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23rd December

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1986: Voyager completes global flight


Piloted by Americans Richard Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the experimental plane Voyager circles the globe in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds. The Voyager, made mostly of plastic, was essentially a flying gas tank with a capacity of 1,500 gallons; its weight decreased by 80 percent as the fuel was consumed. On 23rd December 1986, Voyager became the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe without refuelling when it returned to its starting point at Edwards Air Force Base in California after travelling over 25,000 miles.


2005

Lech Kaczynski is sworn in as President of Poland.

1992

In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II annual Christmas speech is published in the Sun newspaper two days before she is due to address the nation.

1990

In the Balkans, Slovenia votes overwhelmingly in favour of secession from Yugoslavia.

1986

The Soviet Union’s most prominent dissident Andrei Sakharov returns to Moscow and vows to continue the struggle for human rights in the country following the end of his internal exile in the city of Gorky.

1972

Approximately 10,000 are killed after an earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua.

1968

The crew and captain of the U.S. intelligence gathering ship Pueblo are released after 11 months imprisonment by the government of North Korea.

1956

Egyptians celebrate following the withdrawal of British and French troops from Egypt the previous day bringing to an end their disastrous attempt to take control of the Suez Canal.

1948

Japan’s former premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese Second World War leaders are executed in Tokyo after being found guilty of war crimes.

1916

The First World War: Allied troops defeat the Turkish at the Battle of Magdhaba in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt.

1913

President Woodrow Wilson passes the Federal Reserve Act which creates the Federal Reserve System, and the central bank of the U.S.A.

1912

In America, Keystone Pictures releases its first “Keystone Kop” movie, ‘Hoffmeye’'s Release’.

1888

Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh cuts off part of his own right ear, apparently in remorse for threatening his friend, the French painter Paul Gauguin, with a razor during a quarrel.

1783

Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, General George Washington resigns as commander in chief of the Continental Army in America.

1620

One week after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth harbour in present-day Massachusetts, U.S.A. construction of the first permanent European settlement in New England begins.

619

Boniface V becomes Pope.

1933

Japanese Emperor Akihito

1918

Former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

1888

English film magnate J.Arthur Rank.

1732

English inventor Richard Arkwright.

1863

English novelist William Makepeace Thackery, aged 52