8 December 1980: John #Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman. #History #Beatles

8 December 1941: The United States declared war on Japan. #History #WW2

8 December 1864: The Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom #Brunel, opened in #Bristol. #History

8 December 1863: A fire during the celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at the Jesuit church in downtown Santiago, #Chile, killed more than 2,500 people. Most of the victims were women, who were separated from male worshipers by an iron grating. #History

8 December 1813: The première of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony in #Vienna. #History #Beethoven

8 December 1660: A woman (probably either Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall, both leading members of Thomas Killigrew's new King's Company) appeared on stage as a professional actress for the first time in #England. She played Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare's Othello. #History #Theatre

8 December 877: Louis the Stammerer, son of Charles the Bald, was crowned king of the West Frankish Kingdom. #History #France

7 December 1995: The #Galileo spacecraft arrived at #Jupiter, just over 6 years after it was launched by the Space Shuttle Atlantis. #History #NASA

7 December 1972: The last Apollo moon mission, Apollo 17, launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. #History #Space #Exploration

7 December 1941: The Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. #History #WW2 #PearlHarbor

7 December 1922: The Parliament of Northern Ireland voted to opt out of the Irish Free State and remain a part of the United Kingdom. #History #NorthernIreland

7 December 1916: David Lloyd George became Prime Minister of a coalition government. #History #WW1 #LloydGeorge

7 December 1732: The Covent Garden Theatre Royal, which would become the Royal Opera House in 1892, opened in #London. #History #RoyalOperaHouse #CoventGarden

7 December 43BC: The Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, and orator, Marcus Tullius #Cicero was assassinated. #History #Rome

6 December 2006: NASA released photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on #Mars. #History #Space #exploration

6 December 1975: Provisional IRA terrorists took a British couple hostage in their flat on Balcombe Street in #London, beginning a six-day siege. #History

6 December 1941: Camp X opened in Ontario, Canada to begin training Allied agents from the Special Operations Executive. #SOE #WW2 The #history of Camp X: www.camp-x.com/historyofcam...

6 December 1922: The Irish Free State (Eire) came into existence, exactly one year after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. #History #Ireland

6 December 1921: The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London by British and Irish representatives. #History #Ireland

6 December 1917: #Finland declared independence from #Russia. The Finns celebrated the occasion by flying the red and yellow lion flag from the Government Palace. #History

6 December 1917: The munitions ship SS Mont-Blanc collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo and exploded in Halifax, Nova Scotia. #History The explosion of the munitions ship killed nearly 2000 people. #History #WW1

6 December 1916: German forces captured and occupied Bucharest. #History #WW1

6 December 1912: The #Nefertiti Bust was discovered during excavations at #Amarna, #Egypt. #History #Egyptology

6 December 1877: The first edition of The Washington Post was published. #History #WashingtonPost

6 December 1865: The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It banned #slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime, in the #USA. #History

6 December 1790: The United States #Congress moved from New York City to #Philadelphia. #History #USA

6 December 1768: The first part of the first edition of the #Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in Edinburgh. #History #Britannica

6 December 1745: Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and his army began their retreat during the second #Jacobite Rising. #History

6 December 1648: Colonel Pride of the New Model Army purged the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I. #History #PridesPurge

A decade after FIFA's biggest corruption scandal, an open letter earlier this year observed that it is “arguably more poorly governed today than it was 10 years ago”. fairsq.org/fifa-joint-s... Which is useful context for this BBC News story: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

5 December 2005: The Civil Partnership Act came into effect in the United Kingdom. #History #UK

5 December 1994: The Budapest Memorandum was signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary. Under the terms of the agreement, #Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from the United States, United Kingdom, and Russia. #History

5 December 1973: The final episode of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' aired on the #BBC. #History #MontyPython

5 December 1952: The Great Smog descended on #London. It is estimated that at least 12,000 people died from the smog over the following days. #History

5 December 1945: Flight 19, a group of TBF Avengers out of Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, disappeared while on an overwater navigation training flight in "the Bermuda Triangle". #History #USA #USN

5 December 1941: The Battle of #Moscow. Georgy #Zhukov's Red Army launched a massive counter-attack against the Germans. #History #WW2

5 December 1933: The 21st Amendment to the US constitution was ratified, ending #prohibition. #History #USA

5 December 1932: German-born physicist, Albert #Einstein, was granted an American visa. #History

5 December 1917: A ceasefire between #Russia and all the Central Powers was signed at Brest-Litovsk. The ceasefire between Russia & the Central Powers #OTD in 1917 would allow negotiations for a final armistice to take place. #History #WW1

5 December 1914: Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition began its attempt to make the first land crossing of #Antarctica. #History #Shackleton

5 December 1831: Former US President John Quincy Adams took his seat in the House of Representatives as representative for the Plymouth district of Massachusetts. #History #USA

5 December 1766: The auctioneer James Christie held his first sale in London. #History #London #Christies

5 December 771: #Charlemagne became the sole King of the Franks following the death of his brother Carloman. #History #France

4 December 1996: Mars Pathfinder was launched. <image> #History #NASA #Mars mars.nasa.gov/programmissi...

4 December 1991: Pan American World Airways, commonly known as "Pan-Am", ceased operations after 64 years in business. #History #PanAm

4 December 1980: Led Zeppelin officially disbanded following the death of drummer John Bonham on September 25th. #History #Rock #LedZeppelin #LedZep

4 December 1971: An audience member fired a flare gun into the ceiling during a concert by Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Montreux Casino, causing a fire that destroyed the venue. The incident was the inspiration for Deep Purple's 1973 song Smoke on the Water. #History #Rock

4 December 1945: The United States Senate approved US participation in the United Nations. #History #UN

4 December 1937: The first issue of The Dandy Comic was published. #History #TheDandy