This Day in History: 0000-12-01

1 Dec – Portugal proclaims King Joao IV as its ruler, ending the unity of the Iberian Peninsula (1640).
1 Dec – Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company introduced the moving assembly line, cutting time and costs in producing cars (1913).
1 Dec – With Nagumo’s carrier fleet in the Northern Pacific steaming towards Hawaii, Emperor Hirohito of Japan gave final approval for Yamamoto’s attack on Pearl Harbor, thus making war inevitable (1941).