January 9......

January 9 is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 356 (357 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

● 475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople.

● 1296 - Earl Floris V signs accord with French king

● 1317 - Phillips V, the Tall, crowned king of France

● 1349 - The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, is rounded up and incinerated, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague.

● 1428 - Pope Martinus V declares Jacoba van Beierens marriage invalid

● 1431 - Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.

● 1464 - 1st meeting of States-General of Netherlands

● 1493 - 1st sight of manatees (by Christopher Columbus)

● 1522 - Adriaan F Boeyens of Utrecht elected only Dutch/last non-Italian pope (Adrian VI)

● 1558 - Geneva becomes independent from Berne canton, Switzerland

● 1569 - St. Philip of Moscow, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, was murdered by Czar Ivan IV ("Ivan the Terrible").

● 1570 - Tsar Ivan the terrible kills 1000-2000 residents of Novgorod

● 1718 - France declares war on Spain

● 1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in Battle of Barari Ghat.

● 1768 - Philip Astley stages the first modern circus (London).

● 1777 - Pioneer American Methodist bishop Francis Asbury wrote in his journal: 'My soul lives constantly as in the presence of God, and enjoys much of His divine favor. His love is better than life!'

● 1788 - Connecticut becomes the fifth state to join the United States by ratifying the Constitution.

● 1789 - Treaty with the Wyandot, Delaware, Ottowa, Potawatomi, and Sauk is the first in the new U.S. to recognize Native Americans as independent "nations."

● 1792 - Russia & Turkey sign Peace of Jassy

● 1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a balloon in the United States at Philadelphia.

● 1793 - Dutch Prince Willem V establishes 2 brigades Drive Artillery

● 1799 - British prime minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax, at two shillings (10p) in the pound, to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars.

● 1805 - "Black Laws" of Ohio passed which, among other things, prevents blacks from offering testimony in court.

● 1812 - Swedish Pomerania (Germany) seized by Napoleon

● 1816 - Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for Miners at Hebburn Colliery.

● 1822 - The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese king João VI, starting the Brazilian independence process.

● 1834 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port San Julian, Patagonia

● 1836 - The first Roman Catholic college to be founded in the Deep South, Spring Hill College was established in Spring Hill, Arkansas.

● 1839 - The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.

● 1839 - Thomas Henderson measures 1st stellar parallax (Alpha Centauri)

● 1847 - 1st San Francisco newspaper published (California Star)

● 1848 - 1st commercial bank in San Francisco established

● 1848 - People's uprising in Palermo Sicily

● 1854 - Astor Library opens in New York City NY

● 1855 - Clipper Guiding Star disappears in Atlantic, 480 dies

● 1857 - The Fort Tejon earthquake of California occurs, registering an estimated magnitude of 7.9.

● 1858 - Anson Jones, the final President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide.

● 1859 - Birth of Carrie Chapman Catt, pacifist and suffragist, co-founder of Women's Peace Party in 1915, co-founder of League of Women Voters.

● 1861 - American Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War."

● 1861 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.

● 1863 - American Civil War: the Battle of Fort Hindman occurs in Arkansas.

● 1878 - Umberto I becomes King of Italy.

● 1879 - At 9 PM, Cheyenne prisoners led by Dull Knife revolt at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

● 1879 - Kirland Warbler discovered on Andros Island in Bahamas

● 1880 - The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow. 6' (1.8 meters) of snow falls in Seattle in 5 days.

● 1882 - Oscar Wilde gives his first lecture on "The English Renaissance of Art" in New York.

● 1883 - Trial begins, in Lyon, France, of the Internationale, against 68 anarchists known, eventually, as "The 66." They are accused of promoting workers' strikes, and the abolition of the rights of property, of family, of fatherland, of religion, and to thus attacking the public peace. Stiff sentences were handed down - "Leaders" such as Peter Kropotkin, Emile Gautier, Bernard, Bordat received four years in prison, while 39 of their companions were sentenced from six months to three years.

