January 8......

January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 357 (358 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

● 624 - Moslem army occupies Kurashitische Caravan

● 794 - Church at Lindisfarne, England destroyed by Vikings

● 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats a Danish invasion army.

● 1198 - Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III

● 1214 - Earl Ferrand of Flanders drops ties with France

● 1297 - Monaco gains its independence.

● 1499 - Louis XII of France after papal divorce marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany to keep the duchy for the crown

● 1558 - French troops under duke de Guise occupy Calais

● 1598 - Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy

● 1642 - Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.

● 1656 - Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)

● 1675 - 1st American commercial corporation chartered (New York Fishing Co)

● 1716 - Dutch gang leader "Sjako" arrested

● 1734 - Premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

● 1745 - England, Austria, Netherlands & Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance

● 1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling

● 1760 - Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth

● 1790 - George Washington delivers the first State of the Union Address address in New York City.

● 1798 - 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed

● 1800 - In London, the first soup kitchens were opened for the relief of the poor.

● 1800 - Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi

● 1800 - Wild Boy of Aveyron discovered in southern France

● 1806 - Cape Colony becomes a British colony.

● 1806 - Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105' blue whale in Oregon

● 1811 - Unsuccessful slave revolt led by Charles Deslandes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.

● 1815 - War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans - Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British. The War of 1812 had officially ended on December 24, 1814, with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The news of the signing had not reached British troops in time to prevent their attack on New Orleans.

● 1830 - Dutch King Willem I fires displeasing parliament members

● 1833 - Boston Academy of Music, 1st US music school, established

● 1838 - Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).

● 1838 - Rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out

● 1842 - Dutch King Willem II charters Technical College Delft

● 1848 - Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia

● 1853 - A bronze statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse was unveiled in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC. The statue was the work of Clark Mills.

● 1856 - Dr John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs CA

● 1863 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield

● 1863 - Yorkshire County Cricket Club is founded at the Adelphi Hotel in Sheffield, England.

● 1864 - Mary Kenney O'Sullivan, first AFL woman organizer, born. Organized the Woman's Bookbinder Union in 1880 and a founder of the National Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) in 1903.

● 1867 - Birth of Emily Balch, co-founder of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, also winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

● 1867 - Congress overrides Pres. Andrew Johnson's veto of a bill granting all adult male citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote, and the bill thus becomes law. It is the first election law passed in the U.S. granting African-American men the right to vote. The amendment of voting practices in the nation's capital stipulates that every male citizen of the city who is 21 years of age or over has the right to vote, except welfare or charity recipients, those under guardianship, men convicted of major crimes, or men who voluntarily sheltered Confederate troops or spies during the Civil War.

● 1870 - US mint at Carson City NV begins issuing coins

● 1877 - Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry (Montana).

● 1878 - Secret meeting of King Leopold II's agent & Henry Morton Stanley

● 1880 - Death of Norton I, Emperor of the United States; drops dead on California St. at Grant Ave. He was on his way to a lecture at the Academy of Natural Sciences in San Francisco. His funeral was a grand procession of tens of thousands, followed by a rousing party that lasted for days.

● 1884 - Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz

● 1885 - A.J. Muste, radical American pacifist priest and co-founder of Fellowship of Reconciliation and War Resisters League, born.

● 1886 - The Severn Railway Tunnel, Britain's longest, was opened.

● 1889 - The tabulating machine was patented by Dr. Herman Hollerith. His firm, Tabulating Machine Company, later became International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

● 1892 - Anarchist revolt in Andalusia, Spain, with the cry of "Vive la révolution sociale." Hundreds of farm laborers take the town of Jerez, but the uprising is quickly subdued and its leaders captured and tortured. Four are condemned and executed the following month, setting off new waves of violence.

● 1894 - Yakama sign away 23,000 acres of timberland formerly inhabited by Wenatchee tribe to the U.S. for $20,000.

● 1894 - Fire caused serious damage at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL.

● 1900 - In South Africa, General White turned back the Boers attack of Ladysmith.

● 1900 - United States President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule.

