December 20......

December 20 is the 354th (355th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining in the year on this date.

Day of the week in surrounding years:
1982,. . . .,1993,1999,2004—MON—2010
1983,1988,1994,. . . .,2005—TUE—2011
. . . .,1989,1995,2000,2006—WED—. . . .
1984,1990,. . . .,2001,2007—THU—2012
1985,1991,1996,2002,. . . .—FRI—2013
1986,. . . .,1997,2003,2008—SAT—2014
1987,1992,1998,. . . .,2009—SUN—2015

Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Security "I tell you that man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone to whom he can hand over quickly [the] gift of freedom." — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Stupidest and/or Scariest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Bashing the Clintons "While this scandal no longer dominates newspaper headlines, there continue to be aftershocks. The President's squalid affair and his subsequent criminal acts have done palpable damage to the nation. For the better part of a year Mr. Clinton engaged in a full-scale assult on the Presidency, the Constitution, The Rule of Law, Truth, Marriage Vows, Solemn Promises, the integrity of words, the reputations of truth-tellers. . . ." — William Bennett, The Death of Outrage, Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1999, p. 138.—Part 1 of 2 {Due to the length of some of these nutball quotes, I have decided to split the longer ones into parts. I could have abridged them but I think that would have lessened the impact of showing just how crazy these guys are. Please refer to previous and/or subsequent posts for complete quote.}

Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: From Politics "We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech." — Sir Boyle Roche was an eighteenth-century Irish member of Parliament noted for malapropisms and other gaffes, Sir Boyle is Hall of Shame member #5

{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.}

NASA ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY

Reflections on the 1970s


Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh
Click picture to go to NASA APOD site for full explanation

EVENTS

● 69 - Vespasian, a former general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of emperor.

● 1192 - Richard the Lion-Heart was captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the crusade.

● 1522 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.

● 1606 - The Virginia Company loaded three ships with settlers and set sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas

● 1669 - First jury trial in Delaware - Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection and sentenced to flogging, branding and slavery.

● 1803 - Louisiana Territory transferred from France to the U.S., at a ceremony in New Orleans, without consultation with any of the native peoples living there.

● 1835 - Cherokee Indians forced to cede their Georgia lands and cross the Mississippi River when gold was discovered on their territory. The evacuation was carried out, during the winter of 1838-39, by federal troops commanded by General Winfield Scott. Along the way, 10% of the tribe was wiped out by disease, fatigue, and exposure. The march hence known as the "Trail of Tears."

● 1835 - First signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence at Goliad, Texas.

● 1860 - In response to the victory of Republican Abraham Lincoln in the presidential election six weeks before, South Carolina becomes the first Southern state to secede from the United States. "Ordinance of Secession," declared that "the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved."

● 1876 - Hannah Omish at 12 is youngest person ever hanged in U.S. in a "legal" execution.

● 1878 - Ezra Heywood, anarchist, imprisoned for "obscenity," pardoned by President Hayes after popular agitation for his release.

● 1902 - Birth of Miura Seiichi. Christian socialist who gave up religion in 1930, and became an anarcho-syndicalist when he met Sanshiro Ishikawa. Exiled to China in 1939 with Tsing-Tao when Japan became fascist. Returned December 1945. The following year, in Tokyo, helped found the Japanese Federation of anarchists, and assumed responsibility for the international section until 1969.

● 1905 - Start of eleven-day general strike against Tsarist regime in Russia.

● 1915 - World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.

● 1917 - Cheka, first Soviet secret police, founded.

● 1917 - Referendum defeats proposal to conscript single men, Australia.

● 1941 - World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.

● 1942 - World War II: Bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.

● 1943 - Death of German feminist and pacifist Anita Augsburg.

● 1951 - Atomic energy first used to generate electricity in U.S.

● 1951 - Nuclear power first harvested when EBR-1 powers four light bulbs.

● 1952 - United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.

● 1955 - Cardiff was proclaimed as the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom

● 1957 - Birth of British working class singer and activist Billy Bragg.

