December 14 Through History

Explanation: Amundsen beat the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott by a month. Scott reached the Pole on January 17, 1912, only to discover that Amundsen had been there before him. Scott and his companions perished on the return journey, exhausted and frozen.

Explanation: The Decembrists hoped to exploit the succession uncertainty to impose a liberal constitution. Their movement was quickly crushed by Nicholas I, who had just succeeded Alexander I. Five ringleaders were hanged, and hundreds of others were exiled to Siberia.

Explanation: Planck presented his theory to the German Physical Society in Berlin. This day is often considered the official birth of quantum physics. Planck himself was uncomfortable with the implications of his own theory for a long time.

Explanation: Apollo 17 was NASA's last crewed mission to the Moon. As Cernan climbed off the lunar surface, he said: "We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return." Since then, no human has set foot on the Moon again.

Explanation: The negotiations had been held in Dayton, Ohio, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, but the official signing took place in Paris on December 14. These accords put an end to the Bosnian-Herzegovinian War, which had caused more than 100,000 deaths.

Explanation: Lucien Neuwirth, a Gaullist deputy from Loire, introduced this bill despite opposition from part of his own camp. The law bearing his name allowed medical contraception in France, but reimbursement by Social Security didn't come until 1974.

Explanation: The OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, succeeded the OEEC (Organisation for European Economic Co-operation) created in 1948 to manage the Marshall Plan. It notably includes the United States and Canada, unlike its purely European predecessor.

Explanation: Nostradamus practiced medicine and pharmacy before dedicating himself to astrology and writing his Centuries. He gained a great reputation fighting the plague in the south of France, using sanitary methods ahead of his time.

Explanation: Tycho Brahe made measurements of unmatched precision for his time from his observatory at Uraniborg in Denmark. His data was used by Johannes Kepler to formulate his laws of planetary motion, laying the foundations of modern astronomy.

Explanation: Mary Queen of Scots was only six days old when her father James V died. Her regency was handled by her mother, Mary of Guise. Mary became a tragic figure: a claimant to the English throne, she was eventually executed on the orders of Elizabeth I in 1587.