December 14......

December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 17 days remaining in the year on this date.

EVENTS

● 644 - Osman ibn Affan appointed 3rd kalief of Islam

● 867 - Adrian II begins his reign as Catholic Pope

● 872 - John VIII begins his reign as Catholic Pope

● 1124 - Theobald Buccapecus elected Pope Coelestinus II (he refuses)

● 1287 - St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.

● 1363 - Birth of Jean Charlier de Gerson, French theologian. During the papal schism of 1378-1414, Gerson attended the councils of Pisa (1409) and Constance (1414-18). He spent his last years in a monastery at Lyons teaching children, composing hymns and writing books on Christian mysticism.

● 1490 - Anna van Bretagne marries a proxy Maximilian of Austria

● 1503 - Physician, astrologer and clairvoyant Nostradamus was born at St. Remy, Provence, France.

● 1542 - Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland.

● 1575 - Polish Parliament selects István Báthory as king of Poland

● 1582 - Zealand/Brabant Netherlands adopt Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is 12/25

● 1600 - Olivier van Noort sinks Spanish galleon San Diego at Bay of Manila, 350 die

● 1656 - Artificial pearls 1st manufactured by M Jacquin in Paris made of gypsum pellets covered with fish scales

● 1702 (according to the old calendar; January 30, 1703 by the new calendar) - The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master.

● 1751 - The Theresian Military Academy was founded as the first Military Academy in the world.

● 1763 - Fifty-seven whites enter Conestoga Indian settlement, and in violation of a treaty made between the tribe and William Penn -- to last "as long as the sun should shine, or the waters run in the rivers" -- shot, stabbed, and hatcheted the three men, two women, and one young boy they found there. The rest of the tribe would be killed 13 days later.

● 1774 - Massachusetts militiamen successfully attacked arsenal of Fort William & Mary

● 1769 - Dartmouth College is chartered by King George III of England.

● 1782 - Charleston SC evacuated by British

● 1793 - 1st state road authorized, Frankfort KY to Cincinnati OH

● 1798 - David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patents a nut & bolt machine

● 1799 - The first president of the United States, George Washington, died at the age 67, of acute laryngitis at his estate, Mount Vernon, Virginia.

● 1819 - Alabama admitted to the Union as the 22nd state

● 1825 - Advocates of Liberalism in Russia rise up against Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg.

● 1836 Birth of Frances Ridley Havergal, English devotional writer. In frail health most of her life, Miss Havergal was nevertheless a fruitful writer, and authored such hymns as "Take My Life and Let It Be," "Who is on the Lord's Side?" and "I Gave My Life for Thee."

● 1836 - The Toledo War unofficially ended.

● 1837 - Canada: British forces crush rebellion.

● 1849 - 1st chamber music group in US gives their 1st concert (Boston)

● 1852 - Birth of Daniel DeLeon, Curacao, West Indies. One of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), socialist scholar and labor organizer.

● 1853 - Birth of anarchist theorist/militant/writer Errico Malatesta, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Kingdom of Naples. Important figure of Italian and international anarchism.

● 1861- Prince Albert, husband of Britain's Queen Victoria, died in London.

● 1863 - Battle of Bean's Station-Confederacy repulses Union in Tennessee

● 1882 - Henry Morton Stanley returns to Brussels from the Congo

● 1889 - American Academy of Political & Social Science organized, Philadelphia

● 1896 - The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.

● 1896 - Gen. James H. Doolittle, who led the first air raid on Japan during World War II, was born.

● 1900 - Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.

● 1902 - The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.

● 1903 - The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It crashes, and 3 days later, after repairs, they get it to fly.

● 1907: The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Scilly Isles in a gale. The pilot and 15 able seamen are lost.

● 1911 - Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole. He reached the destination 35 days ahead of Captain Robert F. Scott.

● 1913 - Greece formally takes possession of Crete

● 1915 - Jack Johnson is 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion

● 1917 - U.S. peace activist and suffragist Kate Richards O'Hare jailed five years for speech denouncing World War I, occupied a neighboring jail cell with Emma Goldman. O'Hare was one of a number of prisoners Eugene Debs cited in his "Canton Speech" for which he in turn would be imprisoned.

