December 6......

December 6 is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 25 days remaining in the year on this date.

EVENTS

● 963 - Leo VIII elected Pope

● 1160 - Jean Bodels "Jeu de St Nicholas" premieres in Arras

● 1196 - Northern Dutch coast flooded, "Saint-Nicolaas Flood"

● 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev under Danylo of Halych and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.

● 1424 - Don Alfonso V of Aragon grants Barcelona the right to exclude Jews

● 1491 - King Charles VIII of France marries Anna of Bretagne

● 1492 - Haiti discovered by Columbus, at Môle Saint Nicolas

● 1527 - Pope Clemens VII flees to Orvieto

● 1534 - The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar.

● 1538 - German Reformer Martin Luther stated: 'With all our thoughts we can't get beyond the visible and physical. No man's heart comprehends eternity.'

● 1631 - 1st predicted transit of Venus (Kepler) is observed

● 1641 - Don Francisco de Mello appointed land guardian of South Netherlands

● 1648 - Pride's Purge: Thomas Pride prevents 96 presbyterians from sitting in English parliament

● 1723 - Emperor Karel VI's Pragmatic Sanctie declares Constitution

● 1732 - 1st play in American colonies acted by professional players, New York NY

● 1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies army retreats to Scotland

● 1756 - British troops under Robert Clive occupy Fulta India

● 1768 - 1st edition of "Encyclopedia Britannica" published (Scotland)

● 1774 - Austria became the first nation to introduce a state education system.

● 1787 - Laurens Pieter van de Speigel appointed Dutch pension advisor

● 1769 - During the illness of a close friend, English poet William Cowper, 38, penned the lines to the hymn, "Oh, For a Closer Walk with God."

● 1787 - Cokesbury College, the first Methodist college in America, opened its doors in Abingdon, MD. The campus consisted of a three-story building 108 feet long and 40 feet wide.

● 1790 - Congress meets in Philadelphia, new temporary US capitol from New York City.

● 1820 - US President James Monroe re-elected, Daniel D Tompkins Vice-President

● 1822 - Veterinary school in Utrecht opens

● 1825 - President John Adams suggests establishment of a US observatory

● 1833 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin departs Rio de la Plata

● 1843 - Amsterdam-Utrecht railway opens

● 1845 - Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity is founded at Yale College.

● 1849 - Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland

● 1862 - President Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians

● 1864 - Battle of Deveaux's Neck SC

● 1865 - Georgia becomes the 27th and last necessary state to ratify the thirteenth amendment, abolishing slavery in the U.S.

● 1866 - Chicago water supply tunnel 3,227 meters into Lake Michigan completed

● 1869 - Meeting of first national black labor group, the Colored National Labor Convention, in Washington, D.C.

● 1870 - Joseph H Rainey, 1st black in the House of Representatives (South Carolina)

● 1875 - 44th Congress (1875-77) convenes

● 1876 - 1st crematorium in US begins operation, Washington PA

● 1876 - City of Anaheim incorporated for 2nd time

● 1876 - US Electoral College picks Representative Hayes as President (although Tilden won)

● 1877 - Washington Post publishes 1st edition

● 1877 - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb.

● 1882 - Atmosphere of Venus detected during transit

● 1883 - "Ladies' Home Journal" was published for the first time.

● 1884 - Aluminum capstone set atop Washington Monument, Washington DC

● 1889 - Great trial of the Chicago Haymarket anarchists begins.

● 1889 - Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans. He was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America.

● 1896 - D T Suzuki found the awakening at Engakuji temple, in Kamakura

● 1897 - London becomes the world's first city to host motorized taxicabs.

● 1898 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, the German-born photographer whose pioneering images for Life magazine helped define American photojournalism, was born.

● 1903 - Sumatra Atjehs guerilla leader Panglima Polim surrenders

● 1904 - "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine asserts the U.S. right to serve as international policemen anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

● 1907 - Coal mine explosions in Monongah, West Virginia, kills 361 workers. Worst mining disaster in U.S. history.

