Japanese bombers attack Pearl Harbor. (1941) The attack on the US naval base, known as “Operation Z” in Japan, was the catalyst that led to the United States entering World War II.
Delaware ratified the US constitution, making it the first official state of the United States. (1787) Delaware was the first of the original 13 American colonies to ratify the constitution, and retains the state nickname of “The First State”.
The microwave oven was patented. (1945) The first item to be intentionally cooked in a microwave was popcorn — though microwave power had been accidentally discovered when a microwave device melted a chocolate bar in an unsuspecting engineer’s pocket. The first commercial microwave was produced nine years later and sold for $2,000 USD.
Chiang Kai-Shek, the leader of the Republic of China, fled to Taipei with his government. (1949) People from the Republic of China had been moving to Taiwan after Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China in October of that year. Evacuation of the people, however, basically finished with Chiang’s move on the 7th.
Pope Paul VI and orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I restored relations between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. (1965) In a mutual declaration, the religious leaders rescinded the mutual excommunication that their predecessors had issued when the Roman Catholic church and the Greek Orthodox church split in the Great Schism in 1054.
Instant replay was used for the first time in a live broadcast. (1963) CBS was the first network to use “video replay” during their live broadcast of the Army-Navy college football game.
The Copenhagen Summit began. (2009) The United Nations Climate Change Conference led to the signing of the Copenhagen Accord by the US, China, Brazil, South Africa and India. Th Copenhagen Accord put a renewed emphasis on the importance of environmental protection, and was intended to be a counterpart to the Kyoto Protocol in fighting global warming.
The Columbia 21 space shuttle landed safely after spending 18 days in space. (1996) The landing of the Columbia 21 was delayed for three days because of bad weather, leading to fears that the astronauts would run out of fuel and supplies before they could make their landing. The delayed landing made the Columbia’s mission the longest of any of the space shuttle missions.
IBM sold its PC division to the Chinese company Lenovo. (2004) This made IBM-Lenovo the world’s third largest PC business. The deal was valued at almost $2 billion US Dollars (USD).
Eugene Corri became the first referee to officiate in the boxing ring. (1907) The fight took place at London’s National Sporting Club, and featured Canadian-born Tommy Burns who went on to beat the British Gunner Moir.