1620 – The Mayflower reached Provincetown, MA. The ship discharged the Pilgrims at Plymouth, MA, on December 26, 1620.
1694 – French author and philosopher Jean Francois Voltaire was born. At age 65 he spent only three days writing “Candide.”
1783 – The first successful flight was made in a hot air balloon. The pilots, Francois Pilatre de Rosier and Francois Laurent, Marquis d’Arlandes, flew for 25 minutes and 5― miles over Paris.
1789 – North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1871 – M.F. Galethe patented the cigar lighter.
1877 – Thomas A. Edison announced the invention of his phonograph.
1922 – Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve as a member of the U.S. Senate.
1929 – Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali had his first art exhibit.
1934 – The New York Yankees purchased the contract of Joe DiMaggio from San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League.
1942 – The Alaska Highway across Canada was formally opened.
1953 – British Natural History Museum authorities announced that “Piltdown Man” was a hoax.
1962 – U.S. President Kennedy terminated the quarantine measures against Cuba.
1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, arrived in San Antonio, TX. They were beginning an ill-fated, two-day tour of Texas that would end in Dallas.
1973 – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon‘s attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, announced the presence of an 18―-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to the Watergate case.
1979 – The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, was attacked by a mob that set the building afire and killed two Americans.
1980 – 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, NV.
1982 – The National Football League (NFL) resumed its season following a 57-day player’s strike.
1985 – Former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested after being accused of spying for Israel. He was later sentenced to life in prison.
1986 – U.S. Attorney General Meese was asked to conduct an inquiry of the Iran arms sales.
1987 – An eight-day siege began at a detention center in Oakdale, LA, as Cuban detainees seized the facility and took hostages.
1989 – The proceedings of Britain’s House of Commons were televised live for the first time.
1992 – U.S. Senator Bob Packwood, issued an apology but refused to discuss allegations that he’d made unwelcome sexual advances toward 10 women in past years.
1993 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted against making the District of Columbia the 51st state.
1994 – NATO warplanes bombed an air base in Serb-held Croatia that was being used by Serb planes to raid the Bosnian “safe area” of Bihac.
1995 – France detonated its fourth underground nuclear blast at a test site in the South Pacific.
1995 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the 5,000-mark (5,023.55) for the first time.
1999 – China announced that it had test-launched an unmanned space capsule that was designed for manned spaceflight.
2000 – The Florida Supreme Court granted Al Gore’s request to keep the presidential recounts going.
2001 – Microsoft Corp. proposed giving $1 billion in computers, software, training and cash to more than 12,500 of the poorest schools in the U.S. The offer was intended as part of a deal to settle most of the company’s private antitrust lawsuits.
2002 – NATO invited Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.
2013 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 16,000 for the first time.
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