● 1904 - Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen

● 1906 - A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, kills 20 people due to the excavation of clay along the Hudson River.

● 1908 - A train collision occurs in the Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City killing 17 people, injuring 38 and leading to increased demand for electric trains.

● 1911 - Pietro Gori dies, age 46. Italian lawyer, ardent defender of the anarchists and himself an anarchist and labor propagandist. Forced into exile numerous times by government repression. In 1894 he escaped the repression in Italy, attending conferences and agitating in England and the US. Returned to Italy in 1898 to defend the many defendants (including Malatesta) indicted after the general strike against the increase of bread prices on January 17-18, in Ancine. The movement grew and, on May 7, riots took place in Milan. The army fired on demonstrators, killing hundreds. Repression was wild and Gori went into exile in Buenos Aires, and initiated, in 1901, the FORA (Federation Obrera Regional Argentina). He returned to Europe in 1902. The FORA grew to 250,000 members.

● 1912 - African National Congress founded, South Africa.

● 1916 - After almost a year of battle, Allied forces stage a full retreat from the shores of Gallipoli. The Gallipoli peninsula, guarding the opening to the Sea of Marmara, became the scene of heavy bloodshed as Allied forces attacked Turkish forts in early 1915. British and French battleships proved superior to Turkish land-based artillery, but German mines damaged the Allied fleet, forcing a land battle that cost nearly 500,000 lives.

● 1917 - Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy

● 1918 - Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition)

● 1918 - President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.

● 1920 - The Czechoslovak Hussite Church was founded by Dr. Karel Farský.

● 1920 - The AFL Iron and Steel Organizing Committee calls off the "Great Steel Strike," in which up to 395,000 steelworkers had been striking for over three months for union recognition. The strike failed.

● 1920 - Five socialists are expelled from the New York State Assembly.

● 1921 - David Lloyd George became the first prime minister tenant at Chequers Court, Buckinghamshire.

● 1922 - The Social Democratic Youth League of Norway is founded.

● 1923 - Birth of Sembone Ousmane, Ziguinchor. Senegalese labor union activist, writer, and film director, best known for his historical-political works with strong social comment.

● 1923 - Typography strike in Amsterdam

● 1925 - 1st all-female US state supreme court appointed, Texas

● 1926 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud becomes the King of Hejaz and renames it Saudi Arabia.

● 1929 - 1st telephone connection between Netherlands & West-Indies

● 1930 - Belgium Princess Marie-José marries Italian's crown prince Umberto

● 1932 - Ratification of present San Francisco City Charter

● 1935 - Rock 'n' roll singer Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Miss.

● 1935 - Arthur C. Hardy patents the spectrophotometer.

● 1937 - -50ºF (-45.6ºC), San Jacinto NV (state record)

● 1940 - Britain's 1st WWII rationing (bacon, butter & sugar)

● 1941 - British Air Marshal Richard Peirse resigns

● 1945 - "Youth for Christ" organizes

● 1947 - General George Marshall becomes Secretary of State

● 1948 - Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason

● 1951 - Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow is rediscovered in Bermuda

● 1952 - Jordan adopts constitution

● 1953 - René Mayer becomes Prime Minister of France.

● 1954 - The State Convention of Baptists in Ohio was formed, representing 39 Southern Baptist churches in that state.

● 1956 - In Ecuador, Plymouth Brethren missionaries Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully and Pete Fleming were killed by the Auca Indians, while attempting to evangelize their tribe. Elliot's widow Elisabeth later published the story of their work and martyrdom in her book "Through Gates of Splendor" (1953).

● 1956 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Conrad Aiken

● 1958 - Radio Moscow devotes airtime to radiation sickness. A nuclear accident, shrouded in secrecy by the Soviet government, has contaminated thousands of square miles in the central Ural Mountains and killed hundreds of people. The accident occurred at the Cheylabinsk-40 plutonium-production plant near the town of Kyshtym. The government ordered the hasty evacuation of surrounding towns, imposing wartime rationing and sealing off the area. The main north-south road will be closed for nine months. A hundred kilometers from Sverdlovsk, a road sign warns drivers not to stop for the next 30 kilometers and to drive at maximum speed with the windows closed. On both sides of the road, the land is dead -- no towns, farm fields, animals or people.

