1 Dec History: This Date

<< Nov 30| HISTORY “4” “2”DAY |Dec 02 >>
Events, deaths, births, of 01 DEC
[For Dec 01 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1582~1699: Dec 11 — 1700s: Dec 12 — 1800s: Dec 13 — 1900~2099: Dec 14]

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On a 01 December:
2000 Vicente Fox [photo >] takes office as President of Mexico for a 6-year term. This is the first peaceful transfer of power to an opposition party in the history of Mexico. It ends the 71-rule of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Fox's party is the Partido Acción Nacional..
1999 . An international team of scientists announces that it has mapped almost an entire human chromosome.
1999 On World AIDS Days, the UN releases a report estimating that 11 million children worldwide had been orphaned by the pandemic.

1996 America Online starts flat pricing
America Online shifts to a flat $19.95-per-month fee for unlimited access on 01 December 1996. Previously, members had been billed for the number of minutes they spent online, but AOL was feeling pressured by the flat-fee, unlimited services offered by many Internet access providers. AOL's switch to a flat fee immediately doubled the use of the online service and significantly boosted membership. Unfortunately, AOL was unable to scale up its networks equally quickly, and users were greeted with frequent busy signals and bottlenecks. Some seventeen thousand e-mails flamed AOL chairman Steve Case, and rival CompuServe launched a television ad mocking the company for its busy signals. The attorneys-general of several states threatened to sue AOL for false advertising and fraudulent promises. In January 1997, AOL agreed to give cash refunds to users denied access in December and January.

1995 Drugstore chain chief guilty of embezzling.
Michael Monus, the former president of the Phar-Mor drug store chain, was found guilty of embezzling roughly $1 billion from the company. Following a long and arduous trial, Monus received a twenty-year prison sentence and a $1 million fine. According to prosecutors, Monus funneled money from Phar-Mor to finance his high-flying habits, as well as to prop up a profit-poor minor league basketball venture. While the scheme may have supported Monus's extravagant lifestyle, it almost ruined Phar-Mor: the company was bled dry, forcing massive layoffs and extensive store closings. At one point, the situation became so dire that Phar-Mor had to head to federal court to stave off bankruptcy.

1995 The NATO alliance choses Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana to be its new secretary general.
1991 Ukranian people vote for independence
1990 Iraq accepts Bush (Sr.)'s offer for talks.
1990 Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia hold their first joint session.
1990 Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli resigns, Pope John Paul II replaces him with Archbishop Angelo Sodano (born on 23 November 1927).

1990 Chunnel goes through
Engineers digging a rail tunnel under the English Channel link up between England and France at a point forty meters beneath the seabed, and the island of Britain is connected with the European mainland for the first time since the Ice Age. Workers meet and shake hands as they knock out a passage in a service tunnel large enough to walk through. The channel tunnel, or “Chunnel,” connects Folkestone, England, with Calais, France, nearly forty kilometers away. Napoleon's engineer, Albert Mathieu, planned the first tunnel under the English Channel in 1802, incorporating an underground passage with ventilation chimneys above the waves. In 1880, the first real attempt was made by Colonel Beaumont, who bore 2000 meters into the earth before abandoning the project. Other efforts followed in the twentieth century, but none on the scale of the current tunnels begun in 1987. At a cost of over thirteen million dollars, more than seventeen million tons of earth were moved to build the two rail tunnels--one for northbound and one for southbound traffic--and one service tunnel. In May of 1994, the Chunnel is officially opened during a ceremony presided over by England's Queen Elizabeth II and French President Francois Mitterand.

1989 Gorbachev meets with John Paul II ^top^
En route to a summit meeting with US President George Bush, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visits the Vatican in Rome and meets with Pope John Paul II. Gorbachev is the first Soviet leader to ever meet with a pope, and the conference signals the symbolic end of seventy-two years of the Soviet government's official commitment to atheism. Although the practice of religion had been forbidden in the Soviet Union for over half a century, a poll in 1989 revealed that 40 percent of Soviet citizens were willing to admit that they believed in God. As a major element of glasnost, Gorbachev's policy of loosening the Soviet government's interference into the lives of its citizens, the freedom to practice certain religions is granted to the Soviet people. This “openess” in regard to religion, especially in regard to the practice of Catholicism, is a major departure from the decades of the Cold War when the Vatican and the Communist government of the USS.R. were the bitterest of ideological enemies. In fact, in 1998, newly declassified Italian security papers accuse the KGB, the Soviet Union's intelligence organization, of conducting a campaign during the 1980s to discredit and destabilize the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Paul II himself, who was even to be assassinated if deemed necessary. These charges are especially serious because of the nearly fatal assassination attempt made in 1981 on Pope John Paul II by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish national whose motives remain unclear. However, the Italian security document also reveals that Italian Premier Guilio Andreotti asked Gorbachev about the role of the KGB in the assassination, and in 1991 Gorbachev stated that a formal investigation had uncovered no evidence of KGB complicity.