● 1894 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.

● 1894 - "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze" released in movie theaters

● 1900 - S.S. Lazio is founded in Rome, Italy.

● 1902 - New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public.

● 1903 - Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.

● 1905 - Popular French anarchist Louise Michel dies. A leader in the ParisCommune and co-founder of the Women's Battalion, her funeral was a huge occasion, with upwards of 100,000 marchers. Memorial services were held for her throughout France, and in London.

● 1905 - According to the Julian Calendar which was used at the time, "Bloody Sunday" massacre of demonstrators in St. Petersburg, Russia - government troops open fire on 100,000 workers, women, and children, who came to petition the Tzar for improved working and living conditions. Leaves more than 1,000 demonstrators dead and 3,000 wounded. It is the beginning of the first Russian revolution. Tomorrow, the anarchist Voline forms part of the first Soviet, created to assist the victims of repression.

● 1906 - A New York City grand jury dismissed a case against Emma Goldman, arrested two months previously for articles she had authored and for "inciting to riot."

● 1908 - Birth of Simone de Beauvoir, feminist, existentialist, and author of The Second Sex.

● 1908 - Muir Woods National Monument, California established

● 1908 - Frans Schollaert succeeds De Trooz as premier of Belgium

● 1909 - Ernest Shackleton reaches 88º23' south

● 1909 - First issue of LaFollette's Weekly, predecessor to the Progressive.

● 1912 - United States Marines invade Honduras.

● 1913 - Richard Milhous Nixon, the first American president to resign from office following his involvement in the Watergate scandal, was born in Yorba Linda, California.

● 1916 - The Ottoman Empire prevails in the Battle of Çanakkale, as the last British troops are evacuated.

● 1917 - World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.

● 1919 - Sanglante ("Bloody Week") escalates as martial law declared to break general strike in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

● 1922 - Eighty thousand Chicago construction workers strike.

● 1922 - Rotterdam metal strike ends

● 1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes 1st autogiro (helicopter) flight, Spain

● 1924 - Death of British Armenian scholar F. C. Conybeare, 68. His researches did much to relate the Armenian language and culture to the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint).

● 1925 - German Postal Minister A Höfle resigns due to corruption

● 1927 - Fire in Laurier Palace cinema in Montréal, 78 children died

● 1929 - The Seeing Eye is established in Nashville, Tennessee, with the mission to train dogs for assisting the blind.

● 1933 - Amsterdam confectionery worker go on strike against wage reduction

● 1936 - Semi-automatic rifles adopted by US army

● 1937 - Italian regime bans marriages between Italians & Abyssinians

● 1937 - The first issue of "Look" went on sale. Within a month, "Look" became a biweekly magazine.

● 1939 - Southern Tenant Farmers' Union lead Missouri Highway sit-down of 1,700 tenant families. Motorists traveling along US Highway 60 between Sikeston and Hayti were startled to see the roadsides cluttered with the meager and pitiful furniture, household goods, and livestock of hundreds of families of tenant farmers and sharecroppers who were camped along the highways. Their arrival had begun the night before and, by noon of the 10th, over 1,000 homeless people had camped along the road; most were there because they had no place else to go.

● 1940 - 2 German officers make emergency landing in Belgium

● 1940 - Television was used for the first time to present a sales meeting to convention delegates in New York City.

● 1941 - Birth of once-radical folk songstress Joan Baez.

● 1941 - Maiden flight by Canada's Avro Lancaster military plane

● 1941 - 6,000 Jews exterminated in pogrom in Bucharest Romania

● 1942 - A U.S. government press release says 40 percent more Native Americans have enlisted to fight in WWII than have been drafted. Altogether, 25,000 Indians served in the U.S. armed forces, including 800 women. In the Philippines, a Choctaw scout escaped from the Japanese at the battle of Corregidor, and led underground guerrilla forces until the war ended. The Oneidas, Chippewas, and Comanches blocked Japanese decoding of military information by dispatching messages in their tribal languages. Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in the landing at Guadalcanal, where they sent and received reports from field commanders.

