* 1782 – The Montgolfier brothers’ first balloon lifts on its first test flight.
* 1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
* 1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
December 15
* 1891 – James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.
December 16
* 1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
December 17
* 1770 – The Baptism of Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer, is recorded. This is the closest record of his birth.
December 18
* 1620 – The Mayflower lands in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts with 102 Pilgrims on board.
* 1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Mesa Verde.
* 1966 – Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
December 19
* 1776 – Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in the Pennsylvania Journal titled The American Crisis.
December 20
* 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
* All facts in this section are taken from Wikipedia.org under the article name corresponding with the date. For example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1.
More history fun: Stacy at Stacy's Random Thoughts wrote an interesting post about St. Lucia's Day, December 13th.
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