1989 East Germany drops the communist monopoly from its constitution.

1988 Benazir Bhutto, is sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan, by acting President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. He in turn is elected to a five-year term as president by the National Assembly and the Senate. After the August 17 death of dictator Zia, court actions had ended the nonparty basis for elections, and parties permitted to participate. A technicality--the failure to register as a political party--that would have prohibited the PPP from taking part was also voided. The election gave a plurality, not a majority the PPP. Its leader, Benazir Bhutto, was able to gain the assistance of other groups.
     Benazir Bhutto, the first woman prime minister of a modern Muslim state, clearly happened to be the beneficiary of dynastic politics and of the emotional ties of a large section of the electorate to her charismatic family. However, this legacy as the daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto has proven to be a mixed political blessing. Although she inherited her father's party, the PPP, and has led it to victory, the party won a very narrow plurality in the 1988 elections and was therefore forced to enter into a coalition with the MQM (representing Pakistan's muhajir community) and several other parties in order to form a government.
      Benazir wanted to repeal the Eighth Amendment in order to strengthen her position as prime minister but could not muster sufficient political support and soon abandoned the effort. Benazir also faced not only the old problems of the political role of the military forces, the division of power between the central and provincial governments, and the role of Islam, but also pressing new ones, including a large budget deficit and growing ethnic violence. Several early actions appeared to strengthen Benazir's ability to deal with these problems. In choosing her cabinet, for example, Benazir kept the portfolios of finance and defense for herself but appointed a seasoned bureaucrat, Wasim Jafari, as her top adviser on finance and economic affairs. Her retention of Zia's foreign minister, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, signaled continuity in pursuit of the country's policy on Afghanistan.
      Also, when working out their political coalition, the MQM agreed to support the PPP government at both federal and provincial levels. The agreement, signed by the Sindh-based MQM and the head of the PPP in Sindh, pledged to protect and safeguard the interests of all the people of Sindh, regardless of language, religion, or origin of birth, as well as to stamp out violence and to support the rule of law. The agreement, that turned out short-lived, was an effort to achieve peace and cooperation between the indigenous population and the muhajirs in Benazir's troubled home province.
Policy and Performance
      Benazir's assumption of office brought great expectations from inside as well as outside Pakistan. In her first address to the nation, Benazir pledged to work for a progressive and democratic Pakistan--one guided by Islamic principles of brotherhood, equality, and tolerance. At the same time, she invoked the Quaid-i-Azam's vision for a Pakistan that would grow as a modern state. Benazir's rhetoric soared, promising much to an expectant nation: strengthened relations with the United States, the Soviet Union, and China; protected minority rights; increased provincial autonomy; improvement of education; introduction of a comprehensive national health policy; enhanced rights for women, with equal pay for equal work; and the like.
      When faced with the hard realities of government, however, most of Benazir's rhetoric did not translate into action. Although she was successful in advancing the democratization process in Pakistani politics and was able to achieve warmer relations with the United States and, for a short while, with India as well, Benazir's first term in office is usually looked back upon, by both foreign and domestic observers, as ineffectual--a period of governmental instability. Within months she had lost much of her political support.
Autocratic Designs
      The scion of the feudal elite of Sindh, the Harvard and Oxford-educated Benazir was often described as autocratic during her first term. Although she spoke of healing wounds and putting an end to the past, she was inexorably tied to her father's political legacy, which included harsh repression of political opposition. Further, her appointment of her mother, Nusrat, as a senior minister without portfolio, followed by the selection of her father-in-law as chairman of the parliamentary public accounts committee, was viewed in some quarters as ill-advised nepotism.
      Benazir's government also set up the controversial Placement Bureau, which made political appointments to the civil bureaucracy, although the bureau was later abolished. Benazir let the political legacy of her family intrude, for example, when able public servants, who had earlier harbored disagreements with her father, were dismissed for reasons other than job performance.
Political Oppsition and People
      Benazir also had to contend with growing political opposition. As a political power broker, she was in the late 1980s no match for her main rival, then chief minister of Punjab, Nawaz Sharif. In the 1988 elections that brought Benazir to power, her party had won the largest number of seats in the National Assembly but controlled only one of the four provinces. Punjab, the most populous province, with over half of Pakistan's population, came under the control of the opposition IJI and of its leader, Nawaz Sharif, who was the only major political figure from the Zia era to survive the reemergence of the PPP.
      To maintain her power and implement her programs, Benazir would have needed to maneuver successfully between a powerful president and the military elite and to reach a political accommodation with Nawaz Sharif. Instead, she pursued a course of confrontation, including unsuccessful efforts to overthrow him in the provincial assembly. In addition, the failure of the PPP to share power and spoils with its coalition partners caused further alienation, including the withdrawal of the MQM from the government in October 1989.
      The public's sense of disillusionment deepened as the government failed to deliver its promised employment and economic development programs. Inflation and unemployment were high, and the country's burgeoning population put increased pressure on already overburdened education and health systems. The government also failed to deal with the country's growing drug abuse problem, and there was opposition from religious conservatives who distrusted the degree of Benazir's commitment to the state's Islamic principles.
      Despite tensions, disagreements, and mutual misgivings, however, Benazir continued to be supported by the armed forces. The chief of the army staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg, publicly stated his intention to maintain a politically neutral army. Benazir narrowly survived a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly in October 1989. Her government did not compile a record of accomplishment that might have helped to offset her other difficulties. No new legislation was passed, and fewer than a dozen bills, all minor amendments to existing legislation, passed the National Assembly. Benazir complained that legislation was stymied because the Senate was dominated by her opposition.
      Benazir's problems were further accentuated in February 1990 when an MQM-directed strike in Karachi escalated into rioting that virtually paralyzed the city. The strike had been called to protest the alleged abduction of MQM supporters by the PPP. The resulting loss of life and property forced Benazir to call in the army to restore order. In addition to the violence in Sindh and elsewhere, she had to cope with increasing charges of corruption leveled not only at her associates, but at her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and father-in-law. On the international front, Pakistan faced heightened tensions with India over Kashmir and problems associated with the unresolved Afghan war.
Dismissal
      Finally, on August 6, 1990, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed the Benazir government, dissolved the National Assembly as well as the Sindh and North-West Frontier Province provincial assemblies, and appointed a caretaker government headed by Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, the leader of the Combined Opposition Parties in the National Assembly. http://www.leisurecraft.com/pakview/History/History_Contents/Dmc_Process/dmc_process.htm

1988 RMI: subside aux français sans travail.         ^top^
     La France adopte le R.M.I.(revenu minimum d’insertion) Assurer des moyens convenables d’existence à toute personne qui, en raison de son âge, de son état physique ou mental, de la situation de l’économie et de l’emploi, se trouve dans l’incapacité de travailler, tel est l’objet de la loi du 1er décembre 1988 qui a institué en France le revenu minimum d’insertion (R.M.I.).
      Une nouvelle forme de pauvreté tend en effet à s’installer dans les sociétés industrielles ; liée à la situation préoccupante de l’emploi, elle appelle des solutions adaptées et urgentes. L’ampleur du phénomène a déjà justifié la mise en place, dans de nombreux pays européens, d’un dispositif de ce type (Royaume-Uni, république fédérale d’Allemagne, Belgique, Pays-Bas).
      Le système adopté par la France repose sur l’idée de solidarité : un droit nouveau est reconnu, celui d’obtenir de la collectivité des moyens d’existence, le financement étant assuré pour partie par l’impôt de solidarité sur la fortune. L’allocation est réservée à ceux dont les ressources n’atteignent pas un niveau déterminé. Elle est différentielle, ce qui signifie que l’allocation versée représente la différence entre les ressources du foyer et le revenu minimum garanti. Enfin, et cela explique le nom qui lui a été donné, le dispositif repose sur un lien entre le versement de l’allocation et l’insertion sociale et professionnelle des bénéficiaires : il s’agit ainsi de limiter le risque de désincitation au travail et de moraliser le fonctionnement du système tout en limitant son coût.
      Les bénéficiaires potentiels du revenu minimum d’insertion sont les personnes physiques, résidant en France, âgées d’au moins vingt-cinq ans ou assumant la charge d’un ou de plusieurs enfants, et n’ayant pas la qualité d’étudiant. Les étrangers n’en sont pas exclus dès lors qu’ils ont manifesté une certaine stabilité dans leur installation en France.
      Deux préoccupations ont présidé à la fixation du montant du revenu minimum d’insertion : assurer la satisfaction des besoins élémentaires des allocataires et de leurs familles, tout en maintenant le niveau de ce revenu nettement en deçà du S.M.I.C. pour inciter les bénéficiaires à préférer la vie active. Le revenu minimum, qui varie en fonction de la composition du foyer et du nombre de personnes à charge, a donc été fixé à 2 000 francs si l’allocataire est un isolé, à 3 000 francs si le foyer comporte deux personnes ; il augmente ensuite à raison de 600 francs par personne supplémentaire à charge. Ces chiffres suivront l’évolution des prix.
      Les exclusions sont exceptionnelles : elles concernent essentiellement quelques prestations à objet spécialisé, les ressources procurées par la démarche d’insertion elle-même, et les aides personnelles au logement qui ne font l’objet que d’une exclusion partielle.
      En ce qui concerne les non-salariés, la prise en considération des revenus effectifs se double d’un examen des revenus potentiels de l’outil professionnel, ce qui revient à soumettre à des conditions spécifiques l’accès au R.M.I. de cette catégorie de bénéficiaires.
      Les commissions locales d’insertion, créées pour la mise en œuvre du dispositif, instruisent les dossiers. C’est le préfet qui prend la décision d’octroi ou de refus, et le service de l’allocation est assuré par les caisses d’allocations familiales. Le lien posé, dans le souci de ne pas faire du R.M.I. une allocation de pure assistance, entre le versement de l’allocation et l’insertion sociale et professionnelle des bénéficiaires, est concrétisé par un contrat dit d’insertion, mis au point par la commission locale avec la collaboration de l’intéressé, qui définit un projet d’insertion. La mise en œuvre de ce projet est ensuite périodiquement examinée, le non-respect du contrat pouvant entraîner la suspension du versement de l’allocation.
      À l’échelon départemental, les actions menées en faveur de l’insertion sont coordonnées par un conseil départemental d’insertion qui élabore à cet effet un programme. L’État assume la charge financière de l’allocation. Le département l’aide à financer les actions d’insertion.
      L’aide financière apportée aux plus démunis par l’allocation est complétée par la couverture sociale généralisée et gratuite des bénéficiaires et de leurs familles et par des mesures destinées à faciliter leur accès à un logement décent.

