267 Saint Barbara of Nicomedia, Turkey, spent her youth on her own in a tower, especially built for her by her father to protect her from the world. She converted to Christianity, against the will of her father and rejected an offer of marriage that she received through him. After attempts to un-convert proved unsuccessful, Barbara’s father struck off her head. Immediately he was struck by lightning and his body was consumed. As a result Barbara was made the patron saint of artillery. According to the Golden Legend, her martyrdom took place on December 4.
771 Charlemagne was crowned King of The Frankish of the kingdom along with his brother Carloman I on October 9, 768 following the death of his father. Carloman's sudden death on December 4, 771 under unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of the Franks.
1154 Hertfordshire, England-born Nicholas Breakspear was unanimously elected pope on December 4, 1154 following the death of Anastasius IV. He took the name Adrian IV and was crowned the following day in the Vatican Basilica. He was the only Englishman ever to have occupied the papal chair.
1642 For many years Cardinal Richelieu had suffered from recurrent fevers (possibly malaria), intestinal tuberculosis with fistula, and migraines. By late 1642 his right arm was suppurating with tubercular osteitis, and he was coughing blood. Richlieu's doctors continued to bleed him frequently, further weakening him. Cardinal Richelieu died on December 4, 1642, aged 57. His body was embalmed and interred at the church of the Sorbonne.
1674 On December 4, 1674 French Jesuit missionary Father Jacques Marquette and his party founded a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illiniwek. The mission would later grow into the city of Chicago.
1679 The English philosopher and theorist Thomas Hobbes died on December 4, 1679, after suffering a paralytic stroke. He is said to have uttered the last words "A great leap in the dark" in his final moments of life. Hobbes was interred within St John the Baptist's Church, Ault Hucknall in Derbyshire.
1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745 was the attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. Having captured Carlisle he pressed as far south as Derby, which he reached on December 4, 1845, by which time he'd ran out of food. It was the furthest point south Charles Stuart and his army reached.
1783 On December 4, 1783, George Washington, then commanding general of the Continental Army, summoned his military officers to Fraunces Tavern in New York City to inform them that he would be resigning his commission and returning to civilian life. He retired to his plantation at Mount Vernon, Virginia. He returned to politics four years later.
1791 The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, was published by W.S. Bourne in London on December 4, 1791. Bourne's wealthy businessman brother made an offer to the government, which agreed to subsidize it in return for influence over its editorial content. As a result, the paper soon took a strong line against radicals such as Thomas Paine and Joseph Priestley.
 |
| Historical maps: Europe, Wikipedia |
1154 Hertfordshire, England-born Nicholas Breakspear was unanimously elected pope on December 4, 1154 following the death of Anastasius IV. He took the name Adrian IV and was crowned the following day in the Vatican Basilica. He was the only Englishman ever to have occupied the papal chair.
1642 For many years Cardinal Richelieu had suffered from recurrent fevers (possibly malaria), intestinal tuberculosis with fistula, and migraines. By late 1642 his right arm was suppurating with tubercular osteitis, and he was coughing blood. Richlieu's doctors continued to bleed him frequently, further weakening him. Cardinal Richelieu died on December 4, 1642, aged 57. His body was embalmed and interred at the church of the Sorbonne.
1674 On December 4, 1674 French Jesuit missionary Father Jacques Marquette and his party founded a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illiniwek. The mission would later grow into the city of Chicago.
1679 The English philosopher and theorist Thomas Hobbes died on December 4, 1679, after suffering a paralytic stroke. He is said to have uttered the last words "A great leap in the dark" in his final moments of life. Hobbes was interred within St John the Baptist's Church, Ault Hucknall in Derbyshire.
1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745 was the attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. Having captured Carlisle he pressed as far south as Derby, which he reached on December 4, 1845, by which time he'd ran out of food. It was the furthest point south Charles Stuart and his army reached.
