January 3......

January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 362 (363 in leap years) days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 236 - St Anterus ends his reign as Catholic Pope

● 269 - St Felix I begins his reign as Catholic Pope

● 936 - Duke Alberik II of Spoleto appoints his son Pope Leo VII

● 1338 - Jacob of Arteveld elected mayor of Ghent

● 1407 - Bloody battles between Hoeksen & Kabeljauwen in Dordrecht

● 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.

● 1496 - References in Leonardo da Vinci notebooks suggested that he tested his flying machine. The test didn't succeed and he didn't try to fly again for several years.

● 1521 - German Reformer Martin Luther, 38, was excommunicated by Pope Leo X in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem for challenging Catholic Church doctrine. Luther soon after began translating of the Bible into the German language.

● 1638 - Schouwburg Theatre, the 1st in Amsterdam, opens

● 1638 - Dutch Premier Van Joost speaks of "Hostage rights of Aemstel"

● 1667 - Russia & Poland sign Truce of Androsovo

● 1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlies army leaves Glasgow

● 1749 - Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.

● 1750 - Tax revolt in Haarlem Netherlands

● 1752 - East Indies invasion "Geldermalsen" leaves at Malakka 92 killed

● 1777 - American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey.

● 1780 - Danish national anthem "Kong Kristian", 1st sung

● 1781 - Inca Rebellion. Inca beseige Cuzco (Peru) in attempt to dislodge Spanish.

● 1785 - The famed Methodist "Christmas Conference" concluded in Baltimore, MD. Having opened on Christmas Eve, 1784, this body brought into being the Methodist Episcopal Church (in America), and elected Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke the first two American "general superintendents."

● 1793 - Lucretia Mott, an early proponent of the women's rights movement in America, was born in Nantucket, Mass.

● 1815 - Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.

● 1823 - Stephen F. Austin received a grant from the Mexican government and began colonization in the region of the Brazos River in Texas.

● 1825 - Scottish factory owner Robert Owen buys 30,000 acres in Indiana as site for New Harmony utopian community.

● 1825 - Rensselaer School, the first engineering college in the U.S. is opened in Troy, New York. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

● 1831 - 1st US building & loan association organized, Frankford PA

● 1833 - Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. About 150 years later, Argentina seized the islands from the British, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.

● 1834 - The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.

● 1840 - 1st deep sea sounding

● 1847 - California town of Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco

● 1848 - Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.

● 1852 - 1st Chinese arrive in Hawaii

● 1861 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.

● 1861 - US Fort Pulaski & Fort Jackson, Savannah, seized by Georgia

● 1862 - Romney Campaign - Stonewall Jackson moves north from Winchester

● 1865 - Con Orem & Hugh O'Neill box 193 rounds before darkness ends match

● 1867 - Joshua Norton I, "Dei Gratia" Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, abolishes Congress and calls out the Army to clear out the riff-raff and crooks.

● 1868 - Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.

● 1870 - Brooklyn Bridge construction begins; completed May 24, 1883

● 1871 - Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine.

● 1872 - 1st patent list issued by US Patent Office

● 1876 - 1st free kindergarten in US opens in Florence MA

● 1888 - 1st wax drinking straw patented, by Marvin C Stone in Washington DC

● 1888 - The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.

● 1889 - Admissions convention meets in Ellensburg WA, asks for statehood

● 1890 - 1st US college-level dairy school opens at University of Wisconsin

● 1892 - J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

● 1896 - Emperor Wilhelm congratulates President Kruger on the Jameson Raid

● 1899 - The first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in The New York Times.

● 1900 - Perihelion Passage

● 1910 - British miners strike for 8 hour working day

● 1911 - US postal savings bank inaugurated

● 1912 - Southern Pacific RR offers to bring Liberty Bell to Exposition, free

● 1914 - Kelman/Cushing/Heath' musical "Sari" premieres in New York City NY

● 1917 - Tom Mooney trial begins in San Francisco.

● 1918 - US employment service opens as a unit of Department of Labor

● 1920 - Curse of the Bambino: The Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a sum of $125,000 and a loan of more than $300,000.

● 1921 - Turkey makes peace with Armenia.