1987 Digging begins to link England & France under the English Channel
1986 Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North pleads the 5th Amendment before a Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra arms sale.
1982 Miguel de la Madrid inaugurated as President of Mexico
1978 President Carter more than doubles national park system size
1973 Australia grants self-government to Papua New Guinea

1971 War situation in Cambodia worsens         ^top^
      In Cambodia, communist fighters renew their assaults on government positions, forcing the retreat of Cambodian government forces from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray, six miles northeast of Phnom Penh.
      Premier Lon Nol and his troops had been locked in a desperate battle with the communist Khmer Rouge and their North Vietnamese allies for control of Cambodia since 1970, when Nol had taken over the government from Prince Norodom Sihanouk. The communist forces had just launched a major offensive and the government troops were reeling under the new attacks.
      By December 2, the North Vietnamese overran Cambodian forces trying to protect Route 6, one of the key road links between Phnom Penh and the interior. The communists gained control of a 30-mile stretch of Route 6, cutting off thousands of refugees and nearly 10'000 government troops in the northern Kompong Thmar area.
      On December 6, Hanoi radio reported that the Cambodian government had lost 12,000 fighting men in the past week's action. The next day, communist gunners renewed their shelling of Phnom Penh, firing three rockets into the capital and eight rockets into the international airport. As the rockets fell, the Communists troops attacked government positions all around the city and by 11 December, Lon Nol's forces were in imminent danger of being encircled by the Khmer Rouge, as the communists tried to isolate Phnom Penh from the rest of the country and outside support. With most of the government forces tied down and fighting for their lives, the North Vietnamese were free to use their sanctuaries and resupply routes in Cambodia to begin building up for a major offensive they were planning in South Vietnam for the spring of 1972.

1970 Independent People's Republic of South Yemen becomes the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
1969 The US government holds its first draft lottery since World War II.
1968 The Walker Report is released: “Rights in Conflict: The violent confrontation of demonstrators and police in the parks and streets of Chicago during the week of the Democratic National Convention of 1968”
1965 Airlift of refugees from Cuba to US begins

1964 US plans to bomb North Vietnam         ^top^
      In two crucial meetings (on this day and two days later) at the White House, President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers agree, after some debate, to a two-phase bombing plan for North Vietnam.
      Phase I would involve air strikes by Air Force and Navy jets against infiltration routes and facilities in the Laotian panhandle. Phase II would extend the air strikes to a larger selection of targets in North Vietnam. The more “hawkish” advisers--particularly the Joint Chiefs of Staff--preferred a more immediate and intensive series of raids against many targets in North Vietnam, while “dovish” advisers questioned whether bombing was going to have any effect on Hanoi's support of the war. Johnson agreed with the Joint Chiefs on the necessity of bombing, but wanted to take a more gradual and measured approach.      When he agreed to the bombing plan, President Johnson made it clear that South Vietnamese leaders would be expected to cooperate and pull their government and people together if they hoped to receive additional aid from the United States. Johnson was concerned that the continuing political instability in Saigon would have a detrimental effect on the South Vietnamese government's ability to pursue the fight against the communist Viet Cong.

1963 Nagaland becomes a state of the Indian union.

1959 Treaty for scientific peaceful use of Antarctica.         ^top^
     In Washington, representatives of twelve nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign the Antarctica Treaty, which bans military activity and weapons testing on that continent. It was the first arms control agreement signed in the Cold War period.
     Since the 1800s a number of nations, including Great Britain, Australia, Chile, and Norway, laid claim to parts of Antarctica. These competing claims led to diplomatic disputes and even armed clashes. In 1948, Argentine military forces fired on British troops in an area claimed by both nations. Incidents of that sort, together with evidence that the Soviet Union was becoming more interested in Antarctica, spurred the United States to propose that the continent be made a trustee of the United Nations. This idea was rejected when none of the other nations with interests on the continent would agree to cede their claims of sovereignty to an international organization.
      By the 1950s, some officials in the United States began to press for a more active US role in Antarctica, believing that the continent might have military potential as an area for nuclear tests. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, took a different approach. US diplomats, working with their Soviet counterparts, hammered out a treaty that set aside Antarctica as a military-free zone and postponed settling territorial claims for future debate. There could be no military presence on the continent, and no testing of weapons of any sort, including nuclear weapons. Scientific ventures were allowed, and scientists would not be prohibited from traveling through any of the areas claimed by various nations. A dozen nations signed the document. Since the treaty did not directly tamper with issues of territorial sovereignty in Antarctica, the signers included all nations with territorial claims on the continent. As such, the treaty marked a small but significant first step toward US-Soviet arms control and political cooperation. The treaty went into effect in June 1961, and set the standard for the basic policies that continue to govern Antarctica.

     De plus en plus, les hommes de science voient, dans le district polaire austral, une manière de laboratoire idéal pour l’étude de la structure du globe et de son atmosphère. Ils défendent l’idée d’une Année géophysique internationale durant laquelle toutes les nations uniraient leurs efforts pour réaliser un programme de recherches concertées. Satisfaction leur est donnée en 1953 par les Nations unies, qui fixent à 1957-1958 la date de l’A.G.I.
      Les préparatifs commencent aussitôt et douze nations répondent à l’appel lancé pour l’ouverture de stations scientifiques sur le continent antarctique. Les Américains battent, en 1955, le record de déchargement à McMurdo (10 000 t) et leurs aviateurs atterrissent pour la première fois au pôle, où ils installent la station Amundsen-Scott. De leur côté, les Soviétiques ont choisi d’implanter leurs stations aux lieux les plus difficiles d’accès : le pôle géomagnétique austral et le pôle d’inaccessibilité relative. Leurs hommes de science devront lutter contre les températures les plus basses et supporter les effets de l’altitude ; ils réaliseront, dans des conditions particulièrement sévères, le premier hivernage sur l’inlandsis, en 1957, à Pionierskaïa.
      La Nouvelle-Zélande, qui a autorisé les États-Unis à utiliser son aérodrome de Christchurch comme escale sur la route de l’Antarctique, reçoit l’aide des techniciens américains pour ouvrir les stations de Scott et de Hallett. Le Japon fonde à son tour, en 1956-1957, la station de Siowa, bientôt imité par l’Afrique du Sud qui, en 1960, ajoute à sa station insulaire de Marion Island la base continentale de Norway, cédée par les Norvégiens. Argentins, Australiens, Belges, Britanniques, Chiliens, Français, Polonais rouvrent leurs stations temporaires ou en créent de nouvelles, si bien que 62 stations scientifiques fonctionneront dans l’Antarctique, de manière permanente ou temporaire, entre novembre 1955 et décembre 1958.
      Dépourvue de toute arrière-pensée, la collaboration étroite qui a ainsi uni les savants de douze nations a préparé la voie à une utilisation purement pacifique de l’Antarctique, laquelle a été ultérieurement consacrée par le traité du 1er décembre 1959 qui y garantit la liberté d’accès et de recherche. Le nombre des stations scientifiques permanentes fonctionnant dans l’Antarctique est passé, entre la fin de l’A.G.I. et l’hiver de 1989, de cinquante-cinq à soixante-seize, les programmes de recherche, dont le contenu est coordonné par un comité scientifique international, se sont étendus et diversifiés, et le nombre des missions temporaires a fortement augmenté, les responsables de celles-ci ajoutant au travail scientifique des préoccupations d’ordre économique. On estime à un millier les personnes qui y travaillent en hiver, chiffre qui peut tripler ou quadrupler durant les campagnes d’été.
      À l’hiver de 1989, l’Union soviétique restait le pays le plus actif, entretenant dix stations opérationnelles. Le Chili en prenait neuf en charge ; l’Argentine, les États-Unis et la Grande-Bretagne, huit chacun. L’Australie équipait six stations ; l’Afrique du Sud, cinq ; la France et l’Allemagne (ex-Allemagne de l’Ouest, 3 ; ex-Allemagne de l’Est, 1), quatre ; le Brésil, le Japon et la Nouvelle-Zélande, trois ; enfin, la Chine, l’Inde, l’Italie, la Pologne et l’Uruguay possédaient chacun une station de recherche sur le continent austral.