● 1942 - US Joint Chiefs of Staff created

● 1943 - Japanese government in Java limits sale & use of motorcars

● 1945 - US soldiers led by General Douglas MacArthur invade Philippines

● 1951 - United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.

● 1952 - Home of Phoenix City, Alabama anti-vice crusader Hugh Bently destroyed by a bomb.

● 1952 - Belgian Pholien government resigns

● 1952 - Marines give notice that they will recall Ted Williams to active duty

● 1953 - Korean ferryboat "Chang Tyong-Ho" sank off Pusan killing 249

● 1954 - -87ºF (-66ºC), Northice Station, Greenland (Greenland record)

● 1954 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Louise Bogan & Leonie Adams

● 1956 - Samir el-Rifai forms government in Jordan

● 1957 - Checheno-Ingush ASSR reformed in RSFSR

● 1957 - Karachayevo-Cherkess Autonomous Region reestablished in RSFSR

● 1957 - Sir Anthony Eden resigns; Sir Anthony Eden resigns as prime minister of Britain due to ill health after one year and 279 days in the post.

● 1957 - Dutch Newspaper Society expels communist daily paper "Truth"

● 1959 - Dam across Tera River collapses after heavy winter rains, 135 die

● 1960 - Construction of the Aswan Dam begins in Egypt.

● 1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

● 1963 - Mao Tse-tung writes his poem "Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-jo"

● 1964 - Several Panamanian youths try to put up the Panamanian flag on the US-controlled Panama Canal Zone, during the fight the Panama flag is torn, setting off four days of fighting between US armed forces and civilian Panamanians around the country. This day is known as Martyrs' Day. U.S. troops killed 21 protesters. Panama suspends relations with U.S. over American control of the Canal.

● 1965 - The Hope Slide in British Columbia kills 4 people near Hope, British Columbia.

● 1966 - Polish government denies exit visa to Cardinal Wyszynski revisionism

● 1967 - Georgia legislature seats Representative Julian Bond

● 1968 - The Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.

● 1969 - Concorde jetliner's 1st test flight (Bristol England)

● 1970 - After 140 years of unofficial racial discrimination, the Mormons issued an official statement declaring that blacks were not yet to receive the priesthood "for reasons which we believe are known to God, but which He has not made fully known to man."
● 1970 - Constitution of Singapore enacted

● 1972 - Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported authorized biography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake.

● 1972 - RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.

● 1972 - Miners strike against British government; Coal miners walk out at midnight in their first national strike for almost 50 years.

● 1973 - Luna 21 launched, to Moon

● 1975 - 600 employees of Royal Canadian Mint go on strike

● 1977 - The Oakland Raiders defeat the Minnesota Vikings 32-14 at Super Bowl XI. Wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff is named Most Valuable Player.

● 1978 - Commonwealth of Northern Marianas established

● 1979 - Supreme Court strikes down (6-3) PA law requiring doctors performing an abortion to try to preserve lives of potentially viable fetuses

● 1979 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to WS Merwin

● 1979 - K-Mart pulls Steve Martin's "Let's Get Small" for being in "bad taste"

● 1980 - 63 beheaded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

● 1981 - Francisco Balsamao elected President of Portugal

● 1982 - 5.9 earthquake in New England & Canada; 1st since 1855

● 1983 - British PM Margaret Thatcher visits the Falkland Islands

● 1984 - EAA moves operations to Oshkosh

● 1986 - Heseltine quits over Westland; Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine resigns his Cabinet job after a row with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher over the Westland helicopter affair.

● 1986 - After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves the instant camera business.

● 1987 - The White House released a memorandum prepared for President Ronald Reagan in January 1986 that showed a definite link between U.S. arms sales to Iran and the release of American hostages in Lebanon.