● 1922 - 1st living person identified on a US coin (Thomas E Kirby) on the Alabama Centennial half-dollar

● 1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

● 1925 - Mussolini puts an end to the parliamentary system, and issues a decree ordering the dissolution of the U.S.I. (Unione Sindacala Italiana) anarcho-syndicalist union.

● 1926 - Greek General Theodorus Pángulos names himself dictator

● 1929 - 27 year old William S Paley becomes CBS president

● 1930 - American Congregational missionary Frank C. Laubach wrote in a letter: 'I have done nothing but open windows, God has done the rest.'

● 1932 - Martial law declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.

● 1934 - At Barmen-Gemarke, in Germany, 320 pastors of the German Confessing Church met to draw up a theological statement opposing the Nazi German Nationalist Church. Led by Karl Barth and Martin Niemiller, the gathering led to the formula afterward known as the Barmen Declaration.

● 1938 - The March of Dimes was established by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The organization fights poliomyelitis. The original name of the organization was the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.

● 1938 - Woman in White is first broadcast on the NBC Red network. The program remains on the radio for the next ten years.

● 1939 - Gene Cox becomes 1st girl page in US House of Representatives

● 1941 - Canada & US acquire air bases in Newfoundland (99 year lease)

● 1941 - Italian counter offensive in Albania

● 1942 - American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command forms

● 1943 - 1st missing persons telecast (New York City NY)

● 1943 - Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa

● 1944 - World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.

● 1945 - Admiral Chester W Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan itself.

● 1945 - Cato-Meridian School, NY, installs germicidal lamps in every room

● 1945 - Allies land on west coast of Burma, conquer Akyab

● 1945 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visits France

● 1945 - Greek General Plastiras forms government

● 1945 - US aircraft carriers attack Okinawa

● 1947 - U.S. Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time. Viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York City saw some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.

● 1947 - In Trenton, NJ, Al Herrin, passed away at age 92. He had claimed that he had not slept at all during his life.

● 1947 - William Dawson becomes 1st black to head congressional committee

● 1947 - 1st opening session of Congress to be televised

● 1951 - "Dragnet" with Jack Webb premieres on NBC TV {…and that's just the facts…}

● 1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

● 1955 - U.S. government announces that over 3,000 persons designated security risks had been discharged from federal employment between June of 1953 and October of 1954. The witch-hunt for commies turned up mostly suspect homosexuals. {Strangest of all was that deep-in-the-closet J. Edgar Hoover was in charge of the hunt.}

● 1955 - José Ramon Guizado becomes President of Panamá

● 1956 - The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1870, officially changed its name to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination is headquartered today in Memphis, TN, and comprises a membership of nearly 500,000.

● 1957 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.

● 1958 - Edmund Hillary reaches South Pole overland

● 1958 - The West Indies Federation is formed.

● 1959 - President Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state.

● 1960 - U.S. severs diplomatic and consular ties with Cuba after disputes over the nationalization of U.S. firms, the U.S. military presence at Guantanamo Base (in Cuba), and other "concerns."

● 1961 - Nuclear reactor explodes at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho, killing three military technicians, and releases a surge of radioactivity which, in the words of John A. McCone, Director of the Atomic Energy Commission, was "largely confined" to the reactor building. One technician was blown to the ceiling of the containment dome and impaled on a control rod. His body remained there until it was taken down six days later. The men were so heavily exposed to radiation that their hands and heads had to be buried separately with other radioactive waste.

● 1961 - Adam Clayton Powell elected Chairman of House Education & Labor

● 1962 - Ground is broken for the Houston Astrodome

● 1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

● 1964 - Five hundred thousand New York pupils stay at home in protest against racial segregation.

● 1964 - Jack Paar Show, shows a clip of the Beatles singing "She Loves You"

● 1966 - The first Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco, California.

● 1966 - The Psychedelic Shop, the world's first Head shop, opened on Haight Street near Ashbury in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

● 1966 - Floyd B McKissick, named national director of CORE

● 1967 - "Tonight Show" is shortened from 105 to 90 minutes

● 1967 - Jack Ruby, assassin who killed assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, dies in prison of natural causes while awaiting retrial.

