December 13......

December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 18 days remaining in the year on this date.

EVENTS

● 863 - Boudouin with the Iron Arm weds Charles de Kales' daughter Judith

● 1204 - Death of Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon), 69, medieval Jewish scholar and author. His greatest writing, "Guide of the Perplexed" (1190) attempted to harmonize Aristotelian philosophy with rabbinic Judaism.

● 1294 - Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.

● 1545 - Pope Paul III opens Council of Trente (19th ecumenical council)

● 1570 - Sweden/Denmark signs Peace of Stettin

● 1572 - Spanish army beats Geuzen fleet under Admiral Lumey

● 1577 - Five ships under the command of Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake's circumnavigation of the globe. The journey took almost three years.

● 1621 - Emperor Ferdinand II delegates 1st anti-Reformation decree

● 1636 - The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.

● 1642 - Dutch navigator Abel Tasman "discovers" the South Pacific island group later known as New Zealand. While attempting to land, several of Tasman's crew are killed by warriors from the native Maori people, who interpret the Europeans' exchange of trumpet signals as a prelude to battle. And right they were.

● 1643 - English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.

● 1734 - England & Russia sign trade agreement

● 1742 - Willem KH Friso tests his mothers potatoes

● 1759 - 1st music store in America opens (Philadelphia)

● 1769 - Dartmouth College founded by the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, with a Royal Charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal Governor John Wentworth.

● 1774 - 1st incident of the Revolution-400 attack Fort William & Mary, New Hampshire

● 1809 - The first abdominal surgical procedure was performed in Danville, KY, on Jane Todd Crawford. The operation was performed without an anesthetic.

● 1816 - Patent for a dry dock issued to John Adamson, Boston

● 1823 - Birth of William W. How, Anglican clergyman. Shunning the glory of higher ecclesiastical positions, How was known for his work among the poor in East London. He also wrote 50 hymns, of which "We Give Thee But Thine Own" and "For All the Saints" remain two of his most popular.

● 1823 - Gioacchino Rossini arrives in London

● 1833 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port Deseado, Patagonie

● 1835 - Birth of Phillips Brooks, American Episcopal clergyman. Though he produced ten volumes of sermons, he is better remembered today as author of the Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," written in 1868 for the children of his Sunday School.

● 1843 - "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published, 6,000 copies sold

● 1851 - Birth of E.O. Excell, American sacred chorister. Excell published 50 gospel songbooks and wrote and composed 2,000 hymns, including "Since I Have Been Redeemed, "Count Your Blessings" and "I'll Be a Sunbeam for Jesus."

● 1852 - Owenite utopianist and scandal maker France Wright dies.

● 1861 - Battle of Alleghany Summit WV

● 1862 - American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside. An estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded.

● 1864 - Battle of Fort McAllister GA

● 1879 - 1st federal fish hatching steamer launched (Wilmington DE)

● 1883 - The border between Ontario and Manitoba was established.

● 1884 - Percy Everitt received a patent for the first coin-operated weighing machine.

● 1889 - Belgium rules on women/child labor law

● 1900 - Battle at Nooitgedacht: Generals The la Rey/Smuts beat Britten

● 1903 - Birth of Ella Baker, first woman leader of SCLC, also an NAACP leader.

● 1903 - Carlos Montoya, the Spanish-American guitarist who popularized flamenco guitar music, was born.

● 1903 - Italo Marcioni patents the ice cream cone (New Jersey)

● 1903 - Wright Brothers make 1st flight at Kittyhawk

● 1906 - German chancellor Bernhard von Bülow disbands the Parliament

● 1907 - German emperor Wilhelm II visits Amsterdam

● 1913 - The Federal Reserve System was established as the first U.S. central bank.

● 1913 - Mona Lisa stolen in Aug 1911 returned to Louvre

● 1916 - Avalanche kills 10,000 Austrian & Italian troops in 24 hours in Tyrol

● 1916 - French chief of staff Joffre replaced by Nivelle

● 1917 - Denmark recognizes right to conscientious objection to military service.

● 1918 - US army of occupation crosses the Rhine, enters Germany

● 1918 - Woodrow Wilson, becomes 1st to make a foreign visit as President (France)

● 1919 - Ross & Smith land in Australia from a flight from London

● 1920 - F Pease's interferometer measures 1st stellar diameter (Betelgeuse)

● 1920 - League of nations establishes International Court of Justice in The Hague

● 1920 - Netherlands breaks contact with kingdoms of Serbia, Croatia & Slavia

● 1921 - Britain, France, Japan and the United States signed the Pacific Treaty.

