What Happened on December 10th in History
30 historical events on this date
World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMSÂ Prince of Wales and HMSÂ Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: Battle of the Philippines: Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on Luzon.
The Philippines campaign, also known as the Battle of the Philippines or the Fall of the Philippines, was the invasion of the Philippines by the Empire of Japan during the Pacific War and World War...
World War II: Government of Poland in exile send RaczyĆski's Note (the first official report on the Holocaust) to 26 governments who signed the Declaration by United Nations.
The Polish government-in-exile was formed in the aftermath of the September 1939 invasion and subsequent occupation of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Slovak Republic, which brought to...
The Human Rights Convention is signed by the United Nations.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human...
Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermittently from 1...
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It...
Zanzibar gains independence from the United Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy, under Sultan Jamshid bin Abdullah.
Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small islands and two large ones: Unguja and Pemba Island. The capital is...
An assassination attempt on the British High Commissioner in Aden kills two people and wounds dozens more.
The 1963 Aden airport attack was an incident which saw the beginning of the Aden Emergency. Arab nationalists of the NLF made a grenade attack against the British High Commissioner, Sir Kennedy...
Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
The 300 million yen robbery , also known as the 300 million yen affair or 300 million yen incident, was an armed robbery that took place in Tokyo, Japan, on December 10, 1968. A man posing as a...
ArabâIsraeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since the declaration of Israel's establishment in 1948, conflict has existed between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries, rooted in conflict over territory also claimed by Palestinian Arabs....
Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.
The Kaohsiung Incident, also known as the Formosa Incident, the Meilidao Incident, or the Formosa Magazine incident, was a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations that occurred in Kaohsiung,...
Democracy is restored in Argentina with the inauguration of President RaĂșl AlfonsĂn.
Democracy is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitive...
United Nations General Assembly recognizes the Convention against Torture.
The United Nations General Assembly is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its 80th...
Mongolian Revolution: At the country's first open pro-democracy public demonstration, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of the Mongolian Democratic Union.
The Mongolian Revolution of 1990, known in Mongolia as the 1990 Democratic Revolution, was a peaceful democratic revolution that led to the country's transition to a multi-party system. It was...
The Nagorno-Karabakh independence referendum is held, with 99.98% voting in favor of independence.
An independence referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh on 10 December 1991. It was approved by 99.98% of voters.
Nursultan Nazarbayev is sworn in as the 1st President of Kazakhstan.
Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev is a Kazakh politician who served as the first president of Kazakhstan from 1991 to 2019. He also held the special title of Elbasy from 2010 to 2022 and chairman of the...
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic is renamed into the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, KSSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991....
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan establishes the Marriage Fund in the United Arab Emirates in response to rising wedding prices.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was an Emirati politician, philanthropist, and the founding father of the United Arab Emirates. Zayed served as the governor of Eastern Region from 1946 until he...
The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
Monkwearmouth Colliery was a major North Sea coal mine on the north bank of the River Wear in Sunderland, England, United Kingdom. It was the largest mine in the world and one of the most important...
Rwandan genocide: Maurice Baril, military advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, recommends that UNAMIR stand down.
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the Tutsi genocide, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well...
The Israeli army withdraws from Nablus pursuant to the terms of Oslo Accord.
The Israeli Ground Forces are the army of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The current commander of the ground forces is Major General Nadav Lotan.
The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela.
The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the human rights and duties of...
Helen Clark is sworn in as Prime Minister of New Zealand, the second woman to hold the post and the first following an election.
Helen Elizabeth Clark is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from...
Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 crashes at Port Harcourt International Airport in Nigeria, killing 108 people.
Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 (SO1145/OSL1145) was a scheduled Nigerian domestic passenger flight from Nigeria's capital of Abuja (ABV) to Port Harcourt (PHC). At approximately 14:08 local time on...
Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein is killed after the suppression of a demonstration by Israeli forces in the village (Turmus'ayya) in Ramallah.
Ziad Abu Ein, also spelled Ziad Abu Ain, was a Palestinian politician. He was a member of the Fatah political party, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and a senior minister in the Palestinian...
Rojava conflict: The Syrian Democratic Council is established in DĂȘrik, forming the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria.
The Rojava Revolution, also known as the Rojava conflict is a political upheaval and military conflict taking place in northern Syria, known among Kurds as Western Kurdistan or Rojava.
Two explosions outside a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, kill 38 people and injure 166 others.
On the evening of 10 December 2016, two explosions caused by a car bombing and suicide bombing in Istanbul's BeĆiktaĆ municipality killed 48 people and injured 166 others. 39 of those killed were...
ISIL is defeated in Iraq.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist...
The Ostrava hospital attack in the Czech Republic results in eight deaths, including the perpetrator.
The Ostrava hospital shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on 10 December 2019 at the Ostrava University Hospital in Ostrava, Czech Republic. A total of seven people were killed in the attack,...
A widespread, deadly, and violent tornado outbreak slams the Central, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States. Eighty-nine people are killed by the tornadoes, with most of the fatalities occurring in Kentucky, where a single tornado kills 57 people, and injures hundreds of others. Another tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois strikes an Amazon warehouse, killing six workers.
A deadly late-season tornado outbreak, the deadliest on record in December, produced catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across portions of the Southern United States and Ohio Valley from...