December 20......

December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining in the year on this date.

EVENTS

● 69 - General Vespasianus occupies Rome

● 1046 - Synod of Sutri: German king Henry III removes Popes Gregory VI, Benedictus IX & Silvester III & names Bishop Siutger, Pope Clemens II

● 1192 - Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna

● 1448 - Pope Nicolaas V named Utrechts bishop Rudolf of Diepholt, cardinal

● 1522 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.

● 1585 - English fleet & earl Robert Dudley van Leicester reach Vlissingen

● 1600 - Ottario Rinuccini/Giulio Caccini's opera "Euridice" published

● 1606 - The "Susan Constant," "Godspeed" and "Discovery" set sail from London. Their landing at Jamestown, VA, was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.

● 1626 - Emperor Ferdinand II/Transylvanian monarch Gábor Betlen signs Peace of Pressburg

● 1661 - Corporation Act enforced in England

● 1669 - 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery

● 1688 - Prince Willem III's troops pull into London

● 1694 - Frederik van Brandenburg flees Schweiben

● 1699 - Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year changed-Sept 1 to Jan 1

● 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's army meets de Esk

● 1780 - England declares war on Netherlands

● 1790 - 1st successful US cotton mill to spin yarn (Pawtucket RI)

● 1803 - Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from France to US for $27 million at a ceremony in New Orleans, without consultation with any of the native peoples living there.

● 1820 - The state of Missouri enacted legislation to tax bachelors between the ages of 21-50 for being unmarried. The tax was $1 a year.

● 1830 - England, France, Prussia, Austria & Russia recognize Belgium

● 1835 - Cherokee Indians forced to cede their Georgia lands and cross the Mississippi River when gold was discovered on their territory. The evacuation was carried out, during the winter of 1838-39, by federal troops commanded by General Winfield Scott. Along the way, 10% of the tribe was wiped out by disease, fatigue, and exposure. The march has hence been known as the "Trail of Tears."

● 1850 - Hawaiian post office established

● 1860 - In response to the victory of Republican Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election six weeks before, South Carolina becomes the first Southern state to secede from the United States. "Ordinance of Secession," declared that "the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved." South Carolina legislature voted 169-0 for the Ordinance of Secession.

● 1861 - Battle of Dranesville VA

● 1862 - Battle of Holly Spring MS

● 1862 - Battle of Kelly's Ford VA

● 1862 - Brigadier-General Nathan B Forrest occupies Trenton KY

● 1862 - Vicksburg campaign

● 1864 - Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, GA as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."

● 1864 - Battle of Fort Fisher NC

● 1865 - De Clear-Alkmaar railway opens

● 1876 - Hannah Omish at 12 is youngest person ever hanged in U.S.

● 1878 - Ezra Heywood, anarchist, imprisoned for "obscenity," pardoned by President Hayes after popular agitation for his release.

● 1879 - Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park

● 1880 - New York's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as "Great White Way"

● 1880 - Battle at Bronker's Spruit, Transvaal: Farmers beat Britten

● 1881 - Branch Rickey, the American baseball executive famous for creating the farm team system and hiring the first black players, was born.

● 1883 - International cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls

● 1891 - Strongman Louis Cyr withstands the pull of 4 horses

● 1892 - Alexander T. Brown and George Stillman patented the pneumatic tire.

● 1893 - 1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia

● 1900 - Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft)

● 1902 - Birth of Miura Seiichi. Christian socialist who gave up religion in 1930, and became an anarcho-syndicalist when he met Sanshiro Ishikawa. Exiled to China in 1939 with Tsing-Tao when Japan became fascist. Returned December 1945. The following year, in Tokyo, helped found the Japanese Federation of anarchists, and assumed responsibility for the international section until 1969.

● 1905 - Start of eleven-day general strike against Tsarist regime in Russia.

● 1906 - Venezuela (under Vice-President Gomez) attacks Dutch fleet

● 1907 - Explosion at Yolande AL, coal mine kills 91

● 1915 - World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.

● 1915 - Russian troops overrun Qom, Persia

● 1917 - Referendum defeats proposal to conscript single men, Australia.

● 1917 - Cheka, first Soviet secret police in Czechoslovakia forms under Felix Dzerzjinski

● 1919 - Canadian National Railways established (North America's longest, 50,000 KM)

● 1919 - US House of Representatives restricts immigration

● 1920 - Bob Hope becomes an American citizen

● 1921 - American League votes to return to best-of-7 World Series, while National League votes best-of-9 Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis casts deciding vote for best-of-7

● 1922 - 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)

● 1922 - Polish parliament selects Stanislaw Wojcieckowski as president

● 1924 - Adolf Hitler freed from jail early

● 1928 - 1st international dogsled mail leaves Minot ME for Montréal, Québec

● 1928 - Ethel Barrymore Theater opens at 243 W 47th St NYC

● 1929 - Mount Davidson dedicated as a San Francisco city park

● 1933 - The film "Flying Down to Rio" was first shown in New York.

