History of the Day for:
December 1
- 1821: The Dominican Republic declared independence from Spain.
- 1835: Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.
- 1843: The first chartered mutual life insurance company opened for business.
- 1878: The first telephone was installed in the White House.
- 1887: Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance in print in "A Study In Scarlet."
- 1891: In an effort to create an indoor sport for winter physical education, James Naismith nailed two peach buckets up on opposite ends of a gym and instructed his students to toss soccer balls into them, thus creating the game of basketball.
- 1903: "The Great Train Robbery," the first Western film, was released.
- 1906: The Cinema Omnia Pathe, the world's first purpose-built cinema, opened in Paris.
- 1913: The continuous moving assembly line was introduced by Ford.
- 1913: The first drive-in automobile service station opened in Pittsburgh.
- 1917: Boys Town was founded by Father Edward Flanagan west of Omaha, Neb.
- 1918: The Danish parliament passed an act to grant Iceland independence as a sovereign state.
- 1919: Lady Nancy Astor became the first woman member to take her seat in the British House of Commons.
- 1929: The game of Bingo was invented by Edwin S. Lowe.
- 1930: NHL dropped its 20 minute slashing-about-the-head penalty.
- 1941: Japanese emperor Hirohito signed a declaration of war.
- 1955: Rosa Parks, a black woman from Montgomery, Ala., was arrested when she refused to give up her seat in the front section of a bus so that a white man might be seated.
- 1957: Sam Cooke and Buddy Holly and the Crickets made their debuts on the Ed Sullivan Show.
- 1959: The first color photograph of Earth was received from outer space.
- 1969: The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.
- 1976: The Sex Pistols first attracted nationwide notoriety with their appearance on early evening television during which they used profanity. The press branded the band "rotten punks," making them the symbol for "punk rock."
- 1976: Angola was admitted to the United Nations.
- 1982: Michael Jackson's album "Thriller" was released and went on to become the best-selling album in history, with over 40 million copies sold worldwide.
- 1988: Benazir Bhutto became the first woman elected to govern a Muslim nation when acting President Ghulam Ishaq Khan nominated her to be prime minister of Pakistan.
- 1989: Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to visit the Vatican and meet the Pope. This meeting ended 72 years of Kremlin atheist ideology.
- 1992: Amy Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
- 1998: Exxon announces a $73.7 billion USD deal to buy Mobil, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the world's largest company.
- 2001: Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA’s purchase by American Airlines.
- 2006: Mexican President Felipe Calderon declares war on Drug traffickers in the ongoing Mexican Drug War.