• Readsy

On this day

Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashes in Aktau, Kazakhstan, killing 38 of its occupants.

2024

view article

The James Webb Space Telescope is launched.

2021

view article

An explosion in Nashville, Tennessee, occurs, leaving three civilians in the hospital.

2020

view article

Twenty people are killed and thousands are left homeless by Typhoon Phanfone in the Philippines.

2019

view article

A Russian Defence Ministry Tupolev Tu-154 carrying members of the Alexandrov Ensemble crashes into the Black Sea shortly after takeoff, killing all 92 people on board.

2016

view article

An Antonov An-72 plane crashes close to the city of Shymkent, killing 27 people.

2012

view article

Air Bagan Flight 011, a Fokker 100, crashes on approach to Heho Airport in Heho, Myanmar, killing two people.

2012

view article

A Siberian tiger named Tatania escapes her exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo and attacks three people, killing one and injuring two more.

2007

view article

The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.

2004

view article

UTA Flight 141, a Boeing 727-223, crashes at the Cotonou Airport in Benin, killing 141 people.

2003

view article

The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.

2003

view article

Cubana de Aviación Flight 310, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashes near Bejuma, Carabobo State, Venezuela, killing 22 people.

1999

view article

The body of American child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found in her family's Boulder, Colorado, home. Her murder remains unsolved.

1996

view article

Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.

1991

view article

Romanian Revolution: Deposed President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, are condemned to death and executed after a summary trial.

1989

view article

Iraqi Airways Flight 163, a Boeing 737-270C, is hijacked and crashes in Arar, Saudi Arabia, killing 63 people.

1986

view article

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat.

1977

view article

EgyptAir Flight 864, a Boeing 707-366C, crashes on approach to Don Mueang International Airport, killing 71 people.

1976

view article

Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.

1968

view article

Kilvenmani massacre: Forty-four Dalits (untouchables) are burnt to death in Kizhavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit laborers.

1968

view article

Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.

1963

view article

The Soviet Union conducts its final above-ground nuclear weapon test, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

1962

view article

A bomb explodes at the home of Harry T. Moore and Harriette V. S. Moore, early leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, killing Harry instantly and fatally wounding Harriette.

1951

view article

The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.

1950

view article

The first European self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within the Soviet Union's F-1 nuclear reactor.

1946

view article

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, appointed commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet on December 17, arrives at Pearl Harbor.

1941

view article

World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

1941

view article

Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which become the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.

1941

view article

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills 275 people.

1932

view article

B. R. Ambedkar and his followers burn copies of the Manusmriti in Mahad, Maharashtra, to protest its treatment of Dalit people.

1927

view article

The National Protection War breaks out against the Empire of China, as military leaders Cai E and Tang Jiyao proclaim the independence of Yunnan and begin a campaign to restore the Republic.

1915

view article

World War I: A series of unofficial truces occur across the Western Front to celebrate Christmas.

1914

view article

Wagner's Siegfried Idyll is first performed.

1870

view article

Pardons for ex-Confederates: United States President Andrew Johnson grants an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans.

1868

view article

Second Seminole War: American general Zachary Taylor leads 1,100 troops against the Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee.

1837

view article

The Great Jamaican Slave Revolt begins; up to 20% of Jamaica's slaves mobilize in an ultimately unsuccessful fight for freedom.

1831

view article

The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.

1826

view article

The Handel and Haydn Society, oldest continually performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance.

1815

view article

Rev. Samuel Marsden holds the first Christian service on land in New Zealand at Rangihoua Bay.

1814

view article

Dr. Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy, removing a 22-pound tumor.

1809

view article

Northwest Indian War: General "Mad Anthony" Wayne and a 300 man detachment identify the site of St. Clair's 1791 defeat by the large number of unburied human remains at modern Fort Recovery, Ohio.

1793

view article

American Revolutionary War: General George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.

1776

view article

Mapuches in Chile launch a series of surprise attacks against the Spanish starting the Mapuche uprising of 1766.

1766

view article

Halley's Comet is sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch, confirming Edmund Halley's prediction of its passage. This was the first passage of a comet predicted ahead of time.

1758

view article

J. S. Bach leads the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing.

1725

view article

J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ, BWV 91, in Leipzig, based on Luther's 1524 Christmas hymn.

1724

view article

Pope Pius IV is elected, four months after his predecessor's death.

1559

view article

Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.

1553

view article

The carrack Santa María, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off Haiti due to an improper watch.

1492

view article

Eleven-year-old John IV Laskaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaiologos.

1261

view article

Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first king of Sicily.

