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WEDNESDAY, Dec. 17, 2025

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  • Published Dec 16, 2025 11:10 am KST

1398-Tamerlane captures and sacks Delhi, defeating Sultan Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud's armies by setting camels loaded with hay alight and charging them at the Sultan's armored elephants

1531-Pope Clement VII publishes papal bull "Cum ad nihil magis", authorizing the Inquisition into Portugal at Evora, Coimbra and Lisbon; rescinded in 1535

1788-Russian army led by Grigory Potemkin assaults and captures the fortress of Ochakov in modern-day Ukraine after a five-month-long siege in one of the major events of the Russo-Turkish War

1903-At 10:35 am, Orville Wright pilots the first sustained, powered, and controlled flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; the flight lasts 12 seconds and covers 120 feet

1947-British industrial company BTH receives a patent for holography, invented by Dennis Gabor in their development lab

1963-Ballon d'Or: Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper Lev Yashin wins award for best European football player; beats Milan midfielder Gianni Rivera and Tottenham striker Jimmy Greaves; first Russian national to win trophy

1972-New line of control agreed to in Kashmir between India & Pakistan

1986-Davina Thompson makes medical history by having the first heart, lung, and liver transplant at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England

1992-Gen. Suwa finds a tooth of 4.4 million-year-old Australopithecus ramidus

2002-Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.