What happened when? Why did it happen? Who caused it? Why did it happen? Explore through history and what made people do things or anything. Learn more of history and explore through every date, every day.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army proclaims a unilateral cease-fire in the Sino-Indian War in 1962 in order to claim unlawfully captured territory.
Zhou Enlai suggested a cease-fire and negotiated a compromise. Enlai proposed that India and China disengage and withdraw their soldiers 20 kilometres beyond the c...
In 2016, India will commemorate the 50th anniversary of IR8, a specially engineered rice variety that spared much of Asia from starvation.
India marked the 50th anniversary of IR8 on November 21, 2016. IR8 is a high-yielding semi-dwarf rice variety developed in the early 1960s by the International Ric...
Lee Harvey Oswald killed US President John F. Kennedy in 1963 while riding in an open-topped motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
The 35th President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was assassinated on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a pres...
Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 on his route to India on the first journey from Europe.
Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope on his way to India for the first time in 1497. He was the first European to sail to In...
In 1718, Blackbeard, a famed English pirate, is killed in combat at the age of 38.
In his own time, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach (1680-1718) was a legend. He was born in England and robbed ships moving to and from the American colonies, as...
Bikram Singh, the Indian Lt-General in Kashmir, died in 1963.
Lieutenant General Bikram Singh, PVSM, who died on November 22, 1963, was an Indian Army General Officer. When he died in the Poonch Indian Air Force helicopter cr...
Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona establishes a new La Liga goal scoring record of 253 in 2014.
Lionel Messi scored a hat trick in Barcelona's 5-1 win over Sevilla on November 22, 2014, to break the Spanish league's all-time scoring record. Messi, alr...
In the year 1937, Jagadish Chandra Bose, an Indian scientist, mathematician, and writer, died at the age of 78.
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was a pioneering Indian scientist who demonstrated through experimentation that animals and plants have many similarities. He showed that...
Roald Dahl, a British novelist and Spy, died in 1990 at the age of 74.
Roald Dahl was a British writer who died on November 23, 1990, in Oxford, England. He was a popular author of inventive, irreverent children's books. C.S. Fore...
Robert Johnson's first recording session with producer Don Law took place in 1936 at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas.
On November 23, 1936, in San Antonio, Texas, Robert Johnson had his first recording session. Don Law, the producer of Vocalion, oversaw the recording sessions, whi...
Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, publishes "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, fundamentally transforming the understanding of evolution and establishing the groundwork for evolutionary biology.
On the Origin of Species (or, more precisely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life...
In 1926, Sri Aurobindo retires to a life of solitude, leaving Mirra Alfassa in charge of his disciples (founding of Sri Aurobindo ashram)
The transformation of human life into divine life in divine body was the major topic of his vision. He believed in a spiritual awakening that not only emancipated ...
In 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, the American murderer of JFK two days previously, was shot dead two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby live on television at 24.
Oswald was shot and murdered by Jack Ruby, the proprietor of a nightclub, on November 24, while being carried from the police station to the county prison through ...
Lionel Messi becomes the all-time leading scorer in the UEFA Champions League in 2014.
Lionel Messi became the all-time leading scorer in the history of the UEFA Champions League on November 25, 2014, with 72 goals. On Matchday 4, the Barcelona star ...
Howard Carter, an English archaeologist, unlocks Tutankhamun's nearly undamaged tomb in Egypt in 1922.
The tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, who died in 1323 BC at the age of roughly 18, was found late in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter in Egypt's Valley ...
Terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, in 2008: Ten coordinated strikes by Pakistan-based terrorists kill 164 and injure over 250 people in Mumbai, India.
The Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008 were a series of terrorist assaults that took place in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, on November 26, 2008. The assaults were car...
The "Chicago Times-Herald" organised America's first auto race in 1895 From Chicago to Evanston and back; 6 vehicles, 55 miles, Frank Duryea wins averaging 7 MPH.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1895, he drove this car in America's inaugural automotive race. The Chicago Times-Herald sponsored the race, which covered a ...