1959 A camera mounted on the nose of a Thor missile takes the first color picture of Earth from space. The nose cone then plummets to Earth with the camera and would washed up on a beach in the Bahamas in February 1960.
1959 The people's court in Prague condemns six knights of the Order of St. Lazarus to 5-9 years in prison in ongoing repression of religious orders by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.
1958 Central African Rep made autonomous member of Fr Comm (Nat'l Day)
1958 Our Lady of Angels School burns, killing 92 students & 3 nuns (Chic)

1955 Tired black lady arrested for sitting in whites-only section of bus
Rosa (McCauley) Parks, 42, refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama, bus, and the African-American civil-rights movement began. A policeman is called. Parks asks him : “Why do you push us around?” The officer replies: “I don't know but the law is the law and you're under arrest.” The successful Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized by a young Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., followed Park's historic act of civil disobedience. The actions of leaders like Parks and King eventually led to the massive 1963 March on Washington, which set the stage for President Lyndon Johnson's signing of the sweeping Civil Rights Act of 1964.

1955 The first remote-control railroad passenger car runs 12 km between New Rochelle and Rye, New York. It is operated from a control panel in Larchmont, New York. The remote controller is able to start, stop, and accelerate the train up to 110 km/h.

1944 Stettinius succeeds Hull as US secretary of state         ^top^
      Edward R. Stettinius Jr. becomes Franklin Roosevelt's last secretary of state by filling the Cabinet spot left empty by the Cordell Hull.
      Cordell Hull had served as FDR's secretary of state for 11 years and retired after Roosevelt's unprecedented election to a fourth term as president, in November 1944. Hull earned a reputation for negotiating extensive changes in US tariff and trade practices, calling for the lowering of prohibitive tariff rates that choked US foreign trade for decades and pushing Congress to pass legislation that would grant “most favored nation status” to qualified nations-a forerunner to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) agreement.
      It was Hull who pursued closer relations with Latin America, promoting the Good Neighbor Policy that promised an end to US intervention in the internal affairs of its southern neighbors. This had the effect of undoing decades of distrust between the United States and Central and South America and was essential to creating a united pan-American front against the fascist powers of Europe. Hull was less conciliatory toward Japan, refusing any relaxation of economic embargos against the Axis power until it had completely withdrawn from China and Southeast Asia.
      In November 1944, having enjoyed the longest tenure of any secretary of state, and in ailing health, Hull retired to devote his time to the creation of an international peace organization, which would become the United Nations.
      Needless to say, these were big shoes for Stettinius to fill. The industrialist, who had worked for General Motors and US Steel, left private enterprise to join the war effort, accepting the chairmanship of the War Resources Board in 1939. In 1940, he went on to chair the National Defense Advisory Commission and a year later became supervisor of the Lend-Lease program, which distributed cash and war materiel to US allies fighting the European war. In 1943, FDR appointed Stettinius undersecretary of state, and he finally replaced Secretary of State Hull upon Hull's retirement.
      Stettinius' tenure in that Cabinet post was unremarkable, consisting mostly of implementing a foreign policy to which he contributed little in the way of original ideas. He did play an advisory role to FDR's participation at the Yalta Conference in 1945. Stettinius, like his predecessor, believed in the necessity of a postwar international peace organization and headed the US delegation to the San Francisco conference that drafted the U.N. Charter.
      Shortly after FDR's death, Harry S. Truman replaced Stettinius with James F. Byrnes, leaving Stettinius to become chairman of the first US delegation to the United Nations. It was Cordell Hull, however, who would win the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the creation of the United Nations.

US President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Churchill and Soviet dictator Stalin conclude their Tehran conference.
1943 Churchill, Roosevelt et Staline terminent la conférence de Téhéran.
     La Conférence de Téhéran qui se tint du 28 novembre au 1er décembre 1943 rassemblait pour la première fois Churchill, Roosevelt et Staline. Roosevelt joua dans l’ensemble un rôle d’arbitre, les difficultés apparaissant surtout entre Churchill et Staline. La décision militaire essentielle, avec celle relative au débarquement en Normandie prévu pour le 1er mai 1944, fut le rejet par Staline et Roosevelt du projet anglais d’offensive par la Méditerranée et les Balkans.
      Politiquement aucune décision précise ne fut prise, mais on prépara le terrain pour des accords ultérieurs. Roosevelt présenta à Staline ses projets d’organisation internationale ; son interlocuteur en accepta le principe.
      En ce qui concerne l’Allemagne, on se mit d’accord sur le principe d’un démembrement, sur l’annexion de Königsberg par l’U.R.S.S. et sur le déplacement du territoire polonais vers l’ouest, mais sans délimitation précise. Pour l’Extrême-Orient, Staline exposa ses revendications (sud de Sakhaline, îles Kouriles) sans rencontrer d’objection de la part de ses partenaires, qui abordèrent d’eux-mêmes le problème de l’accès de la Russie à une mer libre de glaces avec la question de l’internationalisation de Dairen.

1942 The US government imposes gasoline quotas to conserve fuel during the shortages of World War II. The armed forces overseas had fuel aplenty, but stateside, gasoline became costly and hard to get. People started using bicycles and their own two feet to get around.
1941 Great Britain declares a state of emergency in Malaya following reports of Japanese attacks.
1941 Pétain soumet enfin au maréchal du Reich Hermann Goering une liste de revendications diverses qui lui a été dressée par ses ministres. Toutes ces demandes sont ignorées avec mépris par Goering. Il fait signifier avec cynisme au chef de l'Etat français qu'il convient de se souvenir qui est le vainqueur.

1941 Japan's final decision for war against the US ^top^
The Japanese Imperial Conference reaches a formal decision to go to war with the United States. A last message to the United States government is drafted in Tokyo, to be delivered in Washington on the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was not an explicit declaration of war, but a rejection of Secretary of State Cordell Hull's proposals of November 26; it declared that negotiations were being broken off. Because of technical delays in the Japanese embassy in Washington, Hull was given the message by Japan's representative at 14:20 on 7 December, more than an hour after the first bombs fell at Pearl Harbor. Coming as a surprise to the base's commanders, the attack on Pearl Harbor catalyzed the formal entry of the United States into World War II. On December 8, Congress declared that a state of war had been thrust on the United States by Japan

1933 Nazi storm troops become an official organ of the Reich.
1925 After a seven-year occupation, 7000 British soldiers evacuate Cologne, Germany.
1924 Plutarco Elías Calles becomes president of Mexico
1921 1st US helium-filled dirigible makes 1st flight
1921 The Detroit Steam Motors Corporation announced the Trask steam car, a favorite project of automobile distributor O.C. Trask. A steam-driven automobile had reached the world-record speed of 205.45 km/h in 1906, causing a steam-car craze that lasted through the 1920s. The last steam-powered cars in the US were made in 1926.
1919 Lady Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament
1918 Iceland becomes independent state under the Danish crown
1918 An American army of occupation enters Germany.
1916 King Constantine of Greece refuses to surrender to the Allies.
1914 Following the outbreak of World War I in Europe, the nation's markets temporarily shut down to safeguard against a debilitating bear run. But, on 01 December 1914, traders were back at it again, at least on the West Coast, where the San Francisco Stock & Bond Exchange became the first US exchange to re-open its doors for business.
1913 The Ford Motor Company introduces the continuous moving assembly line. Ford's new assembly line could produce a complete car every 2 min 38 sec. The efficiency and speed of Ford's production lines allowed the company to sell cars for less than any competitor.
1913 The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh.
1909 President William Howard Taft severs official relations with Nicaragua's Zelaya government and declares support for the revolutionaries.
1909 The Pennsylvania Trust Company in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, becomes the first financial institution in the US to set up Christmas Club accounts.
1908 The Italian Parliament debates the future of the Triple Alliance and asks for compensation for Austria's action in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
1905 Twenty officers and 230 guards are arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the revolt at the Winter Palace.
1900 Kaiser Wilhelm II refuses to meet with Boer leader Paul Kruger in Berlin.
1887 Sino-Portuguese treaty recognizes Portugal's control of Macao
1878 1st White House telephone
1864 Union General John Schofield's army evacuates Franklin and retreats into the Nashville, Tennessee defenses
1863 Siege of Knoxville, Tennessee continues
1863 Mine Run Campaign concludes in Virginia
1862 President Abraham Lincoln gives the State of the Union address to the 37th Congress.
1861 The US gunboat Penguin seizes the Confederate blockade runner Albion carrying supplies worth almost $100'000.