● 1922 - Charles Ebbets proposes putting numbers on players' sleeves or caps

● 1927 - Death of Samuel Gompers, president and founder of the AFL.

● 1928 - Clip-on tie designed

● 1930 - Theodore Steeg forms French government

● 1937 - Nanking, the capitol of China, falls to Japanese forces as the government of the Chinese republic flees to Hankow, further inland. After the Japanese army advances into the former Chinese capital, a reign of atrocity is launched against the civilian and military population of the city, as Japanese military command permits what amounts to a total breakdown of discipline within its ranks. Over the next eight weeks, in what would become known as the "Rape of Nanking," the Japanese army butchers an estimated 150,000 male "war prisoners," murders an additional 50,000 male civilians, and brutally rapes at least 20,000 women of all ages, many of whom are mutilated or killed in the process.

● 1938 - The Holocaust: 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen build the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.

● 1938 - Los Angeles freezes at 28ºF

● 1939 - World War II: Battle of the River Plate - Captain Hans Langsdorff of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee engages with Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles.

● 1941 - World War II: Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.

● 1941 - German occupiers forbid National Front & Netherlands Union

● 1941 - Lawine battlers destroy Haaraz, Peru; about 3,000 die

● 1941 - U-81 torpedoes British aircraft carrier Ark Royal

● 1942 - Seyss-Inquart allows Dutch Nazi Anton Mussert to call himself Leader

● 1943 - World War II: 710 Bombers of U.S. 8th Air Force attack Kiel, Germany.

● 1943 - 150 US Marauders bomb Schiphol

● 1944 - Japanese kamikaze crashes into US cruiser Nashville, kills 138

● 1946 - Léon Blum elected French premier

● 1947 - Maine Turnpike opens to traffic

● 1949 - Knesset votes to transfer Israel's capitol to Jerusalem

● 1950 - American missionary martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'I think God is to be glorified by asking the impossible of Him.'

● 1950 - James Dean begins his career with an appearance in a Pepsi commercial

● 1951 - Future British PM Margaret Roberts Thatcher marries Denis Thatcher

● 1956 - Dodgers trade Jackie Robinson to Giants for pitcher Dick Littlefield & $35,000 Robinson retires

● 1958 - Monkey lost after space flight; The search for a small bushy-tailed monkey fired into space in the nose cone of a Jupiter missile is called off.

● 1959 - Archbishop Makarios elected 1st President of Cyprus

● 1960 - Laos General Fumi Nosavang occupies Vientiane

● 1961 - Beatles sign a formal agreement to be managed by Brian Epstein

● 1961 - Gideon Hausner in Jerusalem demands death penalty for Adolf Eichmann

● 1961 - Anna Mary Robertson Moses, "Grandma Moses," passed away at the age of 101.

● 1961 - Jimmy Dean's Big Bad John album is country music's 1st million $ seller

● 1962 - Relay 1 communication satellite launched

● 1963 - Capitol records signs right of 1st refusal agreement with the Beatles

● 1964 - Explosion outside a black church in Montgomery, Alabama. Three white men convicted of the bombing -- each got a six month jail sentence. After 10 days in prison, all were released on probation.

● 1964 - In El Paso, TX, President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande River, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border. This ended a century-old border dispute.

● 1965 - Algerian President Boumédienne visits Moscow

● 1966 - The rights to the first four Super Bowls were sold to CBS and NBC for total of $9.5 million.

● 1966 - 1st battle for Bijlmer flats Amsterdam

● 1966 - 1st US bombing of Hanoi

● 1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1967 - Unsuccessful coup against Greek King Constantine II

● 1968 - Playland at the Beach reopens

● 1968 - Brazilian president Casta e Silva concentrates his power and forms a state of terror.

● 1969 - Arlo Guthrie releases "Alice's Restaurant"

● 1971 - Namibian workers strike against contract labor system imposed by South African colonial government. Marks beginning of popular support for liberation struggles.

● 1971 - White Panther Party founder John Sinclair (sentenced to 10 years in jail for selling two marijuana joints) is freed.

● 1972 - New offer for Thalidomide victims; More than 300 British victims of the Thalidomide drug are being offered a compensation deal said to be worth £11.85m.

● 1972 - Project Apollo: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the sixth and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.

● 1973 - MPLA/FNLA accord about combat against Portuguese Libya

● 1973 - Rael, leader of the Raelian Movement claims to meet an ET he says is named Yahweh, during an alleged UFO encounter in Puy de Lassolas, France.

