January 4......

January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 361 (362 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

● 46 BC - Titus Labienus bloodily defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina.

● 274 - St. Eutychian begins his reign as Catholic Pope

● 871 - Battle of Reading: Ethelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army.

● 1493 - Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey.

● 1357 - Flemish Earl Louis & Luxembourg Duke Wenceslaus sign peace treaty

● 1493 - Columbus left new world on return from 1st voyage

● 1528 - Ferdinand of Austria, younger brother to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, issued the first secular mandate forbidding the Anabaptist religious movement.

● 1540 - German Reformer Martin Luther testified in a sermon: 'Faith is the "yes" of the heart, a conviction on which one stakes one's life.'

● 1570 - Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"

● 1642 - King Charles I with 400 soldiers attacks the English parliament

● 1698 - Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London, the main residence of the English monarchs, is destroyed by fire.

● 1717 - The Netherlands, England, and France sign the Triple Alliance.

● 1725 - Benjamin Franklin arrives in London

● 1754 - Columbia University founded, as Kings College (New York City NY)

● 1762 - England declares war on Spain and Naples.

● 1780 - Snowstorm hit Washington's army at Morristown New Jersey

● 1781 - André Méchain discovers M80 (globular cluster in Scorpio)

● 1809 - Louis Braille, inventor of a reading system for the blind, was born in Coupvray, France.

● 1821 - The first native-born American saint, Mother Elizabeth Seton, founder of Sisters of Charity, died in Emmitsburg, MD.

● 1832 - Insurrection of Trinidad negroes

● 1843 - Royal Academy (Technical Hague court) Delft opens

● 1847 - Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.

● 1850 - The first American ice-skating club was organized in Philadelphia, PA.

● 1854 - The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.

● 1855 - Kalapuyan Ahant-Chuyuk signed treaty ceding lands and moving to Grande Ronde reservation, Oregon.

● 1861 - President Buchanan appoints a fast on account of threatened succession

● 1861 - US Fort Morgan, Mobile, seized by Alabama

● 1862 - Battle of Fort Hindman, AR (Arkansas Post)

● 1862 - Battle of Helena, AR

● 1862 - Romney Campaign-Stonewall Jackson occupies Bath

● 1865 - The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.

● 1870 - Western Union telegraph workers strike.

● 1872 - Birth of Selena Butler, an African American leader of interracial cooperation.

● 1884 - Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)

● 1884 - The socialist Fabian Society is founded in London.

● 1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant of Iowa on Mary Gartside, 22.

● 1887 - Thomas Stevens is 1st man to bicycle around the world (San Francisco-San Francisco); 21,700km

● 1891 - Birth of Trinidadian philosopher C. L. R. James, author of volumes of essays involving class and race antagonism, West Indian self-determination, cricket, Marxism, and aesthetics.

● 1893 - US President Harrison grants amnesty to Mormon polygamists

● 1894 - France ratifies Duple Alliance with Russia

● 1896 - AFL charters Actors' National Protective Union, New York City NY

● 1896 - Everett McKinley Dirksen, Republican leader of the Senate (1959-1969), was born.

● 1896 - Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state

● 1904 - U.S. Supreme Court rules Puerto Rican citizens cannot be refused admission to the U.S.

● 1909 - Founding of Irish Transport Workers Union.

● 1912 - The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter.

● 1912 - Smallest earth-moon distance this century, 356,375 km center-to-center

● 1915 - Democrat Moses Alexander, 62, was sworn in as governor of Idaho. He was the first elected Jewish governor in the U.S., and served two terms (1915-19).

● 1915 - Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops

● 1920 - 1st Black baseball league, National Negro Baseball League, organizes

● 1920 - Amsterdam actors decide to strike for retirement benefits

● 1921 - German troops kill 15 demonstrating against executions of leftists.

● 1923 - Lenin's "Political Testament" calls for removal of Stalin

● 1925 - French psychologist Emil Coué brings his self-esteem therapy to US "Every day in every way I am getting better & better"

● 1926 - Theodorus Pangalos resigns as Greek dictator

● 1932 - State of siege proclaimed in Honduras

● 1932 - Mohandas Gandhi arrested for restarting satyagraha campaign. Begins fast to win suffrage for untouchables. Yaravda, India.