● 1933 - Bolivia & Paraguay sign weapon cease fire

● 1935 - Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Ad Catholici Sacerdotii

● 1938 - Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (Pennsylvania) receives patent on the Iconoscope TV system

● 1939 - Radio Australia begins overseas short-wave service

● 1941 - World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.

● 1941 - Free France under Admiral Muselier occupies St-Pierre et Miquélon

● 1941 - Japanese troops lands on Mindanao

● 1942 - 1st Japanese bombing of Calcutta

● 1943 - Death of German feminist and pacifist Anita Augsburg.

● 1943 - "International" is no longer USSR National Anthem

● 1944 - Battle of Bastogne, Nazis surround 101st Airborne (NUTS!)

● 1944 - Archbishop De Young & bishop Huibers condemn black market

● 1944 - Bishop forbids membership in non Catholic unions

● 1945 - Rationing of auto tires ends in US

● 1946 - The Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life" had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, a day before its "official" world premiere. James Stewart and Donna Reed star in the film.

● 1946 - In Indochina (Vietnam), full-scale guerrilla warfare between Vietnam partisans and French troops began.

● 1948 - Second Chamber accept 2nd Police Action in Indonesia

● 1950 - "Harvey", starring James Stewart, premieres in New York

● 1951 - Atomic energy first used to generate electricity in U.S. Nuclear power first harvested when EBR-1 powers four light bulbs.

● 1952 - United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.

● 1954 - Buick Motor Company signed Jackie Gleason to one of the largest contracts ever entered into with an entertainer. Gleason agreed to produce 78 half-hour shows over a two-year period for $6,142,500.

● 1955 - Yugoslavia wins UN vote; The United Nations General Assembly elects Yugoslavia to the hotly contested temporary seat on the Security Council.

● 1956 - Military coup under colonel Simbolon in Sumatra

● 1956 - Montgomery AL, removed race-based seat assignments on its buses

● 1957 - Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army for National Service

● 1957 - Birth of British working class singer and activist Billy Bragg.

● 1958 - Thirty-six arrested for re-entering Thor rocket base to prevent construction. North Pickenham, Norfolk, Britain.

● 1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.

● 1960 - Auschwitz-commandant Richard Bär arrested in German Federal Republic

● 1962 - The Osmond brothers debut on the Andy Williams Show

● 1963 - The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners. It was only for the holiday season. It closed again on January 6, 1964.

● 1963 - Massemba-Debate elected President of Congo-Brazzaville

● 1963 - Trial against 21 camp guards of Auschwitz begins

● 1964 - Levi Eshkol forms Israeli government

● 1966 - Brussels: Nuclear Planning Group established

● 1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1967 - "The Graduate", starring Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft, premieres

● 1967 - 474,300 US soldiers in Vietnam

● 1967 - Ian Anderson & Glenn Cornick form rock group Jethro Tull

● 1968 - American social activist writer John Steinbeck, 66, dies, New York City. "Grapes of Wrath," "East of Eden," script writer for "Zapata!"

● 1970 - Edward Gierek succeeds Wladyslaw Gomulka as Poland's party leader

● 1971 - Pakistan President Yahya Khan resigns

● 1973 - The Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid

● 1973 - Dutch Antillean government of Evertsz forms

● 1974 - Ethiopia becomes socialist one-party state

● 1975 - Pope Paul VI named J Willebrands archbishop of Utrecht

● 1976 - Chicago Mayor Richard J.(“The Machine”) Daley died at age 74. Infamous for letting his police beat demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

● 1976 - Mayor Richard Daley, lord and ruler of Chicago for 20 years, dies. But he had left spawn...

● 1976 - Israel's PM Yitzhak Rabin resigns

● 1977 - 1st Space walk made by G Grechko from Salyut

● 1977 - RAF -terrorist Knut Folkerts sentenced to 20 years

● 1978 - H R Haldeman, Nixon's White House chief of staff released from jail

● 1979 - Council tenants will have 'right to buy'; More than five million council house tenants in Britain are to be given the right to buy their home.

● 1980 - USSR formally announces death of Alexei Kosygin

● 1980 - NBC broadcasts New York Jets' 24-17 win over Dolphins without audio

● 1983 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat & 4,000 loyalists evacuate Lebanon

● 1983 - El Salvador adopts constitution

● 1984 - The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.