● 1987 - New Nicaraguan constitution takes effect

● 1987 - Chinese/Vietnamese border fights, 1500 killed

● 1988 - English Earl of St Andrews marries Sylvana Tomaselli

● 1990 - 64th US manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) launches into orbit

● 1990 - Supreme Court strikes down Dallas' ordinance imposing strict zoning on sexually oriented businesses

● 1991 - Ten midwestern peace activists are arrested at Fort McCoy for handing out written warnings to military reservists about participation in war crimes.

● 1991 - The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.

● 1991 - U.S. secretary of state Baker and Iraqi foreign minister Aziz met for 61/2 hours in Geneva, but failed to reach any agreement that would forestall war in the Persian Gulf.

● 1992 - Top policewoman suspended from duty; Britain's most senior policewoman Alison Halford is suspended over allegations of misconduct.

● 1994 - 14th United Negro College Fund raises $11,000,000

● 1995 - Valeri Poliakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station, breaking a duration record.

● 1995 - Ecuador & Peru involve in boundary fight

● 1995 - Worker accidentally cuts electrical wires at Newark Airport

● 1997 - Tamil rebels attact a military base in Sri Lanka. 200 soldiers and 140 rebels were killed.

● 1997 - Bullimore rescued after five days; The lone yachtsman, Tony Bullimore, feared drowned after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean five days ago, has been found safe and well.

● 1997 - Heart attacks sends Frank Sinatra back to hospital

● 1997 - A Comair Embraer 120 crashes during approach into Detroit Metro Airport, killing 29 people.

● 1998 - Anatoly Karpov defeats Viswanathan Anand to retain chess title

● 1998 - Anatoly Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov spacewalk record 3 hours 8 minutes

● 1998 - Decapitated head of Danish Little Mermaid is returned

● 2002 - Yasmine Bleeth was sentenced to two years of probation, regular drug tests, 100 hours of community service and pay the court costs in connection to a cocaine-possession charge.

● 2002 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corp. The company had filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.

● 2003 - Archaeologists announced that they had found five more chambers in the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor. The rooms were believed to cover about 750,000 square feet.

● 2005 - Abbas triumphs in Palestinian elections; Early indications in the Palestinian presidential elections show former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas set to win.

● 2005 - Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.

● 2006 - The Phantom of the Opera surpasses the record set by Cats for the title of longest running show on Broadway.

● 2005 - Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a dual ceremony.

● 2006 - The first The Howard Stern Show via Sirius Satellite Radio is broadcast.

● 2007 - Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the iPhone at Macworld San Fransisco.

BIRTHS

● 1554 - Pope Gregory XV (d. 1623)

● 1571 - Karel Bonaventura Buquoy, French soldier (d. 1621)

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

● 1624 - Empress Meisho of Japan (d. 1696)

● 1685 - Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist (d. 1766)

● 1728 - Thomas Warton, English poet (d. 1790)

● 1773 - Cassandra Austen, English watercolorist and sister of Jane Austen (d. 1845)

● 1781 - Lemuel Shaw, American jurist (d. 1861)

● 1790 - Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom, Swedish poet (d. 1855)

● 1811 - Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (d. 1856)

● 1823 - Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch, German surgeon (d. 1908)

● 1829 - Thomas William Robertson, English playwright (d. 1871)

● 1829 - Adolf von Schlagintweit, German explorer (d. 1857)

● 1832 - Félix-Gabriel Marchand, journalist, author and politician, Premier of Quebec (d. 1900)

● 1854 - Jennie Jerome, American society beauty and mother of Winston Churchill (d. 1921)

● 1856 - Anton Aškerc, Slovenian priest and poet (d. 1912)

● 1859 - Carrie Chapman Catt, American feminist leader (d. 1947)

● 1864 - Vladimir Steklov, Russian mathematician (d. 1926)

● 1868 - S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist (d. 1939)

● 1870 - Joseph B Strauss, American civil engineer; designed the Golden Gate Bridge (d. 1938)

● 1873 - Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Ukrainian poet (d. 1934)

● 1875 - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American socalite (d. 1942)