● 1967 - Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys is indicted for draft evasion.

● 1968 - Police at New Jersey's Newark Airport confiscate 30,000 copies of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Two Virgins" album, saying the cover photo of the nude John and Yoko is "pornographic." In Chicago, vice squad officers close down a record shop for displaying the cover.

● 1969 - John Lennon's "2 Virgins" album declared pornographic in New Jersey

● 1969 - Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr seated by Congress

● 1970 - African nationalist guerrillas based in Zambia stage their first infiltration raid on white-ruled Rhodesia since mid-1968. They are routed by Rhodesian security forces. But, in 1972, guerrillas of one faction, the Zimbabwean African National Union, infiltrates the country with much greater success, and maintain an insurgent war that ousts Ian Smith's white regime in 1979.

● 1970 - Marxist government takes over in Congo

● 1973 - Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $12 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner.

● 1974 - Gold hits record $121.25 an ounce in London

● 1974 - Arias Navarro succeeds Carrero Blanco as premier of Spain

● 1974 - Burma accepts its constitution

● 1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1977 - Jenkins quits Commons for Brussels; Former Home Secretary Roy Jenkins announces he is leaving Westminster politics to become Britain's first President of the European Commission.

● 1977 - Apple Computer was incorporated.

● 1980 - Conservationist Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free," was killed in northern Kenya by a servant.

● 1980 - Afghan leader defends Soviet invasion; The new president of Afghanistan, Babrak Karmal, is making his first public appearance since the Soviet-backed coup last week.

● 1980 - Gold hits record $634 an ounce

● 1983 - Times Beach, Missouri, declared disaster area due to dioxin contamination.

● 1983 - Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys makes the longest run from scrimmage (99 yards) in NFL history.

● 1983 - CiTV launches on ITV1 in the UK.

● 1984 - A woman died at Disneyland after falling from a ride. She had apparently unfastened her seatbelt while on the Matterhorn bobsled. {Natural selection at work.}

● 1984 - Syria frees captured US pilot after appeal from Jesse Jackson

● 1985 - Israel government confirms resettlement of 10,000 Ethiopian Jews

● 1987 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

● 1988 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century.

● 1988 - Israel orders 9 Palestinian "instigators" deported from W Beirut

● 1989 - Jim & Tammy Bakker return to TV (Oy Vey!)

● 1989 - Russian newspaper Izvestia gets its 1st commercial advertisement

● 1990 - Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.

● 1991 - Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky scores his 700th goal.

● 1991 - The British government announced that seven Iraqi diplomats, another embassy staff member and 67 other Iraqis were being expelled from Britain.

● 1991 - Israel reopens consulate in USSR after 23 years

● 1992 - 32 Cubans defect to the US via helicopter

● 1993 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

● 1993 - In an AFC Wild Card game, the Buffalo Bills comeback from a 35-3 deficit against the Houston Oilers and win the game in overtime 41-38, the largest comeback in NFL history.

● 1993 - Junk bond king Michael Milkin is released from jail after 22 months

● 1994 - 100s killed in Venezuela in prison revolt

● 1994 - 35-foot-tall Chief Wahoo, trademark of Indians on top of Stadium since 1962, is taken down, to be moved to Jacob's Field

● 1994 - An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkutsk, Russia, killing 125 people including one on the ground.

● 1995 - WHO reported that the cumulative total of officially reported cases of AIDS had risen to 1,025,073 in 192 countries as at the end of 1994.

● 1995 - The U.S. Postal Service raised the price of the first-class stamp to 32 cents.

● 1995 - Cease-fire agreement between government and Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka.

● 1997 - The People's Republic of China announces it will spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.

● 1997 - Bryant Gumbel co-hosted his final "Today" show on NBC-TV

● 1998 - China announced that it would spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.

● 1998 - Grandpa Jones suffers a stroke

● 1999 - The Mars Polar Lander launches.

● 1999 - Israeli authorities detained, and later expelled, 14 members of Concerned Christians. Israili officials claimed that the Denver, CO-based cult was plotting violence in Jerusalem to bring about the Second Coming of Christ.