1830 Hugo overdue for Notre Dame de Paris ^top^ According to an agreement with his publisher, French novelist Victor Hugo is due to turn in a draft of his book Notre Dame de Paris on this day. However, Hugo applies himself to other projects and extends the deadline several times. [Hugo's photograph by Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) >] [next link is broken] Victor Hugo was born in Besançon on 26 February 1802, the son of one of Napoléon's officers. While still a teenager, Victor decided to become a writer. Although he studied law, he also founded a literary review to which he and other emerging writers published their work. Hugo published his first collection of poetry the same year as his marriage. It won him a pension from Louis XVIII. On 14 October 1822, Victor Hugo married Adèle Foucher, his childhood sweetheart. They had numerous children, and the marriage survived notorious infidelities on both sides. In 1823, Hugo published his first novel, Han d'Islande. About this time, he began meeting regularly with a group of Romantics. His 1827 play, Cromwell, embraced the tenets of Romanticism, which he laid out in the play's preface. The following year, despite a contract to begin work on a novel called Notre Dame de Paris, he set to work on two plays. The first, Marion de Lorme (1829), was censored for its candid portrayal of a courtesan purified by love. The second, Hernani ou L'honneur castillan, became the touchstone for a bitter and protracted debate between French Classicists and Romantics. [< etching by Rodin] On 15 January 1831, Hugo finally completed Notre-Dame de Paris, which pleaded for an aesthetic that would tolerate the imperfect, the grotesque. The book also had a simpler agenda: to increase appreciation of old Gothic structures, which had become the object of vandalism and neglect In the 1830s, Hugo wrote numerous plays, many of which were written as vehicles for the actress Juliette Drouet, with whom Hugo was romantically connected starting in 1833. In 1841, Hugo was elected to the prestigious Académie Française, but two years later he lost his beloved daughter and her husband when they were drowned in an accident. His expressed his profound grief in a poetry collection called Les Contemplations (1856). Hugo was forced to flee France when Napoléon III came to power; he did not return for 20 years. While still in exile, he completed Les Misérables (1862), which became a hit in France and abroad. He returned to Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and was hailed a national hero. Hugo's writing spanned more than six decades, and he was given a national funeral and buried in the Panthéon after his 22 May 1885 death . HUGO ONLINE:
Hernani ou L'honneur castillan : drame, [Paris, Français, 25 février 1830] Le télégraphe : satire Odes et poésies diverses Lucrèce Borgia : drame, [Paris, Porte-Saint-Martin, 2 février 1833] Marie Tudor Napoléon le Petit Les travailleurs de la mer. Tome premier Les travailleurs de la mer. Tome deuxième Les travailleurs de la mer. Tome troisième Han d'Islande Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris	Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX] Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX] Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX] Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX] Les Misérables. [Tome V à IX] Les travailleurs de la mer. [Tome X-XI] Les travailleurs de la mer. [Tome X-XI] L'homme qui rit. [Tome XII-XIII] L'homme qui rit. [Tome XII-XIII] Quatre-vingt-treize. [Tome XIV] Ruy Blas Les Contemplations	IN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS: Les Miserables volume I volume II volume III volume IV volume V Les Miserables (complete: 3.2 MB) The Memoirs of Victor Hugo Notre-Dame de Paris Notre Dame de Paris

1824 US presidential election goes to the House of Representatives
As no presidential candidate received a majority of the total electoral votes in the election of 1824, Congress decides to turn over the presidential election to the House of Representatives, as dictated in the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution. One month before, the first presidential election was held in which popular votes were counted as well as electoral votes, and no candidate won an electoral majority. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee won ninety-nine electoral and 153'544 popular votes, John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts received eighty-four electoral and 108'740 popular votes, Secretary of State William H. Crawford, who had suffered a stroke before the election, received forty-one electoral votes, and Representative Henry Clay of Virginia won thirty-seven electoral votes.
The Twelfth Amendment dictates that if no electoral majority is won, only the three candidates who received the most popular votes will be considered in the House. Representative Henry Clay, who is disqualified from the House vote as a fourth-place candidate, agrees to use his influence to have John Quincy Adams elected, provided that Adams subsequently appoints him secretary of state. Clay and Adams are both members of a loose coalition in Congress that by 1828 becomes known as the National Republicans, while Jackson's supporters are later organized into the Democratic Party. Thanks to Clay's backing, on February 9, 1825, the House of Representatives elects Adams, who had won less votes than Jackson in the popular election, as president of the United States. A majority of thirteen states are won by Adams, compared to seven states for Jackson and four for Crawford.

1822 Dom Pedro crowned emperor of Brazil
1821 Santo Domingo (Dominican Rep) proclaims independence from Spain

1803 Livret de travail imposé aux ouvriers français
Un arrêté complète la loi du 22 Germinal An XI (12 avril 1803). Il détermine que tout ouvrier doit posséder un livret, qui lui sera délivré par la police ou par la municipalité du lieu où il réside. Ce livret sera à la disposition du patron chez lequel travaille l'ouvrier et aussi longtemps qu'il restera à son service. Tous les emplois successifs devront y être mentionnés. Un ouvrier qui change de résidence doit impérativement être muni de son passeport et de ce livret. Tout ouvrier dépourvu de ces documents sera considéré comme un vagabond et encourra une peine de six mois de prison. Ce livret ne sera aboli qu'en 1890...

Charles and Robert ascend 600 m in a hydrogen balloon         ^top^
1783 Ballon gonflé d'hydrogène atteint 3400 m
      Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles est né en 1746. Mathématicien et physicien français, chercheur et inventeur fécond. En 1783, Charles utilise le premier de l’hydrogène pour gonfler les ballons. Avec les frères Robert, il construit un ballon qui, lâché des Tuileries, ira atterrir près de Gonesse. Le 1er décembre 1783, il part avec Nicolas Robert des Tuileries, monte à 600 m, se pose une première fois près de Nesles et repart seul, atteignant une altitude d’environ 3400 mètres.
      Vers 1787, il anticipe la loi de Gay-Lussac, loi qui relie linéairement le volume d’un gaz à sa température (à pression constante) et qui porte parfois son nom. Il améliore l’héliostat de Gravesand (ou ’sGravesande) et l’aéromètre de Fahrenheit, invente un hydromètre thermométrique, un goniomètre par réflexion et de nombreux autres dispositifs ingénieux. Élu en 1785 à l’Académie des sciences, il est ensuite nommé professeur de physique au Conservatoire des arts et métiers. Il meurt en 1823.

1764 The French government abolished the Jesuit order in that country. (The Society of Jesus would be completely suppressed by Clement XIV in 1767, but restored by Pius VII in 1814.)
1742 Jews are expelled from Great Russia by Empress Elisabeth
1653 An athlete from Croydon is reported to have run 32 km from St Albans to London in less than 90 minutes
1641 Massachusetts becomes 1st colony to give statutory recognition to slavery