● 1974 - Malta becomes a republic

● 1975 - 1st time Saturday Night Live uses a time delay (Richard Pryor hosts)

● 1975 - Australian Conservatives & Liberals win parliamentary election

● 1975 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1976 - Golden Gate Bridge District starts ferry service to Larkspur

● 1976 - Longest non-stop passenger airflight (Sydney to San Francisco 13 hours 14 minutes)

● 1977 - A United States government aircraft DC-3 crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team.

● 1978 - The Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B Anthony dollar, 1st US coin to honor a woman. The coin began circulation the following July.

● 1979 - Strikes against price increases in Gdansk Poland

● 1979 - The Canadian Government of Prime Minister Joe Clark is defeated in the House of Commons, prompting the 1980 Canadian election.

● 1980 - Three days after a disputed general election, Uganda’s President Milton Obote was returned to office.

● 1981 - General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity. Martial law ended formally in 1983.

● 1982 - Earthquake hits Northern Yemen; 2,000 die

● 1982 - The Sentry Armored Car Company in New York discovered that $11 million had been stolen from its headquarters overnight. It was the biggest cash theft in U.S. history.

● 1982 - United Nations adopts Nuclear Freeze resolution.

● 1983 - The Denver Nuggets and the Detroit Pistons play in the longest NBA game in history, with the Pistons winning 186-184 in triple overtime. In addition to most points in a game, this game also set the record for most field goals made (136), and most assists (93).

● 1983 - Martha Layne Collins inaugurated as Kentucky's 1st female governor

● 1983 - British Airways incorporates

● 1984 - Artificial heart recipient William Schroeder suffers 1st stroke

● 1987 - Belgium Christian Democrats (CVP) loses parliamentary election

● 1987 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1987 - U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark, that the Reagan administration would begin making funding requests for the proposed Star Wars defense system.

● 1988 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva, were it had recovened after the United States had refused to grant Arafat a visa to visit New York.

● 1988 - A bankruptcy judge in Columbia, SC, ordered the assets of the troubled PTL (Pass The Loot or Praise The Lord) television ministry sold to a Toronto real estate developer for $65 million.

● 1988 - 3 men end 29-hour all-466-station subway ride in New York NY

● 1989 - The last issue of Gnistan (The Spark), the organ of the Solidaritetspartiet, is published in Sweden.

● 1989 - Forced repatriation of Vietnamese in Hong Kong

● 1990 - President De Klerk of South Africa meets with Nelson Mandela to talk of end of apartheid

● 1990 - Heavy earthquake strikes Sicily, 18 die

● 1991 - Five Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union agreed to join the new Commonwealth of Independent States.

● 1991 - Both Koreas sign an accord calling for reconciliation

● 1991 - New York assembly speaker Mel Miller is convicted of federal mail fraud

● 1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people must receive a hearing before property linked to illegal drug sales can be seized.

● 1993 - The European Community ratified a treaty creating the European Economic Area (EEA), to go into effect January 1, 1994.

● 1993 - Deadline for Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, they don't

● 1993 - Dow Jones hits record 3764.43

● 1993 - Fire in textile factory in Fuzjou China, 60 killed

● 1993 - Space shuttle STS-61 (Endeavour 5) lands

● 1994 - An American Eagle commuter plane carrying 20 people crashed short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15 people.

● 1994 - European Parliament votes 202-24 for a resolution urging Pres. Clinton to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.

● 1995 - Riots break out in Brixton; Hundreds of black and white youths are on the streets of Brixton, in south London attacking police, ransacking shops and burning cars after the death of a black man in police custody.

● 1995 - China's most influential democracy activist, Wei Jingsheng, who already had spent 16 years in prison, was sentenced to 14 more years.

● 1995 - Christopher Reeve is released from physical rehab center

● 1995 - US Federal Court votes that Cable companies must carry local stations

● 1996 - Kofi Annan is elected as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

● 1996 - Free agent Roger Clemens signs with Toronto Blue Jays

● 1997 - The Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA, was opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

● 1998 - Puerto Rican voters rejected U.S. statehood in a non-binding referendum.

● 1998 - Gary Anderson (Minnesota Vikings) kicked six field goals against Baltimore. In the game Anderson set an National Football League (NFL) record for 34 straight field goals without a miss.

● 2000 - The "Texas 7" escape from the John Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas and go on a robbery spree, during which police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot and killed.