● 2000 - Art theft was 'professional' job; Police say the Cezanne painting taken from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on New Year's Eve was probably stolen to order.

● 2000 - In Amador Hernandez, Chiapas, the "Zapatista Air Force" bombards the Mexican Army's barracks with paper airplanes to protest the army's incursion into indigenous villages and communities.

● 2000 - Festival celebrating unity, national reconciliation, and peace. Angkor, Cambodia.

● 2000 - Charles M. Schulz's final original daily comic strip "Peanuts" appeared in newspapers.

● 2001 - The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) charged the "Texas 7" with weapons violations. An autopsy showed that Office Aubrey Hawkins, killed by the convicts, had been shot 11 times and run over with a vehicle.

● 2004 - NASA's Spirit rover landed on Mars. The craft was able to send back black and white images three hours after landing.

● 2004 - Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people aboard.

2005 President George W. Bush tapped his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Bill Clinton to help raise tsunami relief funds.

2006 Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion and agreed to cooperate in investigations of corruption in Congress. In a plea agreement, he admitted he had provided gifts to officials in exchange for favorable treatment.

● 2007 - National Express has its worst ever coach crash just outside Heathrow Airport when it was travelling to Glasgow

BIRTHS

● 106 BC - Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher (d. 43 BC)

● 1196 - Emperor Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1231)

● 1710 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (d. 1796)

● 1719 - Francisco José Freire, Portuguese historian (d. 1773)

● 1722 - Fredric Hasselquist, Swedish naturalist (d. 1752)

● 1737 - Heinrich Wilheim von Gerstenberg, German theorist of Sturm & Drang literary movement (d. 1823)

● 1760 - John Storm, American Revolutionary soldier (d. 1835)

● 1778 - Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish bishop (d. 1861)

● 1793 - Lucretia Mott, Early proponent of the American women's rights movement (d. 1880)

● 1802 - Charles Pelham Villiers (d. 1898), longest-serving MP in the British House of Commons

● 1803 - Douglas William Jerrold, British playwright (d. 1857)

● 1823 - Robert Whitehead, British engineer, invented the modern torpedo (d. 1905)

● 1836 - Sakamoto Ryoma, Japanese revolutionary (d. 1867)

● 1840 - Father Damien, Belgian missionary to Hawaiian lepers (d. 1889)

● 1855 - Hubert Bland, English socialist (d. 1914)

● 1865 - Sir Henry Alfred Lytton, British actor and opera singer (d. 1936)

● 1870 - Henry Handel Richardson, Australian author (d. 1946)

● 1876 - Wilhelm Pieck, first President of East Germany (d. 1960)

● 1879 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)

● 1883 - Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1945-51) (d. 1967)

● 1886 - Josephine Hull, American actress (d. 1957)

● 1887 - August Macke, German painter (d. 1914)

● 1892 - J. R. R. Tolkien, British writer (d. 1973)

● 1894 - ZaSu Pitts, American actress (d. 1963)

● 1897 - Marion Davies, American actress (d. 1961)

● 1898 - T. Claude Ryan, American aircraft manufacturer; designed the Spirit of St Louis (d. 1982)

● 1898 - Carlos Keller, Chilean fascist politician (d. 1974)

● 1901 - Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam (1955-63) (d. 1963)

● 1904 - Boris Kochno, Russian-born French ballet librettist (d. 1990)

● 1905 - Anna May Wong, American actress (d. 1961)

● 1905 - Ray Milland, Welsh actor (d. 1986)

● 1909 - Victor Borge, Danish entertainer (d. 2000)

● 1910 - Frenchy Bordagaray, baseball player (d. 2000)

● 1911 - John Sturges, American director (d. 1982)

● 1912 - Armand Lohikoski, Finnish director (d. 2005)

● 1912 - Renaude Lapointe, Canadian journalist and senator (d. 2002)

● 1916 - Betty Furness, American actress (d. 1994)

● 1916 - Maxene Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters) (d. 1995)

● 1917 - Roger W. Straus, Jr., American publisher (d. 2004)

● 1920 - Renato Carosone, Italian musician (d. 2001)

● 1921 - John Russell, American film and television actor (d. 1991)

