It happened one 01 December

1913 : Installation of the first assembly line at a Ford plant


On 1 December 1913, Henry Ford installed the first assembly line in one of his Ford T plant. The goal was to increase the speed of construction of a vehicle in order to lower the price for the consumer and therefore sell more. The assembly of a car took 12 hours before the installation of the assembly line and only 30 minutes afterwards.

1934 : Beginning of a 4-year Stalinist purge


On 1 December 1934, Stalin organised the murder of his main opponent in the Soviet Communist Party Politburo, Sergei Kirov. During the four years that followed, millions of people were murdered, imprisoned or deported for the most trivial reasons.

1955 : Rosa Parks launches bus boycott


On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks, an American civil rights activist, refused to give up her seat for a white man in a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, as required by the segregation laws of the city. She was arrested and then, at the instigation of Martin Luther King, a boycott of the city busses by black population (70% of users) was organised that lasted a year, until the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court States, on november 13th, 1956, which stated that the segregation laws of the city were anti-constitutional.

1958 : Fire in a school in Chicago


On 1 December 1958, a fire broke out in the basement of a Catholic school in Chicago. Protective measures against fire were virtually nonexistent, no alarm sounded and no effective evacuation was organized, as the fire spread quickly. 92 students and three nuns were killed.

1959 : The Antarctic becomes a demilitarized zone


On 1 December 1959, nations with interests in Antarctica signed a treaty banning the testing of weapons and any military activity on the continent. This policy of demilitarization of Antarctica is still in force today.

2009 : Entry into force of Lisbon Treaty


On December 1st, 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon amending the European institutions, entered into force after being ratified by all members of the European Union. The treaty changed the rules of representation by country, increasing the area of the decisions taken by qualified majority rather than unanimity, tranformed the Central Bank into a European institution and changed the functioning of the judiciary.

Latest news : 01 December

World AIDS Day
December 1st is World AIDS Day. This day was established at the initiative of the World Health Organization in 1988. The theme for 2011 is: Target Zero, no new infection, no deaths due to virus and no discrimination. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV / AIDS provides objectives for four years.

Quote of the day : 01 December

Woody Allen
I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens.

Birthdays : 01 December

Marie Tussaud, French creator of wax sculptures (1761)
Rex Stout, American writer (1886)
Georgy Zhukov, Russian general (1896)
Morris, Belgian cartoonist (1923)
Martin Rodbell, American biochemist, Nobel Prize in Medicine (1925)
Woody Allen, American director and actor (1935)
Tahar Ben Jelloun, Moroccan writer (1944)
John Densmore, American musician (The Doors) (1944)
Pierre Arditi, French actor (1944)
Bette Midler, American singer and actress (1945)
Alain Bashung, French singer (1947)
Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (1949)
Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile (1949)
Treat Williams, American actor (1951)
Antoine de Caunes, French TV host, actor and director (1953)
Cyrielle Clair, French actress (1955)
Claire Chazal, French journalist (1956)
Charlene Tilton, American actress (1958)
Loïck Peyron, French navigator (1959)
Jeremy Northam, English actor (1961)
Sylvie Daigle, Canadian speed skater (1962)
Edouard Baer, French actor and director (1966)
Emily Mortimer, English actress (1971)
Costinha, Portuguese footballer (1974)
Matt Fraction, American cartoonist (1975)
Brad Delson, American musician (Linkin Park) (1977)
Christos Melissis, Greek footballer (1982)
Janelle Monáe, American singer (1985)
Emiliano Viviano, Italian footballer (1985)

They left us one 01 December

Go-Komatsu, Emperor of Japan (1433)
Maurice Greene, English composer (1755)
Sergey Kirov, Soviet politician (1934)
G. H. Hardy, English mathematician (1947)
Darío Moreno, Turkish singer (1968)
David Ben-Gurion, Israeli politician (1973)
James Baldwin, American writer (1987)
Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist (1997)
Claude Jade, French actress (2006)
Vue mer : crédit photo Aseed