● 1879 - John Broadus Watson, American psychologist (d. 1958)

● 1881 - Lascelles Abercrombie, British poet and critic (d. 1938)

● 1881 - Edouard Beaupré, horse lifter (d. 1904)

● 1881 - Giovanni Papini, Italian writer (d. 1956)

● 1898 - Dame Gracie Fields, English entertainer (d. 1979)

● 1890 - Karel Čapek, Czech writer (d. 1938)

● 1890 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist (d. 1935)

● 1892 - Eva Bowring, American politician (d. 1985)

● 1897 - Karl Löwith, German philosopher (d. 1973)

● 1898 - Vilma Bánky, Hungarian actress (d. 1991)

● 1898 - Gracie Fields, English vaudeville performer (d. 1979)

● 1899 - Alexander Tcherepnin, Russian composer (d. 1977)

● 1900 - Richard Halliburton, American travel writer (d. 1939)

● 1900 - Maria of Romania, Queen Consort of Yugoslavia (d. 1961)

● 1901 - Chic Young, American cartoonist (d. 1973)

● 1902 - Rudolph Bing, Austrian-born opera manager (d. 1997)

● 1902 - Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish religious author (d. 1975)

● 1903 - Hem Vejakorn, Thai illustrator (d. 1969)

● 1904 - George Balanchine, Russian dancer/choreographer (d. 1983)

● 1908 - Simone de Beauvoir, French author (d. 1986)

● 1911 - Gypsy Rose Lee, burlesque performer (d. 1970)

● 1912 - Ralph Tubbs, British architect (d. 1996)

● 1913 – Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon, 37th President of the United States (d. 1994)

● 1914 - Gypsy Rose Lee, American striptease artist (d. 1970)

● 1914 - Kenny (Klook) Clarke, American jazz drummer and composer (d. 1985)

● 1915 - Fernando Lamas, Argentine actor (d. 1982)

● 1916 - Vic Mizzy, American orchestra leader

● 1916 - Peter Twinn, English World War II code-breaker (d. 2004)

● 1920 - Clive Dunn, British actor

● 1920 - Hakim Mohammed Said, Pakistani scholar

● 1921 - Lister Sinclair, Canadian broadcaster and playwright (d. 2006)

● 1922 - Har Gobind Khorana, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate

● 1922 - Ahmed Sékou Touré, President of Guinea (d. 1984)

● 1924 - Sergei Parajanov, Armenian film director (d. 1990)

● 1925 - Lee Van Cleef, American actor (d. 1989)

● 1926 - Jean-Pierre Côté, Canadian politician, Lieutenant governor of Quebec (d. 2002)

● 1928 - Judith Krantz, American author

● 1928 - Domenico Modugno, Italian singer and songwriter (d. 1994)

● 1929 - Heiner Muller, German dramatist (d. 1995)

● 1929 - Brian Friel, Irish dramatist

● 1929 - Dorothea Puente, American serial killer

● 1931 - Algis Budrys, American author

● 1932 - Robert P. Casey, American politician (d. 2000)

● 1934 - Bart Starr, American football player and Hall of Fame member

● 1935 - Bob Denver, American actor (d. 2005)

● 1935 - Dick Enberg, American sportscaster

● 1936 - Anne Rivers Siddons, American writer

● 1939 - Susannah York, British actress

● 1940 - Jimmy Boyd, American actor and singer

● 1940 - Barbara Buczek, Polish composer (d. 1993)

● 1940 - Ruth Dreifuss, Swiss politician

● 1941 - Joan Baez, American singer and activist

● 1941 - Susannah York, Actress

● 1941 - Gilles Vaillancourt, Quebec politician

● 1942 - K Callan, American actress

● 1943 - Freddie Starr, English comedian and singer

● 1944 - Jimmy Page, English guitarist

● 1947 - Ronnie Landfield, American artist

● 1950 - David Johansen American singer

● 1950 - Rio Reiser, German singer (d. 1996)

