4th December anniversaries

• Birth
  • 1835
  • Great Britain
  • "Birth of Samuel Butler, writer" more
  • 1908
  • United States
  • "Birth of Alfred Hershey, American bacteriologist, Nobel Prize winner ."
• event
  • 1154
  • Great Britain
  • "Nicholas Breakspear becomes Pope Adrian IV, the only English Pope." more
  • 1259
  • France
  • "Treaty of Paris between Henry III and Louis IX of France – Henry agreed to renounce control of Normandy (except for the Channel Islands), Maine, Anjou and Poitou, which had been lost under the reign of King John. He was able to keep Gascony and parts of A"
  • 1619
  • Colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas)
  • 1639
  • Jeremiah Horrocks makes the first observation of a transit of Venus
  • 1791
  • First publication of The Observer – world's oldest Sunday newspaper
  • 1808
  • Napoleon Bonaparte abolished the Spanish Inquisition .
  • 1872
  • American ship Mary Celeste is found abandoned by the British brig Dei Gratia in the Atlantic Ocean – the ship was unmanned but under full sail – she was recovered and used again for another 12 years or so
  • 1937
  • The Dandy first published
  • 1952
  • Great smog hits London
  • 1957
  • Lewisham rail disaster – 90 killed as two trains collide in thick fog and a viaduct collapses on top of them
  • 1958
  • Dahomey (now Benin) became a self-governing country within the French Community.
  • 1961
  • Great Britain
  • The 'pill' becomes available on the NHS
  • 1969
  • "American surfer Greg Noll (Da Bull) rode a 65-foot (19.8m) wave at Makaha, Oahu, Hawaii thought to be the biggest wave ever surfed"
  • 1969
  • "Two members of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, were shot and killed during a police raid in Chicago"
  • 1996
  • "The Guatemalan government signed a peace agreement with rebel leaders, ending the 35-year civil war "
• Death
  • 1609
  • "Death of Alexander Hume, Scottish religious poet"
  • 1933
  • "Death of Stefan George, German poet ."
  • 1976
  • "Death of Benjamin Britten, British composer"
  • 1993
  • "Death of Frank Zappa, American rock musician and composer ."