● 1912 - China votes for universal human rights

● 1914 - German troops over run Lódz

● 1916 - German army under General Mackensen occupies Bucharest

● 1917 - Finland declares independence from Russia (National Day)

● 1917 - The most devastating man-made explosion in the pre-nuclear age occurs when the S.S. Mont Blanc, a French munitions ship, explodes 20 minutes after colliding with a Belgian relief ship in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The massive blast killed more than 1,600 people, injured over 8,000, and destroyed almost the entire north end of the city of Halifax, rendering more than 10,000 homeless. The resulting shock wave shattered windows 40 miles away, and the sound of the explosion was as far away as New England.

● 1918 - U.S. Dept. of War abolishes the practice of manacling defiant prisoners to the walls of their cells in solitary confinement, used to torture conscientious objectors in U.S. prisons during World War I.

● 1921 - The Irish Free State, composing four-fifths of Ireland, was declared under an historic peace agreement. However, Eamon DeValera, the President of Ireland objected that his state remained part of the British Commonwealth. Not until 1949 did the Irish Free State sever all ties with Britain, as the Republic of Eire.

● 1922 - One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.

● 1922 - 1st electric power line commercial carrier in US, Utica NY

● 1923 - 1st presidential address broadcast on radio (President Calvin Coolidge)

● 1925 - Strike by 125,000 textile workers in Bombay, India.

● 1925 - Italy, Britain & Egypt sign Jaghbub accord (Italy)

● 1926 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini introduced a tax on bachelors.

● 1927 - Marcus Garvey deported as an undesirable alien.

● 1929 - Turkey introduces female suffrage

● 1930 - Missionary linguist Frank Laubach wrote in a letter: 'Sometimes one feels that there is a discord between the cross and beauty. But...a man has not found his highest beauty until his brow is tinged with care for some cause he loves more than himself. The beauty of sacrifice is the final word in beauty.'

● 1933 - U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that the James Joyce novel Ulysses is not obscene.

● 1933 - Dorothy Day and others start Catholic Worker newspaper, New York City; House of Hospitality opened soon after.

● 1933 - Kandinsky and Klee leave Germany for France and Switzerland respectively; 60,000 other artists (authors, actors, painters, musicians) flee between 1933-39.

● 1938 - 117 Spanish knights under Captain Piet Laros return to Netherlands

● 1938 - French/German non-attack treaty drawn (Ribbentrop-Bonnet Pact)

● 1940 - Gestapo arrest German resistance fighter/poster artist Helen Ernst

● 1940 - Pietro Badoglio resigns as viceroy of Ethiopia

● 1941 - NYC Council agrees to build Idlewild (Kennedy) Airport in Queens

● 1941 - Dutch & British pilots see Japanese invasion fleet at Singapore

● 1941 - King Leopold of Belgium marries Lilian Baels

● 1942 - Queen Wilhelmina announces Dutch Commonwealth

● 1942 - RAF bombs Philips factory (150 die)

● 1944 - US 95th Infantry division reaches Westwall

● 1947 - Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by U.S. President Truman.

● 1949 - Blues legend Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) dies, New York City. Founding father of socially-conscious American blues. Influenced Woody Guthrie, The Weavers, Bob Dylan, Martin Mull, myriad others.

● 1950 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Mirabile illud

● 1952 - Czechoslovakian government tells Israeli ambassador, he's persona non grata

● 1954 - Simone de Beauvoir receives Prix Goncourt

● 1955 - New York psychologist Joyce Brothers won "$64,000 Question" on boxing

● 1955 - English apologist C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter: 'It is a dreadful truth that the state of having to depend solely on God is what we all dread most... It is good of Him to force us; but dear me, how hard to feel that it is good at the time.'

● 1956 - Nelson Mandela & 156 others arrested for political activities in South Africa

● 1956 - The water polo Blood In The Water match between Hungary and the former USSR took place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, representative of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

● 1956 - Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba begins.

