16th December
1773 Boston tea party incident – Sons of Liberty protesters throw tea shipments into Boston harbor in protest against British imposed Tea Act
1974 1st intentional interstellar radio message sent, Arecibo telescope towards M 41, a cluster of stars some 25,000 light-years away
17th December
1903 The Wright brothers make the first sustained motorized aircraft flight at 10:35 AM, piloted by Orville Wright at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1933 Lala Amarnath scores century on Test Cricket debut (went on to 118)
18th December
1620 Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar was born (d. 1668)
1796 1st US newspaper to appear on Sunday (Baltimore Monitor)
19th December
1903 Williamsburg suspension bridge opens between Brooklyn and Manhattan
1950 Tibet’s Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion
20th December
1876 Hannah Omish, at 12 is youngest-ever hanged in US
1900 Giacobini discovers a comet
21st December
1898 French Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium
1941 German submarine U-567 sinks
22nd December
1851 The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
1990 Lech Wałęsa sworn in as Poland’s 1st popularly elected president
