1642 — New Zealand discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman
1734 — England & Russia sign trade agreement
1759 — First music store in America opens (Philadelphia)
1843 — "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published, 6,000 copies sold
1889 — Belgium rules on women/child labor law
1903 — Italo Marcioni patents the ice cream cone (New Jersey)
1903 — Wright Brothers make first flight at Kittyhawk
1913 — Mona Lisa stolen in Aug 1911 returned to Louvre
1922 — Charles Ebbets proposes putting numbers on players' sleeves or caps
1928 — Clip-on tie designed
1949 — Knesset votes to transfer Israel's capitol to Jerusalem
1964 — In El Paso TX, LBJ & Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion diverting Rio Grande, to reshape U.S.-México border
1966 — First U.S. bombing of Hanoi
1976 — Longest non-stop passenger airflight (Sydney to San Francisco 13 hours 14 minutes)
1978 — Susan B Anthony dollar, first U.S. coin to honor a woman, issued
1981 — Polish government declares martial law, arrests Solidarity activists
1989 — Forced repatriation of Vietnamese in Hong Kong
1990 — President De Klerk of South Africa meets with Nelson Mandela to talk of end of apartheid
1991 — Both Koreas sign an accord calling for reconciliation
1993 — Deadline for Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, they don't