● 1917 - UFA, "Universal Film AG", forms in Germany

● 1918 - For the first time in Britain women (over 30) voted in a General Election.

● 1918 - Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.

● 1919- Shirley Jackson, the American writer best known for her story "The Lottery", was born.

● 1922 - "Toc H" (the British alphabetic letter abbreviation for "Talbot House") was chartered. A Christian fellowship which originated in 1915 in Belgium under Anglican chaplain P.T.B. Clayton, M.C., its various branches minister through a variety of Christian social services.

● 1924 - Chiang Kai-shek occupies Hankou

● 1926 - Danish Madsen government, forms

● 1927 - Iraq gains independence from Britain, but British troops remain

● 1929 - Alexander Zaimis elected President of Greece

● 1932 - French government of Herriot falls

● 1933 - Josephine Baker performs in Amsterdam

● 1934 - 1st streamlined steam locomotive introduced (Albany NY)

● 1937 - Japanese troops conquer/plunder Nanjing

● 1938 - Major leagues agree on standard ball

● 1939 - Soviet Union attacks Finland - League of Nations drops Soviet Union

● 1941 - Prime Minister Winston Churchill travels to US on board HMS Duke of York

● 1941 - U-557 torpedoes British cruiser Galatea

● 1941 - German military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine issued an order, according to which the Jewish population was to move to the city periphery within 2 days, into the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days 15,000 Jews were shot at Drobitsky Yar.

● 1941 - World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.

● 1942 - Ethiopia joins Declaration by United Nations

● 1944 - Congress establishes rank of General of the Army (5-star General)

● 1944 - Begin(ning) Liese-Aktion: werving of labor force for Germany

● 1944 - German occupiers forbid use of electricity in parts of Holland

● 1945 - Josef Kramer, known as "the beast of Belsen," and 10 others were executed in Hamelin for the crimes they committed at the Belsen and Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps.

● 1946 - Togo is made a trusteeship territory of the UN

● 1946 - UN General Assembly votes to establish UN HQs in New York NY

● 1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.

● 1950 - UN General Assembly establishes High Commissioner for Refugees (Nobel 1954)

● 1952 - Uprising of captives in Pongam South Korea, 82 die

● 1953 - Brooklyn Dodgers sign pitcher Sandy Koufax

● 1955 - Gaitskell elected Labour leader; The Labour party elects Hugh Gaitskell as its new leader to succeed Clement Attlee.

● 1955 - Catholic religious leader, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, 60, was quoted in "Look" magazine on this date as stating that 'an atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.'

● 1955 - Dutch Reformed Church condemns woman/wife as vicar

● 1955 - Tappan Zee Bridge in New York opens to traffic

● 1955 - Finland, Ireland and Portugal join the United Nations.

● 1956 - Paul-Henri Spaak appointed Secretary-General of NATO

● 1957 - Dave Beck, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, convicted of embezzling from his own union.

● 1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first-ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.

● 1959 - The Motown record label is founded in Detroit, Michigan by Berry Gordy.

● 1959 - J B Jordan in F-104C sets world altitude record, 31,513 meters

● 1959 - Archbishop Makarios proclaimed President of Cyprus

● 1960 - Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) forms

● 1962 - The Mona Lisa is assessed at US$100 million, the highest insurance valuance for a painting in history.

● 1962 - 'Music of spheres' hails Venus fly-by; The unmanned spacecraft, Mariner 2, makes the first ever fly-by of the planet Venus and sends back radio signals over tens of millions of miles of space.

● 1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1963 - Dinah Washington, 39, dies of an overdose of sleeping pills in Detroit.

● 1964 - American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States - The United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress can use its Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.

● 1965 - England: Albert Belden dies, pacifist pastor.

● 1967 - DNA created in a test tube

● 1968 - Third World Strike halts classes at San Francisco State Univ.

