Once Upon A Time – Dec. 23 – 1954 – The First Human Kidney Transplant Is Performed By Dr. Joseph E. Murray

962 Byzantine-Arab Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops storm the city of Aleppo, recovering the tattered tunic of John the Baptist

1688 King James II, the last Roman Catholic British monarch flees to France from William of Orange

1783 US General George Washington resigns his military commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army to Congress

1888 Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear with a razor, after argument with fellow painter Paul Gauguin, and sends to a prostitute for safekeeping

1920 Government of Ireland Act / Home Rule Act passed partitioning Ireland

1954 The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts

Historical Events Today

Today In Film & Tv

1928 NBC sets up a permanent, coast-to-coast radio network

1951 National Football League Championship, LA Memorial Coliseum: Los Angeles Rams beat Cleveland Browns, 24-17; first coast-to-coast televised NFL title game

Today In Music

1893 Opera “Hansel und Gretel” by Engelbert Humperdinck and his sister Adelheid Wette premieres in Weimar, conducted by Richard Strauss

Today In Sport

1951 National Football League Championship, LA Memorial Coliseum: Los Angeles Rams beat Cleveland Browns, 24-17; first coast-to-coast televised NFL title game

Do You Know This Fact About Today? Did You Know?

1996 Four women ordained priests in Jamaica, 1st in 330-year Anglican history

Would You Believe?

2002 A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and a modern unmanned drone had engaged in combat