December 8......

December 8 is the 342nd day of the year (343rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 23 days remaining in the year on this date.

EVENTS

● 1326 - Daitokuji temple, Rinzai line, established in Kyoto by Daito Kokushi

● 1541 - Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.

● 1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room, the second public library of Europe.

● 1659 - Mexican border town Ciudad Juárez is founded by Fray García de San Francisco.

● 1710 - Battle at Brihuega: English General Stanhope captured

● 1765 - Eli Whitney was born in Westboro, MA. Whitney invented the cotton gin and developed the concept of mass-production of interchangeable parts.

● 1775 - Anglican clergyman and hymn writer John Newton wrote in a letter: 'This is faith: a renouncing of everything we are apt to call our own and relying wholly upon the blood, righteousness and intercession of Jesus.'

● 1776 - George Washington's retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

● 1777 - Captain Cook leaves Society Islands

● 1792 - 1st cremation in US, Henry Laurens

● 1794 - 1st issue of the Herald of Rutland VT published

● 1813 - Ludwig von Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A, premieres

● 1828 - Birth of Joseph Dietzgen, socialist, near Cologne, Germany. Important socialist theorist whose writings exerted considerable influence on the workers' movement.

● 1854 - Pope Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in his apostolic letter, "Ineffabilis Deus." It asserted that by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, Mary was freed from original sin "in the first instant of conception."

● 1863 - Abraham Lincoln announces plan for Reconstruction of South

● 1863 - Jesuit Church of La Compana in Santiago Chile catches fire, 2,500 die in panic

● 1863 - Tom King of England defeated American John Heenan and became the first world heavyweight champion.

● 1864 - Pope Pius IX issues the Syllabus Errorum, condemning liberalism, socialism, and rationalism.

● 1864 - The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon was officially opened.

● 1869 - Timothy Eaton founds T. Eaton Co. Limited in Toronto, Canada.

● 1869 - 20th Roman Catholic ecumenical council, Vatican I, opens in Rome

● 1874 - Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie KS

● 1876 - Suriname begins compulsory education for 7-12 years

● 1880 - 5,000 armed Boers gather in Paardekraal South-Africa

● 1881 - Vienna's Ring Theater destroyed by fire, kills between 640-850

● 1886 - American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed by 26 craft unions; Samuel Gompers elected AFL president

● 1886 - Birth of radical Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, Guanajuato, Mexico.

● 1894 - Birth of James Thurber, American humorist and cartoonist known for his dyspeptic wit.

● 1895 - Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian emperor Menelik II drives Italian General Baratieri's out

● 1899 - Natal: British fall/burst out belegerd Ladysmith

● 1902 - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr became Associate Justice on Supreme Court

● 1904 - Konservativ Ungdom (Young Conservatives) in Denmark is founded by Carl F. Herman von Rosen. Still existing today, it is the oldest youth political organisation in Denmark and believed to be one of the oldest remaining in the world.

● 1907 - Christmas seals were sold for the first time, to raise funds to fight tuberculosis. Today, Christmas seal income is used primarily in the fight against birth defects.

● 1907 - King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.

● 1909 - Bird banding society found

● 1913 - Construction starts on Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco

● 1914 - World War I: Battle of the Falkland Islands - The Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee is engaged by the Royal Navy.

● 1914 - Connie Mack sells Eddie Collins to the White Sox

● 1920 - Bosses lock out 75,000 New York clothing workers to impose a wage cut and 48-hour week.

● 1921 - Eamon de Valera publicly repudiates Anglo-Irish Treaty

● 1923 - German-US friendship treaty signed

● 1923 - Labour/Liberals win British parliament

● 1923 - Salary & price freeze in Germany

● 1927 - Arthur Ponsonby presents British Premier with 128,770 signatures of persons refusing war service.

● 1930 - Broadway Theater opens at 1681 Broadway New York NY

● 1931 - Coaxial cable patented

● 1933 - Spain: Over the following five days, some provinces (Andalusia, Aragon, Estremadure) experience uprisings, initiated by anarchists. In several villages, they declare anarchist-communism, destroy property files, and abolish the currency. But these movements remain insulated; on Dec. 10 Republican government declared a State of Emergency and sends in the army. Repression is severe: 87 dead, many arrests, tortures, and more than 700 imprisoned.

● 1935 - The Japanese military police launches a violent suppression of the religious sect Oomoto, beginning with a crackdown on the sect's operational bases of Ayabe and Kameoka in Kyoto Prefecture and the arrest of its leader Onisaburo Deguchi.