● 1969 - Head coach Vince Lombardi of the Washington Redskins wins his last football game againist the New Orleans Saints. The outcome of the game was 17-14.

● 1970 - Riots topple Communist regime in Poland, but a new military regime takes power in its place.

● 1971 - Golden Gate Bridge lights out all night due to power failure

● 1971 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1972 - Project Apollo: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.

● 1972 - Willy Brandt re-elected West German chancellor

● 1972 - Pres. Nixon authorizes Christmas bombing of Hanoi.

● 1973 - United Nations affirms status of Puerto Rico as a U.S. colony and recognizes its right to independence.

● 1975 - Six South Moluccan terrorists surrendered to police after holding 23 people hostage for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen.

● 1976 - Dutch 1st Chamber condemns Dutch Liberal/social-democratic abortion laws

● 1977 - Release of the film Saturday Night Fever.

● 1977 - Egypt & Israel representatives gather in Cairo for 1st formal peace conference

● 1977 - War criminal Pieter Menten sentenced in Amsterdam to 15 years

● 1978 - China People's Republic performs nuclear test at Lop Nor People's Republic of China

● 1978 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1979 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1979 - Release of The Clash's London Calling.

● 1980 - At Yoko Ono's request, at 2 PM Eastern Standard Time, John Lennon fans around the world mourn him with 10 minutes of silent prayer. In New York over 100,000 people converge in Central Park in tribute, and in Liverpool, a crowd of 30,000 gathers outside of St. George's Hall on Lime Street.

● 1980 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

● 1981 - The modern nation of Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights, which had been captured from Syria during the 1967 War.

● 1982 - Government of the 23rd Dáil first sits

● 1983 - The U.S. battleship New Jersey fired on Syrian positions in Lebanon for the first time after American F-14 reconnaissance flights were fired on.

● 1984 - Court fines Scargill for obstruction; Miners' leader Arthur Scargill is found guilty of obstruction during a picket at a Yorkshire coal works earlier this year.

● 1984 - Howard Cosell retired from the NFL's Monday Night Football.

● 1985 - The wonderfully surnamed Wilma Mankiller is sworn in as Chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, becoming the first woman (and one of the most outspoken leaders) to head a major U.S. tribe in recent history.

● 1985 - Mobilization for Animals declares "World Week for Companion Animals" to highlight the plight of homeless animals.

● 1985 - US Foreign Minister George Shultz arrives in West Berlin

● 1986 - The experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world. The trip took nine days to complete.

● 1987 - Chrysler pled no contest to federal charges of selling several thousand vehicles as new. Chrysler employees had driven the vehicles with the odometer disconnected.

● 1988 - CBS won the exclusive rights to major league baseball's 1990-94 seasons for $1.1 billion.

● 1988 - The first transatlantic underwater fiber-optic cable went into service.

● 1988 - Spanish general strike to protest austerity measures

● 1988 - US agrees to talk to Palestine Liberation Organization (1st time in 13 years)

● 1989 - Nobel Peace laureate Andrei D. Sakharov died in Moscow at age 68.

● 1989 - Patricio Aylwin is elected President of Chile.

● 1990 - Right to Die case permits Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed, she dies 12 days later

● 1990 - After 30 years in exile, ANC president Oliver Tambo returned to South Africa.

● 1991 - Ferry boat Salem Express sinks in Red Sea, 476 killed

● 1992 - Three hundred thousand Polish coal workers strike against "Solidarity" government.

● 1993 - A judge in Colorado struck down the state's voter-approved Amendment Two prohibiting gay rights laws, calling it unconstitutional.

● 1993 - The United Mine Workers approved a five-year contract that ended a strike that had reached seven states and involved some of the nation's biggest coal operators.

● 1993 - Moslem fundamentalists murder 12 Croats/Bosnians in Algeria

● 1994 - After eight years, United States finally agrees to honor New Zealand's ban on nuclear weapons in its territory.

● 1995 - Local Human Rights Watch suppressed, Turkey.

● 1995 - AIDS patient Jeff Getty receives baboon bone marrow transplant

● 1995 - Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by leaders of various governments.