● 1957 - First U.S. attempt to launch an artificial satellite, a sphere fully 6.4 inches in diameter, failed when the Vanguard rocket carrying it rose less than five feet, toppled over, and exploded.

● 1957 - AFL-CIO members voted to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters were readmitted in 1987.

● 1957 - Indonesia begins nationalizing Dutch possessions

● 1958 - Forty-six enter Thor rocket site in order to prevent construction. North Pickenham, Norfolk, Britain.

● 1958 - US lunar probe Pioneer 3 reaches 107,269 km, falls back

● 1960 - Gene Autry and Bob Reynolds were granted the Los Angeles Angels baseball franchise by the American League.

● 1961 - Frantz Fanon, 36, having completed "Wretched of the Earth," dies, Washington, D.C. The book appears in English in 1965.

● 1962 - Choking fog spreads across Britain; Emergency services are on standby at every London hospital as thick fog continues to affect public health.

● 1962 - US abandons Skybolt ballistic missile program

● 1963 - Beatles begin a tradition of releasing a Christmas record for fans

● 1964 - President Segni of Italy resigns

● 1965 - Rose Pesotta dies. Dressmaker, labor activist, the only woman on the General Executive Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers (ILGWU) from 1933-1944, engaged in a 10-year fight to organize workers, running up against the opposition of the communist faction. Close friend of Emma Goldman, with whom she traveled to Europe and England.

● 1965 - Pakistan's Islamic Ideology Advisory Committee recommends that Islamic Studies be made a compulsory subject for Muslim students from primary to graduation level.

● 1965 - 2 trucks crashed into a crowd of dancers (Sotouboua Togo) kills 125

● 1966 - Rally, Madison Square Garden: SANE and 36 supporting organizations, Floyd McKissick, I.F. Stone, Pete Seeger participate. Hundreds of balloons with peace doves released.

● 1966 - Polio vaccination becomes obligatory in Belgium

● 1967 - USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR

● 1968 - Baseball dismisses Commissioner William Eckert after 3 years

● 1969 - USSR performs nuclear test

● 1969 - A free concert by the Rolling Stones at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, Calif., was marred by the deaths of four people, including, Meredith Hunter, a man who was stabbed by a Hell's Angel.

● 1971 - Pakistan breaks diplomatic relations with India following New Delhi's recognition of Bangladesh.

● 1971 - Lewis Franklin Powell confirmed as Supreme Court justice

● 1973 - The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3). Gerald Ford sworn-in as 1st unelected Vice-President, succeeds Spiro T Agnew.

● 1973 - Bahrain's constitution goes into effect

● 1975 - Senator Robert Dole & Elizabeth Hanford marry

● 1975 - Balcombe Street Siege: An IRA Active Service Unit takes a couple hostage in Balcombe Street, London.

● 1976 - War criminal Pieter Menten arrested in Zurich

● 1977 - Angry workers lock up production manager and the controller as hostages at the Swadeshi Cotton Mills in Kanpur province, India. A fracas between police and 3,000 workers ensues, with the hostages being killed when cops open fire.

● 1977 - South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country

● 1978 - Spain approves its latest constitution in a referendum.

● 1980 - Jim Bakker rapes Jessica Hahn

● 1980 - NASA launches Intelsat V

● 1981 - Two thousand women march in Tokyo in remembrance of the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor with a banner, "We Will Not Allow The Way To War."

● 1982 - 11 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed when a bomb exploded in a pub in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. The Irish National Liberation Army was responsible for planting the bomb.

● 1982 - Senator Ted & Joan Kennedy divorce

● 1982 - Bomb attack on Londonderry, North Ireland disco, 17 killed

● 1983 - Transplant makes British medical history; Surgeons have successfully completed the first heart and lung transplant operation to be performed in Britain.

● 1983 - In Jerusalem, a bomb planted on a bus exploded killing six Israelis and wounding 44.

