Scott Allsop's Blog, page 122

31st December 1935: Monopoly board game patented by Charles Darrow although it wasn’t his idea

Although the patent for the game was awarded to Darrow, it is now widely recognised that he was just one of many people who developed the complex design and rules that we now know as ...

30th December 1993: Israel and the Vatican City begin diplomatic relations

Relations between Catholicism and Judaism cover a long, complex and violent history in which Christians revered the Jewish scriptures yet held Jews collectively responsible for the crucifixion of ...

29th December 1170: Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in front of the altar of Canterbury Cathedral

The murder of Thomas Becket was recorded in a later history by the monk Edward Grim who claimed that the fatal blow split Becket’s skull as he knelt in front of the ...

28th December 1972: Kim Il-sung becomes the first President of North Korea

Kim Il-sung was already the country’s Prime Minister and the First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, and four years after his death in 1994 he was made Eternal President of the ...

27th December 1929: Stalin calls for the ‘liquidation of the kulaks as a class’

The Soviet dekulakisation campaign began when Joseph Stalin announced the ‘liquidation of the kulaks as a ...

26th December 1973: Horror film The Exorcist first released in cinemas

The Exorcist is one of the highest-grossing films of all time, but originally opened in just twenty-six American ...

25th December 1066: William of Normandy, known as William the Conqueror, crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey

After Edward the Confessor and Harold Godwinson, William became the third person to wear the crown of England that ...

24th December 1826: The Eggnog Riot broke out at West Point Military Academy, New York

Cadets sought to continue the annual tradition of drinking homemade eggnog on Christmas ...

23rd December 1823: The poem A Visit from St Nicholas, better known as The Night Before Christmas, published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel

The poem is significant for being the first source to give the names of Santa’s reindeer, as well as establishing the image of the jolly fat Santa that we know ...

22nd December 1989: Romanian Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu overthrown

Following his overthrow, Ceausescu and his wife were subjected to a show trial on Christmas Day and found guilty of crimes including genocide and illegally gathering wealth before being ...