1269 – The present church building at Westminster Abbey was consecrated.

1307 – Hundreds of the Knights Templar in France were arrested at dawn by King Philip the Fair.  They later confessed under torture to heresy.

1773 – The Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered by astronomer Charles Messier.

1775 – The Continental Congress established the Continental Navy (predecessor of the United States Navy).

1792 – In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) was laid.

1792 – “Old Farmer’s Almanac” was first published.

1860 – First aerial photo was taken in US (from a balloon) of Boston.

1892 – Edward Emerson Barnard discovered the first comet discovered by photographic means.

1908 – Margaret Travers Symons burst into the UK parliament and became the first woman to speak there.

1962 – The Pacific Northwest experienced a cyclone the equal of a Category 3 hurricane, with winds above 150 mph. Forty-six people died.

1963 – The term “Beatlemania” was coined after the Beatles appeared at the Palladium.

1966 – Jimi Hendrix Experience debuted with American guitarist Jimi Hendrix, British bassist Noel Redding & British drummer Mitch Mitchell in Évreux, Normandy, France.

1972 – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes mountains. Twenty-eight survived the crash. All but 16 succumbed before being rescue on December 23.

1975 – Rock vocalist Neil Young underwent throat surgery.

1976 – The first electron micrograph of an Ebola virus was taken at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by Dr. F. A. Murphy.

1978 – US President Jimmy Carter answered callers’ questions on National Public Radio.

1978 – “52nd Street”, the 6th studio album by Billy Joel, was released (Grammy Award Album of the Year 1979).

1983 – Ameritech Mobile Communications launched the first US cellular network in Chicago.

1988 – The Shroud of Turin, revered by many Christians as Christ’s burial cloth, was shown by carbon-dating tests to be a fake from the Middle Ages.

1997 – Andy Green’s Jet-powered car reached a record 749.69 MPH.

2016 – American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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