Nolan Bushnell, co-founder of Atari, introduces Pong, the first commercially successful video game, in Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California in 1972.
On November 29, 1972, in Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California, the modern video game business was established. The game was Pong, which had recently bee...
Jonathan Swift, an Irish author and satirist, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1667.
Jonathan Swift, born on November 30, 1667, was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Angli...
Jagadish Chandra Bose, an Indian physicist, polymath, and writer, was born in Munshiganj, British India, in 1858.
Jagdish Chandra Bose was a world-renowned Indian scientist. He was the first to demonstrate that plants and metals, like humans, had feelings. Jagdish Chandra Bose...
Mark Twain, alias Samuel Clemens, was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was an American author, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. On November 30th, 1835, he was born....
Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during World War II and author, was born in 1874 at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England.
Winston Churchill, born on November 30, 1874, was a British leader who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during World War II, and a...
Nagaland is admitted to the Indian Union as a state in 1963.
Nagaland, a picturesque north-eastern highland state, was established on December 1, 1963. Over the course of 150 years, a convoluted (and at times contentious) se...
Sherlock Holmes first appears in literature in Arthur Conan Doyle's "Study in Scarlet" in 1887.
Arthur Conan Doyle, a Scottish writer, developed the fictitious character Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, published in Beeton's Christma...
Benazir Bhutto became the first female Prime Minister of a Muslim country in 1988. (Pakistan)
Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician who served as the country's 11th and 13th prime ministers, from 1988 to 1990 and 1993 to 1996, respectively. She was ...
Pablo Escobar, a Colombian drug kingpin, was shot dead by Colombian police in 1993, at the age of 44.
The Medelln Cartel was founded and led by Pablo Emilio Escobar, a Colombian drug lord and narco-terrorist. Escobar, dubbed "The King of Cocaine," is the ...
General Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Emperor of France in 1804 at Notre Dame de Paris in a ceremony presided over by Pope Pius VII.
Napoleon I was the French Emperor from 1804 through 1814, and again in 1815. During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon controlled European and global events for more th...
King C. Gillette begins marketing safety razor blades in 1901.
King Camp Gillette was an American businessman who lived from January 5, 1855 to July 9, 1932. He created a popular version of the safety razor. Before Gille...
United Arab Emirates, which was established as a federation on December 2, 1971
The United Arab Emirates, also known as the UAE or the Emirates, is a nation in the eastern section of the Arabian Peninsula that is situated on the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf coasts, respective...
Bhopal tragedy in 1984: Union Carbide pesticide facility in Bhopal, India, leaks 45 tonnes of methyl isocyanate and other poisonous substances, killing 2,259 (official number) and injuring over 500,000 (including subsequent fatalities).
The Bhopal catastrophe, also known as the Bhopal gas tragedy, occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984, at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticid...
In 1829, Britain makes "Sati" (a widow who burns herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre) illegal in India.
On December 4, 1829, the then-Governor-General Lord William Bentinck issued the Bengal Sati Regulation, which prohibited the practice of Sati in all jurisdictions ...
The Indian Navy retaliates the Pakistan Navy and Karachi in 1971.
On the night of December 4/5, three missile boats, accompanied by two corvettes, assaulted Karachi, destroying the destroyer PNS Khaibar, the minesweeper Muhafiz, ...
In 1848, US President James K. Polk sparks the 1849 Gold Rush by certifying a gold find in California.
People had previously made false claims that they had discovered gold, thus the Gold Rush did not begin until December 1848, when President James Polk backed up th...
Sikkim become an Indian protectorate in 1950.
In 1948, the Sikkim Darbar and the Government of India agreed a "Standstill Agreement" to alleviate the relationship, and a new treaty went into force. A...
Nelson Mandela, South African anti-apartheid campaigner, political prisoner, and South African President, died of a lung illness in 2013 at the age of 95.
Mandela died on 5 December 2013 at the age of 95, at about 20:50 local time, at his home in Houghton, accompanied by his family, after suffering from a lengthy res...
