1753 – Benjamin Franklin receives the Godfrey Copley medal “on account of his curious Experiments and Observations on Electricity”
1803 – Spain cedes her claim to Louisiana Territory to France.
1866 – Work begins on 1st US underwater highway tunnel in Chicago.
1886 – First commercially successful AC electric power plant opens, Buffalo, NY.
1900 – A German engineer patents front-wheel drive for automobiles.
1907 – Pike Place Market dedicated in Seattle.
1908 – The US Secretary of State and Japan’s ambassador to the US exchange notes in what becomes known a the Root-Takahira Agreement: they affirm support for an independent China with an ‘open door’ policy and for the status quo in the Pacific.
1924 – 1st photo facsimile transmitted across Atlantic by radio (London-NYC)
1950 – US President Harry Truman threatens China with atom bomb.
1954 – Ann Hodges is bruised by a meteor at Sylacauga, Alabama in first modern instance of a meteorite striking a human.
1956 – 1st use of videotape on TV (Douglas Edwards & the News)
1958 – 1st US guided missile destroyer launched – the Dewey at Bath Iron Works, Maine.
1967 – Senator Eugene McCarthy announces he will run for the US presidency on an anti-Vietnam war platform.
1981 – Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17)
1982 – STS-6 vehicle moves to launch pad.
1982 – US submarine Thomas Edison collides with US Navy destroy in South China Sea.
1983 – Radio Shack announces Tandy Model 2000 computer (80186 chip)
1988 – Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. buys RJR Nabisco for $25.07 billion USD.
1993 – President Clinton signs Brady Gun Bill.
2007 – Hillary Clinton presidential campaign office hostage crisis: Leeland Eisenberg enters campaign office of Hillary Clinton in Rochester, New Hampshire with suspected bomb and holds three people hostage for 5 hours.