Portugal regains independence after 60 years of Spanish rule
1640 Indépendance du Portugal
Quelque peu aidé par Richelieu, le Portugal s'insurge contre l'Espagne qui l'avait année et retrouve on indépance. Ce pays avait été l'une de plus grande puissance du monde pendant plus d'un siècle et demi. Mais, en 1580, la famille royale s'étant éteinte sans succession, le trône du Portugal avait été revendiqué par Philippe II d'Espagne qui se l'était approprié. L'immense empire du Portugal s'étendait en Amérique du Sud, aux Indes et en extrême-Orient ; mais son armée était insuffiante pour défendre ces territoires éparpillés et l'Espagne, l'Angleterre, et la Hollande s'en prirent bientôt aux conquêtes portugeaies. Après la fin de la domination espagnole, le portugal perd ses colonies d'Extrême-Orient sauf Goa et Diu, conserve le Brésil, le Mozambique et la Guinée. Le Brésil conquiert son indépendance au XIX ème siècle. En 1951, les colonies portugeaises ont reçu le statut de provinces d'Outre-Mer. Il en reste aujourd'hui très peu.
Le 01 decembre 1640, la petite noblesse du Portugal se soulève contre l'occupant espagnol. Elle rétablit l'indépendance du pays et porte sur le trône l'un des siens, Jean de Bragance. Celui-ci est couronné sous les acclamations populaires. Il prend le nom de Jean IV. Le soulèvement bénéficie du soutien du cardinal français Richelieu, heureux de jouer un bon tour à la maison des Habsbourg qui gouverne l'Espagne. En 1578, le roi du Portugal, Sébastian, avait été tué au Maroc en tentant de renouveler les croisades contre l'Islam. Le roi d'Espagne, Philippe II de Habsbourg, avait profité des démêlés de sa succession pour occuper le pays et s'en désigner roi à titre personnel. L'occupation espagnole fut brutale et tissée de massacres. Elle se solda par des impôts accrus pour financer les guerres des Habsbourg. Elle permit aussi aux Hollandais et aux Anglais de dépecer le bel empire colonial des Portugais, du Brésil à Macao. Les Portugais se soulevèrent à plusieurs reprises, en profitant de l'affaiblissement des Habsbourg, occupés à combattre sur le Rhin et sur les Pyrénées. Ayant enfin repris leur indépendance, les Portugais doivent repousser une tentative de reconquête des Espagnols. Ils reçoivent l'appui intéressé des Hollandais et des Anglais, qui leur enlèvent le monopole du fructueux commerce des épices. Tout en faisant reconnaître son indépendance en 1668, le Portugal ne va plus sortir de l'orbite anglaise. Bonne fête: *** Eloi *** Le “bon Saint Eloi” de la chanson est né près de Limoges dans une pauvre famille. Il se révéla un orfèvre de talent avant de devenir le conseiller du roi Dagobert (vers 630), le dernier successeur de Clovis à peu près compétent (les rois mérovingiens suivants mériteront d'être appelés “rois fainéants”). Nommé évêque de Noyon (où repose sa dépouille), Eloi consacra la fin de sa vie à l'évangélisation de la Frise. Il est le saint patron des orfèvres et des métallos, comme il va de soi.

*1589 Edmund Spenser's Fairie Queene* is “entered,”** a prepublication step necessary in the days of English government censorship. SPENCER ONLINE:
Complete On-Line Works The Faerie Queene Amoretti and Epithalamion Colin Clovts Come Home Againe	Daphnaïda Complaints Epithalamion Fowre Hymnes	Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubberds Tale Prothalamion, or A Spousal Verse The Shepheardes Calender The Shepheardes Calender A View of the Present State of Ireland

1145 Pope Eugene III sends a papal bull to the French King, Louis VII, proclaiming the Second Crusade. Led by Louis and Emperor Conrad III from 1147-49, the crusade would fail to accomplish its goal of recovering Edessa from Muslims.

TO THE TOP

Deaths which occurred on a 01 December: ^top^
2002:: 47 of a crowd of some 10'000, mostly poor women, some with children, crushed in stampede in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, when, after waiting for hours, it surged through the gates of an abandoned jute mill when they were opened for the distribution of free saris by a local businessman ahead of the Islamic Eid ul Fitr festival, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan (in 2002 the last day of Ramadan is 04 December). Eid is an Arabic word derived from root of a-w-d; literally it means a recurring event. In Islam it denotes the festivals of Islam. Fitr means to break and it therefore marks the breaking of the fasting period and of all evil habits. Happiness is observed at attaining spiritual upliftment after a month of fasting.
2002 Edward Latimer Beach Jr., of cancer. Born on 20 April 1918 in New York City, he became a US Navy captain (like his father) and commanded the nuclear-powered submarine Triton when it made history's first round-the-world undersea voyage (49'420 km from 16 Feb to 10 May 1960). Author of Submarine! (1952, history of. undersea warfare against Japan in WW2), war novel Run Silent, Run Deep (1955), Around the World Submerged (1962), The Wreck of the ‘Memphis’ (1966, cruiser commanded by his father, hit in August 1916 by a tidal wave which killed 43 crewmen), Keepers of the Sea (1983, illustrated account of the modern US Navy), and The United States Navy: 200 Years (1986).
2002 Pierre Peugeot [photo >], born on 11 June 1932, a great-grandnephew of Armand Peugeot, who, continuing a family enterprise (started by Jean-Pierre Peugeot in the 18th century) that had manufactured, among many other things, coffee grinders, in 1885 founded a bicycle shop that would later make cars also. Pierre Peugeot was a leading executive of the Peugeot company, 28% owned by the family, which acquired Citroën in 1976 and Chrysler France in 1978, and is now PSA-Peugeot-Citroën.
2001 Yoni Korganov, 20; Elasha Yosef, 18; Yedidi Levy Moshe, 19; Golan Torgeman, 15; Asaf Avitan, 15; Srgt. Nir Chaftzadi, 19; Michael Moshe Dahan, 20;, Adam Weistein, 14; Guy Vaknin, 19 and Israel Ya'akov Daneinu, 17, and two suicide bombers (from Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem) in almost simultaneous explosions 40 m apart in the Ben Yehuda mall in dowtown Jerusalem, at 23:30. More than 180 persons are injured, of which Ido Cohen, 17, would die on 08 December 2001. Most of those killed were residents of Jerusalem.
1988 596 dead from cyclone in Bangladesh, half a million homeless
1985 Philip Larkin English poet
1987 James A Baldwin, 63, writer (Another Country)
1983 Mirsky, mathematician.
1973 David Ben-Gurion, 87, founding father and first prime minister of Israel, in Tel Aviv
1948 Francis Gruber, French artist born on 14 March 1912. — more with links to images.
1947 G. H. Hardy, mathematician.

1939 Day 2 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland. [Talvisodan 2. päivä]
Jorma Gallen-Kallela and many other Finns and Soviets die because of Stalin's treachery

Akseli Gallen-Kallela's son, Lieutenant Jorma Gallen-Kallela falls saving the life of Captain Adolf Ehrnrooth.

07.30: Soviet aircraft strike at villages on Suursaari. The Russians bomb Helsinki, Lahti, Kirkkonummi, Loviisa, Kotka, Hamina, Kouvola, Antrea, Hiitola, Jääski, Immola, Tainionkoski and targets in and around Viipuri.

Supported by two destroyers, the Soviet cruiser Kirov attacks Russarö Fortress. There is an exchange of artillery fire in the late morning. Both Kirov and one of the destroyers are damaged.

President Kyösti Kallio appoints the new Government under Prime Minister Risto Ryti. Väinö Tanner, Minister of Finance in the previous administration, becomes Foreign Minister.The Government announces its prime target to be the restoration of peaceful relations with the Soviet Union.

The Finnish covering forces on the Isthmus withdraw to their first delaying position. Finland records its first successes in the air war: Finnish fighters shoot down 13 Soviet aircraft, two over Helsinki. The crew of a Soviet aircraft shot down near Uusikirkko take refuge in barn. A Finnish patrol sets out to capture them.

Terijoki: Traitor Otto Wille Kuusinen's so-called 'Finnish People's Government' issues its first proclamation.

1935 Bernard Schmidt inventor (Schmidt camera)

1934 Sergey Mironovich (Kostrikov) Kirov, 48, assassinated at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad by a youthful party member, Leonid Nikolayev. Nikolayev and 13 alleged accomplices were shot. Subsequently, Stalin claimed to have discovered a widespread conspiracy of anti-Stalinist Communists who were planning to assassinate the entire Soviet leadership; he used that as a pretext to bolster his power by ordering purge trials, executing many Bolshevik leaders and party members and hundreds of Leningrad citizens and sending thousands more to forced-labor camps for their alleged complicity in the plot. Later, Nikita Khrushchev in his “secret speech” (25 Feb 1956) strongly implied that Stalin himself engineered Kirov's assassination.
Sergey Kirov, a leader of the Russian Revolution and high-ranking member of the Politburo, is shot to death at his Leningrad office by Communist Party member Leonid Nikolayev, likely at the instigation of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Whatever Stalin's precise role in the assassination of his political rival Kirov, he uses the murder as a pretext for eliminating many of his opponents in the Communist Party, the government, the armed forces, and the intelligentsia. Kirov's assassination serves as the basis for seven separate trials and the arrest and execution of hundreds of notable figures in Soviet political, military, and cultural life. Each trial contradicts the others in fundamental details, and different individuals are found guilty of organizing the murder of Kirov by different means and for different political motives. The Kirov assassination trials marks the beginning of Stalin's massive four-year purge of Soviet society, in which several hundred thousand people are imprisoned, exiled, or killed.

