1901–present 1917 – Eduskunta declares itself the supreme state power of Finland, prompting its declaration of independence and secession from Russia. 1920 – The first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, Switzerland. 1920 – The Free City of Danzig is established. 1922 – At least 300 are massacred during a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador. 1928 – The RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsizes in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew. 1933 – Thailand holds its first election. 1938 – Nazi Germany bans Jewish children from public schools in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory. 1943 – The Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps". 1951 – Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 comrades, is sentenced to death for attempting to reestablish the Communist Party of Greece. 1955 – The first part of the Saint Petersburg Metro is opened. 1957 – Short Solent 3 crashes near Chessell. 1959 – Four members of the Clutter family are murdered near Holcomb, Kansas, by Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, a crime later detailed by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood."Anatomy of a Murder". Time. December 22, 1967. 1965 – Craig Breedlove sets a land speed record of 600.601 mph (966.574 km/h) in his car, the Spirit of America, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. 1966 – Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. 1967 – The only fatality of the North American X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert. 1968 – The Cleveland Transit System becomes the first transit system in the western hemisphere to provide direct rapid transit service from a city's downtown to its major airport. 1969 – Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea. 1969 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000–500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death". 1971 – Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004. 1976 – René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favor of independence. 1978 – A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183. 1979 – A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. 1983 – Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declares independence; it is only recognized by Turkey. 1985 – A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes. 1985 – The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. 1987 – In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. 1987 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashes during takeoff from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, killing 25. – Copy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (note the ERAU copy does not include the errata sheet, and may be older than the one on the NTSB website). 1988 – In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight. 1988 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council. 1988 – The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands. 1990 – The Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted. 1990 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-38, a classified mission for the Department of Defense. 1994 – A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Mindoro, killing 78 people, injuring 430 and triggering a tsunami up to high. 2000 – A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people. 2000 – Jharkhand officially becomes the 28th state of India, formed from eighteen districts of southern Bihar. 2001 – Microsoft launches the Xbox game console in North America. 2002 – Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new nine-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated. 2003 – The first day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, kill 25 people and wound 300 more. 2006 – Al Jazeera English launches worldwide. 2007 – Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans. 2012 – Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated. 2016 – Hong Kong's High Court bans elected politicians Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the city's Parliament. 2017 – A flood a few miles outside of Athens results in the death of 25 people. 2020 – Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix and secures his seventh drivers' title, equalling the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher. 2022 – The world population reached eight billion.
1901–present 1917 – Eduskunta declares itself the supreme state power of Finland, prompting its declaration of independence and secession from Russia. 1920 – The first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, Switzerland. 1920 – The Free City of Danzig is established. 1922 – At least 300 are massacred during a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador. 1928 – The RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsizes in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew. 1933 – Thailand holds its first election. 1938 – Nazi Germany bans Jewish children from public schools in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory. 1943 – The Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps". 1951 – Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 comrades, is sentenced to death for attempting to reestablish the Communist Party of Greece. 1955 – The first part of the Saint Petersburg Metro is opened. 1957 – Short Solent 3 crashes near Chessell. 1959 – Four members of the Clutter family are murdered near Holcomb, Kansas, by Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, a crime later detailed by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood."Anatomy of a Murder". Time. December 22, 1967. 1965 – Craig Breedlove sets a land speed record of 600.601 mph (966.574 km/h) in his car, the Spirit of America, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. 1966 – Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. 1967 – The only fatality of the North American X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert. 1968 – The Cleveland Transit System becomes the first transit system in the western hemisphere to provide direct rapid transit service from a city's downtown to its major airport. 1969 – Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea. 1969 – Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000–500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death". 1971 – Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004. 1976 – René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favor of independence. 1978 – A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183. 1979 – A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. 1983 – Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declares independence; it is only recognized by Turkey. 1985 – A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes. 1985 – The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. 1987 – In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. 1987 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashes during takeoff from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, killing 25. – Copy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (note the ERAU copy does not include the errata sheet, and may be older than the one on the NTSB website). 1988 – In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight. 1988 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council. 1988 – The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands. 1990 – The Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted. 1990 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-38, a classified mission for the Department of Defense. 1994 – A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Mindoro, killing 78 people, injuring 430 and triggering a tsunami up to high. 2000 – A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people. 2000 – Jharkhand officially becomes the 28th state of India, formed from eighteen districts of southern Bihar. 2001 – Microsoft launches the Xbox game console in North America. 2002 – Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new nine-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated. 2003 – The first day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, kill 25 people and wound 300 more. 2006 – Al Jazeera English launches worldwide. 2007 – Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans. 2012 – Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated. 2016 – Hong Kong's High Court bans elected politicians Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the city's Parliament. 2017 – A flood a few miles outside of Athens results in the death of 25 people. 2020 – Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix and secures his seventh drivers' title, equalling the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher. 2022 – The world population reached eight billion.