In 1992, 300,000 people demolished the Babri Mosque in India in order to uncover an ages-old temple devoted to Lord Ram; four people were killed in the process.
The mosque stood on the location where millions of Hindus believe Lord Ram, the hero of the epic Ramayan, was born, or "janmabhoomi." Over 1.5 lakh perso...
In 2017, astronomers reported the finding of a "supermassive" black hole 13 billion light-years away, 800 times larger than the Sun, in the journal "Nature."
A team of astronomers led by Carnegie's Eduardo Baados discovered the farthest distant supermassive black hole yet detected using Carnegie's Magellan teles...
B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian politician, lawyer, and social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist Movement, dies of diabetes at the age of 65 in 1956.
Ambedkar has been suffering with diabetes since 1948. Due to medicine side effects and bad eyesight, he remained bedridden from June to October 1954. During 1955, ...
Brian Lara of the West Indies made his Test debut on December 6, 1990
Former Trinidadian international cricketer Brian Charles Lara is regarded as one of the game's finest batsmen. Brian Lara of the West Indies made his Test debu...
Apollo 17, the final manned lunar landing mission, launched in 1972, with the crew taking the iconic "blue marble" shot of the whole Earth.
Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan and his crewmates — Harrison Schmitt and Ronald Evans — oohed and ahhed over their home planet, poised in the blackness...
On December 7, 2017, Ronaldo won the fifth and last Ballon d'Or award.
On December 7, 2017, Ronaldo won the fifth and last Ballon d'Or award. Simply put, Cristiano Ronaldo is the football king. The Madridista forward won the Ballon d'Or in 2017, making it two ...
Mary, Queen of Scots, Queen of Scotland, was born at Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, in 1542.
Mary, Queen of Scots, commonly known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, reigned as Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced resignation in 1567....
Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, is the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his work "Gitanjali."
Rabindranath Tagore received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 "for his deeply sensitive, fresh, and beautiful poem, through which, with great ability, he...
In 1930, Indian Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on light scattering, making him the first Asian and non-white person to receive the award.
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist who specialised in light scattering. Using a spectrograph he in...
In the year 1830, Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830. She only stayed at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley for a year. Dickinson...
Alfred Nobel, the Swedish scientist who created dynamite and organised the Nobel Prize ceremony on this date, died at the age of 63 in 1896.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October 21, 1833, in Stockholm, Sweden. Alfred Nobel is well-known for the yearly prizes he bestows in research, literature, and ...
Dilip Kumar [Muhammad Yusuf Khan], the "Tragedy King" and one of the best performers in Indian film, was born in Peshawar, British India, in 1922.
Mohammed Yusuf Khan, well known by his stage name Dilip Kumar, was an Indian actor and film producer who worked in Hindi cinema from November 11, 1922 until July 7...
In 2019, India passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill, paving the path for immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan's minority populations to get citizenship.
On 9 December 2019, Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah tabled the Bill in the 17th Lok Sabha, and it was approved on 10 December 2019 with 311 MPs voting in favour...
Delhi succeeds Calcutta as India's capital in 1911.
On February 13, 86 years ago, New Delhi became the power capital of undivided India, following a 20-year wait. On December 12, 1911, during the New Delhi durbar, K...
Mary Todd, the American wife of Abraham Lincoln and the first lady of the United States, was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1818.
Mary Ann Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, was the First Lady of the United States from 1861 until 1865. Mary Lincoln was a well-educated member...
Terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament Sansad in 2001. In the incident, ten persons were murdered, and all terrorists were slain.
On Sunday, December 13, it will be 20 years since terrorists connected to Pakistan carried out a fatal attack on Parliament. On this day in 2001, a five-membe...
Nostradamus, a French astrologer and prophet, was born in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, in 1503.
Michel de Notredame, also known as Nostradamus, was born in the south of France in December 1503. His family was Jewish, but he converted to Catholicism at a time ...
In 1799, George Washington, an American Founding Father, military leader who commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and the first President of the United States, died at the age of 66.