● 1936 - NAACP files suit to equalize the salaries of black & white teachers

● 1936 - Anastasio Somoza elected President of Nicaragua

● 1938 - Highest temperature for December in US recorded in La Mesa CA

● 1938 - LP Beria follows Nikolai Jezjov as head of Russian secret police

● 1939 - Jean Grave dies. Significant activist in French anarchist movement.

● 1940 - Four hundred German planes bomb London, England.

● 1940 - The Chicago Bears defeat the Washington Redskins 73-0, in the NFL Championship Game. This is the most lopsided game in NFL history.

● 1941 - San Francisco 1st blackout, at 6:15 PM

● 1941 - Holocaust: Gas vans are first used as a means of execution, at the Chelmno extermination camp near Łódź in Poland.

● 1941 - World War II: Pacific War - The Netherlands issues a proclamation in which it declares war against Japan, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

● 1941 - Russian 16th army recaptures Krijukovo

● 1941 - World War II: Pacific War - After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. Congress and Great Britain pass a declaration of war against Japan, US enters WWII.

● 1941 - Representative Jeanette Rankin casts the only vote in Congress against American entry into World War II.

● 1941 - World War II: Pacific War - the Republic of China officially declares war against Japan, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

● 1941 - World War II: Pacific War - The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in China issues a proclamation which declared war against Japan and Germany on behalf of Korean people, who were under Japanese occupation since 1910.

● 1941 - World War II: Battle of Hong Kong - The Japanese invade the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong less than 8 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

● 1941 - World War II: First Japanese attack on Wake Island.

● 1942 - Holocaust: in Ternopil, Ukraine, German SS organise the last deportation of Ternopil Jews to death camp in Belzec, when 1,400 Jews were sent there. The chief of the Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Müller, bore overall responsibility for the mass murder of the Jews of Ternopil and Berezhany county.

● 1946 - Army rocket plane XS-1 makes 1st powered flight

● 1948 - Jordan annexs Arabic Palestine

● 1949 - Chinese Civil War: The capital of the Republic of China is moved from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.

● 1951 - American League alters its restrictions on night games, adopting National League's suspended game rule & lifting its ban on lights for Sunday games

● 1952 - On the show "I Love Lucy," a pregnancy was acknowledged in a TV show for the first time.

● 1952 - French troops shoot on demonstrators at Casablanca, 50 die

● 1952 - Isaak Ben-Zwi elected President of Israel

● 1953 - Los Angeles became the third largest city in the United States.

● 1955 - Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella wins his 3rd MVP Award

● 1955 - Turkish government of Menderes forms

● 1956 - 1st test firing of the Vanguard satellite program, TV-0

● 1959 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower watches Pakistan vs Australia cricket test match at Karachi.

● 1959 - Dom Mintoff demands independence for Malta

● 1961 - Antwerp Belgium diocese forms

● 1962 - The Rev. John Melville Burgess was consecrated as suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts -- the first African American bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church to serve a predominantly white diocese.

● 1962 - Workers of the International Typographical Union began striking and closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike lasted 114 days and ended April 1, 1963.

● 1962 - Failed coup in Brunei

● 1962 - Funeral for Queen Wilhelmina of Holland (New Kerk, Delft)

● 1963 - Ku Klux Klan members attack home of a black voter-registration worker in Dawson, Georgia with small arms fire and at least one dynamite bomb.

● 1963 - 3 fuel tanks explodes when jetliner is struck by lightning crashing near Elkton MD-Only case of lightning caused crash, 81 die

● 1965 - New UK race law 'not tough enough'; The new Race Relations Act comes into force today making racial discrimination unlawful in public places.

● 1965 - Nikolai Podgorny succeeds Mikojan as President of USSR

● 1965 - Pope Paul VI signs 2nd Vatican council

● 1966 - The Greek ferry Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.

● 1966 - A terrible Yankee trade, Roger Maris for Card's Charlie Smith

● 1966 - US & USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space

● 1967 - Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" album is released in UK

● 1969 - An Olympic Airways DC-6B crashes near Athens during a storm, killing 93 people.

● 1969 - Police surprise attack on Black-Panthers in Los Angeles

● 1972 - United Airlines Flight 533 crashes near Chicago Midway Airport, killing 45 people.

