December 10Birthdays & History

On this day: December 10 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 1317The Nyköping Banquet: Birger, King of Sweden treacherously seizes his two brothers, dukes Valdemar and Erik, who are subsequently starved to death in the dungeon of Nyköping Castle.Europe
2. 1508The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.Europe
3. 1520Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.Europe
4. 1541Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.Europe
5. 1652Defeat at the Battle of Dungeness causes the Commonwealth of England to reform its navy.Europe
6. 1665The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter.Europe
7. 1684Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmond Halley.Europe
8. 1768The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.Europe
9. 1799France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.Europe
10. 1817Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.North America
11. 1861Forces led by Nguyễn Trung Trực, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance.AsiaEurope
12. 1861American Civil War: The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 12th state of the Confederacy.North America
13. 1864American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea: Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.North America
14. 1877Russo-Turkish War: The Russian Army captures Plevna after a 5-month siege. The garrison of 25,000 surviving Turks surrenders. The Russian victory is decisive for the outcome of the war and the Liberation of Bulgaria.Middle EastEurope
15. 1896Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi premieres in Paris. A riot breaks out at the end of the performance.Europe
16. 1898Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict. Spain cedes administration of Cuba to the United States, and the United States agrees to pay Spain $20 million for the Philippines.EuropeNorth AmericaLatin America
17. 1901The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.Europe
18. 1902The opening of the reservoir of the Aswan Dam in Egypt.Middle East
19. 1906U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize in any field.North AmericaAsia
20. 1907The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students, protesting against the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected, clash with 400 police officers.Europe
21. 1909Selma Lagerlöf becomes the first female writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.Europe
22. 1932Thailand becomes a constitutional monarchy.Asia
23. 1936Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.Europe
24. 1941World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya.EuropeAsiaAsia
25. 1941World War II: Battle of the Philippines: Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on Luzon.AsiaAsia
26. 1942World War II: Government of Poland in exile send Raczyński's Note (the first official report on the Holocaust) to 26 governments who signed the Declaration by United Nations.Europe
27. 1948The Human Rights Convention is signed by the United Nations.World
28. 1949Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.Asia
29. 1953British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in Literature.Europe
30. 1963Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.AfricaEurope
31. 1963An assassination attempt on the British High Commissioner in Aden kills two people and wounds dozens more.Europe
32. 1968Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.Asia
33. 1978Arab–Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.Middle East
34. 1979Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.Asia
35. 1983Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President Raúl Alfonsín.Latin America
36. 1984United Nations General Assembly recognizes the Convention against Torture.World
37. 1989Mongolian Revolution: At the country's first open pro-democracy public demonstration, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Union.Asia
38. 1991The Nagorno-Karabakh independence referendum is held, with 99.98% voting in favor of independence.Europe
39. 1991Nursultan Nazarbayev is sworn in as the 1st President of Kazakhstan.Asia
40. 1991The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic is renamed into the Republic of Kazakhstan.AsiaEurope
41. 1992Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan establishes the Marriage Fund in the United Arab Emirates in response to rising wedding prices.Middle East
42. 1993The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.Europe
43. 1994Rwandan genocide: Maurice Baril, military advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, recommends that UNAMIR stand down.Africa
44. 1995The Israeli army withdraws from Nablus pursuant to the terms of Oslo Accord.Middle EastEurope
45. 1996The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela.Africa
46. 1999Helen Clark is sworn in as Prime Minister of New Zealand, the second woman to hold the post and the first following an election.Oceania
47. 2005Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 crashes at Port Harcourt International Airport in Nigeria, killing 108 people.Africa
48. 2014Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein is killed after the suppression of a demonstration by Israeli forces in the village (Turmus'ayya) in Ramallah.Middle East
49. 2015Rojava conflict: The Syrian Democratic Council is established in Dêrik, forming the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria.Middle East
50. 2016Two explosions outside a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, kill 38 people and injure 166 others.Middle East
51. 2017ISIL is defeated in Iraq.Middle East
52. 2019The Ostrava hospital attack in the Czech Republic results in eight deaths, including the perpetrator.Europe
53. 2021A widespread, deadly, and violent tornado outbreak slams the Central, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States. Eighty-nine people are killed by the tornadoes, with most of the fatalities occurring in Kentucky, where a single tornado kills 57 people, and injures hundreds of others. Another tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois strikes an Amazon warehouse, killing six workers.North America

Source: Wikipedia "December 10" / CC BY-SA 4.0