On this day in 2024 - 12/18/2024
Wednesday
12/18/2024 - On this day in 2024
1271 - Kublai Khan renamed his empire "Yuan," officially marking the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty in China, which would unify much of East Asia under Mongol rule.
1620 - The Mayflower, carrying Pilgrims from England, dropped anchor near the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, after a 66-day voyage from Plymouth, England. This group would later establish the Plymouth Colony.
1787 - New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, joining the newly formed United States.
1865 - The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, was declared ratified by Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1892 - Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. It would become one of the most famous ballets in history.
1912 - The Piltdown Man, one of the most famous hoaxes in science, was first presented to the world. This supposed "missing link" between apes and humans was later exposed as a fraud in 1953.
1916 - The Battle of Verdun ended after 303 days, one of the longest and most devastating battles of World War I, with massive casualties on both sides.
1940 - Adolf Hitler ordered the German General Staff to begin planning for the invasion of the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Barbarossa.
1958 - The world's first communications satellite, SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment), was launched into space by the United States.
1966 - Dr. Seuss's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" aired for the first time on CBS, becoming an annual holiday tradition.
1972 - The last astronauts to visit the moon, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17, returned to Earth, marking the end of the Apollo program's lunar exploration.
1999 - NASA announced that the Mars Polar Lander had lost contact, presumed lost, during its descent to the Martian surface.
2018 - A massive earthquake struck Indonesia, with a magnitude of 7.5, causing a tsunami along the coast of Sulawesi, killing more than 4,000 people.
NEWS 12/18/2024 - On this day
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