● 1984 - Children picket to demand release of their political prisoner parents by the U.S.-backed Marcos dictatorship, Mendiola Bridge, Philippines.

● 1984 - Hijackers aboard Kuwaiti jetliner kill 2nd hostage

● 1984 - France performs nuclear test

● 1985 - Congressional negotiators reached an agreement on a deficit-cutting proposal that later became the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law.

● 1985 - UK joins US Star Wars project

● 1986 - Conscientious objectors occupy government office for C.O.'s, Madrid, Spain.

● 1986 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

● 1987 - 3 satanist Missouri teenagers bludgeon comrade to death for "fun"

● 1988 - Arafat meets prominent American Jews in Stockholm, Sweden

● 1988 - Nelson Mandela is transferred to Victor Vester Prison, Capetown

● 1988 - STS-27 Atlantis lands in California after secret mission

● 1988 - Carlos Andrés Pérez re-elected President of Venezuela

● 1989 - Mafia drug kingpin bombs security force at Bogotá, kills 52

● 1989 - Worst Canadian mass murder: Marc Lepine kills 14 women at University of Montréal

● 1989 - Egon Krenz resigned as leader of East Germany.

● 1990 - Police in Oakland, California spend two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them, shouting "please come out and give yourself up!"

● 1990 - Saddam anounces release of all foreign hostages

● 1990 - Shoeless Joe Jackson's signature is sold for $23,100

● 1990 - U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle was enshrined in the Little League Museum's Hall of Excellence. It certainly wasn’t for spelling.

● 1991 - In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege there since May.

● 1991 - "Star Trek VI-The Undiscovered Country" premieres

● 1992 - Germany's primary political parties agreed to tighten postwar asylum laws.

● 1992 - 300,000 Hindus destroy demolish Babri Masjid - a 16th century mosque in Ayodhya, India which had been used as temple since 1949. Hindus believe this structure was built on the site which is the birthplace of Lord Rama. The following two months of Hindu-Muslim rioting resulted in at least 2,000 people being killed.

● 1993 - Former priest James R. Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Porter had admitted molesting 28 children in the 1960s.

● 1994 - Orange County, CA, filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion. The county is one of the richest in the U.S. and became to largest municipality to file for bankruptcy.

● 1994 - Royal approval for oil drilling at Windsor; The Queen gives the go ahead for oil drilling to take place in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

● 1994 - Maltese Falcon auctioned for $398,590

● 1994 - Warner Brothers announces a 5th TV network to begin on Jan 11, 1995

● 1995 - Michael Jackson collapses will rehearsing for an HBO special

● 1997 - A Russian Antonov An-124 transport cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.

● 1998 - In Venezuela, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez was elected president. He had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier.

● 1998 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour connected the first two building blocks of the international space station in the shuttle cargo bay.

● 1999 - SabreTech, an aircraft maintenance company, was convicted of mishandling oxygen canisters blamed for a cargo hold fire that caused the 1996 ValuJet crash in the Everglades that killed 110 people.

● 2001 - Name of the Canadian province of Newfoundland changed to Newfoundland and Labrador.

● 2002 - President George W. Bush pushed Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and economic adviser Larry Lindsey from their jobs in a Cabinet shake-up.

● 2002 - Winona Ryder was sentenced to 36 months of probation and 480 hours of community service stemming from her conviction for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue. She was also ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and restitution.

● 2002 - Officials released the detailed plans for a $4.7 million memorial commemorating Princess Diana. The large oval fountain was planned to be constructed in London's Hyde Park.

● 2003 - Army became the first team to finish 0-13 in major college football history after a 34-6 loss to Navy.

● 2004 - Al-Qaida struck the U.S. Consulate in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, with explosives and machine guns, killing nine people.

● 2005 - David Cameron is new Tory leader; David Cameron beats David Davis to the leadership of the Conservative Party.

● 2005 - Several villagers shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China.