● 1933 - Angered by increasing farm foreclosures, members of Iowa's Farmers Holiday Association threaten to lynch banking representatives and law officials who institute foreclosure proceedings for the duration of the Depression. In April at Primghar, 600 farmers battle the sheriff and his deputies to prevent a foreclosure. That same month, when state officers in Crawford County are beaten and driven off, the Iowa governor put three counties under martial law, and the National Guard starts rounding up farmers who are fighting foreclosures.

● 1935 - Fort Jefferson National Monument, Florida established

● 1935 - Bob Hope 1st heard on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue"

● 1936 - Mickey's Polo Team, a short animated film featuring Charlie Chaplin, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, and Harpo Marx in a polo match against various Disney characters, is first released.

● 1936 - Billboard magazine publishes its first pop music charts.

● 1939 - British author George Orwell signs Breton/Rivera manifesto, "Towards a Free Revolutionary Art."

● 1939 - Frieda Wunderlich elected 1st woman dean of a US graduate school

● 1939 - Hermann Goering appoints Reinhard Heydrich head of Jewish Emigration

● 1941 - Resistance fighters counter d'Estienne d'Orves/Jan Doornik, 1st meet

● 1941 - The animated short Elmer's Pet Rabbit is released: it marks the second appearance of Bugs Bunny and the first to have his name on a title card.

● 1942 - Premier Churchill & General Marshall fly to Florida

● 1944 - Ralph Bunche appointed 1st Negro official in US State Department

● 1944 - World War II: The attack on Monte Cassino was launched by the British Fifth Army in Italy.

● 1944 - Danish playwright and priest Kaj Munk is taken from his home and murdered by the occupying Gestapo. His outspoken sermons and plays called upon Danes to resist the Nazis, leading to his death.

● 1945 - In Raguse, Sicily, Maria Occhipinti, lies down in front of army trucks which come to find new young conscripts to incorporate into the new Italian army. Within minutes, a crowd surrounds the soldiers, forcing them to release their recruits, but kill a demonstrator and set off a major revolt. The city falls to the insurgents and resists governmental troops for three days, falling only after the death of many townspeople.

● 1945 - Germans execute resistance fighters in Amsterdam

● 1945 - US jeep-aircraft carrier Ommaney Bay sinks after kamikaze attack

● 1947 - Presbyterian clergyman Peter Marshall ("A Man Called Peter"), 45, was elected Chaplain of the U.S. Senate. He was the 54th chaplain chosen in the Senate's history, and the first Presbyterian appointed since 1879.

● 1948 - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

● 1951 - Korean War: Communist forces re-take Seoul; Chinese and North Korean troops are recapturing the South Korean capital of Seoul for the second time since the war began last year.

● 1953 - Tufted plastic carpeting was introduced by Barwick Mills.

● 1953 - "The Catholic Hour" first aired over NBC-television. This long-running series was produced in cooperation with the National Council of Catholic Men and aired through August 1970.

● 1955 - U.S. agrees to pay Japan two million dollars for damages resulting from atomic tests in Marshall Islands.

● 1957 - After 69 years the last issue of Collier's Weekly magazine is published.

● 1958 - Explorer Hillary arrives at South Pole; Sir Edmund Hillary arrives at the South Pole - the first explorer to do so since Captain Scott in 1912.

● 1958 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4, 1957).

● 1959 - Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and leave the gravitational pull of the Earth.

● 1960 - Albert Camus killed at 46, in an automobile accident near Sens.

● 1960 - United Steel workers end lengthy strike, begun the previous July.

● 1960 - European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm

● 1961 - Longest recorded strike ends after 33 years - Danish barbers' assistants.

● 1962 - New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.

● 1963 - Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon

● 1965 - Sam Rayburn House Office Building, costing "more than the pyramids at Giza, the hanging gardens of Babylon, and the Colossus of Rhodes," according to the New York Times, opens in Washington DC. The congressional bill authorizing its construction appropriated $2 million plus "such additional sums as may be necessary." "Such additional sums" eventually totaled $88 million, making the Rayburn Building, at the time, the most expensive public structure in the world. The title has since been surpassed by numerous sports stadiums.

