14th December 1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen becomes the first to reach the South Pole
Amundsen’s team arrived five weeks ahead of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova ...
14 Joulu 20250s
13th December 1577: Francis Drake departs Plymouth on his circumnavigation of the globe
Drake’s fleet consisted of five ships, with the flagship Pelican later renamed Golden Hind, and it departed Plymouth on 13 ...
13 Joulu 20250s
12th December 1935: The Lebensborn registered association established in Nazi Germany by the SS
Literally translated as ‘Fount of Life’, Lebensborn was designed to harness apparent racial purity through the birth of children conceived between Aryan women and members of the SS, often as a result ...
12 Joulu 20250s
11th December 1936: King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom announces his abdication in a worldwide radio broadcast
King Edward VIII Edward abdicated in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, and became known as the Duke of ...
11 Joulu 20250s
10th December 1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris
Drafted in the aftermath of the Second World War and the revelations of mass atrocities committed by totalitarian regimes, the declaration aimed to provide a shared framework for human dignity applica...
10 Joulu 20250s
9th December 1921: Lead identified as a fuel additive to reduce engine knocking in automobiles
Thomas Midgeley Jr. discovered that adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline reduced knocking in automobile ...
9 Joulu 20250s
8th December 1980: John Lennon murdered outside his New York apartment block by Mark David Chapman
As Lennon walked from his limousine to the Dakota building’s front entrance, Mark David Chapman fired five rounds at his back, of which four hit ...
8 Joulu 20250s
7th December 1995: NASA’s Galileo spacecraft becomes the first to enter orbit around Jupiter
Galileo’s arrival at Jupiter on 7 December 1995 demonstrated the feasibility of long-duration operations in the outer Solar System and produced findings that shaped subsequent missions, including Juno...
7 Joulu 20250s
