The Soufrière Hills volcano (otherwise nicknamed Montserrat) is an active complex stratovolcano with many lava domes forming its summit on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
After a long period of dormancy, seismic activity had occurred at the volcano for most of the 20th century, but 1995 was the first time an eruption had occurred. When pyroclastic […]

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The Tupolev Tu-144 was the first supersonic transport aircraft (SST), constructed under the direction of the Soviet Tupolev design bureau.
Western observers nicknamed the plane Concordski, sounding like a Russian surname yet still very close to the Concorde, to which the Tu-144 was visually similar. A prototype first flew on 31 December 1968 near Moscow, two […]

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Salyut 4 (DOS 4) was a Salyut space station launched on December 26, 1974 into an orbit with an apogee of 355 km, a perigee of 343 km and an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees.
It was essentially a copy of the DOS 3, and unlike its ill-fated sibling it was a complete success. Three crews […]

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The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 25, 1979.
The Soviet war in Afghanistan also known as the Soviet-Afghan War was a nine-year conflict involving Soviet forces supporting the Marxist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government against the largely Islamic fundamentalist Mujahideen insurgents. The latter group found support from […]

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The Stone of Scone, also commonly known as the Stone of Destiny or the Coronation Stone is an oblong block of red sandstone, about 26 inches by 16 inches by 10.5 inches in size and weighing approximately 336 pounds that traditionally sat in the Coronation Chair.
On Christmas Day 1950, a group of four Scottish students […]

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The Constitution of the Republic of China is currently the basic governing document for the areas controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), namely all of Taiwan Province, Taipei and Kaohsiung municipalities, and Kinmen county and part of Lienchiang county of Fukien (or Fuchien) Province.
The constitution itself was drafted before the fall of mainland China […]

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USS Pueblo (AGER-2), a Banner-class technical research ship (Navy intelligence) was boarded and captured by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) on 23 January 1968 in what is known as the Pueblo incident.
North Korea claims that she strayed into their territorial waters, but the United States maintains that the vessel was in international […]

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On December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first human beings to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes (as opposed to seeing it on a photograph).
After launching on December 21, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon. […]

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King Idris I, Emir of Cyrenaica, led Libyan resistance to Italian occupation. Between the two World Wars. From 1943 to 1951, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica were under British administration, while the French controlled Fezzan.
In 1944, Idris returned from exile in Cairo but declined to resume permanent residence in Cyrenaica until the removal of some aspects of […]

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The Model 76 Voyager was the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.
It was piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, who took off from Edwards Air Force Base’s 15,000 foot (4,600 m) runway in the Mojave Desert on December 14, 1986. Their flight ended successfully 9 days, 3 minutes and […]

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