● 1958 - Thirty-six arrested for re-entering Thor rocket base to prevent construction. North Pickenham, Norfolk, Britain.

● 1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.

● 1968 - American social activist writer John Steinbeck dies, New York City. "Grapes of Wrath," "East of Eden," script writer for "Zapata!"

● 1973 - The Spanish Prime Minister, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid

● 1976 - Mayor Richard Daley, lord and ruler of Chicago for 20 years, dies. But he had left spawn...

● 1984 - The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines.

● 1986 - Three black men attacked by about a dozen bat-wielding young whites in Howard Beach neighborhood, Queens, New York City; one of them, Michael Griffith (23), hit by a car and dies during flight. A year and a day later, three of the whites are convicted of manslaughter in the death.

● 1988 - Animal rights terrorists firebomb Harrod's department store, London, after finding poodle fur collars on some coats.

● 1988 - The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

● 1989 - U.S. invades Panama. Thousands of Panamanians die, leader Manuel Noriega jailed in U.S., drug running and corruption continue but with U.S. investor-friendly government. U.S. media bleats. Invasion force included 13,000 troops who join the approximately 12,000 American soldiers already stationed in the country. A watershed invasion, the first of a thus far endless post-Berlin Wall succession of them.

● 1990 - Reservist Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn refuses orders for Gulf War, Kansas. She is later sentenced to prison, and the Kansas medical board strips Huet-Vaughn of her license to practice, because of her conscientious objection.

● 1991 - A Missouri court passes the death sentence on Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.

● 1991 - CIA classifies task force report on greater openness as "secret."

● 1991 - Paul Keating becomes the 24th Prime Minister of Australia.

● 1994 - Hundreds of thousands link hands in Chechnya in human chain to protest Russian invasion.

● 1995 - An American Airlines Flight 965 Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160.

● 1995 - NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.

● 1995 - The Democratic Social Movement is founded in Greece.

● 1996 - American astronomer and Astrophysicist Carl Edward Sagan dies at age 62.

● 1998 - The United States' first major anti-road protest camp, trying to stop expansion of a freeway near Minneapolis, is broken up by 600 police.

● 1999 - Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.

● 2001 - Argentinian president Fernando de la Rua resigns and flees the presidential compound in a helicopter as hundreds of thousands of protesters fill the streets of Buenos Aires and other Argentinian cities in response to IMF-imposed financial policies and the resulting economic crisis.

● 2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.

● 2005 - New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike, shutting down all New York City Subway and Bus services.

● 2005 - US District Court Judge John E. Jones III ruled against mandating teaching "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.

● 2006 - A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.

BIRTHS

● 1494 - Oronce Finé, French mathematician (d. 1555)

● 1537 - King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)

● 1566 - Edward Wightman, English Baptist preacher (d. 1612)

● 1579 - (baptized) John Fletcher, English playwright (d. 1625)

● 1626 - Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (d. 1692)

● 1629 - Pieter de Hooch, Dutch painter (d. 1684)

● 1717 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (d. 1787)

● 1786 - Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (d. 1853)

● 1792 - Nicolas Charlet, French painter (d. 1845)

● 1833 - Samuel Mudd, American physician (d. 1883)

● 1838 - Edwin Abbott Abbott, English schoolmaster, theologian, and author (d. 1926)

● 1841 - Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)

● 1860 - Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)

● 1861 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (d. 1926)

● 1865 - Elsie De Wolfe, American socialite and interior decorator (d. 1950)

● 1868 - Harvey Firestone, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938)

● 1881 - Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)

● 1886 - Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis player (d. 1974)

● 1888 - Fred Merkle, American baseball figure (d. 1958)

● 1890 - Yvonne Arnaud, French-born actress (d. 1958)

● 1890 - Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)

● 1894 - Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)

● 1898 - Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)

● 1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor (d. 1967)

● 1902 - Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)

● 1902 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)

● 1904 - Spud Davis, baseball player (d. 1984)

● 1907 - Paul Francis Webster, musician (d. 1984)

● 1909 - Vakkom Majeed, Indian politician (d. 2000)