● 1984 - 33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in the Yale library

● 1984 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1985 - Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC

● 1985 - Position of American Poet Laureate established (Robert Warren is 1st)

● 1986 - Three black men attacked by about a dozen bat-wielding young whites in Howard Beach neighborhood, Queens, New York City; one of them, Michael Griffith (23), hit by a car and dies during flight. A year and a day later, three of the whites are convicted of manslaughter in the death.

● 1987 - Worst peacetime shipping disaster, more than 3,000 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion.

● 1988 - The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

● 1988 - Animal rights terrorists firebomb Harrod's department store, London, after finding poodle fur collars on some coats.

● 1988 - NBC signs lease to stay in NYC, 33 more years

● 1988 - Premier Ranasinghe Premadasa elected President of Sri Lanka

● 1989 - U.S. invades Panama. Thousands of Panamanians die, leader Manuel Noriega jailed in U.S., drug running and corruption continue but with U.S. investor-friendly government. U.S. media bleats. Invasion force included 13,000 troops who join the approximately 12,000 American soldiers already stationed in the country. A watershed invasion, the first of a thus far endless post-Berlin Wall succession of them.

● 1989 - US troops invade Panamá & oust Manuel Noriega, but don't catch him

● 1989 - General Noriega, Panama's former dictator, was overthrown by a United States invasion force invited by the new civilian government. The project was known as Operation Just Cause. The only cause for the invasion is that Noriega stopped sharing his profits with the U. S.

● 1989 - Premier Lubbers sees CDA-party leader Elco Brinkman as successor

● 1990 - Pentagon warns Saddam Hussein that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15

● 1990 - Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns

● 1990 - Reservist Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn refuses orders for Gulf War, Kansas. She is later sentenced to prison, and the Kansas medical board strips Huet-Vaughn of her license to practice, because of her conscientious objection.

● 1991 - CIA classifies task force report on greater openness as "secret."

● 1991 - Ante Markovic resigned as federal Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.

● 1991 - Oliver Stone's "JFK" opened in the U.S.

● 1991 - Paul Keating installed as premier of Australia

● 1992 - Northwest & KLM introduce a new joint logo "Worldwide Reliability"

● 1992 - Slobodan Milosevic re-elected President of Serbia

● 1993 - Donald Trump weds Marla Maples

● 1994 - Hundreds of thousands link hands in Chechnya in human chain to protest Russian invasion.

● 1994 - Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk died at age 85.

● 1994 - Marcelino Corniel, a homeless man, was shot and mortally wounded by White House security officers. He had brandished a knife near the executive mansion.

● 1994 - Ivan Lendl retired after a 17-year tennis career.

● 1995 - An American Airlines Flight 965 Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia, 159 die, 5 survive

● 1995 - 'Divorce': Queen to Charles and Diana; The Queen has urged the Prince and Princess of Wales to seek "an early divorce."

● 1995 - NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.

● 1996 - Astronomer Carl “billions and billions” Sagan died at age 62.

● 1996 - NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

● 1996 - Doctors reported that a Cypriot woman who had taken fertility drugs was carrying about 11 embryos.

● 1998 - The United States' first major anti-road protest camp, trying to stop expansion of a freeway near Minneapolis, is broken up by 600 police.

● 1998 - In Houston, TX, a 27-year-old woman gave birth to the only known living set of octuplets.

● 1999 - Vermont's Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples.

● 1999 - Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.

● 2001 - Argentinian president Fernando de la Rua resigns and flees the presidential compound in a helicopter as hundreds of thousands of protesters fill the streets of Buenos Aires and other Argentinian cities in response to IMF-imposed financial policies and the resulting economic crisis.

● 2001 - The U.S. Congress passed a $20 billion package to finance the war against terrorism taking place in Afghanistan.

● 2001 - The first British peacekeepers arrived in Afghanistan to help the nation heal after decades of war. If believe this crap, I have stunning ocean front property for sale in Montana.

● 2002 - The nation's 10 biggest brokerages agreed to pay $1.44 billion and fundamentally change the way they did business to settle allegations they'd misled investors by hyping certain stocks.

● 2002 - Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks. He said it would have been a good thing for racist Strom Thurmond to have been elected president in 1948.

● 2005 - 2005 New York City transit strike: New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike, shutting down all New York City Subway and Bus services for three days.

● 2005 - US District Court Judge John E. Jones III ruled against mandating teaching "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (Pennsylvania).

