celeste left the New York City harbor bound for Genoa with a cargo, it was found by the Canadian brig Dei Gratia on December 4, 1872 drifting in the Atlantic. The ship was in good condition but abandoned and the mystery has never been solved. Mutiny, piracy and insurance fraud have all been suggested as explanations of the mystery.

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On This Day December 3

Neil Papworth sent the first (unabbreviated) text message on December 3, 1992. The 22-year-old British engineer had been working as a developer and test engineer to create a Short Message Service (SMS) for his client, Vodafone. He used a personal computer to send his message to Vodafone director Richard Jarvis who received it on an Orbitel 901 handset. It read: "MERRY CHRISTMAS".

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On This Day December 2

In February 1804, a British-financial plot against Napoleon Bonaparte was uncovered by the former police minister Joseph Fouche. It gave Napoleon a reason to start a hereditary dynasty. Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French on December 2, 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris in a ceremony presided over by Pope Pius VII.

The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David

After his defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar, Emperor Napoleon abandoned plans to invade Britain and turned his armies against the Austro-Russian forces, defeating them at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805. Napoleon's historic triumph at the Battle of Austerlitz, led to the elimination of the Holy Roman Empire, 1000 years after it had been set up by Charlemagne.

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