● 1951 - Crystal Gayle, American singer

● 1951 - M.L. Carr, basketball player and coach

● 1952 - Hugh Bayley, British politician

● 1955 - J. K. Simmons, American actor ("The Closer")

● 1956 - Kimberly Beck, American actress

● 1956 - Imelda Staunton, British actress

● 1958 - Mehmet Ali Ağca, Turkish attempted assassin of Pope John Paul II

● 1959 - Mark Martin, American NASCAR driver

● 1959 - Rigoberta Menchú, Nobel Peace Prize laureate

● 1959 - Cristi Minculescu, Romanian musician

● 1959 - Otis Nixon, baseball player

● 1963 - Michael Everson, expert in writing systems and Unicode

● 1965(63? NYT) - Eric Erlandson, American musician

● 1965 - Joely Richardson, British actress

● 1965 - Darren Bennett, Australian-born American football player

● 1965 - Iain Dowie, English football manager

● 1967 - Claudio Caniggia, Argentinian footballer

● 1967 - Steven Harwell, American singer and musician (Smash Mouth)

● 1967 - Dave Matthews, South African singer and musician

● 1967 - Carl Bell, American musician (Fuel)

● 1968 - Jimmy Adams, West Indian cricketer

● 1968 - Joey Lauren Adams, American actress

● 1968 - Al Schnier, American rock guitarist

● 1970 - Alex Staropoli, Italian keyboardist

● 1970 - Lara Fabian, Belgian singer

● 1971 - Daniel Dumile, American hip hop artist

● 1971 - Scott Thornton, National Hockey League player

● 1972 - Mat Hoffman, American BMX biker

● 1972 - Jay Powell, baseball player

● 1975 - Angela Bettis, American actress

● 1975 - Kim Mathers, former wife of Eminem

● 1975 - Kiko Calero, baseball player

● 1976 - Todd Grisham, American professional wrestling interviewer

● 1976 - Radek Bonk, National Hockey League player

● 1978 - Chad Johnson, American football player

● 1978 - Gennaro Gattuso, Italian footballer

● 1978 - AJ McLean, American singer (Backstreet Boys)

● 1978 - Maggie Rizer, American model and AIDS activist

● 1978 - Mathieu Garon, National Hockey League goaltender

● 1979 - Tomiko Van, Japanese singer

● 1980 - Sergio García, Spanish golfer

● 1981 - Euzebiusz Smolarek, Polish footballer

● 1982 - Kate Middleton, Prince William's current girlfriend

● 1987 - Paolo Nutini, British singer/songwriter

● 1987 - Pablo Santos, Mexican actor (d. 2006)

● 1989 - Michaella Krajicek, Dutch tennis player

DEATHS

● 1282 - Abû 'Uthmân Sa'îd Hakam al Qurashi, ruler of Minorca (b. 1204)

● 1283 - Wen Tianxiang, Prime Minister of China (executed) (b. 1236)

● 1499 - Johann Cicero, elector of Brandenburg (b. 1455)

● 1514 - Anna, Duchess of Brittany, queen of Charles VIII of France (b. 1477)

● 1543 - Guillaume du Bellay, French diplomat and general (b. 1491)

● 1562 - Amago Haruhisa, Japanese warlord (b. 1514)

● 1571 - Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, French naval officer (b. 1510)

● 1598 - Jasper Heywood, English translator (b. 1553)

● 1677 - Aernout van der Neer, Dutch painter (b. 1603)

● 1757 - Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist and man of letters (b. 1657)

● 1757 - Louis Bertrand Castel, French mathematician (b. 1688)

● 1766 - Thomas Birch, British historian (b. 1705)

● 1799 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian scientist (b. 1718)

● 1800 - Jean Étienne Championnet, French general (b. 1762)

● 1805 - Noble Jones, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)

● 1848 - Caroline Herschel, German-born astronomer (b. 1750)

● 1858 - Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (suicide) (b. 1798)

● 1873 - Emperor Napoleon III of France (b. 1808)