● 2000 - U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the 2000 Presidential election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The Florida electoral votes were won by only 537 votes, which decided the election. The election had been contested up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which said that the Florida recount (supported by the Florida Supreme Court) was unconstitutional.

● 2001 - In Brussels, 80,000 labor and anti-globalization activists begin several days of protests of a European Union summit. Despite a massive police presence, unlike other such recent protests events remain peaceful.

● 2001 - The U.S. government released a video tape that showed Osama bin Laden and others discussing their knowledge of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

● 2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush served formal notice to Russia that the United States was withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

● 2001 - Israel severed all contact with Yasser Arafat. Israel also launched air strikes and sent troops into Palestine in response to a bus ambush that killed 10 Israelis.

● 2001 - NBC-TV announced that it would begin running hard liquor commercials. NBC issued a 19-point policy that outlined the conditions for accepting liquor ads.

● 2001 - Michael Frank Goodwin was arrested and booked on two counts of murder, one count of conspiracy and three special circumstances (lying in wait, murder for financial gain and multiple murder) in connection to the death of Mickey Thompson. Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway on March 16, 1988. Thompson, known as the "Speed King," set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.

● 2001 - the Indian Parliament Sansad is attacked by Terrorists, killing 15 people, including all the terrorists. Tensions escalate in South Asia, with nuclear war likelihoods.

● 2002 - Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Boston archbishop because of the priest sex abuse scandal.

● 2002 - Enlargement of the European Union: The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.

● 2003 - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit (see Operation Red Dawn).

● 2003 - In the most-attended basketball game in history, 78,129 watch Michigan State University lose 79-74 to the University of Kentucky at Ford Field.

● 2004 - A jury in Redwood City, Calif., recommended the death penalty for Scott Peterson for the murders of his wife and unborn child.

● 2004 - Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest, after being sued under accusations over 9 kidnapping actions and manslaughter. The house arrest is lifted the same day on appeal.

● 2005 - Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams, whose supporters argued he had redeemed himself inside prison, was executed in California for killing four people in robberies.

● 2006 - Chinese River Dolphin or Baiji, announced as extinct.

BIRTHS

● 1521 - Pope Sixtus V (d. 1590)

● 1533 - King Eric XIV of Sweden (d. 1577)

● 1553 - King Henry IV of France (d. 1610)

● 1585 - William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet (d. 1649)

● 1640 - Robert Plot, English naturalist (d. 1696)

● 1662 - Francesco Bianchini, Italian philosopher and scientist (d. 1729)

● 1678 - Yongzheng Emperor of China (d. 1735)

● 1720 - Carlo Gozzi, Italian dramatist (d. 1804)

● 1724 - Franz Aepinus, German scientist (d. 1802)

● 1730 - Sir William Hamilton, English diplomat and archaeologist (d. 1803)

● 1784 - Archduke Louis of Austria (d. 1864)

● 1797 - Heinrich Heine, German poet (d. 1856)

● 1804 - Joseph Howe, Canadian politician (d. 1873)

● 1816 - Ernst Werner von Siemens, German engineer, inventor, and industrialist (d. 1892)

● 1818 - Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (d. 1882)

● 1836 - Franz von Lenbach, German painter (d. 1904)

● 1854 - Thomas Watson, American assistant to Alexander Graham Bell (d. 1934)

● 1856 - Lawrence Lowell, American lawyer, educator, and president of Harvard University (1909-1933) (d. 1943)

● 1856 - Svetozar Boroević, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (d. 1920)

● 1860 - Lucien Guitry, French actor (d. 1925)

● 1864 - Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 1947)

● 1867 - Kristian Birkeland, Norwegian explorer and scientist (d. 1917)

● 1870 - Edward LeSaint, American actor and director (d. 1940)

● 1871 - Emily Carr, Canadian artist (d. 1945)

● 1874 - Josef Lhévinne, Russian-born pianist (d. 1944)

● 1883 - Belle da Costa Greene, American librarian, bibliographer and archivist (d. 1950)

● 1887 - George Polya, Hungarian-born mathematician (d. 1985)

● 1887 - Alvin York, American soldier & Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1964)

● 1890 - Marc Connelly, American playwright and journalist (d. 1980)

● 1897 - Drew Pearson, American journalist (d. 1969)

● 1903 - Carlos Montoya, Spanish guitarist (d. 1993)

● 1906 - Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (d. 1968)

● 1906 - Sir Laurens van der Post, South African author (d. 1996)

● 1910 - Van Heflin, American actor (d. 1971)

