| 1688 |
|
James II abdicates the throne because of William of Orange landing in England. |
| 1816 |
|
Indiana is admitted to the Union as the 19th state. |
| 1861 |
|
A raging fire sweeps the business district of Charleston, South Carolina, adding to an already depressed economic state. A walking tour of Charleston. |
| 1862 |
|
Union General Ambrose Burnside occupies Fredericksburg and prepares to attack the Confederates under Robert E. Lee. |
| 1863 |
|
Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline enter St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and begin bombardment of both Confederate quarters and saltworks. |
| 1882 |
|
A production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe at Boston’s Bijou Theatre becomes the first performance in a theatre lit by incandescent electric lights. |
| 1927 |
|
Nearly 400 world leaders sign a letter to President Calvin Coolidge asking the United States to join the World Court. |
| 1930 |
|
As the economic crisis grows, the Bank of the United States closes its doors. |
| 1933 |
|
Reports say Paraguay has captured 11,000 Bolivians in the war over Chaco. |
| 1936 |
|
Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry American Wallis Warfield Simpson. |
| 1941 |
|
The United States declares war on Italy and Germany. |
| 1943 |
|
U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull demands that Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria withdraw from the war. |
| 1945 |
|
A Boeing B-29 Superfortress shatters all records by crossing the United States in five hours and 27 minutes. |
| 1951 |
|
Joe DiMaggio announces his retirement from baseball. |
| 1955 |
|
Israel raids Syrian positions on the Sea of Galilee. |
| 1964 |
|
Frank Sinatra, Jr., is returned home to his parents after being kidnapped for the ransom amount of $240,000. |
| 1967 |
|
The Concorde, a joint British-French venture and the world’s first supersonic airliner, is unveiled in Toulouse, France. |
| 1972 |
|
Challenger, the lunar lander for Apollo 17, touches down on the moon’s surface, the last time that men visit the moon. |
| 1978 |
|
Massive demonstrations take place in Tehran against the shah. |
| Born on December 11 |
| 1803 |
|
Hector Berlioz, French composer and conductor (Symphonie Fantastique, La Damnation de Faust). |
| 1843 |
|
Robert Koch, physician and medical researcher. |
| 1882 |
|
Fiorella H. La Guardia, mayor of New York City from 1933 to 1945. |
| 1911 |
|
Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist. |
| 1918 |
|
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and winner of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Famous for The Gulag Archipelago. |
| 1922 |
|
Grace Paley, short story writer. |
| 1926 |
|
Willie "Big Mama" Thorton, blues singer. |
| 1937 |
|
Jim Harrison, novelist and poet (Legends of the Fall). |
| 1939 |
|
Tom McGuane, novelist and screenwriter (The Sporting Club, Bushwacked Piano). |
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