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 Des 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 Des 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 Des 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 Des 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 Des 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 Des 20250s
6th December 1956: The ‘Blood in the Water’ Olympic water polo match between the USSR and Hungary
The match was a semi-final at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympic Games and became famous as a result of the violence that ran throughout the ...
6 Des 20250s
5th December 1934: The Walwal Incident lays the foundations for the Abyssinia Crisis
Over 150 soldiers from both sides died in a two-day skirmish that began on 5 December, and whose origins continue to be ...
5 Des 20250s