● 1974 - Soyuz 16 returns to Earth

● 1974 - Greek monarchy rejected by referendum

● 1974 - Irish Republican Socialist Party forms

● 1976 - UN General Assembly re-elects Kurt Waldheim Secretary-General

● 1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1976 - The Eagles release the album Hotel California.

● 1977 - Portugal's premier Soares resigns

● 1978 - Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir died in Jerusalem at age 80.

● 1979 - The Oneida Nation files suit in an effort to regain control of the three million acres illegally taken by New York state.

● 1980 - Rock musician John Lennon of the Beatles was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman. Lennon was 40.

● 1980 - Zimbabwe’s manpower minister, Edgar Tekere, was found guilty in the killing of a white farmer. He was freed under a law that protected ministers acting to suppress terrorism.

● 1981 - In one of its major rulings regarding the issue of the separation of Church and State, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of student organizations holding religious services at public colleges and universities.

● 1981 - No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee kills 13.

● 1981 - France performs nuclear test

● 1982 - Demanding an end to nuclear weapons, Norman Mayer, a veteran of the permanent anti-nuclear vigil in Lafayette Park (across the street from the White House), holds Washington Monument hostage. After 10 hours, police kill him. He has no explosives.

● 1982 - Suriname army leader Bouterse murders 15 opponents

● 1983 - Television cameras allowed into Lords; Cameras will be allowed into the House of Lords after its members vote in favour of allowing live broadcasts from its chamber.

● 1983 - 9th Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 6-lands at Edwards AFB

● 1983 - Richard Baker, Zen teacher, steps down from abbotship of San Francisco Zen Center

● 1984 - In Roanoke, Virginia, a jury found Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt innocent of libeling Reverend Jerry Falwell with a parody advertisement. However Falwell was awarded $200,000 for emotional distress.

● 1984 - Ringo Starr appears on Saturday Night Live

● 1984 - Europe & 64 developing countries sign Lomé III treaty

● 1986 - House Democrats selected Jim Wright to be the chamber's 48th speaker, succeeding Thomas P. ''Tip'' O'Neill.

● 1987 - The Queen Street Massacre: Frank Vitkovic shoots and kills 8 people at the offices of Australia Post in Melbourne, Australia before being killed himself.

● 1987 - Alianza Lima air disaster

● 1987 - Flyers' Ron Hextall becomes 1st goalie to actually score a goal

● 1987 - Protestor Hatem Abu Sisseh, 16, killed by Israeli soldiers, igniting the Intifada for self-rule. In the seven years to follow, 1,306 Palestinians slain by Israelis, 192 Israelis killed by Palestinians.

● 1987 - Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Washington, D.C., and sign an agreement calling for the dismantling of all 1,752 U.S. and 859 Soviet missiles with a 300-3,400 mile (short) range.

● 1988 - Twelve Plowshares activists arrested for hammering on U.S. nuclear cruise missile bunkers. Woensdrecht, The Netherlands.

● 1989 - Communist leaders in Czechoslovakia offered to surrender their control over the government and accept a minority role in a coalition Cabinet.

● 1989 - Great Britain performs nuclear test

● 1990 - Galileo Earth-1 Flyby

● 1991 - Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine declared the Soviet national government to be dead. They forged a new alliance to be known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. The act was denounced by Russian President Gorbachev as unconstitutional.

● 1991 - Kimberly Bergalis, who had contracted AIDS from her dentist, died in Florida at age 23.

● 1991 - The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.

● 1992 - Americans got to see live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia during Operation Restore Hope. (Due to the time difference, it was December 9 in Somalia.)

● 1992 - Galileo's nearest approach to Jupiter (303 km)

● 1992 - NBC announces that "Cheers" will go off the air in May 1993

● 1993 - First silo implosion in the United States takes place in accordance with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed by George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991.

● 1993 - 30 killed at religious rebellion in Algeria

● 1993 - Dow-Jones hits record 3734.53

● 1993 - Storm hits West Europe, 11 killed in England

● 1993 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.

● 1994 - U.S. President Bill Clinton signs a bill enacting United States participation in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

● 1994 - Bosnian Serbs released dozens of hostage peacekeepers, but continued to detain about 300 others.

● 1994 - In Los Angeles, 12 alternate jurors were chosen for the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

● 1994 - Darryl Strawberry indicted on tax evasion charges

● 1994 - Fire in cinema in Karamay China, 310 killed

● 1995 - Accidental leakage at a fast breeder nuclear reactor in Monju, Japan, calls into question the future of Japan's extensive high-tech nuclear energy program.

