1915 – The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres. The Second Battle of Ypres was the first mass use by Germany of poison gas on the Western Front. It also marked the first time that a previous colonial force (the First Canadian Division) had defeated a European power (the German Empire) in Europe.
1930 – The United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States sign the Treaty of London, which regulates naval warfare and restricts the construction of warships. Ratifications were exchanged in London on October 27, 1930, and the treaty entered into force on the same day. This Treaty was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on 6 February 1931.
1937 – Jack Nicholson is born in New Jersey. Nicholson, is an American actor and director, whose career spanned more than 60 years. He is known for playing a wide range of supporting roles, including comedy, romance, and dark comic portraits of anti-heroes and evil characters. Some of his films are, The Shinning, Batman, Wolf, The Departed, A Few Goodmen, etc.
1948 – During the Arab-Israeli War, Haifa, Israel’s largest port, is taken over by Arab forces. The Battle of Haifa, also known as Operation Haganah, was a major event in the final stages of the Palestinian civil war that led to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The objective of the operation was to capture Haifa’s Arab neighborhoods. Hundreds of Israeli and Arab troops were killed in the battle.
1977 – Optical fiber is first used for direct telephone communication. Optical fibers are most often used as a means of transmitting light between two ends of a fiber and to find widespread use in fiber optic communications. They allow transmission over longer distances and in bandwidth (data rates) than electric cables.
1983 – German magazine Stern claims that “Hitler’s Diaries” were found in rubbish in East Germany. The diaries were later discovered to be counterfeit. Hitler’s diaries were a 60-volume series of magazines properly written by Adolf Hitler, but falsified by Konrad Kujau in 1981-83. Diaries were purchased in 1983 for 10 million marks by the German news magazine Stern.
1994 – Richard Nixon dies at the age of 81. Nixon, was the 37th president of the United States, who served from 1969 to 1974. After five years at the White House he signed the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, friendship with the USSR and China, and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon became the only president to resign.
2016 – The Paris Agreement is officially signed, an agreement to help fight global warming. The language of the agreement was negotiated by representatives of 196 states at the 21st Conference of UNFCCC Parties in Le Bourget, near Paris, France, and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015. The only states that have not signed these agreements, are Turkey and Iran.