George Washington died between ten and eleven o'clock at night on December 14, 1799. His wife, who sat at the foot of the bed, his friends Dr. Craik and Tobias...
Vallabhbhai Patel, an Indian freedom warrior and politician, died in 1952 at the age of 75.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was a leader of the Indian National Congress till his death. Many historians, like Ramchandra Guha, find it hilarious that Patel is being ...
Protests over India's new citizenship policy erupt in various cities in 2019, killing at least 5 non-protesters.
A large demonstration has erupted in India's capital, Delhi, as outrage over a citizenship bill sweeps the country. Stone-throwing mobs confronted police force...
1971 East Vijay Diwas After India's army takes Dacca and 93,000 West Pakistani forces surrender, Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan is acknowledged globally.
The 16th of December is an important day for India, as well as its neighbours Bangladesh and Pakistan. In 1971, India defeated Pakistan in a war that resulted in t...
Charlie Chaplin began his film career at Keystone in 1913, earning $150 per week.
Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on April 16th, 1889, in London, England. His father was a skilled vocalist and actor, and his mother, who went by the stage name L...
In 2014, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists assault an Army Public School in Pakistan, killing 145 people.
Six shooters linked with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out a terrorist assault on the Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistan, on December 16, 2014....
The Taj Mahal Palace is a heritage, five-star, opulent hotel in Mumbai's Colaba it was opened on December 16, 1903.
The Taj Mahal Palace is a heritage, five-star, opulent hotel in Mumbai's Colaba neighbourhood, Maharashtra, India, located close to the Gateway of India. It wa...
PV Sindhu, the current world champion, became the first and only Indian to win the BWF World Tour finals On December 16, 2018.
PV Sindhu, the current world champion, became the first and only Indian to win the BWF World Tour finals On December 16, 2018.
...
In 1971, In Kashmir, India and Pakistan have agreed to a cease-fire.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the line of control established by the December 17, 1971 cease-fire should be observed by all parties without regard to each side's ackno...
The simpsons debuted as a Christmas special on December 17, 1989,
The Tracy Ullman Show, a variety show on the Fox Broadcasting Company, first aired a cartoon short featuring The Simpsons in 1987. It debuted as a Christmas special on December 17, 1989, and after ...
On December 17, 1933, Lala Amarnath made history by scoring India's first-ever Test century against England.
On December 17, 1933, Lala Amarnath made history by scoring India's first-ever Test century against England. Amarnath, who had a score of 118, was also the fir...
Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union's Dictator and General Secretary, was born in Gori, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire, in 1878.
On December 18, 1878, he was born in Gori, Georgia. Losif Jughashvili was his birth name. Stalin's parents were impoverished, and he had a difficult upbringing...
In 1995, Queen Elizabeth requests a divorce from Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
Despite their disagreements, Princess Diana intended to remain married to Prince Charles for the rest of her life. Something changed, however, when the queen asked...
Emily Bronte, an English author, dies of TB at the age of 30 in 1848.
Emily Jane Bronte was an English author and poet best known for her one and only novel, Wuthering Heights, which is today regarded as a classic of English lit...
The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 forces Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to leave.
Following China's invasion of Tibet in 1950, His Holiness was called upon to take complete political control. He visited Beijing in 1954 and met with Mao Zedon...
In 1961, India liberates Goa and two other Portuguese colonies.
Unlike the Indian liberation war against the British, in which several heroes rose to oppose British rule, the Goan freedom movement was openly short and more of a...
Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, pledging to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.
On December 19, 1984, Thatcher and Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the formal Sino-British Joint Declaration at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. That month, on ...
The $200 million epic "Titanic" by James Cameron premiered in American theatres on December 19, 1997.
The $200 million epic "Titanic" by James Cameron premiered in American theatres on December 19, 1997. The movie went on to earn more than $1.8 billion wo...
Ricky Thomas Ponting, AO, a cricket coach, commentator, and former player from Australia, was born on December 19, 1974.
Ricky Thomas Ponting, AO, a cricket coach, commentator, and former player from Australia, was born on December 19, 1974. The most successful captain in the history...