● 1958 - Fourteen-year-old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship.

● 1959 - Conquest of Cuba by Fidel Castro is completed with the conquest of Santiago de Cuba. Cuban revolutionaries under Fidel Castro victorious. U.S. in denial.

● 1959 - De Gaulle becomes president; General Charles de Gaulle is proclaimed first President of the new Fifth Republic in France during a brief ceremony at the Elysée Palace in Paris.

● 1959 - Michel Debré becomes Prime Minister of France.

● 1961 - French vote for Algerian freedom; The French people vote to grant Algeria its independence in a referendum after seven years of guerilla war.

● 1961 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Yvor Winters

● 1962 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time (National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.).

● 1962 - Harmelen train disaster kills 93 people in The Netherlands.

● 1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.

● 1964 - European Parliament accept Mansholt Plan

● 1965 - Senator Everett Dirksen introduces a bill to make marigold the national flower (didn't pass)

● 1965 - Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History

● 1966 - Stephen Cardinal Wyszynski, the primate of Poland, was barred by the Polish government from attending the Vatican celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of Christianity in Poland.

● 1966 - Georges Pompidou appointed French premier

● 1966 - Vietnam - 8,000 GIs attack Iron Triangle, after B-52 bombing strikes.

● 1967 - Excesses of Cultural Revolution trigger counter-riots and strikes in Shanghai, China.

● 1969 - At San Fernando State in California 1,000 anti-Vietnam War students attempt to occupy administration building.

● 1969 - In San Jose, California, teachers join strike with students opposed to the Vietnam War.

● 1971 - Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota established

● 1971 - 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island CA

● 1973 - Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris

● 1973 - USSR launches Luna 21 for Moon landing

● 1973 - Tupamaro terrorists kidnap British ambassador Geoffrey Jackson; although the government refuses their demands to free 150 prisoners, they release him unharmed eight months later. Montevideo, Uruguay.

● 1973 - Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.

● 1974 - Gold hits record $126.50 an ounce in London

● 1974 - Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York

● 1974 - Loch Ness Monster photographed

● 1975 - Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate's John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison

● 1975 - Ella Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States who did not succeed her husband.

● 1976 - Chinese premier Chou Enlai died at the age of 78.

● 1976 - Franklin Mint strikes 1st gold coins for Netherlands Antilles

● 1977 - Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.

● 1978 - Israel's Cabinet votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai

● 1979 - American Presbyterian apologist Francis Schaeffer wrote in a letter: 'A Christian is a person who has the possibility of innumerable new starts.'

● 1979 - Argentina & Chile sign Beagle Canal accord

● 1979 - Vietnam forces Khmer Rouge retreat; Hundreds of Khmer Rouge troops are fleeing Cambodia after being crushed by Vietnamese-led rebel forces.

● 1979 - The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland (The Betelgeuse incident). 512 are killed.

● 1982 - Thirteen-year-old lawsuit against AT&T by the U.S. is settled. AT&T gives up the 22 Bell System companies but, in return, allowed to expand into previously prohibited areas, including data processing, telephone and computer equipment sales, and computer communication devices.

● 1982 - Justice Department withdraws antitrust suit against IBM, pending since 1969

● 1982 - Johnny Cash Parkway opens in Hendersonville Tennessee

● 1983 - Legislation passed allowing Kickapoo tribal members, who live on both sides of Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, to apply for U.S. citizenship.

● 1985 - Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet

● 1986 - President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US

● 1986 - U.S. strategists and Salvadoran Army begin scorched earth "Operation Phoenix."

● 1987 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 8.30 to close at 2,002.25 -- The Dow's first close above 2,000.

● 1988 - One hundred farmers in Novahl, France, destroy $1 million worth of genetically modified crops.

● 1988 - Hewlett-Packard introduces the HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator

● 1989 - Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons

● 1989 - Dozens die as plane crashes on motorway; A Boeing 737 airplane crashes onto the M1 motorway near East Midlands airport, killing 46 people.