● 1911 - Hortense Calisher, American author

● 1916 - Michel Chartrand, Quebec union leader

● 1917 - David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist (d. 1992)

● 1918 - Jean Marchand, French Canadian trade unionist and politician (d. 1988)

● 1918 - Audrey Totter, American actress

● 1922 - George Roy Hill, American film director (d. 2002)

● 1922 - Beverly Pepper, American sculptor and painter

● 1924 - Judy LaMarsh, Canadian politician and broadcaster (d. 1980)

● 1925 - Benito Lorenzi, Italian footballer (d. 2007)

● 1925 - Mahathir bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia

● 1926 - Sir Geoffrey Howe, British politician

● 1926 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician

● 1927 - Kim Young-sam, President of South Korea

● 1931 - Mala Powers, American film actress (d. 2007)

● 1933 - Jean Carnahan, U.S. Senator

● 1933 - Rik Van Looy, Belgian cyclist

● 1938 - John Harbison, American composer

● 1944 - Bobby Colomby, American musician (Blood, Sweat & Tears)

● 1945 - Peter George Criscoula, American drummer and singer (Kiss)

● 1946 - Uri Geller, Israeli psychic

● 1946 - John Spencer, American actor (d. 2005)

● 1946 - Dick Wolf, American television series creator

● 1947 - Gigliola Cinquetti, Italian singer

● 1948 - Alan Parsons, British music producer and artist

● 1949 - Soumaïla Cissé, Malian politician

● 1949 - Cecil Cooper, Major League baseball player

● 1951 - Gilbert Montagné, French musician

● 1951 - Peter May, Scottish novelist and scriptwriter

● 1952 - Jenny Agutter, English actress

● 1954 - Michael Badalucco, American actor

● 1954 - Sandra Cisneros, American writer

● 1955 - Ed Kuepper, German-born Australian musician (The Saints, Laughing Clowns)

● 1956 - Junji Hirata, Japanese professional wrestler

● 1957 - Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter

● 1957 - Mike Watt, American bassist

● 1957 - Stephen Bicknell, leading British organ expert (d. 2007)

● 1957 - Joyce Hyser, American actress

● 1957 - Anna Vissi, Greek-Cypriot singer

● 1958 - Steve Sailer, American political commentator

● 1960 - Nalo Hopkinson, Canadian writer

● 1963 - Infanta Elena of Spain, Duchess of Lugo

● 1965 - Rich Gannon, American football player

● 1966 - Matt Neal , British Race Driver

● 1966 - Chris Robinson, American singer (Black Crowes)

● 1966 - Myrra Malmberg, Swedish singer

● 1968 - Karl Wendlinger, Austrian racing driver

● 1968 - Joe Cornish, British comedian

● 1968 - Phil Andrews, British racing driver

● 1970 - Nicole DeBoer, Canadian actress

● 1973 - Cory Stillman, National Hockey League forward

● 1974 - Die, Japanese musician (Dir en grey)

● 1975 - Bartosz Bosacki, Polish footballer

● 1975 - Christian Filippella, Italian film director

● 1975 - Jaydy Michel, Mexican model

● 1976 - Jang Hyuk, Korean actor

● 1976 - Aubrey Huff, American baseball player

● 1976 - Adam Powell, Neopets creator

● 1976 - Ramon Stoppelenburg, world traveler and Dutch author

● 1977 - Saukrates, Canadian rapper

● 1978 - Geremi Njitap, Cameroon footballer

● 1978 - Andrei Markov, Russian hockey player

● 1979 - Michael Rogers, Australian cyclist

● 1980 - Ashley Cole, English footballer

● 1980 - Anthony da Silva (Tony), French-Portuguese footballer

● 1981 - Roy Williams, American football player

● 1981 - James Shields, American baseball player

● 1982 - David Wright, baseball player

● 1983 - Jonah Hill, American actor

● 1983 - Lara Stone, Dutch model

● 1983 - Lucy Pinder, British model

● 1987 - Tariel Zintiridis, Greek judoka

● 1990 - Joanna "JoJo" Levesque American pop/R&B Singer

DEATHS

● 217 - Pope Zephyrinus

● 860 - King Ethelbald of Wessex

● 910 - Alfonso III of Leon

● 1022 - Elvira Mendes, wife of Alfonso V of Castile (b. 996)