● 1995 - The Grateful Dead announced they were breaking up after 30 years of making music. The news came four months after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

● 1995 - Youth gang stabs head teacher to death; A head teacher dies after being stabbed outside his west London school.

● 1995 - Jean-Dominique Bauby suffers a stroke.

● 1997 - The second largest bank was created with the announcement that Union Bank Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation would merge. The combined assets were more than $590 billion.

● 1997 - Jenny Shipley was sworn in as the first female prime minister of New Zealand.

● 1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police could not search a person or their cars after ticketing for a routine traffic violation.

● 1998 - The FBI opened its files on Frank Sinatra to the public. The file contained over 1,300 pages.

● 1998 - Nkem Chukwu and Iyke Louis Udobi's first of eight babies was born. The other seven were delivered 12 days later.

● 1998 - AT&T Corp. announced that it was buying IBM's data networking business for $5 billion cash.

● 1998 - The first female ice hockey game in Olympic history was played. Finland beat Sweden 6-0.

● 1998 - Tadjena massacre: 81 people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.

● 1999 - In Memphis, TN, a jury found that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin.

● 1999 - Russia and Belarus agreed in principle to form an economic and political confederation.

● 2000 - The Florida Supreme Court ordered an immediate hand count of about 45,000 disputed presidential ballots.

● 2000 - Mario Lemieux announced to the Pittsburgh Penguins that he planned to return to the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player at age 35. He would be the first modern owner-player in U.S. pro sports.

● 2002 - The Caribbean Community Heads of Government meet with the Government of Cuba and declare the date to be "CARICOM-Cuba Day" - To celebrate diplomatic ties between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba.

● 2003 - Greek terrorists convicted; The trial of 19 members of a left-wing group that killed British Brigadier Stephen Saunders three years ago comes to an end.

● 2003 - Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., resigned after being convicted in the traffic death of a motorcyclist.

● 2004 - The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.

● 2004 - Legendary Pantera and Damageplan guitar player Dimebag Darrell Abbot is gunned down on stage in an Ohio nightclub during the opening of their set.

● 2005 - Ante Gotovina, Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Américas, Tenerife by the Spanish police.

● 2006 - Israeli serial rapist Benny Sela is caught by police, two weeks after his escape from prison.

BIRTHS

● 65 BC - Horace, Roman poet (d. 8 BC)

● 1542 - Mary Queen of Scots (d. 1587)

● 1626 - Queen Christina of Sweden (d. 1689)

● 1678 - Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, English diplomat (d. 1757)

● 1708 - Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1765)

● 1730 - Jan Ingenhousz, Dutch-born British physiologist and botanist (d. 1799)

● 1765 - Eli Whitney, American inventor of the cotton gin (d. 1825)

● 1790 - Richard Carlile, English journalist (d. 1843)

● 1795 - Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer (d. 1874)

● 1815 - Adolph Menzel, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1905)

● 1816 - August Belmont, Sr., Prussian-born American financier (d. 1890)

● 1832 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Norwegian author and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1910)

● 1848 - Joel Chandler Harris, American author and folklorist (d. 1908)

● 1861 - William C. Durant, American automobile pioneer (d. 1947)

● 1861 - Aristide Maillol, French sculptor (d. 1944)

● 1862 - Georges Feydeau, French playwright (d. 1921)

● 1864 - Camille Claudel, French graphic artist and sculptor (d. 1943)

● 1865 - Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (d. 1957)

● 1865 - Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician (d. 1963)

● 1874 - Ernst Moro, Austrian physician (d. 1951)

● 1886 - Diego Rivera, Mexican painter (d. 1957)

● 1890 - Bohuslav Martinů, Czech composer (d. 1959)

● 1894 - James Thurber, American writer (d. 1961)

● 1894 - Elzie (Crisler) Segar, American cartoonist (Popeye), (d. 1938)

● 1897 - Josephine Bell, English physician and novelist (d. 1987)

● 1909 - Gratien Gélinas, Quebec playwright, actor, director and producer (d. 1999)

● 1911 - Lee J. Cobb, American actor (d. 1976)

● 1913 - Delmore Schwartz, American Poet (d. 1966)

● 1915 - Ernest Lehman, American screenwriter (d. 2005)

● 1916 - Richard Fleischer, American film director (d. 2006)

● 1918 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (d. 2004)

● 1919 - Peter Tali Coleman, American politician (d. 1997)