● 2006 - NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

BIRTHS

● 846 -Hasan al-Askari, Shia Imam (d. 874)

● 1285 - King Ferdinand IV of Castile (d. 1312)

● 1421 - King Henry VI of England (d. 1471)

● 1478 - Baldassare Castiglione, Italian diplomat and author (d. 1529)

● 1550 - Orazio Vecchi, Italian composer (baptism) (d. 1605)

● 1586 - Niccolo Zucchi, Italian astronomer (d. 1670)

● 1608 - George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, English soldier (d. 1670)

● 1637 - Sir Edmund Andros, English governor in North America (d. 1714)

● 1640 - Claude Fleury, French historian (d. 1723)

● 1642 - Johann Christoph Bach, German composer (d. 1703)

● 1721 - James Elphinston, British philologist (d. 1809)

● 1721 - Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (d. 1794)

● 1731 - Sophie von La Roche, German writer (d. 1807)

● 1778 - Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, French physicist and chemist (d. 1850)

● 1792 - King William II of the Netherlands (d. 1849)

● 1805 - Adolf Reubke, German organ builder (d. 1875)

● 1805 - Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, French magician (d. 1861)

● 1823 - Friedrich Max Müller, German orientalist (d. 1900)

● 1833 - John Singleton Mosby, American Confederate guerrilla leader (d. 1916)

● 1841 - Frédéric Bazille, French painter (d. 1870)

● 1849 - August von Mackensen, German field marshal (d. 1945)

● 1863 - Charles Martin Hall, American chemist (d. 1914)

● 1872 - William S. Hart, American actor (d. 1946)

● 1875 - Evelyn Underhill, British poet (d. 1941)

● 1886 – (Alfred) Joyce Kilmer, American poet (d. 1918)

● 1890 - Rudolf Schlichter, German artist and writer (d. 1955)

● 1890 - Yoshio Nishina, Japanese physicist (d. 1951)

● 1890 - Dion Fortune, British occultist (d. 1946)

● 1892 - Sir Osbert Sitwell, British author (d. 1969)

● 1896 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (d. 1983)

● 1898 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, German-born photojournalist (d. 1995)

● 1898 - Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics (d. 1987)

● 1900 - Agnes Moorehead, American actress (d. 1974)

● 1903 - Tony Lazzeri, American baseball player (d. 1946)

● 1905 - James J. Braddock, American boxer (d. 1974)

● 1908 - Pierre Graber, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 2003)

● 1908 - Baby Face Nelson, American bank robber (d. 1934)

● 1913 - Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (d. 2004)

● 1916 - Hugo Peretti, American songwriter and record producer (b. 1986)

● 1917 - Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze (d. 1977)

● 1919 - Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (d. 1983)

● 1920 - Dave Brubeck, American pianist and composer

● 1920 - George Porter, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2002)

● 1921 - Otto Graham, American football player (d. 2003)

● 1921 - Piero Piccioni - Italian musician and composer (d. 2004)

● 1924 - Wally Cox, American actor (d. 1973)

● 1928 - Bobby Van, American singer (d. 1980)

● 1929 - Alain Tanner, Swiss filmmaker

● 1929 - Nikolaus Harnoncourt, German conductor

● 1930 - Daniel Lisulo, Prime Minister of Zambia

● 1933 - Henryk Górecki, Polish composer

● 1935 - Jean Lapointe, Quebec comedian, singer and senator

● 1936 - David Ossman, American comedian

● 1937 - Alberto Spencer, Ecuadorian footballer (d. 2006)

● 1940 - Lawrence Bergman, Quebec politician

● 1940 - Richard Edlund, American special effects photographer

● 1941 - Helen Cornelius, Country singer

● 1942 - Peter Handke, Austrian writer

● 1945 - Shekhar Kapur, Indian filmmaker

● 1945 - James Naughton, Actor

● 1945 - Larry Bowa, baseball player and Major League manager

● 1946 - Frankie Beverly, R&B singer

● 1947 - Lawrence Cannon, Canadian politician

● 1948 - Don Nickles, Former U.S. senator, R-Okla.