● 1965 - Free Speech Movement (FSM) holds first legal rally on Sproul Plaza, University of California at Berkeley.

● 1965 - United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.

● 1965 - Poet T.S. Eliot died in London at age 76.

● 1968 - Campbell killed during record attempt; Donald Campbell dies while attempting to break his own water speed record in his jet-powered boat, Bluebird K7

● 1968 - Leo Fender sells Fender Guitars for $13 million

● 1968 - Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas

● 1969 - France begins arms embargo against Israel

● 1970 - The Beatles record as a band for the last time.

● 1970 - New York City NY transit fare rises from 20¢ to 30¢, new larger tokens used

● 1970 - Walter Cronkite ends hosting weekly documentary

● 1971 - Dr Melvin H Evans inaugurated as 1st elected Governor of Virgin Islands

● 1971 - Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims

● 1971 - Philadelphia's Veteran Stadium dedicated

● 1971 - Congressional Black Caucus organizes

● 1972 - Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London.

● 1974 - United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

● 1975 - Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica

● 1975 - Ford Executive Order on CIA Activities within the US (No 11828)

● 1975 - Jose Patricio Leon, militant activist, "disappeared" in Chile by government of U.S.-installed dictator Augusto Pinochet.

● 1976 - Spain - Major wildcat anti-fascist strike wave starts; at its height over 500,000 workers are involved.

● 1979 - In an out-of-court settlement, $675,000 is awarded to the victims of the Kent State University shootings of 1970.

● 1980 - Citing "an extremely serious threat to peace," President Carter announces a series of punitive measures against the U.S.S.R., most notably an embargo of grain and high technology and reinstitution of draft registration, in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This idiotic indoctrination of 18-year-olds continues today, long after the Soviets have departed Afghanistan and this world. Additionally, he announced at the same time that the United States would be boycotting the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

● 1981 - British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"

● 1982 - Chris Wallace becomes co-anchor of the Today Show

● 1982 - Golden Gate Bridge closed for 3rd time by fierce storm

● 1982 - ABC Direction Network (57 affiliates) & ABC Rock Network (40 affiliates) become the 5th & 6th ABC radio network

● 1982 - Bryant Gumbel moved from NBC Sports to the anchor desk where he joined Jane Pauley as co-host of the "Today" show on NBC.

● 1983 - Colorado farmers protest foreclosures.

● 1984 - Wayne ‘The Great One’ Gretzky scored eight points (four goals and four assists) for the second time in his National Hockey League (NHL) career. Edmonton’s Oilers defeated the Minnesota North Stars, 12-8. The game was the highest-scoring NHL game to date.

● 1984 - "Night Court" starring Harry Anderson premieres on NBC TV

● 1985 - Inquiry over 'baby-for-cash' deal; Scotland Yard is investigating a surrogate mother in London following reports she is to receive £6,500 for her baby from a childless couple.

● 1986 - Thin Lizzy star dies; Phil Lynott, the former frontman of rock group Thin Lizzy, dies 11 days after collapsing from a drink and drug binge.

● 1987 - An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, DC, collides with Conrail engines, killing 16 people (Chase, Maryland rail wreck).

● 1989 - Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.

● 1989 - Comet Tempel 1 at perihelion

● 1989 - Vice President Bush is 1st since Vice President Van Buren to declare himself President

● 1989 - US F-14s shoot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean

● 1990 - A crowded passenger train collides with a standing freight train in Pakistan's Sindh province, killing 300 people.

● 1990 - Charles Stuart jumped to his death from a Boston Harbor bridge. He had become a suspect in the murder of his wife. He had claimed that a gunman had shot him and his wife.

● 1990 - Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was arraigned in U.S. federal district court in Miami on drug-trafficking charges.

● 1991 - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Israel's treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

● 1991 - AT&T workers in Newark accidentally snap a cable

● 1991 - Iraq agrees to send Aziz to Geneva to meet Baker on Jan 9th

● 1991 - Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland

● 1995 - The 104th Congress convened, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the House.