● 1923 - Rudolph Pariser, Chinese-born American chemist

● 1925 - Sammy Davis Jr., American actor and singer (d. 1990)

● 1925 - Jimmy Smith, American jazz musician (d. 2005)

● 1927 - Vladimir Shatalov, Soviet Union-born cosmonaut

● 1930 - Maximilian Schell, Austrian-born Swiss actor, film director, and author

● 1933 - Flip Wilson, American comedian (d. 1998)

● 1935 - Dharmendra, Indian Actor

● 1936 - David Carradine, American actor

● 1937 - James MacArthur, American actor (''Hawaii Five-O'', he was the Danno of “Book ‘em Danno”)

● 1937 - Arne Næss Jr., Norwegian mountain climber and businessman (d. 2004)

● 1939 - Sir James Galway, Northern Irish flautist

● 1939 - Jerry Butler, American soul singer

● 1939 - Red Berenson, National Hockey League player

● 1940 - Brant Alyea, Baseball player

● 1941 - Sir Geoff Hurst, Ex-English footballer

● 1941 - Ed Brinkman, Baseball player

● 1941 - Bob Brown, National Football League player

● 1942 - Bobby Elliott, Pop musician (The Hollies)

● 1943 - Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (d. 1971)

● 1943 - Mary Woronov, American actress

● 1945 - John Banville, Irish novelist and journalist

● 1946 - John Rubinstein, American actor, composer, director

● 1947 - Gregg Allman, American musician

● 1947 - Thomas R. Cech, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate

● 1949 - Mary Gordon, American writer

● 1949 - Robert Sternberg, Proposed the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

● 1950 - Rick Baker, American film makeup artist

● 1950 - Tim Foli, Major League Baseball player

● 1951 - Jan Eggum, Norwegian singer-songwriter

● 1951 - Bill Bryson, American author

● 1953 - Kim Basinger, American actress

● 1953 - Sam Kinison, American comedian (d. 1992)

● 1955 - Kevin Armstrong, American Computer Programmer

● 1956 - Warren Cuccurullo, American musician (Duran Duran)

● 1957 - Phil Collen, British guitarist (Def Leppard)

● 1959 - Marty Raybon, Country singer

● 1961 - Ann Coulter, American author, political commentator, and attorney (the ultimate definition of lying bitch)

● 1962 - Wendell Pierce, Actor

● 1962 - Marty Friedman, American guitarist (Megadeth)

● 1964 - Sandy Burnett, British record producer

● 1964 - Teri Hatcher, American actress (''Desperate Housewives'')

● 1965 - Carina Lau, Hong Kong actress

● 1966 - Bushwick Bill, Rapper (Geto Boys)

● 1966 - Matthew Laborteaux, Actor

● 1966 - Sinéad O'Connor, Irish musician

● 1966 - Michael Cole, American professional wrestling commentator

● 1967 - Jeff George, American football player

● 1967 - Kotono Mitsuishi, Japanese seiyu (voice actress)

● 1968 - Mike Mussina, American baseball player

● 1969 - Jeff Tremaine, American television & film director

● 1972 - Ryan Newell, Rock musician (Sister Hazel)

● 1972 - Marco Abreu, Angolan footballer

● 1972 - Frank Shamrock, American MMA-Fighter and younger brother of MMA-Fighter Ken Shamrock

● 1973 - Corey Taylor, American singer (Slipknot, Stone Sour)

● 1975 - Kevin Harvick, American NASCAR driver

● 1976 - Dominic Monaghan, German-born British actor (''Lost'')

● 1976 - Naimee Coleman, Irish singer and songwriter

● 1976 - Reed Johnson, American Baseball Player

● 1977 - Ryan Newman, American NASCAR driver

● 1977 - Elsa Benítez, Mexican supermodel

● 1978 - Ian Somerhalder, American actor

● 1978 - Vernon Wells, American baseball player

● 1981 - Jeremy Accardo, American baseball player

● 1981 - Philip Rivers, American football player

● 1982 - Michael Essien, Ghanaian international footballer

● 1982 - James Guffey, American professional wrestler

● 1983 - Neel Jani, Swiss racing driver

● 1985 - Dwight Howard, American basketball player

● 1986 - Amir Khan, British boxer

● 1987 - Andrew Boulcott, Picture Technician, Birmingham Post and Mail

● 1993 - AnnaSophia Robb, American actress

DEATHS

● 899 - Arnulf of Carinthia (b. 850)

● 1626 - John Davies, English poet (b. 1569)