● 1997 - Iran's newest president, Mohammad Khatami, called for a dialogue with the people of the United States. The preceding Iranian leaders had reviled the U.S. as "The Great Satan."

● 1997 - Mike Gartner (Phoenix Coyotes) became only the fifth player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 700 career goals.

● 1997 - Cuban President Fidel Castro declared Christmas 1997 an official holiday to ensure the success of Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit to the communist country.

● 1998 - President Bill Clinton stood witness as hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.

● 1999 - U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slave and forced laborers.

● 1999 - Charles M. Schulz announced he was retiring the "Peanuts" comic strip. The last original "Peanuts" comic strip was published on February 13, 2000.

● 2000 - The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.

● 2000 - It was announced that American businessman Edmond Pope would be released from a Russian prison for humanitarian reasons. Pope had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after his conviction on espionage charges.

● 2001 - European Union leaders agreed to dispatch 3,000-4,000 troops to join an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

● 2001 - The first commercial export, since 1963, of U.S. food to Cuba began. The 24,000 metric tons for corn were being sent to replenish what was lost when Hurricane Michelle struck on November 4.

● 2003 - The La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, rebuilt following arson, is reopened.

● 2003 - President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.

● 2004 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.

● 2005 - The Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales, Australia starts to issue NSW Photo Card.

● 2006 - An enquiry into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales concludes that she was not murdered, in essence disproving the many existing conspiracy theories.

BIRTHS

● 1009 - Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan (d. 1045)

● 1503 - Nostradamus, French astrologer (d. 1566)

● 1546 - Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (d. 1601)

● 1625 - Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville, French orientalist (d. 1695)

● 1631 - Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway, English philosopher (d. 1679)

● 1640 - (baptism date) - Aphra Behn, English playwright and novelist (d. 1689)

● 1678 - Daniel Neal, English historian (d. 1743)

● 1720 - Justus Möser, German statesman (d. 1794)

● 1730 - James Bruce, Scottish explorer of Ethiopia (d. 1794)

● 1739 - Pierre du Pont, French economist (d. 1817)

● 1775 - Philander Chase, American founder of Kenyon College (d. 1852)

● 1775 - Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, British admiral (d. 1860)

● 1824 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter (d. 1898)

● 1856 - Louis Marshall, American lawyer and activist (d. 1929)

● 1866 - Roger Fry, British artist and art critic (d. 1934)

● 1870 - Karl Renner, President of Austria (d. 1950)

● 1881 - Katherine MacDonald, American actress and film producer (d. 1956)

● 1884 - Jane Cowl, American actress and playwright (d. 1950)

● 1895 - Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)

● 1895 - King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)

● 1896 - Jimmy Doolittle, American General (d. 1993)

● 1897 - Margaret Chase Smith, American politician (d. 1995)

● 1897 - Kurt Schuschnigg, Austrian politician (d. 1977)

● 1902 - Frances Bavier, American actress (d. 1989)

● 1908 - Morey Amsterdam, American comedian and actor (d. 1996)

● 1909 - Edward Tatum, American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)

● 1911 - Spike Jones, American comedian and musician (d. 1965)

● 1913 - Dan Dailey, American actor (d. 1978)

● 1914 - Karl Carstens, President of Germany (d. 1992)

● 1914 - Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (d. 2003)

● 1916 - Shirley Jackson, American writer (d. 1965)

● 1918 - James T. Aubrey, American television executive (d. 1994)

● 1918 - B.K.S. Iyengar, Indian yoga advocate

● 1919 Shirley Jackson, American author (d. 1965)

● 1920 - Clark Terry, American trumpeter

● 1922 - Don Hewitt, TV producer (''60 Minutes'')

● 1922 - Nikolay Basov, Soviet-born Russian physicist and Noble Prize laureate (d. 2001)

● 1923 - Gerard Reve, Dutch writer

● 1924 - Raj Kapoor, Indian actor (d. 1988)

● 1925 - Sam Jones, baseball player (d. 1971)

● 1931 - Jon Elia, Pakistani scholar, poet and philosopher (d. 2002)

