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1170 - Thomas Becket is slain in his own cathedral by knights eager to please Henry II of England.

1813 - War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.

1835 - The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.

1845 - Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state. (Republic of Texas and United States agree to annexation of Texas.)

1851 - The first American-based YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.

1860 - The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, the HMS ''Warrior'' is launched.

1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou ends.

1876 - The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster, 64 injured, 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.

1890 - Wounded Knee Massacre: The United States soldiers massacre more than 400 men, women and children of the Great Sioux Nation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

1891 - Thomas Edison patents the radio.

1911 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China.

1913 - Seligs Polyscope Company releases The Unwelcome Throne, the first serial motion picture.

1921 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Prime Minister of Canada.

1930 - Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the Two-Nation Theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan.

1934 - The first college basketball game at New York City's Madison Square Garden is played between the University of Notre Dame and New York University.

1934 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

1937 - The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.

1940 - World War II: In The Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe firebombs City of London, killing almost 200 civilians.

1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.

1963 - 22 people perish in the Hotel Roosevelt fire, the worst fire to occur in Jacksonville, Florida since the Great Fire of 1901.

1972 - An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed "Tristar" crashed on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101.

1975 - A bomb explodes at New York City's LaGuardia Airport killing 11.

1979 - Closing night of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea at the Hammersmith Odeon; a benefit concert for the citizens of Cambodia who were victims of dictator Pol Pot

1987 - Yuri Romanenko of USSR returns to Earth after 326 days in space.

1989 - Václav Havel becomes President of Czechoslovakia.

1989 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.

1989 - On the final day of trading for the year and decade, the Japanese Nikkei 225 Average closes at an all-time high of 38,915.87.

1992 - Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tried to resign among corruption charges, but ended up being impeached.

1993 - Construction of the Tian Tan Buddha, the world's tallest outdoor bronze statue of the seated Buddha, is completed.

1996 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.

1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.

1998 - Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million.

2001 - A massive fire in the historic district of downtown Lima, Peru kills at least 274 people.

2002 - Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field is demolished.

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1709 - Empress Elizabeth of Russia (d. 1762)

1721 - Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (d. 1764)

1796 - Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist (d. 1877)

1800 - Charles Goodyear, American inventor (d. 1860)

1808 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (d. 1875)

1809 - William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1898)

1816 - Carl Ludwig, German physician (b. 1895)

1856 - Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, Dutch mathematician (d. 1894)

1859 - Venustiano Carranza, 54th President of Mexico (d. 1920)

1876 - Pablo Casals, Catalan musician (d. 1973)

1881 - Jess Willard, American boxer (d. 1968)

1899 - Nie Rongzhen, Chinese Communist military leader (d. 1992)

1908 - Helmut Gollwitzer, German theologian (d. 1993)

1910 - Ronald Coase, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate

1914 - Billy Tipton, American musician (d. 1989)

1914 - Albert Tucker, Australian artist (d. 1999)

1915 - Bill Osmanski, American football player (d. 1996))

1917 - Tom Bradley, American politician (d. 1998)

1917 - Ramanand Sagar, Indian film director (d. 2005)

1927 - Andy Stanfield, American athlete (d. 1985)

1928 - Bernard Cribbins, British actor

1931 - Prince Gu of Korea (d. 2005)

1936 - Mary Tyler Moore, American actress

1936 - Ray Nitschke, American football player (d. 1998)

1937 - Barbara Steele, British actress

1937 - Wayne Huizenga, American football team owner

1938 - Jon Voight, American actor

1941 - Ray Thomas, British musician (The Moody Blues)

1942 - Rick Danko, Canadian musician (The Band) (d. 1999)

1942 - Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor

1946 - Marianne Faithfull, British singer

1947 - Ted Danson, American actor

1947 - Cozy Powell, English rock drummer (d. 1998)

1949 - Syed Kirmani, Indian cricket player

1951 - Yvonne Elliman, American disco singer

1952 - Gelsey Kirkland, American dancer

1953 - Gali Atari, Israeli singer

1954 - Roger Voudouris, American singer

1954 - Prince Takamado of Japan (d. 2002)

1957 - Brad Grey, American film producer

1957 - Paul Rudnick, American screenwriter/playwright

1959 - Patricia Clarkson, American actress

1963 - Francisco Bustamante, Filipino billiard player

1963 - Dave McKean, British artist and filmmaker

1965 - Dexter Holland, American musician (The Offspring)

1966 - Stefano Eranio, Italian footballer

1967 - Andy Wachowski, American director

1967 - Ashleigh Banfield, Canadian journalist

1967 - Chris Barnes, American singer

1970 - Aled Jones, Welsh singer

1970 - Kevin Weisman, American actor

1970 - Glen Phillips, American musician (Toad The Wet Sprocket)

1972 - Evan Seinfeld, American musician (Biohazard) and actor

1972 - Jason Kreis, American soccer player

1972 - Jude Law, British actor

1973 - Theo Epstein, American baseball general manager

1974 - Richie Sexson, American baseball player

1976 - Katherine Moennig, American actress

1977 - Jimmy Journell, baseball player

1978 - Alexis Amore, Peruvian pornographic actress

1978 - Kieron Dyer, British footballer

1978 - LaToya London, American singer

1979 - Justin Roberts, American wrestling announcer

1979 - Diego Luna, Mexican actor

1981 - Angela Via, American singer

1981 - Shizuka Arakawa, Japanese figure skater

1983 - Jessica Andrews, American country music artist

1988 - Samantha Lainez, Peruvian actress

1994 - Princess Kako of Akishino of Japan

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1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (assassinated) (b. 1118)

1563 - Sebastian Castellio, French theologian (b. 1515)

1634 - John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop (b. 1612)

1661 - Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant, French poet (b. 1594)

1689 - Thomas Sydenham, English physician (b. 1624)

1731 - Brook Taylor, English mathematician (b. 1685)

1737 - Joseph Saurin, French mathematician (b. 1659)

1785 - Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian poet (b. 1742)

1825 - Jacques-Louis David, French painter (b. 1748)

1891 - Leopold Kronecker, mathematician (b. 1823)

1894 - Christina Rossetti, English poet (b. 1830)

1916 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk (b. 1869)

1924 - Carl Spitteler, Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)

1926 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian writer (b. 1875)

1929 - Wilhelm Maybach, German automobile designer (b. 1846)

1937 - Don Marquis, American author (b. 1878)

1960 - Eden Phillpotts, British writer (b. 1862)

1967 - Paul Whiteman, American musician and conductor (b. 1890)

1980 - Tim Hardin, American musician (b. 1941)

1980 - Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian writer (b. 1899)

1986 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1894)

1993 - Frunzik Mkrtchyan, Soviet Armenian actor (b. 1930)

2003 - Earl Hindman, American actor (lung cancer) (b. 1942)

2003 - Dinsdale Landen, English actor (cancer) (b. 1932)

2003 - Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (b. 1928)

2004 - Julius Axelrod, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1912)

2004 - Liddy Holloway, New Zealand actress (b. 1947)

2004 - Ken Burkhart, Baseball player (b. 1915)

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The fourth day of Christmas in Western Christianity.

R.C. Saints - Thomas Becket (optional memorial)