● 1989 - Beginning of Japanese Heisei era.

● 1991 - One dead as train crashes into buffers; One person dies and hundreds are injured when a commuter train from Kent crashes into buffers at Cannon Street station in London.

● 1991 - Two hundred Teamsters leaders hold "Labor for Peace" meeting to oppose Gulf War, New York City.

● 1992 - President George Bush gets ill and pukes on Japanese prime minister's lap during Japanese tour.

● 1993 - Bosnian President Izetbegovic visited the U.S. to plead his government's case for Western military aid and intervention to halt Serbian aggression.

● 1993 - A European Community investigation reveals that Bosnian Serbs, in an orchestrated campaign, had raped up to 20,000 Muslim women.

● 1993 - Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp goes on sale

● 1994 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He will stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.

● 1994 - Tonya Harding won the ladies' U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, MI, a day after Nancy Kerrigan dropped out because of a clubbing attack that injured her right knee. The U.S. Figure Skating Association later took the title from Harding because of her involvement in the attack.

● 1995 - Mothers' March For Life and Compassion to Grozny, Chechnya, leaves Moscow, Russia.

● 1995 - 15th United Negro College Fund raises $12,200,000

● 1996 - Blizzard buries eastern US causing at least 50 deaths

● 1996 - For 1st time in 25 years no one is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

● 1996 - An Antonov 32 cargo turboprop powered plane crashes into the central market in Kinshasa, Zaire killing more than 350 people.

● 1996 - France's former president Mitterrand dies; France mourns its longest serving president Francois Mitterrand who died today.

● 1997 - Mister Rogers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

● 1998 - Scientists announced that they had discovered that galaxies were accelerating and moving apart and at faster speeds.

● 1998 - Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer

● 1998 - World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life

● 1999 - Death of Michael Tippett, pacifist composer. Britain.

● 1999 - The top two executives of Salt Lake City's Olympic Organizing Committee resigned amid disclosures that civic boosters had given cash to members of the International Olympic Committee.

● 1999 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair concluded a three-day visit to South Africa.

● 2001 - Bulger killers win anonymity for life; The identities and whereabouts of the two boys who murdered toddler James Bulger in 1993 will be kept secret for the rest of their lives, the British High Court has ruled.

● 2004 - RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, was christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

● 2005 - The rate for U.S. First Class mail was raised to 39¢.

● 2006 - Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, facing corruption charges, stepped down as House majority leader.

● 2006 - A magnitude 6.9 earthquake epicentered just off the Greek island of Kythira hits much of the country and is felt throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean Sea.

BIRTHS

● 1556 - Uesugi Kagekatsu, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1623)

● 1583 - Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian (d. 1643)

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

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

● 1632 - Samuel Pufendorf, German jurist (d. 1694)

● 1635 - Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero, Spanish Archbishop of Toledo (d. 1709)

● 1735 - John Carroll, first American Roman Catholic archbishop (d. 1815)

● 1763 - Edmond Charles Genêt, French ambassador to the United States (d. 1834)

● 1786 - Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United States (d. 1844)

● 1788 - Pavel Kiselyov, Russian general and politician (d. 1874)

● 1792 - Lowell Mason, American composer (d. 1872)

● 1805 - John Bigler, Governor of California (d. 1871)

● 1805 - Orson Hyde, American religious leader (d. 1878)

● 1817 - Sir Theophilus Shepstone, South African statesman (d. 1893)

● 1821 - James Longstreet, American Confederate general (d. 1904)

● 1821 - W.H.L. Wallace, American Union general (d. 1862)

● 1823 - Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist (d. 1913)

● 1824 - Francisco González Bocanegra, Mexican poet (d. 1861)

● 1824 - Wilkie Collins, British novelist (d. 1889)

● 1830 - Hans von Bülow, German pianist, conductor and composer (d. 1894)

● 1836 - Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch artist (d. 1912)

● 1843 - Frederick Abberline, British police investigator (d. 1929)

● 1852 - James Milton Carroll, was a Baptist pastor, leader, historian, and author (d. 1931)

