Earn and sinks in 12 minutes with the loss of 226 lives. December – Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designs and patents a racquet sport, which he calls sphairistike (Greek σφάίρίστική, "skill at playing at ball"), soon known simply as Stické, for the amusement of his guests at a garden party on his estate of Nantclwyd, in Llanelidan, Wales. December 15 – Women of Fredonia, New York, march against the retail liquor dealers in town, to inaugurate the Woman's Crusade of 1873–74. December 16 – The Heineken Brewery is founded in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. December 19 (December 7 OS) – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's fantasia The Tempest, composed between August and October, is premiered, in Moscow. December 21 – Francis Garnier is attacked outside Hanoi by Black Flag mercenaries fighting for the Vietnamese. December 22 – Third Carlist War: Battle of Bocairente – Campaigning in Valenica, Spanish Republican General Valeriano Weyler is attacked at Bocairente, northwest of Alcoy, by a greatly superior Carlist force under General José Santés. Weyler is initially driven back, losing some of his guns, but in a brilliant counter-attack he turns defeat into victory, and Santés is heavily repulsed and forced to withdraw. December 23 – The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is founded, in Hillsboro, Ohio. December 27 – Third Carlist War: Siege of Bilbao (until 2 May 1874) – Campaigning in Navarre, Pretender Don Carlos VII and General Joaquín Elío besiege Bilbao, held by General Ignacio del Castillo and 1,200 men. The Carlist force is ten times this number, and includes most of the troops from Navarre, Vizcaya and Álava, although a considerable force is left in Guipúzcoa. Despite defeat at nearby Somorrostro, Republican commander Marshal Francisco Serrano, supported by Generals Manuel de la Concha and Arsenio Martínez-Campos, brilliantly breaks the siege, and Concha then marches on Estella. Date unknown The League of the Three Emperors is created. It links the conservative monarchs of Austria-Hungary, the German Empire and the Russian Empire in an alliance against radical movements. Founding of: Toronto Argonauts, the oldest professional sports team still playing in North America. Royal Montreal Club in Montreal, the first permanent golf club in North America. Liebig's Extract of Meat Company begins producing tinned corned beef, sold under the label Fray Bentos, from the town in Uruguay where it is processed. Coors Brewing Company begins making beer in Golden, Colorado. Konishiya Rokubei, predecessor of the Konica Minolta worldwide