● 1948 - JoBeth Williams, American actress

● 1948 - Keke Rosberg, Finnish race car driver

● 1950 - Joe Hisaishi, Japanese composer

● 1952 - Rick Charlesworth, Australian Hockey player

● 1952 - Craig Newmark, Founder of craigslist

● 1953 - Tom Hulce, American actor

● 1953 - Gary Ward, baseball player

● 1953 - Kin Shriner, Actor

● 1953 - Wil Shriner, Talk show host

● 1954 - Miles Chapin, Actor

● 1955 - Tish Hinojosa, Folk-country singer

● 1955 - Bill Lloyd, Country singer

● 1955 - Steven Wright, American comedian

● 1955 - Rick Buckler, British drummer (The Jam)

● 1956 - Peter Buck, American guitarist (R.E.M.)

● 1956 - Randy Rhoads, American guitarist (d. 1982)

● 1958 - Nick Park, British filmmaker and animator

● 1961 - David Lovering, American drummer (the Pixies)

● 1962 - Ben Watt, Rock musician (Everything But The Girl)

● 1962 - Janine Turner, American actress

● 1963 - Ulrich Thomsen, Danish actor

● 1967 - Hacken Lee, Hong Kong singer

● 1970 - Ulf ''Buddha'' Ekberg, Rock musician (Ace of Base)

● 1970 - Éric Lemieux, Quebec keyboardist (La Chicane)

● 1971 - Richard Krajicek, Dutch tennis player

● 1971 - Ryan White, American AIDS activist (d. 1990)

● 1972 - Rick Short, Baseball player

● 1974 - Nick Stajduhar, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1975 - Noel Clarke, English actor and writer

● 1976 - Lindsay Price, Actress

● 1976 - Colleen Haskell, American television personality

● 1977 - Kevin Cash, baseball player

● 1977 - Andrew Flintoff, England cricketer

● 1977 - Paul McVeigh, Irish footballer

● 1978 - Darrell Jackson, American Football Player

● 1979 - Tim Cahill, Australia footballer

● 1980 - Steve Lovell, British footballer

● 1982 - Sean Ervine, Zimbabwean cricketer

● 1982 - Ryan Carnes, American actor

● 1985 - Dulce Maria, Mexican actress and singer

● 1986 - Cintia Dicker, Brazilian model

● 1993 - Elián González, Cuban subject of child custody battle

DEATHS

● 343 - Saint Nicholas

● 1185 - King Afonso I of Portugal (b. 1109)

● 1352 - Pope Clement VI (b. 1291)

● 1562 - Jan van Scorel Dutch painter and architect

● 1618 - Jacques-Davy Duperron, French cardinal (b. 1556)

● 1658 - Baltasar Gracián y Morales, Spanish writer (b. 1601)

● 1672 - King John II Casimir of Poland (b. 1609)

● 1675 - John Lightfoot, English churchman (b. 1602)

● 1718 - Nicholas Rowe, English poet and dramatist (b. 1674)

● 1746 - Lady Grizel Baillie, Scottish songwriter (b. 1665)

● 1771 - Giovanni Battista Morgagni, Italian anatomist (b. 1682)

● 1779 - Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, French painter (b. 1699)

● 1788 - Jonathan Shipley, British bishop and politician (b. 1714)

● 1867 - Jean Pierre Flourens, French physician (b. 1794)

● 1868 - August Schleicher, German linguist (b. 1821)

● 1879 - Erastus Brigham Bigelow, American industrialist (b. 1814)

● 1882 - Anthony Trollope, British author (b. 1815)

● 1882 - Alfred Escher, Swiss politician and railroad entrepreneur (b. 1819)

● 1889 - Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1808)

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

● 1924 - Gene Stratton-Porter, American author, screenwriter and naturalist (b. 1863)

