1643 Isaac Newton, English scientist and mathematician noted for the law of gravity, born.

1717 The triple alliance was formed between England, France and Holland to oppose Spanish ambitions in Southern Europe.

1785 Jacob Grimm, German folklorist and philologist, born. He and his brother Wilhelm Carl compiled a classic anthology of fairy tales.

1809 Louis Braille, French inventor of the blind reading system, born.

1923 Lenin dictated a postscript to his "Lenin's Testament" in which he suggested Stalin was too rude to be secretary general and should be replaced. The first part of the testament was dictated December 23-26, 1922.

1948 The British governor of Burma formerly handed over power and the Union of Burma was proclaimed an independent republic with U Thakin Nu as its first prime minister.

1958 Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite launched in October 1957 by the Soviet Union, disintegrated and fell to earth.

1960 Albert Camus, Algerian-born French existentialist writer, died in a car accident. His work included the novels "L'Etranger" (The Outsider) and "La Peste" (The Plague).

1964 Pope Paul VI began a visit to the Holy Land, which included the first visit by a pope to Bait-ul-Moqaddas.

1965 T.S. Eliot, American-born English poet, playwright and Nobel Prize winner, died. His works included "The Waste Land", "Murder in the Cathedral", and "Four Quartets".

1974 Burma inaugurated a new Constitution providing for a peoples assembly.

1978 The PLO's representative in Britain, said Hammami, was assassinated in London.

1995 Representative Newt Gingrich of Georgia was formally elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the first Republican to hold the post in 40 years.

1998 Israeli foreign minister David Levy announced his resignation, saying he no longer wanted to stand alone on the issues of peace and social welfare.

2000 Former Ivory Coast president Henri Konan Bedie arrived in Paris to take up residence after being overthrown in a Christmas Eve coup.