● 1860 - Emma Booth, the fourth child of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1903)

● 1862 - Frank Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (d. 1934)

● 1867 - Emily Greene Balch, American writer and pacifist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 1961)

● 1870 - Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain (d. 1930)

● 1871 - James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 1940)

● 1873 - Iuliu Maniu, Romanian politician (d. 1953)

● 1881 - William T. Piper, American aircraft manufacturer (d. 1970)

● 1881 - Henrik Shipstead, U.S. Senator from Minnesota (d. 1960)

● 1883 - Patrick J. Hurley, U.S. Secretary of War (d. 1963)

● 1883 - Pavel Filonov, Russian painter (d. 1941)

● 1885 - John Curtin, fourteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1945)

● 1885 - A. J. Muste, Dutch-born civil rights activist and pacifist (d. 1967)

● 1888 - Matthew Moore, Irish actor (d. 1960)

● 1891 - Walther Bothe, German physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate (d. 1957)

● 1891 - Bronislava Nijinska, Russian choreographer (d. 1972)

● 1896 - Arthur Ford, American psychic spiritual medium (d. 1971)

● 1897 - Dennis Wheatley, British author (d. 1977)

● 1902 - Carl Rogers, American psychologist (d. 1987)

● 1903 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist (d. 1960)

● 1904 - Peter Arno, American cartoonist (d. 1968)

● 1904 - Karl Brandt, Nazi war ciminal (d. 1948)

● 1905 - Franjo Cardinal Seper, Croatian Catholic cardinal (d. 1981)

● 1905 - Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (d. 1988)

● 1908 - William Hartnell, British actor (d. 1975)

● 1909 - Willy Millowitsch, German actor (d. 1999)

● 1909 - José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1992)

● 1909 - Evelyn Wood, American educator (d. 1995)

● 1910 - Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova, Russian ballerina (d. 1988)

● 1912 - Jose Ferrer, American actor and director (d. 1992)

● 1915 - Walker Cooper, baseball player (d. 1991)

● 1923 - Larry Storch, American actor (''F Troop'')

● 1923 - Johnny Wardle, English cricketer (d. 1985)

● 1923 - Joseph Weizenbaum, German-born computer scientist

● 1924 - Ron Moody, English actor

● 1926 - Evelyn Lear, American soprano

● 1926 - Hanae Mori, Japanese fashion designer

● 1926 - Soupy Sales, American comedian

● 1928 - Sander Vanocur, Broadcast journalist

● 1931 - Bill Graham, German-born American music promoter (d. 1991)

● 1933 - Charles Osgood, American journalist and commentator

● 1933 - Jean-Marie Straub, French film director

● 1934 - Jacques Anquetil, French cyclist (d. 1987)

● 1934 - Roy Kinnear, English actor (d. 1988)

● 1934 - Alexandra Ripley, American writer (d. 2004)

● 1934 - Gene Freese, baseball player

● 1935 - Elvis Presley, American singer and guitarist (d. 1977)

● 1937 - Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer

● 1937 - John Hume, Irish politician

● 1938 - Bob Eubanks, American game show host

● 1940 - Cristy Lane, Country-gospel singer

● 1941 - Anthony Gourdine, R&B singer (Little Anthony and the Imperials)

● 1941 - Graham Chapman, British comedian (d. 1989)

● 1941 - Boris Vallejo, Peruvian illustrator

● 1942 - Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author

● 1942 - Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan

● 1942 - Bob Taft, Governor of Ohio

● 1942 - Yvette Mimieux, American actress

● 1944 - Terry Brooks, American writer

● 1946 - Robby Krieger, American musician (The Doors)

● 1947 - David Bowie, English musician

● 1947 - Samuel Schmid, Swiss Federal Councilor

● 1951 - Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia

● 1951 - John McTiernan, American film director

● 1953 - Bruce Sutter, baseball player and Hall of Fame member

● 1954 - Robert Dumas, Yellow Mustang Club Member

● 1955 - Harriet Sansom Harris, Actress

● 1955 - Mike Reno, Canadian musician (Loverboy)