● 1922 - Morten Nielsen, Danish poet & resistance fighter (d. 1944)

● 1922 - Bill Travers, English actor, screenwriter and director (d. 1994)

● 1923 - Hank Stram, American football coach (d. 2005)

● 1924 - Nell Rankin, American singer (d. 2005)

● 1924 - André Franquin, Belgian cartoonist (Gaston Lagaffe) (d. 1997)

● 1926 - George Martin, British record producer

● 1929 - Sergio Leone, Italian director (d. 1989)

● 1929 - Ernst Mahle, Brazilian composer

● 1930 - Robert Loggia, American actor

● 1930 - Marcel Dubé, Quebec playwright

● 1932 - Dabney Coleman, American actor

● 1932 - Coo Coo Marlin, American race car driver (d. 2005)

● 1935 - Raymond Garneau, French Canadian politician and businessman

● 1936 - Georgina Spelvin, American pornographic actress

● 1939 - Bobby Hull, Canadian hockey player and Hall of Fame member

● 1941 - Van Dyke Parks, American musician

● 1942 - John Thaw, British actor (d. 2002)

● 1943 - Van Dyke Parks, Singer-producer

● 1945 - Stephen Stills, American musician (Crosby, Stills and Nash)

● 1946 - John Paul Jones, British musician (Led Zeppelin)

● 1946 - Cissy King, American entertainer

● 1949 - Sylvia Likens, American torture victim

● 1950 - Victoria Principal, American actress ("Dallas")

● 1954 - Jim Ross, American wrestling announcer

● 1954 - Dean Hart, Canadian wrestler (d. 1990)

● 1954 - Ned Lamont, American businessman

● 1956 - Mel Gibson, Australian actor {and all around nutcase}

● 1956 - Willy T. Ribbs, American race car driver

● 1957 - Bojan Križај, Slovenian skier

● 1958 - Shim Hyung-rae, South Korean filmmaker

● 1959 - Rafael Arráiz Lucca Venezuelan writer

● 1963 - Vic Grimes, American professional wrestler

● 1963 - Jerome Young, American professional wrestler

● 1966 - Martin Galway, Northern Ireland composer

● 1968 - Shannon Sturges, Actress

● 1969 - James Carter, Jazz saxophonist

● 1969 - Michael Schumacher, German race car driver

● 1971 - Cory Cross, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1974 - Alessandro Petacchi, Italian cyclist

● 1975 - Jason Marsden, American actor

● 1975 - Danica McKellar, American actress (''The Wonder Years'')

● 1975 - Thomas Bangalter, French DJ (Daft Punk)

● 1976 - Nicholas Gonzalez, American actor (''The O.C.'')

● 1976 - Dinara Drukarova, Russian actress

● 1977 - Lee Bowyer, English footballer

● 1977 - Mayumi Iizuka, Japanese voice actress (seiyū)

● 1978 - Park Sol-mi, South Korean actress

● 1978 - Mike York, American ice hockey player

● 1978 - Kimberley Locke, American singer (''American Idol'')

● 1979 - Francesco Bellissimo, Italian mangaka

● 1980 - Angela Ruggiero, American hockey player and The Apprentice contestant

● 1980 - David Tyree, American football player

● 1980 - Liya Kebede, Ethiopian model

● 1980 - Rob Arnold, American guitarist (Chimaira)

● 1981 - Eli Manning, American football player

● 1989 - Alex D. Linz, American actor

DEATHS

● 1098 - Walkelin, first Norman bishop of Winchester (b. unknown)

● 1322 - King Philip V of France (b. 1293)

● 1437 - Catherine of Valois, wife of Henry V of England (b. 1401)

● 1543 - Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, Portuguese explorer (b. 1499)

● 1641 - Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomer (bc. 1618)

● 1656 - Mathieu Molé, French statesman (b. 1584)

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

● 1690 - Hillel ben Naphtali Zevi, Lithuanian rabbi (b. 1615)

● 1743 - Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect and designer (b. 1657)

● 1779 - Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon (b. 1712)

● 1785 - Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (b. 1706)

● 1795 - Josiah Wedgwood, English potter (b. 1730)