● 1997 - Eighty thousand rally in Ogoni portions of Nigeria against military dictatorship and Shell Oil's plans to destroy Ogoni land. Nigerian Army opens fire on peaceful demonstration, wounding four.

● 1997 - The Greek Cypriot government signed an agreement to buy S-300 surface-to-air missiles from Russia.

● 1998 - Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria; over 170 are killed in three remote villages.

● 1999 - Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.

● 1999 - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.

● 1999 - A drifting Nicaraguan fishing boat was found by the Norwegian oil tanker Joelm. The fisherman had been lost at sea for 35 days after the engine of their vessel quit working.

● 2000 - First British women reach South Pole; The first British women to walk across Antarctica to the South Pole arrive safely, more than two months after starting their record-breaking journey.

● 2001 - FBI agents in the Dallas area charged the "Texas 7" of unlawful flight to avoid federal prosecution for capital murder, broadening the manhunt nationwide.

● 2004 - Afghans approved a new constitution.

● 2004 - Georgians overwhelmingly elected Mikhail Saakashvili president, two months after he'd led protests that forced Eduard Shevardnadze to step down.

● 2004 - Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.

● 2004 - Leicester City footballers Paul Dickov, Keith Gillespie, and Frank Sinclair are arrested in Spain over sexual assault allegations. The charges were later dropped.

● 2006 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

● 2006 - Many American media outlets erroneously report that 12 miners have been found alive in the Sago Mine Disaster.

● 2007 - The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.

● 2007 - Ian 'Merlin' Stuart announces himself as Ruler of the Secret Underground Magicians League.

BIRTHS

● 1077 - Emperor Zhezong of Song Dynasty in China (d. 1100)

● 1334 - Amadeus VI of Savoy (d. 1383)

● 1581 - James Ussher, Anglo-Irish archbishop; calculated age of the Earth from the Bible (d. 1656)

● 1643 - Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and natural philosopher (d. 1727)

● 1664 - Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (d. 1742)

● 1672 - Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh (d. 1742)

● 1710 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (d. 1736)

● 1720 - Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer (d. 1774)

● 1746 - Benjamin Rush, American physician, political leader and signer of the Declaration of Independence (d. 1813)

● 1784 - Francois Rude, French sculptor (d. 1855)

● 1785 - Jakob Grimm, German philologist and folklorist, with Wilhelm Carl Grimm, of Grimm's Fairy Tales (d. 1863)

● 1797 - Wilhelm Beer, German astronomer; made first map of moon (d. 1850)

● 1809 - Louis Braille, French inventor of braille (Note: To prevent confusion with the proper noun "Braille" someone's name, is written in lower case, "braille," when referring to the writing system.) (d. 1852)

● 1813 - Isaac Pitman, British inventor (Pitman shorthand) (d. 1897)

● 1832 - George Tryon, British admiral (d. 1893)

● 1838 - Charles Sherwood Stratton, American circus performer (d. 1883)

● 1839 - Carl Humann, German engineer (d. 1896)

● 1848 - Katsura Taro, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1913)

● 1869 - Tommy Corcoran, baseball player (d. 1960)

● 1874 - Josef Suk, Czech composer (d. 1935)

● 1881 - Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor (d. 1919)

● 1882 - Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist (d. 1943)

● 1883 - Max Eastman, American writer (d. 1969)

● 1894 - Manuel de Abreu, Brazilian physician (d. 1962)

● 1895 - Leroy Randle Grumman, American aeronautical engineer and founder of Grumman Aircraft (d. 1982)

● 1896 - Everett Dirksen, American politician and Republican leader of the Senate (1959-1969) (d. 1969)

● 1896 - André Masson, French artist (d. 1987)

● 1900 - James Bond, American ornithologist (d. 1989)

● 1901 - C. L. R. James, writer and journalist (d. 1989)

● 1905 - Sterling Holloway, American actor (d. 1992)

● 1913 - Malietoa Tanumafili II, Sovereign Ruler of Samoa

● 1914 - Jane Wyman, Actress, First wife of Ronald Reagan

● 1914 - Herman Franks, baseball player

● 1916 - Lionel Newman, American film music composer (d. 1989)

● 1920 - William Colby, American CIA director (d. 1996)

