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◆ On this day

December 22

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5 sourced moments from December 22 in history: Beethoven Premiered His Fifth and Sixth Symphonies in One Marathon Night (1808); The first electrically lit Christmas tree glowed in New York (1882); The Dreyfus Affair conviction shook France (1894), plus 2 more.

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5 things happened on December 22

newest first ↓
1989 History · Modern

Romania's dictator Ceausescu fled Bucharest by helicopter

As crowds stormed his headquarters, the man who ruled Romania for 24 years escaped from the roof in a helicopter.

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1938 Nature & Animals · Marine Life

The coelacanth, a fish thought extinct for 66 million years, turns up alive

In December 1938 a South African museum curator pulled an "impossible" fish from a trawler's catch, reviving a lineage science had buried with the dinosaurs.

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1894 Society & Economy · Politics & Law

The Dreyfus Affair conviction shook France

On December 22, 1894, a French court-martial wrongly convicted Captain Alfred Dreyfus of treason, igniting a scandal that exposed deep antisemitism.

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1882 Technology · Inventions

The first electrically lit Christmas tree glowed in New York

An Edison associate wired a tree with tiny bulbs and set it spinning, replacing the open flame of holiday candles.

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1808 Culture & Arts · Music

Beethoven Premiered His Fifth and Sixth Symphonies in One Marathon Night

On a freezing Vienna evening in 1808, a four-hour concert unveiled two symphonies that would reshape Western music.

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