BIRTHS

● 1494 - Oronce Finé, French mathematician (d. 1555)

● 1537 - King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)

● 1552 - Death of Katherine von Bora, 53, a former nun and the widow of German reformer Martin Luther. They married in 1525, when Luther was 42 and Katie was 26, and bore six children. Luther died in 1546; Katie, six years later. Luther considered sex ‘a necessary evil of marriage’ for procreation only and not enjoyment.

● 1566 - Edward Wightman, English Baptist preacher (d. 1612)

● 1579 - (baptized) John Fletcher, English playwright (d. 1625)

● 1626 - Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (d. 1692)

● 1629 - Pieter de Hooch, Dutch painter (d. 1684)

● 1717 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (d. 1787)

● 1786 - Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (d. 1853)

● 1787 - A revival broke out among the Shakers of New Lebanon, Indiana, soon igniting a religious fervor among other denominations, especially in Kentucky and other colonial frontier regions.

● 1792 - Nicolas Charlet, French painter (d. 1845)

● 1833 - Samuel Mudd, American physician (d. 1883)

● 1838 - Edwin Abbott Abbott, English schoolmaster, theologian, and author (d. 1926)

● 1841 - Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)

● 1845 - Baldwin Institute was chartered in Berea, Ohio, by the Methodists. Changing its name in 1854 to Baldwin University, the college merged in 1914 with German Wallace College and adopted its present name: Baldwin Wallace University.

● 1856 - Newberry College was chartered in Newberry, SC, under Lutheran auspices. The campus moved to Walhalla, SC, in 1868, but returned to Newberry in 1877.

● 1860 - Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)

● 1861 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (d. 1926)

● 1865 - Elsie De Wolfe, American socialite and interior decorator (d. 1950)

● 1868 - Harvey Firestone, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938)

● 1881 - Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)

● 1886 - Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis player (d. 1974)

● 1890 - Yvonne Arnaud, French-born actress (d. 1958)

● 1890 - Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)

● 1894 - Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (1939-41, 1949-66) (d. 1978)

● 1898 - Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)

● 1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor (d. 1967)

● 1902 - Max Lerner, American educator and columnist (d. 1992)

● 1902 - Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)

● 1902 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)

● 1904 - Spud Davis, baseball player (d. 1984)

● 1907 - Paul Francis Webster, musician (d. 1984)

● 1916 - Michel Chartrand, Quebec union leader

● 1917 - David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist (d. 1992)

● 1918 - Jean Marchand, French Canadian trade unionist and politician (d. 1988)

● 1918 - Audrey Totter, American actress

● 1922 - George Roy Hill, American film director (d. 2002)

● 1924 - Judy LaMarsh, Canadian politician and broadcaster (d. 1980)

● 1926 - Sir Geoffrey Howe, British politician

● 1926 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician

● 1927 - Charlie Callas, Comedian-actor

● 1927 - Kim Young-sam, President of South Korea

● 1932 - John Hillerman, Actor (Higgin on ''Magnum P.I.'')

● 1933 - Jean Carnahan, U.S. Senator

● 1933 - Rik Van Looy, Belgian cyclist

● 1938 - John Harbison, American composer

● 1944 - Bobby Colomby, American musician (Blood, Sweat & Tears)

● 1945 - Peter George Criscoula (Criss), American drummer and singer (KISS)

● 1946 - Uri Geller, Israeli psychic and fraud

● 1946 - Sonny Perdue, Governor of Georgia

● 1946 - John Spencer, American actor (d. 2005)

● 1946 - Dick Wolf, American television series creator

● 1947 - Gigliola Cinquetti, Italian singer

● 1948 - Alan Parsons, Rock singer

● 1949 - Soumaïla Cissé, Malian politician

● 1949 - Cecil Cooper, Major League baseball player

● 1951 - Gilbert Montagné, French musician

● 1951 - Peter May - Writer, Scottish novelist and scriptwriter

● 1952 - Jenny Agutter, English actress

● 1954 - Michael Badalucco, American actor

● 1956 - Blanche Baker, Actress

● 1956 - Junji Hirata, Japanese professional wrestler

● 1957 - Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter

● 1957 - Mike Watt, American bassist

● 1957 - Joyce Hyser, American actress

● 1957 - Anna Vissi, Greek singer

● 1960 - Nalo Hopkinson, Canadian writer

● 1961 - Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: 'What God chooses for us children of men is always the best.'