● 1932 - George Furth, Actor-playwright

● 1932 - Charlie Rich, American musician (d. 1995)

● 1932 - Abbe Lane, American singer and actress

● 1935 - Lee Remick, American actress (d. 1991)

● 1935 - Lewis Arquette, American film actor, writer and producer (d. 2001)

● 1938 - Hal Williams,Actor

● 1938 - Leonardo Boff, Brazilian theologian

● 1941 - Ellen Willis, American journalist (d. 2006)

● 1946 - Jane Birkin, British-born actress

● 1946 - Patty Duke, American actress

● 1946 - Michael Ovitz, American film producer

● 1946 - Stan Smith, American tennis player

● 1946 - Joyce Vincent-Wilson, Pop singer (Tony Orlando and Dawn)

● 1946 - Ruth Fuchs, East German athlete

● 1947 - Christopher Parkening, American guitarist

● 1947 - Linda Sutton, British artist

● 1948 - Lester Bangs, American music journalist (d. 1982)

● 1948 - Dee Wallace-Stone, American actress

● 1949 - Bill Buckner, American baseball player

● 1949 - Cliff Williams, British-born bassist (AC/DC)

● 1951 - Jan Timman, Dutch chess grandmaster

● 1953 - René Eespere, Soviet-born Estonian composer

● 1954 - Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (d. 1993)

● 1954 - James Horan, American actor

● 1954 - Steven MacLean, Canadian astronaut

● 1956 - Hanni Wenzel, Liechtenstein skier

● 1957 - Gary Ferris, American author

● 1958 - Mike Scott, British singer and songwriter (The Waterboys)

● 1958 - Spider Stacy (Peter Richard Stacy), British-born tin whistle player (The Pogues)

● 1960 - Bob Paris, American bodybuilder and gay rights advocate

● 1962 - Ginger Lynn (Ginger Lynn Allen), American adult film actress

● 1963 - Cynthia Gibb, American actress

● 1965 - Craig Biggio, American baseball player

● 1965 - Ken Hill, baseball player

● 1966 - Bill Ranford, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1966 - Tim Skold, Swedish/American musician

● 1967 - Ewa Białołęcka, Polish writer

● 1969 - Scott Hatteberg, American baseball player

● 1970 - Anna Maria Jopek, Polish singer

● 1971 - Natascha McElhone, British actress

● 1972 - Marcus Jensen, baseball player

● 1973 - Tomasz Radzinski, Polish-born Canadian international footballer

● 1973 - Tia Texada, American actress and singer

● 1973 - Thuy Trang, American actress (d. 2001)

● 1974 - Billy Koch, baseball player

● 1975- Brian Dalyrimple, R&B singer (Soul for Real)

● 1976 - Tammy Blanchard, Actress

● 1976 - Leland Chapman, bounty hunter, son of Duane "Dog" Chapman.

● 1977 - KaDee Strickland, American actress

● 1978 - Patty Schnyder, Tennis Player

● 1978 - Kim St-Pierre, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1979 - Michael Owen, English footballer

● 1979 - Jean-Alain Boumsong, French footballer

● 1980 - Tata Young, Thai-American singer

● 1981 - Johnny Jeter, Professional wrestler

● 1981 - Emilie Heymans, Canadian diver

● 1982 - Anthony Way, British singer and actor

● 1984 - Chris Brunt, Northern Irish footballer

● 1984 - Edward Rainsford, Zimbabwean cricketer

● 1985 - Tom Smith, Welsh Rugby Union Player

● 1985 - Nonami Takizawa, Japanese actress

● 1988 - Nicolas Batum, French basketball player

● 1988 - Vanessa Anne Hudgens, American actress

DEATHS

● 1460 - Guarino da Verona, Italian humanist and translator (b. 1370)

● 1510 - Friedrich of Saxony (b. 1473)

● 1542 - King James V of Scotland (b. 1512)

● 1553 - Hanibal Lucić, Croatian writer (b. 1485)

