Abdication of King Edward VIII
Edward VIII, failing to win acceptance for his desire to marry American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson, became the only British sovereign to voluntarily resign the crown, his abdication formally approved this day in 1936.

U.S. Supreme Court decision on the presidential election
On this day in 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively awarded the presidency to George W. Bush, ruling that a fair recount of ballots in Florida could not be performed by the deadline for certifying the state's electors.

New Zealand sighted
On this day in 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sighted South Island, New Zealand, and later, mistaking the strait north of the island for a bay, believed he had found the west coast of a hypothetical southern continent.

Roald Amundsen's arrival at the South Pole
One of the greatest figures in the history of polar exploration was Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who left Norway for Antarctica in June 1910 and on this day in 1911 became the first person to reach the South Pole.

Premiere of Gone with the Wind
Starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, the film Gone with the Wind—a romantic tale of the American South during the Civil War adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell—premiered this day in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1939.

Boston Tea Party
On this day in 1773, in what is known as the Boston Tea Party, American colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians threw 342 chests of tea belonging to the British East India Company into Boston Harbor to protest a tax on tea

Flight of the Wright brothers
On this day in 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful sustained flights in an airplane—Orville first, gliding 120 feet (36.6 metres) through the air in 12 seconds.

Slavery abolished in the United States
On this day in 1865, by proclamation of the U.S. secretary of state, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing slavery, officially entered into force, having been ratified by the requisite states on December 6.

Articles of impeachment approved against U.S. President Bill Clinton
On this day in 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice, though Clinton was acquitted by the Senate the following month.

Macau made an administrative region of China
On this day in 1999, 12 years after an agreement was reached between China and Portugal, several centuries of Portuguese rule ended in Macau when it became a special administrative region under Chinese sovereignty.

Radium discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie
On this day in 1898, having recently discovered polonium, future Nobel Prize winners Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive chemical element radium, a silvery white metal that would be used to treat cancer.

Alfred Dreyfus sentenced to life in prison
On this day in 1894, on the basis of specious evidence and anti-Semitism, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was sentenced to life in prison for treason, sparking a controversy that divided France for 12 years.

Treaty of Ghent
On this day in 1814, the United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium, ending the War of 1812, marking a decline of American dependence on Europe, and stimulating a sense of U.S. nationalism.

Christmas celebrated worldwide
Though the precise origin of the date is unclear, Christmas, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, is celebrated on this day, having been first identified as the date of Jesus' birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221.

Indian Ocean tsunami
On this day in 2004, a large earthquake shook the Indian Ocean floor west of the island of Sumatra, triggering a devastating tsunami that swamped coastal areas from Thailand to Africa and killed more than 200,000 people.