Heraclius sailed from Carthage to Constantinople, deposed and executed Phocas, and took the throne at a moment of grave crisis, with Persian armies advancing on the empire's eastern provinces. His reign would see catastrophic early losses followed by a stunning counter-offensive that crushed the Sassanid Persian Empire, though it left Byzantium exhausted just before the rise of Islam.
Pelé grew up in poverty, polishing shoes to earn money for a football, before joining Santos FC at 15 and the Brazilian national team at 16. He won three World Cups (1958, 1962, 1970), scored over 1,000 career goals, and became arguably the most famous athlete of the 20th century, later serving as a global ambassador for the sport and for Brazil.
Beginning at 7:48 a.m. local time, 353 Japanese aircraft launched from six carriers hit the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Eight battleships were damaged and four sunk, including USS Arizona, which exploded and killed 1,177 men aboard. The next day President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it 'a date which will live in infamy' and Congress declared war on Japan, ending American neutrality.
The document, filed with the International Military Tribunal, charged senior surviving Nazi officials including Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess with conspiracy, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace. It set in motion a trial that would establish, for the first time, that individuals — including heads of state — could be held criminally liable under international law for atrocities committed during wartime.
Having gained independence weeks earlier on December 9, Tanganyika's admission to the UN cemented its status as a sovereign nation in the wave of African decolonization sweeping the continent. Julius Nyerere, who became the country's first leader, would go on to merge Tanganyika with Zanzibar in 1964 to form Tanzania, and pursue a distinctive socialist path known as Ujamaa.
Apollo 17 launched in the early hours, the only crewed Saturn V night launch, lighting up the Florida coast for hundreds of miles. Commander Eugene Cernan and geologist Harrison Schmitt spent over three days on the lunar surface, collecting 110 kilograms of rock and soil, including the famous orange volcanic glass discovered at Shorty Crater.
Workers repairing the stage's fire curtain accidentally ignited the flammable material, and flames consumed the auditorium within hours. It was the second time in the theatre's history that fire had destroyed it — the first was in 1861 — and it reopened, rebuilt, in 1999 with modern technical facilities behind a restored historic facade.