1884 One of 80 murderous cowboys, killed by attacked Chicano deputy
      Elfego Baca, legendary defender of southwestern Hispanos, manages to hold off a gang of 80 cowboys who are determined to kill him.
      The trouble began the previous day, when Baca arrested Charles McCarthy, a cowboy who fired five shots at him in a Frisco (now Reserve), New Mexico, saloon. For months, a vicious band of Texan cowboys had terrorized the Hispanos of Frisco, brutally castrating one young Mexican man and using another for target practice. Outraged by these abuses, Baca gained a commission as deputy sheriff to try to end the terror. His arrest of McCarthy served notice to other Anglo cowboys that further abuses of the Hispanos would not be tolerated.
      The Texans, however, were not easily intimidated. The morning after McCarthy's arrest, a group of about 80 cowboys rode into town to free McCarthy and make an example of Baca for all Mexicans. Baca gathered the women and children of the town in a church for their safety and prepared to make a stand. When he saw how outnumbered he was, Baca retreated to an adobe house, where he killed one attacker and wounded several others. The irate cowboys peppered Baca's tiny hideout with bullets, firing about 400 rounds into the flimsy structure. As night fell, they assumed they had killed the defiant deputy sheriff, but the next morning they awoke to the smell of beef stew and tortillas--Baca was fixing his breakfast.
      A short while later, two lawmen and several of Baca's friends came to his aid, and the cowboys retreated. Baca turned himself over to the officers, and he was charged with the murder of one of the cowboys. In his trial in Albuquerque, the jury found Baca not guilty because he had acted in self-defense, and he was released to a hero's welcome among the Hispanos of New Mexico. Baca was adored because he had taken a stand against the abusive and racist Anglo newcomers. Hugely popular, Baca later enjoyed a successful career as a lawyer, private detective, and politician in Albuquerque.

1916 Le Père de Foucauld, assassiné par des algériens hostiles à l'occupation française.         ^top^
     Charles-Eugène de Foucauld, vicomte, est né, en 1858, à Strasbourg dans une famille aristocratique aisée. Orphelin de père et de mère à cinq ans, il quitte l’Alsace avec ses grands-parents après la défaite de 1870. Il fait ses études au lycée de Nancy.
      Sous l’influence des idées positivistes de l’époque, il perd la foi à l’âge de seize ans. Il entre à Saint-Cyr, puis à Saumur (où se trouve Pétain). En mars 1881, à Sétif (Algérie), il brise sa carrière militaire en ne voulant pas obéir à ses supérieurs qui lui ont ordonné de cesser une liaison publiquement affichée. Il entreprend, en 1883-1884, une exploration périlleuse au Maroc, avec une compétence scientifique et une audace qui lui valent d’être aussitôt reconnu par ses pairs de la Société de géographie. Pendant deux ans, à Paris, il écrit la relation de son exploration (Reconnaissance au Maroc , 1888) et réfléchit dans la solitude.
      L’agnostique Foucauld a été très impressionné, au Maroc, par la foi des musulmans. Il se rend souvent dans les églises, répétant : “Mon Dieu, si vous existez, faites-vous connaître.” Il rencontre, en octobre 1886, l’abbé Huvelin, directeur spirituel de sa cousine, Marie de Bondy, et se convertit discrètement.
      Il “ne veut plus alors vivre que pour Dieu”. Son sens de l’absolu le pousse à entrer dans le couvent le plus dur de France, la trappe Notre-Dame des Neiges (Ardèche), puis à aller se perdre dans une fondation très pauvre que ce monastère a établie en Syrie. Après six ans en Syrie, il quitte la Trappe et, libre de toute obédience, vient vivre dans une petite cabane à Nazareth, comme domestique des clarisses.
      Il désire bientôt devenir prêtre ; il est ordonné le 9 juin 1901, avec le statut de “prêtre libre du diocèse de Viviers”. Saisi par le désert qu’il a connu dans son exploration marocaine, il s’installe dans le Sud algérien, à Béni-Abbès, ermite qui ne sort pas de son ermitage, mais qui veut être “frère universel”, “donner l’hospitalité à tout venant, bon ou mauvais, ami ou ennemi, musulman ou chrétien”. Il mène une lutte vigoureuse contre l’esclavage, s’intéresse à l’avenir de l’Algérie (notamment au chemin de fer transsaharien), se lie d’amitié avec le général Laperrine, commandant français du territoire militaire des Oasis, et coopère même avec lui dans certaines de ses tâches colonisatrices. En 1905, il va s’établir plus au sud, jusqu’au cœur du Sahara, à Tamanrasset, et y mène, comme à Béni-Abbès, une vie de contacts et d’amitié avec les Touareg. Il voudrait fonder des congrégations nouvelles : soit de moines qui vivraient cette existence de présence gratuite à “l’autre” ; soit de laïcs, mariés ou non, qui accepteraient d’être au milieu des hommes ayant d’autres convictions que la foi chrétienne, sans chercher à les convertir, en leur demandant leur amitié et la faveur d’être leurs hôtes. Et c’est dans cet esprit qu’il va passer une partie de son temps, durant les dix dernières années de sa vie, à établir un Dictionnaire français-touareg et un autre touareg-français , et à recueillir de multiples données ethnographiques sur les quelques dizaines de milliers de Touareg.
      Il meurt dans la solitude la plus complète, n’ayant trouvé personne qui accepte ses vues, personne pour répondre à ses désirs de fonder un groupe, personne même pour lui succéder à Tamanrasset. Le 1er décembre 1916, il est assassiné par une bande de razzieurs, hostiles moins au témoin du Christ qu’au représentant de l’occupation française.
      Dans les années qui suivent sa mort, quelques personnes, réunies autour de Louis Massignon, à qui Foucauld avait confié le soin de susciter une “Sodalité” (association d’amitié), perpétuent sa mémoire. Quinze ans après sa mort, naissent, de ce milieu, plusieurs fondations : congrégations religieuses de femmes (Petites Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur et Petites Sœurs de Jésus) et d’hommes (Petits Frères de Jésus), groupes de prêtres et de laïcs. C’est autour des années cinquante que ces différents groupes vont connaître une expansion mondiale, diffusant l’esprit du Frère universel avec des accents qui apparentent ce mouvement au franciscanisme. Son procès de béatification est toujours en cours d’instruction, depuis 1926.

1842 Philip Spencer, Samuel Cromwell, Elisha Small, first US sailors hanged for mutiny. ^top^
Philip Spencer, son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer, is hanged for mutiny from the yardarm of the USS. Somers, a small brig of war at sea in West Indian waters. He was convicted at a court-martial held on the ship of conspiring to organize a mutiny, murder the officers, and convert the captured ship into a pirate vessel. Along with Midshipman Spencer, two lesser ranked sailors, Boatswain Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small, are also convicted and hanged. A court of inquiry is subsequently formed to investigate the mutiny, the court-martial, and Captain Alexander Slidell MacKenzie, but the verdicts are found to be just and MacKenzie is exonerated. The incident provides a motivation for founding the Naval Academy in 1845, to better educate future Navy officers.

1823 François Louis Joseph Watteau “de Lille”, French painter born on 18 August 1758. — more with link to an image.
1770 Giovanni Battista Cignarolli, Veronese artist born on 04 July 1706. — more
1750 Doppelmayr, mathematician.
1666 Jan Wouverman, Dutch artist born on 30 October 1629.
1581 Edmund Champion and other Jesuit martyrs are hanged at Tyburn, England, for sedition, after being tortured.
1563 Andrea Medulich (or Meldolla, Medulla) “Schiavone”, Italian artist born in Dalmatia in 1522. — MORE ON SCHIAVONE AT ART “4” DECEMBER with links to images.