● 1876 - Samuel Gridley Howe, American abolitionist (b. 1801)

● 1877 - Alexander Brullov, Russia painter (b. 1799)

● 1878 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (b. 1820)

● 1895 - Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watch manufacturer (b. 1812)

● 1901 - Richard Copley Christie, English scholar (b. 1830)

● 1908 - Wilhelm Busch, German painter (b. 1832)

● 1908 - Abraham Goldfaden, Russian-born actor (b. 1840)

● 1911 - Edwin Arthur Jones, American composer (b. 1853)

● 1918 - Émile Reynaud, French scientist (b. 1844)

● 1923 - Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand writer (b. 1888)

● 1931 - Wayne Munn, wrestler (b. 1896)

● 1936 - John Gilbert, American actor (b. 1899)

● 1939 - Johann Strauss III, Austrian conductor (b. 1866)

● 1939 - Johnny Gruelle, American creator of Raggedy Ann (b. 1880)

● 1946 - Countee Cullen, American poet (b. 1903)

● 1947 - Karl Mannheim, German sociologist (b. 1893)

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

● 1971 - Elmer Flick, baseball player (b. 1876)

● 1972 - Ted Shawn, American dancer (b. 1891)

● 1975 - Pierre Fresnay, French actor (b. 1897)

● 1975 - Pyotr Sergeyevich Novikov, Russian mathematician (b. 1901)

● 1981 - Kazimierz Serocki, Polish composer (b. 1922)

● 1984 - Wolfgang Staudte, German director (b. 1906)

● 1985 - Robert Mayer, British businessman and philanthropist (b. 1879)

● 1987 - Marion Hutton, American singer (b. 1919)

● 1987 - Arthur Lake, American actor (b. 1905)

● 1989 - Bill Terry, baseball player (b. 1898)

● 1990 - Spud Chandler, baseball player (b. 1907)

● 1992 - Bill Naughton, British playwright (b. 1910)

● 1992 - Steve Brodie, American actor (b. 1919)

● 1993 - Svetoslav Roerich, Russian painter (b. 1904)

● 1994 - Johnny Temple, baseball player (b. 1927)

● 1995 - Peter Cook, British actor and comedian (b. 1937)

● 1995 - Souphanouvong, President of Laos (b. 1909)

● 1997 - Edward Osobka-Morawski, Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1909)

● 1997 - Jesse White, American actor (b. 1917)

● 1998 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate (b. 1918)

● 2000 - Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and author (b. 1909)

● 2001 - Maurice Prather, American photographer (b. 1926)

● 2003 - Will McDonough, American sports journalist (b. 1935)

● 2005 - Gonzalo Gavira, Mexican film sound technician (b. 1925)

● 2006 - Andy Caldecott, Australian motorcyclist (b. 1964)

● 2006 - Mikk Mikiver, Estonian actor, director (b. 1937)

● 2007 - Kim Jung-Eun, South Korean comedic actress (b. 1975)

● 2007 - Elmer Symons, South African motorcyclist (b. 1977)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Adrian, Abbot
● St. Brithwald
● St. Vitalicus
● St. Waningus
● St. Epicharis
● St. Foellan
● St. Julian and Companions
● St. Marciana
● St. Maurontus
● St. Paschasia

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 27 (Civil Date: January 9)
● Third Day of the Feast of the Nativity.
● Holy Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen
● St. Theodore Graptus
● "The Branded", confessor, brother of St. Theophanes the Hymnographer.
● St. Theodore, Archbishop of Constantinople.
● St. Luke, monk of Tryglia.
● New Martyrs Tikhon, Archbishop of Voronezh, and with him 160 martyred priests (1919).
● Repose of Athanasius of Grigorious Monastery, Mt. Athos (1953).

● Panama: Martyrs' Day commemorates the 1964 riots over sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone

● Black Nazarene feast in the Quiapo district, Manila, Philippines

● Balloon Ascension Day

● Connecticut : Ratification Day (1788)

● 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

Permanent Backlink to Post