● 1963 - Infanta Elena of Spain, Duchess of Lugo

● 1964 - Kris Tyler, Country singer

● 1965 - Rich Gannon, American football player

● 1966 - Chris Robinson, American singer (Black Crowes)

● 1968 - Karl Wendlinger, Austrian racing driver

● 1970 - Nicole DeBoer, Canadian actress (“Deep Space Nine,” “The Dead Zone”)

● 1973 - Cory Stillman, National Hockey League forward

● 1974 - Die, Japanese musician (Dir en grey)

● 1975 - Bartosz Bosacki, Polish footballer

● 1976 - Jang Hyuk, Korean actor

● 1976 - Aubrey Huff, baseball player

● 1976 - Adam Powell, Neopets creator

● 1977 - Jon Armstrong, American magician

● 1978 - Njitap Geremi, Cameroon footballer

● 1978 - Andrei Markov, National Hockey League defenceman

● 1979 - Michael Rogers, Australian cyclist

● 1980 - Ashley Cole, English footballer

● 1981 - Roy Williams, American football player

● 1982 - David Wright, baseball player

● 1983 - Lucy Pinder, British model

● 1990 - JoJo, American child singer

DEATHS

● 217 - Pope Zephyrinus

● 860 - King Ethelbald of Wessex

● 910 - Alfonso III of Leon

● 1022 - Elvira Mendes, wife of Alfonso V of Castile (b. 996)

● 1355 - Stefan Dušan, Serb king and tsar (b. circa 1308)

● 1494 - Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet

● 1524 - Thomas Linacre, English scholar and physician

● 1539 - Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer

● 1590 - Ambroise Paré, French physician (b. 1510)

● 1722 - Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)

● 1723 - Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (b. 1652)

● 1740 - Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, English military officer and statesman (b. 1675)

● 1768 - Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (b. 1692)

● 1783 - Antonio Soler, Spanish composer (b. 1729)

● 1812 - Sacagawea, Shoshone guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition

● 1917 - Lucien Petit-Breton, Argentine-French cyclist (b. 1882)

● 1921 - Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (b. 1850)

● 1929 - Émile Loubet, 7th President of France (b.1838)

● 1935 - Martin O'Meara, Australian soldier (b. 1882)

● 1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)

● 1941 - Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)

● 1954 - James Hilton, American author (b. 1900)

● 1956 - Ramon Carrillo, Argentine neuroscientist and Public Health minister (b. 1906)

● 1961 - Moss Hart, American dramatist (b. 1904)

● 1961 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)

● 1968 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)

● 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Prime Minister of Spain (assassinated) (b. 1903)

● 1973 - Bobby Darin, American singer (b. 1936)

● 1974 - André Jolivet, French composer (b. 1905)

● 1976 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)

● 1982 - Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-born pianist (b. 1887)

● 1984 - Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1946)

● 1986 - Joe DeSa, baseball player (b. 1959)

● 1988 - Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian television pioneer, president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (b. 1908)

● 1989 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)

● 1991 - Simone Beck, French chef (b. 1904)

● 1994 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)

● 1996 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer (b. 1934)

● 1997 - Denise Levertov, English-born poet (b. 1923)

● 1997 - Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)

● 1998 - Irene Hervey, American actress (b. 1910)

● 1998 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)

● 1999 - Hank Snow, Canadian singer (b. 1914)

● 1999 - Riccardo Freda, Italian film director (b. 1909)

● 2000 - Mirza Ghulam Hafiz, Indian statesman, politician, and philanthropist (b. 1920)

● 2001 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (b. 1912)

● 2001 - Léopold Sédar Senghor, first President of Senegal (b. 1906)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Dominic of Silos
● St. O Clavis
● St. Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne
● St. Ammon
● St. Dominic of Brescia
● St. Julius
● St. Liberatus & Bajulus
● Bl. Peter de la Cadireta
● St. Peter Thi
● St. Philogonius

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 7 (Civil Date: December 20)
● Nativity Fast.
● St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.
● St. Anthony, abbot of Siya Monastery (Novgorod).
● St. Nilus, monk of Stolbensk Lake.
● St. Paul the Obedient.
● St. John, faster of St. Sabbas' Monastery.
● St. John, faster of the Kiev Caves.
● Martyr Athenodorus of Mesopotamia.
● St. Gregory the Silent of Mt. Athos.

● Greek Calendar:
● Martyr Neophytus.
● Martyr Dometius.
● Martyrs Isidore, Acepsimas and Leo.
● St. Ignatius, monk, near Blachernae.
● Blessed Gregory of Serbia.

● The first All Faiths Day was celebrated in 2003 in Canandaigua, New York.

● Taiwan : Bank Holiday

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week":
● World : Underdog Day - ( Friday )

FICTIONAL DATES

● 1892 - Phileas Fogg completes around world trip, according to Verne


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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