MILESFORTIS

December 22

1489 – Nearing the finish of the Reconquista , the forces of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille, seize the port city of Almería from the Nasrid ruler of Granada, Muhammad XIII.

1807 – Replacing the 1806 Non importation Act, the 1807 Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by Congress

1891 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using astrophotography by Max Wolf, at the Heidelberg University Observatory.

1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel,  connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to  Manhattan opens to traffic.

1944 – German troops surrounding U.S. troops in and around Bastogne, Belgium, receive a one word reply to their surrender demand from the American commander, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe; “Nuts!”
Elsewhere; Supported by the American OSS, the People’s Army of Vietnam is formed by Hồ Chí Minh and Võ Nguyên Giáp to resist Japanese occupation of Indochina.

1964 – The SR-71 Blackbird makes its first test flight at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

1975 – President Ford creates the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to the 1973 oil embargo by the arabian members of  OPEC.

1984 – Bernhard Goetz shoots four muggers on an express train in Manhattan.

1989 – The Brandenburg Gate reopens, ending the division of East and West Berlin.

1996 – Airborne Express Flight 827, a Douglas DC-8, crashes near Narrows, Virginia, killing all 6 passengers and crew on board.

2001 – Aboard American Airlines Flight 63, Richard Reid attempts to destroy the airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes and is ‘subdued’ by passengers when the bomb fails to go off.

2008 – An ash dike ruptures at a waste retaining pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing over 1 billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry into the Emory and Clinch Rivers.

2010 – The repeal of the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell‘ policy, the 17 year old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, enacted by President Bill Clinton, is signed into law by President Barack Hussein Obama.
Just me, but I see a connection here. Could it be demoncraps?

2018 – A tsunami caused by an eruption of Anak Krakatau, part of the remains of Krakatoa, kills 430 people and injures many more

December 21

69 – The Roman Senate declares Vespasian emperor of Rome, the last in the Year of the Four Emperors where the preceding 3 were either murdered or committed suicide during a civil war among themselves after they had deposed Emperor Nero.

1361 – During the Spanish Reconquista, the combined army of the Kingdom of Castile and of the Bishop of Jaén defeat the forces of the Emirate of Granada in battle at the city of Huesa.

1605 – The Spanish Queirós Expedition departs Callao, Peru, led by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in attempt to find the legendary continent Terra Australis but instead reaching Espíritu Santo and other Vanuatu islands.

1620 – William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1784 – In office as Chief Justice of the U.S. for only the past 2 months,  John Jay is also appointed U.S. Secretary of State.

1826 – American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declare their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion.

1861 – Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.

1872 –  The crew of HMS Challenger sails from Portsmouth, England on their voyage of exploration.

1913 – Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross”, is the first crossword puzzle published in the New York World newspaper.

1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Hollywood.

1945 – General George S. Patton dies in Heidelberg, Germany, age 60, 12 days after being injured in an automobile accident.

1949 – The movie, Samson and Delilah, directed and produced by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature, premieres in New York

1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a human to human heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the operation

1968 – Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to the Moon.

1970 – The first flight of Grumman F-14 Tomcat Navy fighter

1988 – A bomb placed by Libyan moslem terrorists explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers and crew aboard and 11 more on the ground.

2004 – A suicide bomber kills 14 U.S. soldiers, 4 U.S. citizen Halliburton employees, 4  allied Iraqi soldiers and wounds 72 more at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq.

December 20

1192 – Richard the Lionheart of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after the Third Crusade.

1522 – After 6 months of siege by the fleet and army of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, the Hospitaller Knights of Rhodes are forced to surrender, and are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle in Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.

1812 –  Sacagawea of the Shoshone tribe dies, age about 24, at the Fort Manuel Lisa Trading Post in North Dakota.

1820 – Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men aged between 21 & 50, which is only paid for 1 year before being repealed in January 1822.

1860 – South Carolina – of course, Fort Sumter being in Charleston harbor – becomes the first state to secede from the United States.

1915 – The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli during World War 1

1924 – Sentenced to 5 years in prison for being convicted of Treason for the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’ in Munich, Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison, after serving only 264 days.

1941 – The American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers” has their first engagement against Japanese forces in Kunming, China.

1951 – The EBR-1 reactor at the Argonnne West National Laboratory site near Arco, Idaho, becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity, powering four (4!) light bulbs before finally producing enough electricity to power the entire building.

1952 – A U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster, enroute from Larson Air Force Base, near Moses Lake, Washington to Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas as part of Operation Sleigh Ride, bringing servicemen fighting in the Korean War home for Christmas, crashes just after takeoff, killing 87 of the 115 passengers and crew aboard.

1957 – The first Boeing 707 production passenger jet rolls off the line.

1968 – The Zodiac Killer murders his first victims, Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.

1971 – The international aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières -Doctors Without Borders – is founded by Bernard Kouchner in Paris, France.

1989 – Beginning with troops of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the U.S. Army Ranger Regiment performing Combat Parachute Assaults at 01:00 hrs EST to capture the Rio Hato and Torrijos International Airports, U.S forces begin Operation Just Cause, invading Panama to depose Manuel Noriega.

1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the ‘honor killing’ of their daughter Palestina but both murderous parents later die in prison before execution of sentences.

1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159 of the 163 passengers and crew aboard.

2005 – The New York City’s Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike over pension and wage increases, shutting down all subway and bus services for 3 days

2014  – Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley kills 2 NYPD officers in Brooklyn, New York, supposedly in revenge for the killing of Eric Garner, before killing himself

2019 – The United States Space Force becomes the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.

2022 – A 6.4-magnitude earthquake near Eureka, northern California kills 2 people.