12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for December 1, 2025
Today’s History:
- 800 – Charlemagne convenes a council at Rome to judge charges against Pope Leo III, a key step toward his later coronation as Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1640 – The Portuguese Restoration War begins as John IV is acclaimed king, ending the Iberian Union and restoring Portugal’s independence from Spain.
- 1913 – Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line for mass-producing entire automobiles, slashing Model T build time from over 12 hours to about 90 minutes.
- 1918 – The Great Union of Transylvania with Romania is proclaimed at Alba Iulia; modern Romania later adopts 1 December as its national day, Great Union Day.
- 1919 – Lady Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to take her seat in the British House of Commons, representing Plymouth Sutton.
- 1955 – Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott and galvanizing the civil rights movement.
- 1958 – A fire at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago kills nearly 100 students and staff, prompting major changes in U.S. school fire codes.
- 1959 – The Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature in Washington, D.C., setting aside Antarctica for peaceful purposes and scientific research.
- 1969 – The United States holds its first draft lottery since World War II to determine the order of conscription for the Vietnam War.
- 1988 – World AIDS Day is observed for the first time, launching an annual global campaign to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.
- 1990 – British and French tunneling crews break through in the Channel Tunnel 132 feet beneath the English Channel, physically linking the U.K. with mainland Europe.
- 1991 – Ukrainians vote overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union in a national referendum, confirming the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1939 – Lee Trevino, American professional golfer and six-time major champion, regarded as one of the greatest players in golf history (86).
- 1945 – Bette Midler, American singer, actress, and comedian known for her powerhouse vocals and roles in films like The Rose and Hocus Pocus (80).
- 1957 – Deep Roy, Kenyan-British actor, stuntman, and puppeteer best known for playing all the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and roles in Star Trek and Doctor Who (68).
- 1958 – Charlene Tilton, American actress and singer best known as Lucy Ewing on the TV series Dallas (67).
- 1970 – Sarah Silverman, American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer known for her edgy, subversive humor and projects like The Sarah Silverman Program and her Netflix specials (55).
- 1985 – Janelle Monáe, American singer, songwriter, and actress celebrated for genre-blending albums such as The ArchAndroid and Dirty Computer and roles in films like Hidden Figures (40).
- 1988 – Zoë Kravitz, American actress, singer, and filmmaker known for roles in Big Little Lies, Mad Max: Fury Road, and as Catwoman in The Batman (37).
Today’s Deaths:
- 1135 – Henry I of England, king whose reign strengthened royal justice and who died after a hunting trip in Normandy.
- 1947 – Aleister Crowley, British occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer, influential in modern esotericism and founder of Thelema.
- 1973 – David Ben-Gurion, Polish-born Zionist statesman and founding prime minister of Israel, who proclaimed the state’s independence in 1948 (b. 1886).
- 1987 – James Baldwin, American novelist, essayist, and social critic whose works like Go Tell It on the Mountain and The Fire Next Time explored race, sexuality, and identity (b. 1924).
- 1989 – Alvin Ailey, American dancer and choreographer, founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, renowned for works celebrating African American cultural expression (b. 1931).
- 2005 – Gaylord Perry, American Hall of Fame pitcher noted for his longevity, mastery of the spitball’s mystique, and 300-plus career wins in Major League Baseball (b. 1938).
- 2023 – Sandra Day O’Connor, American jurist who became the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, appointed in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan (b. 1930).
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