1783 On December 4, 1783, George Washington, then commanding general of the Continental Army, summoned his military officers to Fraunces Tavern in New York City to inform them that he would be resigning his commission and returning to civilian life. He retired to his plantation at Mount Vernon, Virginia. He returned to politics four years later.
 |
| General George Washington Resigning His Commission John Trumbull, 1824 |
1791 The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, was published by W.S. Bourne in London on December 4, 1791. Bourne's wealthy businessman brother made an offer to the government, which agreed to subsidize it in return for influence over its editorial content. As a result, the paper soon took a strong line against radicals such as Thomas Paine and Joseph Priestley.
1829 Sati, the Hindu funeral custom of a widow's self-immolation on her husband's pyre, was prohibited in parts of British India after years of campaigning by Ram Mohan Roy. The culmination of his campaign was the passage of the Bengal Sati Regulation, on December 4, 1829, by the then-Governor-General of India, Lord William Bentinck. The regulation declared the practice of Sati illegal and punishable by the British colonial administration.
1847 Emily Brontë's only novel Wuthering Heights was first published December 4, 1847. The ideas for Wuthering Heights evolved from Gondal, her fantasy world set on a Pacific island. Her classic, poetic story was about Heathcliffe's doomed, obsessional love for Cathy located on the Yorkshire moors that Emily knew so well. The Wuthering Heights building itself is said to be modelled on a local farm house.
1872 A month after the Mary Celeste left the New York City harbor bound for Genoa with a cargo, it was found by the Canadian brig Dei Gratia on December 4, 1872 drifting in the Atlantic. The ship was in good condition but abandoned and the mystery has never been solved. Mutiny, piracy and insurance fraud have all been suggested as explanations of the mystery.
1909 The Montreal Canadiens, the oldest professional ice hockey club in the world, was founded on December 4, 1909 as a charter member of the National Hockey Association. The team has a rich history and is one of the most successful and iconic franchises in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Canadiens have won numerous championships and have a storied tradition in the sport of ice hockey.
1927 Duke Ellington's orchestra was the house band at the Cotton Club from December 4, 1927, to June 30, 1931. The club gave Ellington national exposure through radio broadcasts originating there.
As the leader of his own orchestra, Ellington became the first arranger to integrate "hot' jazz solos within the framework of a written score.
1937 The first issue of the children's comic The Dandy was published on December 4, 1937. It is the world's third-longest running comic, after Detective Comics (cover dated March 1937) and Il Giornalino (cover dated 1 October 1924).
1954 The first Burger King opened in Miami, Florida on December 4, 1954. James McLamore and David Edgerton founded the fast food restaurant chain selling burgers and milkshakes for 18 cents each. When Burger King introduced the Whopper hamburger in 1957, it cost only 37 cents.
1958 On December 4, 1958 Robert Timm and John Cook took off from McCarran Airfield in Las Vegas, in a used Cessna 172, registration number N9172B. Sixty-four days, 22 hours, 19 minutes and 5 seconds later on February 7, 1959, they landed at the same airfield setting the world record for flight endurance; the record still stands.
1961 The Museum of Modern Art in New York City hung Matisse's Le Bateau ("The Boat") upside-down for 47 days, until Genevieve Habert, a stockbroker, noticed the mistake on December 4, 1961 and notified a guard.
1971 Belfast saw the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, with nearly half of the total deaths in the conflict occurring in the city. The highest death toll from a single incident during the conflict was when the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force bombed the Catholic-owned McGurk’s Bar on December 4, 1971, killing 15 civilians including two children and wounding 17.
1971 The Montreux Casino in Switzerland was set ablaze by someone wielding a flare gun during a Frank Zappa concert on December 4, 1971; Deep Purple was in the audience for the show and the incident inspired their song "Smoke on the Water."
1980 John Bonham, the drummer of the English rock group Led Zeppelin, died at age 32 in September 1980 of asphyxiation from vomiting. The band decide to break up instead of replacing him, officially disbanding on December 4, 1980. They never have fully reformed, but the remaining three members have played some shows with Jason Bonham filling in for his father.
2011 American physicist Lawrence Harding "Larry" Johnston died on December 4, 2011. He was the only man to witness all three atomic explosions in 1945: the Trinity nuclear test and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Comments
Post a Comment