● 1924 - Sebastian Kappen, Indian theologian (d. 1993)

● 1925 - Veikko Hakulinen, Finnish cross-country skier (d. 2003)

● 1927 - Paul Desmarais, Canadian businessman

● 1927 - Barbara Rush, American actress

● 1929 - Yayoi Kusama, Japanese artist, sculptor

● 1930 - Sorrell Booke, American actor (d. 1994)

● 1930 - Don Shula, American football coach

● 1931 - Adi Lady Lala Mara, First Lady of Fiji (d. 2004)

● 1932 - Carlos Saura, Spanish director

● 1934 - Rudolf Schuster, Slovakian president

● 1935 - Floyd Patterson, American boxer (d. 2006)

● 1937 - Grace Bumbry, American singer

● 1937 - Dyan Cannon, American actress

● 1940 - Helmut Jahn, German architect

● 1940 - Brian David Josephson, Nobel laureate

● 1940 - Gao Xingjian, Nobel laureate

● 1941 - Maureen Reagan, American political activist (d. 2001)

● 1943 - Doris Kearns Goodwin, American writer

● 1945 - Richard R. Schrock, Nobel laureate

● 1945 - Vesa-Matti Loiri, Finnish entertainer

● 1946 - Arthur Conley, American singer (d. 2003)

● 1950 - John Louis Evans, convicted murderer (d. 1983)

● 1951 - Barbara Cochran, American alpine skier

● 1953 - Norberto Alonso, Argentine footballer

● 1953 - George Tenet, American CIA director

● 1956 - Ann Magnuson, Actress

● 1956 - Bernard Sumner, English musician (New Order)

● 1957 - Patty Loveless, American singer

● 1958 - Matt Frewer, American actor

● 1958 - Gary Jones, Welsh-born actor

● 1958 - Julian Sands, British actor

● 1959 - Yoshitomo Nara, Japanese pop artist

● 1960 - Michael Stipe, American singer (R.E.M.)

● 1961 - Lee Curreri, American actor

● 1962 - Patrick Cassidy, Actor

● 1962 - Peter Steele, American musician (Type O Negative)

● 1962 - Robin Guthrie, Scottish guitarist

● 1963 - Dave Foley, Canadian comedian and actor (''Celebrity Poker Showdown,'' ''NewsRadio'')

● 1963 - Till Lindemann, German singer (Rammstein)

● 1965 - Beth Gibbons, English singer (Portishead)

● 1965 - Julia Ormond, English actress

● 1965 - Yvan Attal, French actor and director

● 1966 - Deana Carter, American singer

● 1967 - Benjamin Darvill, Rock musician (Crash Test Dummies)

● 1967 - Marina Orsini, Quebec actress

● 1971 - Jeremy Licht, Actor

● 1971 - Junichi Kakizaki, Japanese artist, sculptor

● 1975 - Jill Marie Jones, Actress-singer

● 1977 - Tim Wheeler, Irish singer (Ash)

● 1977 - Irán Castillo, Mexican actress

● 1978 - Dwight Freeney, American football player

● 1978 - Dominik Hrbatý, Slovakian tennis player

● 1979 - Jeph Howard, American musician (The Used)

● 1979 - Tristan Gommendy, French racing driver

● 1982 - Richard Logan, English footballer

● 1982 - Kang Hye-jeong, South Korean actress

● 1985 - Fernando Rees, Brazilian race car driver

● 1988 - Jordan Peters, Strongest man in the world and record holder for world's largest penis

● 1990 - Chelsea Russo, American actor

● 1992 - Ian 'Merlin' Stuart, English Magician

● 1995 - María Isabel, Spanish singer

DEATHS

● 1066 - Edward the Confessor, pre-Norman conquest English king (b. ca. 1004) (disputed)

● 1248 - King Sancho II of Portugal (b. 1207)

● 1564 - Hosokawa Ujitsuna, Japanese military commander (b. 1514)

● 1584 - Tobias Stimmer, Swiss painter and drawer (b. 1539)

● 1695 - François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg, French general (b. 1628)

● 1752 - Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (b. 1704)

● 1761 - Stephen Hales, English physiologist (b. 1677)

