December 01

Saturday 01, 2001:

Trans World Airlines flies its last flight, after being bought by American Airlines

Friday 01, 2000:

Vicente Fox is sworn-in as President of Mexico, ending the 75 year control of the PRI.

Tuesday 01, 1998:

Exxon announces a US$73.7 billion deal to buy Mobil, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the largest company on the planet.

Sunday 01, 1991:

Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.

Saturday 01, 1990:

Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the seabed.

Friday 01, 1989:

Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the communist party the leading role in the state.

Tuesday 01, 1987:

NASA announces the names of four companies who were awarded contracts to help build Space Station Freedom.

Tuesday 01, 1981:

A Yugoslavian Inex Adria Aviopromet DC-9 crashes in Corsica killing 178.

Monday 01, 1975:

The long-running soap opera The Edge of Night switches networks to ABC after 19 years on CBS.

Sunday 01, 1974:

A Boeing 727 carrying TWA Flight 514 crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on-board.

Saturday 01, 1973:

Papua New Guinea gains self government from Australia.

Wednesday 01, 1971:

Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.

Monday 01, 1969:

Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.

Wednesday 01, 1965:

The Border Security Force is formed in India as a special force to guard the borders

Tuesday 01, 1964:

Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.

Sunday 01, 1963:

Nagaland becomes the 16th state of India

Friday 01, 1961:

The independent Republic of West Papua is proclaimed in modern-day Western New Guinea.

Tuesday 01, 1959:

Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed , which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent.

Monday 01, 1958:

Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago, Illinois kills 92 children and three nuns.

Thursday 01, 1955:

American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws.

Monday 01, 1952:

The New York Daily News reports the first successful sexual reassignment operation.

Friday 01, 1944:

Edward Stettinius Jr. becomes becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration.

Monday 01, 1941:

World War II: Mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, and the director of the Office of Civilian Defense, sign an order creating the Civil Air Patrol.

Saturday 01, 1934:

In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot dead at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad by Leonid Nikolayev.

Tuesday 01, 1925:

The final Locarno Treaty is signed in London, establshing post-war territorial settlements.

Monday 01, 1919:

Lady Astor becomes first female member of the British Parliament to take her seat (she had been elected to that position on November 28).

Sunday 01, 1918:

1918 - The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.

Monday 01, 1913:

Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.

Tuesday 01, 1885:

Although the exact date is unknown, the US Patent Office acknowledges December 1st, 1885 as the first day Dr Pepper was served.

Monday 01, 1884:

Near Frisco, New Mexico (now Reserve), deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys who want to kill him for arresting Charles McCarthy.

Tuesday 01, 1835:

Hans Christian Andersen publishes first book of fairy tales

Wednesday 01, 1824:

U.S. presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task to decide the winner (as stipulated by the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution).

Sunday 01, 1822:

Peter I is crowned as Emperor of Brazil.

Saturday 01, 1640:

Portugal regains its independence from Spain and João IV of Portugal becomes king.

Sunday 01, 1135:

Henry I of England dies of food poisoning from a surfeit of lampreys at St. Denis le Fermont in Normandy

More on December, 01

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