● 1958 - Rey Misterio, Sr., Mexican professional wrestler

● 1959 - Paul Hester, Australian drummer (Crowded House) (d. 2005)

● 1961 - Calvin Smith, American athlete

● 1965 - Maria Pitillo, Actress

● 1966 - Igor Vyazmikin, Russian ice hockey player

● 1967 - Michelle Forbes, American actress

● 1967 - R. Kelly, American singer

● 1969 - Ami Dolenz, American actress

● 1969 - Jeff Abercrombie, American musician (Fuel)

● 1970 - Dave Eggers, American writer and publisher

● 1971 - Jason Giambi, American baseball player

● 1971 - Pascal Zuberbühler, Swiss footballer

● 1973 - Mark Knight, English sound designer

● 1973 - Jason Stevens, Australian rugby league player

● 1975 - Tift Merritt, Country singer

● 1975 - DJ Clue, American DJ and producer

● 1975(73? NYT) - Sean Paul, Jamaican singer

● 1976 - Jenny Lewis, American actress and musician (Rilo Kiley)

● 1976 - Carl Pavano, American baseball player

● 1977 - Amber Benson, American actress

● 1977 - Lee Yoo-jin, Korean actress

● 1978 - Scott Whyte, Actor

● 1978 - Marco Fu, Hong Kong snooker player

● 1979 - Adrian Mutu, Romanian soccer player

● 1979 - Sarah Polley, Canadian actress

● 1979 - Seol Ki-Hyeon, South Korean footballer

● 1980 - Rachel Nichols, American actress

● 1981 - Jeff Francis, Canadian baseball player

● 1982 - Gaby Hoffmann, American actress

● 1983 - Chris Mordetsky, American professional wrestler

● 1985 - Rachael Lampa, American singer

● 1986 - Jaclyn Linetsky, Canadian actress (d. 2003)

● 1991 - Asuka Hinoi, Japanese singer

DEATHS

● 482 - Saint Severinus

● 1100 - Antipope Clement III (bc. 1029)

● 1107 - Edgar of Scotland (b. 1074)

● 1198 - Pope Celestine III (bc. 1106)

● 1324 - Marco Polo, Italian explorer (b. 1254)

● 1337 - Giotto di Bondone, Italian artist (b. 1267)

● 1464 - Thomas Ebendorfer, Austrian historian (b. 1385)

● 1557 - Albert the Warlike, Prince of Bayreuth (b. 1522)

● 1570 - Philibert de l'Orme, French architect (bc. 1510)

● 1642 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer (b. 1564)

● 1707 - John Dalrymple, 1st Earl of Stair, Scottish politician (b. 1648)

● 1713 - Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (b. 1653)

● 1775 - John Baskerville, English printer (b. 1706)

● 1789 - Jack Broughton, English boxer (bc. 1703)

● 1794 - Justus Möser, German statesman (b. 1720)

● 1815 - Edward Pakenham, British general (b. 1778)

● 1825 - Eli Whitney, American inventor (b. 1765)

● 1854 - William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (b. 1768)

● 1865 - Aimé, duc de Clermont-Tonnerre, French general (b. 1779)

● 1874 - Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, French writer and historian (b. 1814)

● 1878 - Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, Russian poet (b. 1821)

● 1880 - Joshua A. Norton, American eccentric (b. 1811)

● 1896 - William Raine Marshall, Governor of Minnesota (b. 1825)

● 1896 - Paul Verlaine, French poet (b. 1844)

● 1901 - John Barry, Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross (b. 1873)

● 1916 - Ada Rehan, Irish-born American actress (b. 1860)

● 1932 - Eurosia Fabris, Italian Catholic (b. 1866)

● 1934 - Andrei Bely, Russian writer (b. 1880)

● 1935 - Jesse Garon Presley, stillborn twin brother of Elvis Presley

● 1941 - Robert Baden-Powell, English founder of scouting (b. 1857)

● 1942 - Joseph Franklin Rutherford, American religious publisher (b. 1869)

● 1944 - William Kissam Vanderbilt II, member of the Vanderbilt family (b. 1878)

● 1948 - Kurt Schwitters, German painter (b. 1887)