● 1949 - Leadbelly, American musician (b. 1885)

● 1951 - Harold Ross, American magazine editor (b. 1892)

● 1955 - Honus Wagner, baseball player (b. 1874)

● 1956 - Dr. Bhimji Ramji Ambedkar, Indian Minister of Law and architect of The Constitution of India (b. 1891)

● 1961 - Frantz Fanon, West Indian psychiatrist and writer (b. 1925)

● 1972 - Janet Munro, British actress (b. 1934)

● 1976 - João Goulart, President of Brazil (b. 1918)

● 1983 - Lucienne Boyer, French singer (b. 1903)

● 1985 - Burr Tillstrom, American puppeteer (b. 1917)

● 1985 - Burleigh Grimes, baseball player (b. 1893)

● 1988 - Roy Orbison, American singer, guitarist, and songwriter (b. 1936)

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

● 1989 - Sammy Fain, American popular music composer (b. 1902)

● 1989 - John Payne, American movie actor (b. 1912)

● 1991 - Sir Richard Stone, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)

● 1992 - Mary Smith or Mimi, Maternal Aunt and Guardian of John Lennon (b. 1914)

● 1993 - Don Ameche, American actor (b. 1908)

● 1996 - Pete Rozelle, commissioner of the National Football League (b. 1926)

● 1997 - Billy Bremner, Scottish footballer (b. 1942)

● 2000 - Werner Klemperer, German-born actor (b. 1920)

● 2001 - Sir Peter Blake, New Zealand sailor and environmentalist (b. 1948)

● 2001 - Charles McClendon, Hall of Fame college football coach (b. 1923)

● 2002 - Philip Berrigan, American civil rights activist (b. 1923)

● 2003 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (b. 1909)

● 2003 - Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (b. 1918)

● 2003 - Jerry Tuite, American professional wrestler (b. 1966)

● 2004 - Raymond Goethals, Belgian football coach (b. 1921)

● 2005 - Charly Gaul, Luxembourg cyclist (b. 1932)

● 2005 - Devan Nair, 3rd President of Singapore (b. 1923)

● 2005 - Danny Williams, South African-born singer (b. 1942)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Nicholas
● St. Dionysia
● St. Abraham of Kratia
● St. Asella
● St. Majoricus
● St. Peter Pascual
● St. Polychronius

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for November 24 (Civil Date: December 6)
● Nativity Fast.
● Afterfeast of the Entry into the Temple.
● Great Martyr Mercurius of Caesarea in Cappadocia.
● Martyr Mercurius of Smolensk.
● Martyrs Augusta the Empress, Porphyrius, and 200 soldiers at Alexandria with Great Martyr Catherine.
● Virgin Mastridia of Alexandria.
● St. Gregory of Pontus.
● Martyr Alexander at Corinth.
● St. Simon, abbot of Soiga Monastery (Vologda).
● St. Luke, steward of the Kiev Caves.
● St. Hermogenes, Bishop of Agrigentum.
● St. Portianus of Arthone (Gaul).

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Malchus.
● Martyrs Philemenus, Christopher, Eugene, Procopius, and another Christopher.
● Martyr Chrysogenes and Monk martyr Mark Triglinos.
● Hieromartyrs Clement, Bishop of Rome, and Peter, Bishop of Alexandria.

● Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran:
● St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, patron of children

● Canada - National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

● Finland - Independence Day (from Russia, 1917)

● Bahrain : Ruler's Ascension Day

● Ecuador : Day of Quito (1534)

● Hungary - Santa Claus leaves a little present in children's shoes.

● Spain - Constitution Day

● Belgium and the Netherlands celebrate Sinterklaas, a day on which the saint gives out presents, oranges and chocolates (and other sweets) to good kids (and supposedly puts charcoal in the shoes of bad kids).

OTHER USES

● December 6 is a novel by Martin Cruz Smith about an American expatriate living in Japan just prior to Pearl Harbor.


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.

Permanent Backlink to Post