December 10 - Events

Events

• 1041 – The adopted son of Empress Zoe of Byzantiumsucceeds to the throne of theEastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
• 1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance againstVenice.
• 1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.
• 1541 – Thomas Culpeper andFrancis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
• 1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter
• 1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
• 1816 – the United States Senate Committee on Finance was created as a standing committee
• 1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
• 1861 – American Civil War: the Confederate States of Americaaccept a rival state government's pronouncement that declaresKentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
• 1861 – Forces led by Nguyen Trung Truc, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.
• 1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they usesemaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
• 1869 – Kappa Sigma Fraternity is founded at the University of Virginia
• 1898 – Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
• 1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
• 1902 – Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.
• 1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
• 1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals who have been vivisected.
• 1927 – The Grand Ole Opry premieres on radio.
• 1932 – Thailand adopts a Constitution and becomes a constitutional monarchy.
• 1935 – The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed theHeisman Trophy, is awarded to halfback Jay Berwanger of theUniversity of Chicago.
• 1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
• 1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navytorpedo bombers near Malaya.
• 1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines – Imperial Japaneseforces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on the Philippine mainland.
• 1948 – The UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
• 1955 – The Mighty Mouse Playhouse premieres on television.
• 1965 – The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under this new name.
• 1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
• 1978 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded theNobel Peace Prize.
• 1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.
• 1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the assumption of President Raúl Alfonsín.
• 1989 – Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment ofMongolia's democratic movement that changes the second oldest communist country into a democracy.
• 1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
• 1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Military advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United NationsMaurice Baril recommends that the UN multi-national forces in Zairestand down.