● 1948 - Richard Tauber, Austrian tenor (b. 1891)

● 1950 - Joseph Schumpeter, Austrian economist (b. 1883)

● 1956 - Jim Elliot, American Christian missionary (b. 1928)

● 1958 - Paul Pilgrim, American athlete (b. 1883)

● 1963 - Kay Sage, American artist and poet (b. 1898)

● 1969 - Albert Hill, British athlete (b. 1889)

● 1970 - Georges Guibourg, French performer (b. 1891)

● 1972 - Kenneth Patchen, American poet (b. 1911)

● 1975 - Richard Tucker, American tenor (b. 1913)

● 1976 - Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1898)

● 1976 - Robert Forgan, British fascist (b. 1891)

● 1979 - Sara Carter, American country musician (b. 1898)

● 1980 - John Mauchly, American physicist (b. 1907)

● 1981 - Matthew "Stymie" Beard, American actor (b. 1925)

● 1983 - Tom McCall, Governor of Oregon (b. 1913)

● 1986 - Pierre Fournier, French cellist (b. 1906)

● 1989 - Bruce Chatwin, English novelist (b. 1940)

● 1990 - Terry-Thomas, British actor, comedian (b. 1911)

● 1991 - Steve Clark, English guitarist (Def Leppard) (b. 1960)

● 1993 - Eleanor Hibbert, British author (b. 1906)

● 1994 - Pat Buttram, American actor (b. 1915)

● 1994 - Harvey Haddix, American baseball player (b. 1925)

● 1995 - Carlos Monzon, Argentinian boxer (b. 1942)

● 1996 - François Mitterrand, President of France (b. 1916)

● 1997 - Melvin Calvin, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)

● 1998 - Michael Tippett, English composer (b. 1905)

● 2000 - Fritz Thiedemann, German equestrianist (b. 1918)

● 2002 - Alexander Prochorow, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate (b. 1916)

● 2002 - Dave Thomas, American fast food entrepreneur (b. 1932)

● 2003 - Ron Goodwin, British composer and conductor (b. 1925)

● 2004 - John A. Gambling, American radio talk-show host (b. 1930)

● 2004 - Aaron Weaver, American soldier (b. 1971)

● 2005 - Campbell McComas, Australian impersonator and broadcaster (b. 1952)

● 2005 - Warren Spears, American choreographer and dancer

● 2005 - Michel Thomas, Polish linguist (b. 1914)

● 2006 - Tony Banks, British politician (b. 1943)

● 2007 - Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-born actress (b. 1922)

● 2007 - David Ervine, Northern Irish politician (b. 1953)

● 2007 - Iwao Takamoto, American animator (b. 1925)

● 2007 - Francis Cockfield, British politician (b. 1916)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● Our Lady of Prompt Succor
● St. Thorfinn
● St. Apollinaris
● St. Albert of Cashel
● St. Athelm
● St. Atticus
● St. Wulsin
● St. Theophilus & Helladius
● St. Severinus
● St. Carterius
● St. Ergnad
● St. Erhard
● St. Eugenian
● St. Frodobert
● St. Garibaldus
● St. Gudula, patron saint of Brussels
● St. Frodobert
● St. Lucian
● St. Maximus

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 26 (Civil Date: January 8)
● Second Day of the Feast of the Nativity.
● Synaxis of the Most Holy Theotokos
● Hieromartyr Euthymius, Bishop of Sardis.
● St. Evaristus of the Studion Monastery.
● St. Constantine, monk of Synnada.
● New Hieromartyr Constantius the Russian, at Constantinople.
● St. Dominique
● St. Nicodemus the Serbian.
● New Hieromartyr Andrew, Bishop of Ufa (1937).
● New Martyr Valentina (1937).
● Repose of Abbot Barlaam of Vallam (1849).

● Commonwealth Day is celebrated in the Northern Mariana Islands.

● Louisana : Battle of New Orleans/Old Hickory Day/ Jackson Day (1815)

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Switzerland : Meitlisunntig Festival-Woman in Villmergen War (1712) - ( Sunday )


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

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