● 1355 - Stefan Dušan, Serb king and tsar (b. circa 1308)

● 1494 - Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet

● 1524 - Thomas Linacre, English scholar and physician

● 1539 - Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer

● 1590 - Ambroise Paré, French physician (b. 1510)

● 1722 - Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)

● 1723 - Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (b. 1652)

● 1740 - Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, English military officer and statesman (b. 1675)

● 1768 - Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (b. 1692)

● 1783 - Antonio Soler, Spanish composer (b. 1729)

● 1812 - Sacagawea, Shoshone guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition

● 1917 - Lucien Petit-Breton, Argentine-French cyclist (b. 1882)

● 1921 - Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (b. 1850)

● 1929 - Émile Loubet, 7th President of France (b.1838)

● 1935 - Martin O'Meara, Australian soldier (b. 1882)

● 1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)

● 1941 - Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)

● 1954 - James Hilton, American author (b. 1900)

● 1956 - Ramon Carrillo, Argentine neuroscientist and Public Health minister (b. 1906)

● 1961 - Moss Hart, American dramatist (b. 1904)

● 1961 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)

● 1968 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)

● 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Prime Minister of Spain (assassinated) (b. 1903)

● 1973 - Bobby Darin, American singer (b. 1936)

● 1974 - André Jolivet, French composer (b. 1905)

● 1976 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)

● 1982 - Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-born pianist (b. 1887)

● 1984 - Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1946)

● 1986 - Joe DeSa, baseball player (b. 1959)

● 1988 - Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian television pioneer, president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (b. 1908)

● 1989 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)

● 1991 - Simone Beck, French chef (b. 1904)

● 1994 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)

● 1996 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer (b. 1934)

● 1997 - Denise Levertov, English-born poet (b. 1923)

● 1997 - Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)

● 1997 - Dawn Steel, American film producer (b. 1946)

● 1998 - Irene Hervey, American actress (b. 1910)

● 1998 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)

● 1999 - Hank Snow, Canadian singer (b. 1914)

● 1999 - Riccardo Freda, Italian film director (b. 1909)

● 2000 - Mirza Ghulam Hafiz, Bangladesh statesman, politician, and philanthropist (b. 1920)

● 2001 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (b. 1912)

● 2001 - Léopold Sédar Senghor, first President of Senegal (b. 1906)

● 2005 - Maniam Moorthy, member of the first Malaysian team to summit Mount Everest

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Ammon
● St. Dominic of Brescia
● St. Dominic of Silos
● St. Julius
● Sts. Liberatus & Bajulus
● St. O Clavis
● St. Peter Thi
● St. Philogonius
● St. Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne
● Bl. Peter de la Cadireta

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 7 (Civil Date: December 20)
● Nativity Fast.
● St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.
● St. Anthony, abbot of Siya Monastery (Novgorod).
● St. Nilus, monk of Stolbensk Lake.
● St. Paul the Obedient.
● St. John, faster of St. Sabbas' Monastery.
● St. John, faster of the Kiev Caves.
● Martyr Athenodorus of Mesopotamia.
● St. Gregory the Silent of Mt. Athos.

● Greek Calendar:
● Martyr Neophytus.
● Martyr Dometius.
● Martyrs Isidore, Acepsimas and Leo.
● St. Ignatius, monk, near Blachernae.
● Blessed Gregory of Serbia.


THIS IS AN ABBREVIATED POST FOR THIS DATE USING ONLY THE FOLLOWING SEVEN 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.

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Liberal Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004

Quotes from the Right of the Day taken from Take Them at Their Words: Startling, Amusing and Baffling Quotations from the GOP and Their Friends, 1994-2004 Compiled by Bruce J. Miller with Diana Maio ©2004

Dumbest Thing Said for the Day taken from 1001 Dumbest Things Ever Said Edited by Steven D. Price ©2004


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