1325 (approximation to the unknown year and date) Some 500 victims of the Crow Creek massacre.
     We know from evidence found in the dig that the massacre probably happened in the very late Autumn or early Winter. Enemies attacked the village, somehow getting through the fortification ditch. We believe that the Crow Creek people were actually still building the ditch, so there might have been gaps.
     Some archaeologists believe that the attack was carried out by the Middle Missouri villagers who came down from the north. They might have been unhappy that the Initial Coalescent people had moved into the area and had taken their land.
      Other archaeologists do not believe this is a good explanation. These scientists believe that the cause had to do with the environment and overpopulation. The number of people from the Initial Coalescent grew quickly once the people moved from the dry south into an area with good water and soil for their crops. Within 150 they had built about 15 villages, some with many people.
      They might have had nearly 8000 people living in a very small area along the river. This is more people than live in the area area today if you do not count those living in cities like Pierre. Living along a narrow strip of floodplain, they simply ran out of room to grow their crops.
      The climate also began to change, so the people had less and less to eat. We know from many of the Crow Creek skeletons that people suffered from protein and iron deficiency. X-rays of some of the bones show that in chidren, growth had started and stopped several times due to food shortage. Other x-rays show vitamin C shortage which leads to scurvy.
      We now believe that people from other Initial Coalescent villages wanted the land of the Crow Creek village so they could raise more crops for themselves. We also know from other Initial Coalescent sites that battles were fought there, although we have found no other massacres. This may mean that the villages got into a pattern of warfare and revenge that did not stop until nearly 100 years later.

1135 Henry I of England, the crown is passed to his nephew Stephen of Blois.

Births which occurred on a 01 December: ^top^
2001 Baby girl to Crown Princess Masako, 37*, and Prince Naruhito, 41, of Japan, at 14:43, to be named on 07 December by her grandfather the Emperor Akihito. [How about “Pearl” to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when her great-grandfather Hirohito was Emperor? In fact he would choose the name Aiko, written with the Chinese characters for “love” and “child”]. She will not become Empress unless (as expected) a simple majority of the Diet overturns the law requiring the monarch to be a male [and even so she will have to outlive her paternal grandfather and her father (as expected)]. [*Masako was born on 09 December 1963]
1956 Candide, Leonard Bernstein musical based on Voltaire, opens on Broadway.
1929 BINGO invented by Edwin S Lowe
1923 Stansfield Turner, would become CIA director.

1918 Royaume des Croates, Serbes et Slovènes -- Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, Kingdom of Balkan state is formed. Ruled by the Serbian Karadjordjevic dynasty, the new kingdom included the previously independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro and the South Slav territories in areas formerly subject to the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Dalmatia, Croatia-Slavonia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Vojvodina. In 1919 four small Bulgarian territories in the southeast, including Strumica, were ceded to the new state. -- En 1929, cet État deviendra la Yougoslavie (ex aujourd'hui). Son régent puis, depuis 19210816, roi (dictatorial depuis 19290106) Alexandre Ier sera assassiné à Marseille par un agent des séparatistes croates. Louis Barthou, ministre des Affaires étrangères qui l'accueillait, trouvera la mort dans le même attentat.(9 octobre 1934)

1917 Boys Town, founded by Father Edward Flanagan         ^top^
      The courts had assigned three boys to Father Flanagan's care, and this compassionate priest had two other homeless boys he was looking after as well. How was he, a poor priest, to care for them?
      Ed Flanagan found an old house in Omaha, Nebraska, which might shelter the boys for the winter. He borrowed $90 from a friend to pay the first month's rent that December in 1917. For dinner the first Christmas the boys had a barrel of sauerkraut donated by a friend. So began Boys Town, which today continues to care for poor, orphaned, or problem children.
      Father Flanagan believed there is no such thing as a boy beyond hope, and he strove to provide a home for the wayward youths where they could grow into the best men possible. He soon moved from the old house in Omaha to a large site outside town called Overlook Farm. The site expanded to hundreds of acres. Before his death in 1948, Father Flanagan travelled around the world spreading his ideas of how to deal with delinquent boys.
      In 1936 the community was renamed Boys Town and incorporated as a village. Welfare agencies and juvenile court judges recommend young men to Boys Town, which is supported entirely by voluntary contributions. Over 900 boys are cared for at Boys Town; girls too have been accepted. 8-10 youths stay in a home under the care of a married couple.
      A grade school and high school educate the children; many vocational courses and programs develop their skills and abilities for adulthood. Religion and moral instruction is based on the religious affiliation of the children.
      The problems of today's children differ from those first five boys Father Flanagan took in. Today's children often suffer sexual abuse, have been gang members, or have been on drugs. Many have learning disabilities. Some are simply sent by frustrated parents.
      Boys Town has established satellite homes in Florida, California, and Texas and is a consultant to other homes in 10 states. Boys Town has cared for multitudes of young people since that cold December in 1917 when Father Flanagan borrowed $90 from a friend.

1905 Charles Finney US, author (Circus of Dr Lao)
1904 W.A. “Tony” Boyle United Mine Workers president
1899 Robert Welch founded John Birch Society
1887 Sherlock Holmes first appears in print: A Study In Scarlet
1886 Rex Stout mystery writer (Nero Wolf), STOUT ONLINE: Under the Andes, Under the Andes.
1884 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, German Expressionist painter who died in August 1976. — more with links to images.
1884 Willy Moralt, German artist who died in 1947.
1879 Robert Spencer, US artist who died on 10 July 1931.
1869 Konstantin Andreyevitch Somov, Russian Symbolist painter and graphic artist who died on 06 May 1939. — MORE ON SOMOV AT ART “4” DECEMBER with links to images.
1863 Oliver Herford, American humorist and poet who wrote Cupid's Fair Weather Book and The Deb's Dictionary. — Illustrator of The Song of the Sandwich by Ella Wheeler Wilcox — and of Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.
1840 Marie-Louise-Victoria Dubourg (future Fantin-Latour), French artist who died on 30 September 1926. — more
1800 Mihaly Vorosmarty Hungary, poet/dramatist (“To a Day-Dreamer”)
1798 Albert Barnes, American Presbyterian clergyman and Bible commentator. An active supporter of revivalism, Christian education and social reform, Barnes is best remembered today for his Notes on the Old Testament and Notes on the New Testament. BARNES ONLINE: The Church and Slavery -- Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the Nineteenth Century -- Prayers For the Use of Families, Chiefly Selected from Various Authors, With a Preliminary Essay, Together with a Selection of Hymns.
1792 Nikolay Lobachevsky, mathematician.
1761 Marie Grosholtz (Madame Tussaud), in Strasbourg. From 1780 until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, she served as art tutor at Versailles to Louis XVI's sister, Madame Élisabeth, and she was later imprisoned as a royalist. During the Reign of Terror she had the gruesome responsibility of making death masks from heads--frequently those of her friends--freshly severed by the guillotine. She moved to England in 1802 and founded the famous Madame Tussaud's museum of wax figures. She died on 16 April 1850.
1751 Jean-François Huë, French painter who died on 26 December 1823. — more
1671 Keill, mathematician

Holidays Azores, Portugal : Independence Day (1640) / Cape Verde : Restoration Day (1968) / Central African Republic : Republic Day (1958) / Iceland : Independence Day (1918) / Liberia : Matilda Newport Day (1822) / Portuguese Guiana : Mocidale Day/Youth Day / Romania : National Day / World AIDS Day /

Religious Observances RC : St Eligius, bishop/goldsmith / RC : St Edmund Champion, English Jesuit, martyr / Ang : Nicholas Ferrar, deacon

Thoughts for the day : “Minds are like parachutes, they only work when open.”
“Keep an open mind, but don't let dirt blow in, and do control the exit.”
“I slam Islam” — [the state terrorism response to Muslim suicide bombers]

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