● 1911 - Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist and Bank of Sweden Prize winner (d. 1999)

● 1911 - Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (d. 1972)

● 1913 - Archie Moore, American boxer and World Light-Heavyweight Champion (d. 1998)

● 1913 - Arnold Brown, the 11th General of The Salvation Army (d. 2002)

● 1915 - Curd Jürgens, German actor (d. 1982)

● 1915 - Ross Macdonald, American-born author (d. 1983)

● 1915 - B.J. Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa 1966-1978 (d. 1983)

● 1917 - John Hart, American actor

● 1919 - Hans-Joachim Marseille, German flying ace of World War II (d. 1942)

● 1920 - George Shultz, United States Secretary of State 1982-1989

● 1923 - Philip Warren Anderson, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate

● 1923 - Larry Doby, American baseball player (d. 2003)

● 1925 - Dick Van Dyke, American actor and comedian

● 1926 - George Rhoden, Jamaican athlete and Olympic gold medalist

● 1929(27? NYT) - Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor

● 1930 - Robert Prosky, American actor

● 1930 - Buck White, Country singer

● 1933 - Lou Adler, Music-movie producer

● 1934 - Richard D. Zanuck, American film producer

● 1935 - Lindy McDaniel, American baseball player

● 1936 - His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan (Prince Karim El Husseni)

● 1939 - Eric Flynn, British actor and singer (d. 2002)

● 1941 - John Davidson, American actor and game show host

● 1942 - Anna Eshoo, American politician

● 1943 - Ferguson Jenkins, Canadian baseball player

● 1944 - Hwang Jang Lee, Korean martial artist and film actor

● 1947 - Darlene Cates, American actress

● 1948 - Ron Getman, Country singer (The Tractors)

● 1948 - Ted Nugent, American guitarist

● 1948 - Jeff Baxter, American guitarist (Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers)

● 1948 - Lillian Board, English athlete (d. 1970)

● 1948 - Brian Wilson, Scottish politician

● 1949 - Robert Lindsay, Actor

● 1949 - Randy Owen, Country singer-musician (Alabama)

● 1949 - Tom Verlaine, American singer/guitarist of Television

● 1950 - Wendie Malick, American actress ("Just Shoot Me", "Big Day")

● 1950 - Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa

● 1952 - Sylvester Ritter, American professional wrestler better known as "Junkyard Dog" (d. 1998)

● 1953 - Ben Bernanke, American economist and current United States Chairman of the Federal Reserve

● 1953 - Bob Gainey, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1954 - Steve Forbert, Rock singer

● 1954 - John Anderson, American country musician

● 1957 - Steve Buscemi, American actor

● 1957 - Morris Day, American singer (The Time)

● 1957 - Jean-Marie Messier, French businessman

● 1958 - Lynn-Holly Johnson, American figure skater and actress

● 1959 - Nadia Russ, Russian artist

● 1959 - Jim Darrel, American professional wrestler

● 1959 - Johnny Whitaker, American actor ("Family Affair")

● 1961 - Harry Gregson-Williams, English composer

● 1963 - Jake White, South African rugby union coach

● 1964 - Matsumoto Hideto, Japanese guitarist and singer (X-Japan)

● 1965 - Marko Mäetamm, Estonian artist

● 1967 - Jamie Foxx, American actor

● 1969 - Sergei Fedorov, Russian ice hockey player

● 1972 - Mauricio Solís, Costa Rican footballer

● 1973 - Christie Clark, American actress

● 1974 - Nicholas McCarthy, British guitarist (Franz Ferdinand)

● 1974 - Sara Cox, TV and radio presenter

● 1975 - Tom Delonge, American guitarist (blink-182, Angels and Airwaves)

● 1976 - Josh Fogg, American baseball player

● 1976 - Radosław Sobolewski, Polish footballer

● 1977 - Christopher Hudgens, American painter

● 1979 - Jon Elliott, American radio talkshow host

● 1981 - Chelsea Hertford, Actress (''Major Dad'')

● 1981 - Amy Lee, American singer/songwriter (Evanescence)

● 1982 - Ricky Nolasco, American baseball player

● 1983 - Otylia Jędrzejczak, Polish swimmer, FINA World Champion and Olympic gold medalist

● 1985 - Laurence Leboeuf, Canadian actress

● 1989 - Taylor Swift, American singer-songwriter

DEATHS

● 1048 - Al-Biruni, Persian mathematician (b. 973)

● 1124 - Pope Callixtus II

● 1204 - Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher (b. 1135)

● 1250 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1194)

