Day of the week in surrounding years:
1979,1984,1990,. . . .,2001—MON—2007
. . . .,1985,1991,1996,2002—TUE—. . . .
1980,1986,. . . .,1997,2003—WED—2008
1981,1987,1992,1998,. . . .—THU—2009
1982,. . . .,1993,1999,2004—FRI—2010
1983,1988,1994,. . . .,2005—SAT—2011
. . . .,1989,1995,2000,2006—SUN—. . . .
Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Teaching "Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition." — Jacques Barzun
Stupidest and/or Scariest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Free Speech for Me (But Not for Thee) "I'll say this about the war protesters: At least most of them are only putting duct tape across their mouths so I can still tell the rest of them to blow it out their ass." — Dennis Miller, "Tonight Show," 4-3-03.
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: From the world of Sports "He must have made that [movie] before he died."—a reference to movie star Steve McQueen — Few sports figures—and indeed, few figures of any endeavor—have achieved the verbal notoriety of Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, former catcher of the New York Yankees. This is one of the indescribable utterances of Hall of Shame member #6.
{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
A Year of Spectacular Comets
Credit & Copyright: Bob Nanz (San Diego Astronomy Association)
Click picture to go to NASA APOD site for full explanation
EVENTS
● 406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.
● 535 - Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year.
● 1229 - James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (nowadays Palma de Mallorca, Spain) thus consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Mallorca.
● 1599 - British East India Company is chartered.
● 1660 - James II of England is created Duke of Normandy by King Louis XIV.
● 1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
● 1695 - A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.
● 1775 - American attack on city of Quebec launched during a blinding snowstorm. General Montgomery, one of the two American leaders, was killed, and the second, General Benedict Arnold, was wounded during the opening encounter. The attack failed, the Canadians having killed or wounded fully half the American troops.
● 1831 - Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
● 1846 - Birth of Domela Ferdinand Nieuwenhuis, Amsterdam. Protestant pastor, elected to Dutch office as a socialist in 1891, then abandoned politics for the anarchism of Bakunin. One of the organizers of the antimilitarist congress of Amsterdam in June 1904, as well as in August 1907, and an ardent propagandist of the general strike. In 1914, opposed the "Manifesto of the 16" (siding with the allies during WWI). A signatory, with Emma Goldman, Malatesta, et al., of the anti-war manifesto, "L'internationale et la guerre."
● 1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada.
● 1862 - American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union (thus dividing Virginia in two).
● 1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
● 1871 - Ellen Horup, anti-militarist feminist, born, Denmark.
● 1877 - Gustave Courbet dies. French painter, revolutionary socialist, man of independent character. Leader of the realist school. Courbet was placed in charge of all art museums under the revolutionary 1871 Commune of Paris and saved the city's collections from looters. With the fall of the Commune he was accused of allowing the destruction of Napoleon's triumphal column in the Place Vendôme; he was imprisoned and condemned to pay for its reconstruction, but fled to Vevey, Switzerland,where he died.
● 1879 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time.
● 1891 - Ellis Island opens, replacing Castle Garden as the U.S. immigration depot.
● 1901 - Worst year in the 20th century for lynching in the U.S. ends with a tally of 130 of them (105 blacks, 25 whites).
● 1904 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.
● 1909 - Manhattan Bridge opens.
● 1915 - U.S. branch of Fellowship of Reconciliation founded.
● 1929 - Guy Lombardo performs Auld Lang Syne at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City for the first time.
● 1930 - Troops of the Sandinista head Miguel Angel Ortez ambushes a patrol of marines in Achuapa, El Salvador.
● 1933 - American socialist leader Morris Hillquit dies.
● 1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.
● 1946 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
● 1948 - Sixty thousand Puerto Rican men refuse to register for the draft. Eight are prosecuted.
● 1958 - The Cuban guerrilla columns of Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara take Yaguajay and the city of Santa Clara. The next day, Cuban dictator Juan Batista would flee the island, and on Jan. 2 Fidel Castro's victorious revolutionary forces would march into Havana.