● 1591 - Saint John of the Cross, Spanish friar and poet (b. 1542)

● 1624 - Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English statesman (b. 1536)

● 1651 - Pierre Dupuy, French scholar (b. 1582)

● 1713 - Thomas Rymer, English historian (b. 1641)

● 1715 - Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1636)

● 1735 - Thomas Tanner, English bishop and antiquarian (b. 1674)

● 1741 - Charles Rollin, French historian (b. 1661)

● 1788 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer (b. 1714)

● 1788 - King Charles III of Spain (b. 1716)

● 1799 - George Washington, first President of the United States (b. 1732)

● 1838 - Jean-Olivier Chénier, French Canadian physician and Patriote (b. 1806)

● 1860 - George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784)

● 1861 - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, consort of Queen Victoria (b. 1819)

● 1865 - Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist (b. 1794)

● 1873 - Louis Agassiz, Swiss-born American zoologist and geologist (b. 1807)

● 1902 - Julia Grant, wife of President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant (b. 1826)

● 1927 - Yulian Vasilievich Sokhotski, Russian mathematician (b. 1842)

● 1947 - Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)

● 1947 - Edward Higgins, General of The Salvation Army (b. 1864)

● 1956 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi, president of Finland (b. 1870 (as Johan Gustaf Hellstén)).

● 1963 - Dinah Washington, American singer (b. 1924)

● 1964 - William Bendix, American actor (b. 1906)

● 1970 - Franz Schlegelberger, German Nazi politician (b. 1876)

● 1971 - Dick Tiger, African-born boxer (b. 1929)

● 1978 - Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist (b. 1886)

● 1984 - Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish writer and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)

● 1985 - Catherine Doherty, social justice activist (b. 1896)

● 1985 - Roger Maris, baseball player (b. 1934)

● 1989 - Andrei D. Sakharov, Russian physicist, activist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)

● 1990 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (b. 1921)

● 1993 - Myrna Loy, American actress (b. 1905)

● 1997 - Kurt Winter, Canadian guitarist (The Guess Who) (b. 1946)

● 1997 - Stubby Kaye, American actor (b. 1918)

● 1998 - Norman Fell, American actor (b. 1924)

● 1998 - Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and Mayor of Dallas, Texas (b. 1924)

● 1998 - Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr., American civil rights activist and author (b. 1928)

● 2003 - Jeanne Crain, American actress (b. 1925)

● 2003 - Blas Ople, foreign minister of the Philippines (b. 1927)

● 2004 - Rod Kanehl, baseball player (b. 1934)

● 2004 - Fernando Poe, Jr., Filipino actor and presidential candidate (b. 1939)

● 2005 - Dr. Rodney William Whitaker, of pen name Trevanian, American author (b. 1931)

● 2006 - Anton Balasingham, chief political strategist of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (b. 1938)

● 2006 - Ahmet Ertegün, co-founder of Atlantic Records (b. 1923)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. John of the Cross, priest/doctor
● St. Jucundus
● St. Agnellus
● St. Bartholomew Buonpedoni
● St. Venantius Fortunatus
● St. Viator
● St. Drusus
● St. Fingar
● St. Heron
● St. Justus & Abundius
● St. Nicasius
● St. Matronian
● St. Pompeius
● St. Spyridon

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 1 (Civil Date: December 14)
● Prophet Nahum.
● Martyr Ananias of Persia.
● Righteous Philaret the Merciful of Amnia in Asia Minor.
● St. Ioannicius of Devich (Serbia).

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Onesimus, Archbishop of Ephesus.
● Saints Ananias and Solochonus, Archbishops.
● Ephesus.
● St. Anthony the New of Chios, monk.

● Lutheran:
● St. Teresa of Avila
● St. Spyridon
● St. John of the Cross, priest/doctor

● Alabama : Admission Day (1819)

● El Salvador : Revolution Day

● Iran : Death of Iman Ja'far Sadeq Day

● Turkey : Festival of Mevlana-Jelaeddin Rumi (Whirling Dervishes)

● World : Halcyon Days

● India - National Energy Conservation 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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