● 1773 - Anton Losenko, Russian painter (b. 1737)

● 1782 - Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French architect (b. 1698)

● 1804 - Charlotte Lennox, English author and poet (bc. 1730)

● 1821 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, American saint (b. 1774)

● 1825 - King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (b. 1751)

● 1877 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1794)

● 1883 - Antoine Eugène Alfred Chanzy, French general (b. 1823)

● 1891 - Antoine Labelle, Quebec catholic priest (b. 1833)

● 1896 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)

● 1903 - Gulstan Ropert, Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1839)

● 1919 - Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1843)

● 1931 - Art Acord, American actor (b. 1890)

● 1941 - Henri Bergson, French philosopher, Nobel laureate (b. 1859)

● 1960 - Albert Camus, Algerian-born French philosopher and writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1913)

● 1961 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1887)

● 1962 - Hans Lammers, German SS officer (b. 1879)

● 1965 - T. S. Eliot, American-born writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)

● 1967 - Donald Campbell, British motorboat racer (b. 1921)

● 1970 - Jean-Étienne Valluy, French general (b. 1899)

● 1971 - Arthur Ford, American clairaudient (b. 1896)

● 1981 - Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and composer (I'll Never Smile Again) (b. 1914)

● 1985 - Brian Horrocks, British general (b. 1895)

● 1986 - Christopher Isherwood, English writer (b. 1904)

● 1986 - Phil Lynott, Irish musician (Thin Lizzy) (b. 1949)

● 1990 - Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineer (b. 1903)

● 1994 - RD Burman, Indian musician (b. 1939)

● 1995 - Sol Tax, American anthropologist (b. 1907)

● 1995 - Eduardo Mata, Mexican conductor and composer (b. 1942)

● 1998 - Mae Questel, American actress (b. 1908)

● 1999 - Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (b. 1904)

● 2003 - Conrad Hall, American cinematographer (b. 1927)

● 2003 - Yfrah Neaman, Lebanese-born violinist (b. 1923)

● 2003 - Sabine Ulibarri, Mexican American writer (b. 1919)

● 2004 - Joan Aiken, English author (b. 1924)

● 2004 - Brian Gibson, English film director (b. 1944)

● 2004 - Jake Hess, American singer (b. 1927)

● 2004 - Jeff Nuttall, English writer (b. 1933)

● 2004 - John Toland, American historian (b. 1912)

● 2005 - Humphrey Carpenter, English author (b. 1946)

● 2005 - Ali al-Haidri, Iraqi governor of Baghdad (assassinated)

● 2005 - Frank Harary, American mathematician (b. 1921)

● 2005 - Robert Heilbroner, American economist (b. 1919)

● 2005 - Bud Poile, Canadian hockey player (b. 1924)

● 2005 - Alton Tobey, American artist (b. 1914)

● 2006 - Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai (b. 1946)

● 2006 - Irving Layton, Canadian poet (b. 1912)

● 2007 - Marais Viljoen, former State President of South Africa (b. 1915)

● 2007- Osman Waqialla,Sudanese artist,calligrapher). (b.1925)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
● St. Aquilinus
● St. Dafrosa
● St. Ferreolus
● St. Hermes
● St. Libentius
● St. Rigobert (Robert)
● St. Mavilus
● St. Pharaildis
● Bl. Angela of Foligno
● Bl. Thomas Plumtree

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 22 (Civil Date: January 4)
● Nativity Fast.
● Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ
● St. Great Martyr Anastasia, deliverer from bonds, and her teacher Martyr Chrysogonus, and with them Martyrs Theodota, Evodias, Eutychianus, and others who suffered under Diocletian

● Greek Calendar:
● Martyr Zoilus.
● Repose of Dositheus, hermit of Roslavl forests and Optina (1828).

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

● Ogoni Day

● Burma : Independence Day (1948)

● Sri Lanka : Tamil Thai Pongal Day

● Utah : Admission Day (1896)

● Zaïre : Martyrs' Day

● 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

THIS AN ABBREVIATED POST FOR THIS DATE USING ONLY THE FOLLOWING TWO SOURCES. A COMPLETE POST IS PLANNED AS SOON AS TIME ALLOWS.


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

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