● 1632 - Philippe van Lansberge, Flemish astronomer (b. 1561)

● 1638 - Ivan Gundulic, Croatian poet (b. 1589)

● 1643 - John Pym, English statesman (b. 1583)

● 1649 - Noël Chabanel, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1613)

● 1680 - Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, English politician (b. 1606)

● 1691 - Richard Baxter, English clergyman (b. 1615)

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

● 1709 - Thomas Corneille, French dramatist (b. 1625)

● 1722 - Liselotte von der Pfalz, Duchess of Orléans (b. 1652)

● 1744 - Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle duchess de Châteauroux, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1717)

● 1745 - Etienne Fourmont, French orientalist (b. 1683)

● 1746 - Charles Radclyffe, British politician (b. 1693)

● 1756 - William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, British statesman and diplomat

● 1768 - Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1702)

● 1830 - Benjamin Constant, Swiss writer (b. 1767)

● 1859 - Thomas de Quincey, British author (b. 1785)

● 1864 - George Boole, British inventor of Boolean algebra (b. 1815)

● 1885 - William Henry Vanderbilt, member of the Vanderbilt family (b. 1821)

● 1894 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b. 1821)

● 1907 - Oscar II of Sweden (b. 1829)

● 1914 - Maximilian von Spee, German naval officer (b. 1861)

● 1917 - Mendele Moykher Sforim, Russian writer (b. 1836)

● 1938 - Friedrich Glauser, German-language Swiss writer (b. 1896)

● 1952 - Charles Lightoller, British second officer on the Titanic (b. 1874)

● 1958 - Tris Speaker, American baseball player (b. 1888)

● 1963 - Field Marshal Sarit Dhanarajata, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1908)

● 1975 - Gary Thain, New Zealand bassist (Uriah Heep) (b. 1948)

● 1978 - Golda Meir, Russian-born Prime Minister of Israel (b. 1898)

● 1980 - John Lennon, British musician and activist (b. 1940)

● 1982 - Bram Behr, Surinamese journalist (b. 1951)

● 1982 - Marty Robbins, American singer (b. 1925)

● 1983 - Slim Pickens, American actor (b. 1919)

● 1984 - Luther Adler, American actor (b. 1903

● 1984 - Robert Jay Mathews, White Nationalist (b. 1953)

● 1991 - Buck Clayton, American jazz trumpet player (b. 1911)

● 1992 - William Shawn, American magazine editor (b. 1917)

● 1994 - Tom Jobim, Brazilian composer and arranger (b. 1927)

● 1996 - Howard Rollins, American actor (b. 1950)

● 1999 - Péter Kuczka, Hungarian writer (b. 1923)

● 2001 - Don Tennant, American advertising executive (b. 1922)

● 2003 - Rubén González, Cuban pianist (Buena Vista Social Club)

● 2004 - Dimebag Darrell (Darrell Abbott), American guitarist (b. 1966)

● 2005 - Georgiy Zhzhonov Russian actor and author (b. 1915)

● 2006 - Martha Tilton, American singer (b. 1915)

● 2006 - José Uribe, Dominican baseball player (b. (1959)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (Holy Day of Obligation in Ireland, USA)
● St. Romaric
● St. Macarius
● St. Patapius

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for November 26 (Civil Date: December 8)
● Nativity Fast.
● Repose of St. Innocent, first Bishop of Irkutsk
● St. Alypius the Stylite of Adrianopolis.
● Dedication of the Church of St. George at Kiev.
● St. James the Solitary of Syria.
● St. Nicon Metanoeite ("preacher of repentance").
● New Martyr George of Chios.

● Greek Calendar:
● St. Stylianos of Paphlagonia, monk.
● St. Silas, Bishop of Persidos.

● Buddhism - The Enlightenment of Gautama Buddha (Bodhi Day)

● Bulgaria - Day of the Student (Студентски празник)

● Italy - In Milan, the opera season starts.

● Austria - Public Holiday.

● Malta - Public Holiday.

● Romania - Constitution Day

● Afflux (50 Aftermath) (Discordianism)

● Panama - Mother's Day

● Spain - Immaculate Conception - Day of the National Army

● Guam : Lady of Camarin Day

● Spain, Panamá, Canal Zone : Mother's Day

● Spain : School Reunion Day

● Uruguay : Beaches Day/Family Day

● CARICOM-Cuba Day - To celebrate diplomatic ties between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba.

● France - Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights) held in Lyon to honor the Virgin Mary.


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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