● 1960 - The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
● 1961 - The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than USD $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
● 1963 - The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
● 1967 - Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Paul Krassner, Dick Gregory, and friends pronounce themselves "Yippies."
● 1970 - U.S. Congress repeals the entirely fictitious Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which in 1964 authorized a dramatic increase in U.S. military involvement in Vietnam in response to an attack on U.S. forces that later turned out to not have happened.
● 1978 - Indian Claims Commission is terminated, ending the U.S. process of "repaying" tribes for lands stolen by U.S. government.
● 1981 - Coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
● 1981 - Military coup d'etat, Ghana.
● 1983 - The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.
● 1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
● 1991 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is officially dissolved.
● 1994 - This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively.
● 1997 - Quaker Oats settles a lawsuit involving the immoral use of child subjects in radioactivity experiments circa 1945-1956.
● 1998 - Exchange rates between the euro and legacy currencies in the Eurozone become fixed.
● 1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.
● 1999 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
● 1999 - The United States Government handed Panama Canal control over to Panama as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties
● 2004 - The official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).
● 2005 - The Greek BBC radio service ends.
● 2006 - The United Kingdom pays final installment of Second World War debt to the United States.
BIRTHS
● 1378 - Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458)
● 1491 - Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d. 1557)
● 1514 - Andreas Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d. 1564)
● 1572 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (d. 1617)
● 1668 - Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (d. 1738)
● 1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d. 1788)
● 1738 - Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d. 1805)
● 1741 - Isabella Maria of Parma, empress of Germany (d. 1763)
● 1763 - Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d. 1806)
● 1815 - George G. Meade, American Civil War general (d. 1872)
● 1830 - Isma'il Pasha, Governor of Egypt (d. 1895)
● 1860 - Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist (d. 1937)
● 1869 - Henri Matisse, French painter (d. 1954)
● 1877 - Lawrence Beesley, English journalist and author (d. 1967)
● 1878 - Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman (d. 1966)
● 1880 - George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Laureate (d. 1959)
● 1880 - Fred Beebe, American baseball player (d. 1957)
● 1881 - Max Pechstein, German painter (d. 1955)
● 1882 - Martin O'Meara, Australian soldier (d. 1935)
● 1884 - Bobby Byrne, American baseball player (d. 1964)
● 1885 - Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1970)
● 1894 - Pola Negri, Polish actress (d. 1987)
● 1899 - Silvestre Revueltas, Mexican composer (d. 1940)
● 1902 - Lionel Daunais, Quebec singer and composer (d. 1982)
● 1903 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
● 1905 - Jule Styne, English-born composer (d. 1994)
● 1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor (d. 2005)
● 1909 - Jonah Jones, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2000
● 1910 - Carl Dudley, American film director (d. 1973)
● 1919 - Tommy Byrne, American baseball player
● 1920 - Rex Allen, American actor and singer (d. 1999)
● 1924 - Taylor Mead, American actor
● 1928 - Siné, French cartoonist
● 1930 - Odetta, American singer
● 1931 - Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)
● 1933 - Edward Bunker, American author and actor (d. 2005)
● 1934 - Akram Awan, Islamic scholar
● 1937 - Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, Nobel laureate
● 1937 - Sir Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor
● 1938 - Rosalind Cash, American actress (d. 1995)
● 1940 - Mani Neumeier, German musician (Guru Guru)
● 1941 - Sir Alex Ferguson, Scottish football manager
● 1941 - Sarah Miles, English actress
● 1942 - Andy Summers, British guitarist (The Police)
● 1943 - John Denver, American singer and songwriter (d. 1997)
