On This Day

What Happened on December 22 in History

9 events that happened on December 22, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.

The Young Republic and the Civil War Era

1808
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony received its world premiere in Vienna.
The work was heard more than two hours into a four-hour concert at the Theater an der Wien, in a freezing hall and played by an underprepared orchestra. The same program also premiered his Sixth Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto.
Source: history.com
1847
Congressman Abraham Lincoln introduced his Spot Resolutions challenging the Mexican War.
The freshman Whig from Illinois demanded to know whether the spot where American blood was first shed was really U.S. soil. The resolutions were never acted on by the full Congress and earned him the mocking nickname Spotty Lincoln from one Illinois newspaper.
Source: archives.gov

1937
The Lincoln Tunnel opened to traffic under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan.
The first tube linked Weehawken, New Jersey, with midtown Manhattan and carried one lane of traffic in each direction. A north tube followed in 1945 and a south tube in 1957.
Source: baruch.cuny.edu
1941
Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for wartime strategy talks with Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The meetings, known as the Arcadia Conference, came two weeks after Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war. The two leaders set up a combined staff to coordinate strategy against Germany and Japan and agreed to sharply raise American arms production.
Source: history.com

1956
Colo, the first gorilla born in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio.
The western lowland gorilla weighed about 4 pounds, and her name combined Columbus and Ohio. Until then, zoo gorillas had been captured in the wild, often after hunters killed their families.
Source: history.com
1964
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird spy plane made its first flight from Palmdale, California.
The flight took off from U.S. Air Force Plant 42, which today hosts Blackbird Airpark, a public annex of the Air Force Flight Test Museum. The plane became one of the best known spy aircraft of the Cold War.
Source: edwards.af.mil

1993
Philadelphia, the first major Hollywood film about AIDS, opened in theaters.
Tom Hanks played a gay lawyer fired from his firm because he had AIDS, and Denzel Washington played the attorney who took his case. Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role.
Source: history.com
2001
Passengers and crew subdued Richard Reid as he tried to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes on a transatlantic flight.
Reid, a British Al Qaeda member, tried to light the bombs aboard American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. The plane diverted to Boston, where he was arrested, and the attempt led to shoe screening at airports.
Source: history.com
2010
President Barack Obama signed the repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.
The policy had barred gay, lesbian and bisexual service members from serving openly. Its repeal allowed them to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces.
Source: millercenter.org