Historical Events
Eureka Stockade
Dec 3 Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences
Charge of the Light Brigade
Dec 9 Alfred Tennyson's poem "Charge of the Light Brigade" is published in "The Examiner"
The Childhood of Christ
Dec 10 Hector Berlioz premieres his oratorio "L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ)", conducting musicians and soloists from the Opéra-Comique, at the Salle Herz, Paris
- Dec 15 1st street-cleaning machine in the US used in Philadelphia
- Dec 19 Allen Wilson of Conn patents sewing machine to sew curving seams
- Dec 26 Treaty of Medicine Creek signed by Nisqually, Puyallup and Coast Salish peoples with Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, giving up 2.5 million acres to preserve fishing and gathering rights [1]
- Dec 26 Wood-pulp paper 1st exhibited, Buffalo
- Dec 30 Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co, 1st in US, incorporated in NYC
Famous Birthdays
- Dec 3 William Milton, British cricket all-rounder (3 Tests South Africa, 2 wickets) and rugby union centre (2 Tests England), born in Little Marlow, England (d. 1930)
- Dec 9 P. J. Hannikainen, Finnish composer, born in Nurmes, Finland (d. 1924)
- Dec 23 Henry B. Guppy, British botanist who studied in the Pacific, born in Falmouth, England (d. 1926)