● 1404 - Albert, Count of Holland (b. 1336)

● 1466 - Donatello, Florentine artist and sculptor (b. 1386)

● 1516 - Johannes Trithemius, German cryptographer (b. 1462)

● 1521 - Manuel I of Portugal (b. 1469)

● 1557 - Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia, Italian mathematician

● 1565 - Conrad Gessner, Swiss naturalist (b. 1516)

● 1603 - François Viète, French mathematician (b. 1540)

● 1621 - Katarina Stenbock, Queen of Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1535)

● 1716 - Charles de La Fosse, French painter (b. 1640)

● 1721 - Alexander Selkirk, Scottish sailor and castaway (b. 1676)

● 1729 - Anthony Collins, English philosopher (b. 1676)

● 1754 - Mahmud I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1696)

● 1769 - Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German poet (b. 1715)

● 1783 - Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer (b. 1717)

● 1784 - Samuel Johnson, British writer and lexicographer (b. 1709)

● 1814 - Charles Joseph, Prince de Ligne, Belgian-born Austrian field marshal (b. 1735)

● 1837 - Herman of Alaska, Russian Orthodox hermit (b. 1756)

● 1863 - Christian Friedrich Hebbel, German writer (b. 1813)

● 1868 - Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist (b. 1794)

● 1881 - August Senoa, Croatian writer (b. 1838)

● 1883 - Victor de Laprade, French poet and critic (b. 1812)

● 1895 - Anyos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist (b. 1800)

● 1919 - Woldemar Voigt, German physicist (b. 1850)

● 1922 - Hannes Hafstein, Icelandic politician and poet (b. 1861)

● 1924 - Samuel Gompers, American labor and political leader, founder of American Federation of Labor (b. 1850)

● 1930 - Fritz Pregl, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)

● 1931 - Gustave le Bon, French psychologist (b. 1840)

● 1935 - Victor Grignard, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)

● 1940 - Jacques-Arsène d'Arsonval, French physicist (b. 1851)

● 1942 - Wlodimir Ledochowski, Polish-Austrian director of the Society of Jesus (b. 1866)

● 1944 - Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-born French artist (b. 1866)

● 1947 - Nicholas Roerich, Russian-born painter (b. 1874)

● 1954 - John Raymond Hubbell, American writer (b. 1879)

● 1955 - Egas Moniz, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)

● 1958 - Tim Moore, American actor (b. 1887)

● 1961 - Grandma Moses, American painter (b. 1860)

● 1969 - Raymond A. Spruance, American admiral (b. 1886)

● 1969 - Spencer Williams, Jr., American actor (b. 1893)

● 1973 - Henry Green, English author (b. 1905)

● 1979 - Jon Hall, American actor (b. 1915)

● 1981 - Pigmeat Markham, American entertainer (b. 1904)

● 1983 - Alexander Schmemann, Orthodox Christian priest and theologian (b. 1921)

● 1983 - Nichita Stanescu, Romanian poet (b.1933)

● 1992 - Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman and heir (b. 1899)

● 1992 - K.C. Irving, Canadian industrialist (b. 1899)

● 1993 - Vanessa Duriès, French novelist (b. 1972)

● 2001 - Chuck Schuldiner, American musician (Death) (b. 1967)

● 2002 - Zal Yanovsky, American musician (The Lovin' Spoonful) (b. 1945)

● 2003 - William V. Roth, Jr., U.S. Senator (b. 1921)

● 2004 - Andre Rodgers, Bahamian baseball player (b. 1934)

● 2004 - David Wheeler, British computer scientist (b. 1927)

● 2005 - Stanley Tookie Williams, executed by the state of California, co-founder of the Crips (b. 1953)

● 2006 - Lamar Hunt, American sports promoter

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Lucy
● St. Odilia, abbess, patroness of the blind
● St. Jodoc
● St. Autbert
● St. Edburga
● St. Einhildis & Roswinda
● St. Elizabeth Rose

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar:
● None listed for Civil date December 13

● In the Irish calendar the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday following the Feast of Saint Lucy were observed as Quarter tense.

● St. Lucia's Day in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and some regions of Italy, mainly Sicily, Veneto and Trentino.

● Roman festivals:
● Tellus was worshipped in the district Carinae at the Esquiline Hill
● A lectisternium or table was spread for Ceres.

● In the Julian calendar before the Gregorian reform, this was the shortest day and longest night, and widely celebrated as such

● Malta - Republic Day (since 1974)

● Upper Volta : National Day


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

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