● 1826 - Louis Gabriel Suchet, French marshal (b. 1770)

● 1875 - Pierre Larousse, French editor (b. 1817)

● 1882 - William Harrison Ainsworth, English novelist (b. 1805)

● 1903 - Alois Hitler, father of Adolf Hilter (b. 1837)

● 1915 - James Elroy Flecker, English author (b. 1884)

● 1916 - Grenville M. Dodge, American Civil War Union Army Major General (b. 1831)

● 1923 - Jaroslav Hasek, Czech novelist (b. 1883)

● 1927 - Carle David Tolmé Runge, German physicist (b. 1856)

● 1931 - Joseph Joffre, French general (b. 1852)

● 1933 - Wilhelm Cuno, 6th Chancellor of the Weimar Republic (Germany) (b. 1876)

● 1933 - Jack Pickford, Canadian actor (b. 1896)

● 1944 - Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1873)

● 1945 - Edgar Cayce, American psychic (b. 1877)

● 1945 - Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (b. 1879)

● 1946 - William Joyce, American Nazi propagandist (executed) (b. 1906)

● 1950 - Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (b. 1884)

● 1956 - Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (b. 1864)

● 1956 - Joseph Wirth, 5th Chancellor of the Weimar Republic (Germany) (b. 1876)

● 1963 - Jack Carson, Canadian actor (b. 1910)

● 1967 - Mary Garden, Scottish singer (b. 1874)

● 1967 - Jack Ruby, American killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (b. 1911)

● 1974 - Gino Cervi, Italian actor (b. 1901)

● 1979 - Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)

● 1980 - Joy Adamson, Czech conservationist (b. 1910)

● 1980 - Lucien Buysse, Belgian cyclist (b. 1892)

● 1981 - Princess Alice of Albany (b. 1883)

● 1988 - Rose Ausländer, German poet (b. 1901)

● 1989 - Sergei Lvovich Sobolev, Russian mathematician (b. 1909)

● 1992 - Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (b. 1897)

● 1993 - Johnny Most, American sports announcer (b. 1923)

● 2002 - Esquivel, Mexican band leader (b. 1918)

● 2002 - Freddy Heineken, Dutch beer executive (b. 1923)

● 2003 - Sid Gillman, American football coach (b. 1911)

● 2004 - Leon Wagner, American baseball player (b. 1934)

● 2005 - Koo Chen-fu, Chinese negotiator (b. 1917)

● 2005 - JN Dixit, Indian government official (b. 1936)

● 2005 - Will Eisner, American comic book artist (b. 1917)

● 2006 - Steve Rogers, Australian rugby league footballer (b. 1954)

● 2006 - Bill Skate, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (b. 1954)

● 2007 - Paek Nam-sun, North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1929)

● 2007 - William Verity Jr., United States Secretary of Commerce 1987-1989 (b. 1917)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Genevieve, virgin/patroness of Paris
● St. Anteros, 19th Roman Catholic pope (235-36)
● St. Bertilia
● St. Blitmund
● Sts. Zosimus & Athanasius
● St. Wenog
● Sts. Theopemptus and Theonas
● St. Cyrinus
● St. Daniel
● St. Finlugh
● St. Fintan
● St. Florentius of Vienne
● St. Narses

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 21 (Civil Date: January 3)
● Nativity Fast.
● Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ.
● Virgin Martyr Juliana of Nicomedia, and with her 500 men and 130 women.
● Repose of St. Peter, Metropolitan of All Russia.
● Martyr Theomistocles of Myra in Lycia.
● St. Juliana, princess of Vyazma.
● Blessed Procopius of Vyatka, fool for Christ.
● St. Paisius Velichkovsky.
● Repose of Schemamonk Michael of Harbin (1939).
● Blessed Peter "the Nose" of Kama (1938?).

● The tenth night and ninth day of Christmas in Western Christianity

● Roman Empire: Festival in honor of Small Pox

● Alaska : Admission Day (1959)

● In astronomy the best date to view the Quadrantids meteor shower.

● In astronomy the approximate date of Earth's perihelion.

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Scotland : Handsel Monday ( Monday )


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

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

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Permanent Backlink to Post