1130

view article

Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

1100

view article

Coronation of Bolesław II the Generous as king of Poland.

1076

view article

William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

1066

view article

Henry III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement II.

1046

view article

Coronation of Mieszko II Lambert as king of Poland.

1025

view article

Sweyn Forkbeard takes control of the Danelaw and is proclaimed king of England.

1013

view article

The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.

1000

view article

Eastern Emperor Leo V is murdered in a church of the Great Palace of Constantinople by followers of Michael II.

820

view article

The coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

800

view article

Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow-labourers baptise in Kent more than 10,000 Anglo-Saxons.

597

view article

Clovis I, king of the Franks, is baptized into the Catholic faith at Reims, by Saint Remigius.

508

view article

Vetranio meets Constantius II at Naissus (Serbia) and is forced to abdicate his imperial title. Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen on a state pension.

350

view article

First documented sign of Christmas celebration in Rome.

336

view article

Roman Emperor Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.

333

view article

A temple to Sol Invictus is dedicated in Rome by Emperor Aurelian.

274

view article

Forces of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han, under the command of Wu Han, conquer the separatist Chengjia empire, reuniting China.

36

view article

Top Stories from Hacker News

Fabrice Bellard: Biography (2009) [pdf]

317 points

98 comments

discussionsource

Using Vectorize to build an unreasonably good search engine in 160 lines of code

PartyKit now includes a vector database and access to an embedding model. Here’s a guide on how to use them to build a search engine.

107 points

29 comments

discussionsource

Ruby 4.0.0

We are pleased to announce the release of Ruby 4.0.0.Ruby 4.0 introduces “Ruby Box” and “ZJIT”, and adds many improvements.,We are pleased to announce the release of Ruby 4.0.0.Ruby 4.0 introduces “Ruby Box” and “ZJIT”, and adds many improvements.

548 points

106 comments

discussionsource

CSRF protection without tokens or hidden form fields

miguelgrinberg.com

261 points

93 comments

discussionsource

Research team digitizes more than 100 years of Canadian infectious disease data

The new, publicly accessible database contains more than a million infectious disease incidence counts dating back to 1903.

140 points

6 comments

discussionsource

Phoenix: A modern X server written from scratch in Zig

552 points

306 comments

discussionsource

Free Software Foundation receives historic private donations

185 points

25 comments

discussionsource

The next-gen mainboard designed with amigaos4 and morphos in mind

67 points

13 comments

discussionsource

The dawn of a world simulator

A causal, multimodal system that learns to predict the world.

73 points

45 comments

discussionsource

Prototaxites

Welcome to Astrobiology.com,Prototaxites was the first giant organism to live on the terrestrial surface, reaching sizes of 8 metres in the Early Devonian

62 points

10 comments

discussionsource

JEDEC developing reduced pin count HBM4 standard to enable higher capacity

JEDEC is developing a way to increase overall HBM capacity with longer channel distances to enable more HBM stacks per GPU.

58 points

11 comments

discussionsource

Show HN: Exploring Mathematics with Python

184 points

19 comments

discussionsource

Show HN: Minimalist editor that lives in browser, stores everything in the URL

A notes webapp. Contribute to antonmedv/textarea development by creating an account on GitHub.

395 points

137 comments

discussionsource

Fabrice Bellard Releases MicroQuickJS

Public repository of the Micro QuickJS Javascript Engine - mquickjs/README.md at main · bellard/mquickjs

1412 points

530 comments

discussionsource

Show HN: Vibium – Browser automation for AI and humans, by Selenium's creator

Browser automation for AI agents and humans. Contribute to VibiumDev/vibium development by creating an account on GitHub.

370 points

105 comments

discussionsource

Comptime – C# meta-programming with compile-time code generation and evaluation

Comptime brings meta-programming capabilities to C#, enabling compile-time code generation and evaluation. - sebastienros/comptime

121 points

55 comments

discussionsource

Asterisk AI Voice Agent

An open-source AI Voice Agent that integrates with Asterisk/FreePBX using Audiosocket/RTP technology - hkjarral/Asterisk-AI-Voice-Agent

159 points

85 comments

discussionsource

Nvidia to buy assets from Groq for $20B cash

Nvidia is making its largest purchase ever, acquiring assets from nine-year-old chip startup Groq for about $20 billion. ,Nvidia is making its largest purchase ever, acquiring assets from nine-year-old chip startup Groq for about $20 billion.

622 points

358 comments

discussionsource

Who Watches the Waymos? I do [video]

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

228 points

77 comments

discussionsource