● 1943 - Sir Ben Kingsley, English actor
● 1943 - Pete Quaife, English bassist (The Kinks)
● 1944 - Taylor Hackford, American producer and director
● 1945 - Diane von Fürstenberg, Belgian-born fashion designer
● 1945 - Connie Willis, American writer
● 1946 - Pius Ncube, Zimbabwean human rights advocate
● 1947 - Burton Cummings, Canadian keyboardist (The Guess Who)
● 1947 - Tim Matheson, American actor
● 1947 - Rita Lee, Brazilian Rock Star
● 1948 - Donna Summer, American singer
● 1948 - René Robert, National Hockey League player
● 1949 - Ellen Datlow, American editor
● 1949 - Susan Shwartz, American writer
● 1951 - George Thorogood, American musician
● 1951 - Tom Hamilton, American bassist (Aerosmith)
● 1953 - James Remar, American actor
● 1953 - Jane Badler, American actress
● 1954 - Alex Salmond, Scottish politician
● 1955 - Dawood Ibrahim, Terrorist
● 1956 - Steve Rude, American comics artist
● 1958 - Bebe Neuwirth, American actress
● 1959 - Phill Kline, American politician
● 1959 - Val Kilmer, American actor
● 1959 - Paul Westerberg, American musician (The Replacements)
● 1960 - John Allen Muhammad, American serial killer
● 1960 - Steve Bruce, English football player & manager
● 1961 - Rick Aguilera, American baseball player
● 1961 - Nina Li Chi, Chinese actress
● 1962 - Heather McCartney, British activist
● 1963 - Scott Ian, American guitarist (Anthrax)
● 1963 - Konishiki, American sumo wrestler
● 1964 - Michael McDonald, American actor-comedian
● 1964 - Allen D'Nulderf, American stuntman
● 1964 - Lowri Turner, British TV presenter
● 1965 - Gong Li, Chinese actress
● 1965 - Nicholas Sparks, American author
● 1966 - Lisa Joyner, American entertainment reporter
● 1968 - Gerry Dee, Canadian comedian and actor
● 1970 - Carlos Morales Quintana, husband of Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark
● 1970 - Bryon Russell, American basketball player
● 1971 - Brent Barry, American basketball player
● 1971 - Esteban Loaiza, Mexican Major League Baseball player
● 1972 - Joe McIntyre, American singer (New Kids on the Block)
● 1973 - Shandon Anderson, American basketball player
● 1973 - Malcolm Middleton, Scottish musician (Arab Strap)
● 1974 - Ryan Sakoda, Japanese American professional wrestler
● 1974 - Tony Kanaan, Brazilian racing driver
● 1975 - Toni Kuivasto, Finnish footballer
● 1976 - Vanessa Kerry, daughter of John Kerry
● 1977 - Wardy Alfaro, Costa Rican footballer
● 1977 - Donald Trump Jr., son of Donald Trump
● 1978 - Papoose, American rapper
● 1979 - Bob Bryar, American drummer (My Chemical Romance, Gerardolopoly)
● 1979 - Elaine Cassidy, Irish actress
● 1980 - Richie McCaw, New Zealand rugby player
● 1980 - Matt Cross, American professional wrestler
● 1981 - Jason Campbell, American football player
● 1981 - Matthew Pavlich, Australian football player
● 1982 - Craig Gordon, Scottish footballer
● 1982 - Luke Schenscher, Australian basketball player
● 1982 - Julio DePaula, baseball player in the United States
● 1987 - Javaris Crittenton, American basketball player
● 1987 - Émilie Le Pennec, French gymnast
DEATHS
● 192 - Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161)
● 335 - St. Silvester, Pope
● 1164 - Margrave Ottokar III of Styria (b. 1124)
● 1194 - Duke Leopold V of Austria (killed at a tournament) (b. 1157)
● 1297 - Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1249)
● 1302 - Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1238)
● 1384 - John Wycliffe, English theologian and Bible translator
● 1424 - Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, English military leader
● 1460 - Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1443)
● 1460 - Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, English politician (b. 1400)
● 1510 - Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1472)
● 1535 - William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1465)
● 1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese warlord (b. 1493)
● 1575 - Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (b. 1502)
● 1583 - Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (b. 1524)
● 1610 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (b. 1540)
● 1650 - Dorgon, Chinese emperor (b. 1612)
● 1673 - Oliver St John, English statesman and judge
● 1679 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (b. 1608)
● 1691 - Dudley North, English economist (b. 1641)
● 1719 - John Flamsteed, English astronomer (b. 1646)
● 1742 - Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1661)
● 1799 - Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (b. 1723)
● 1872 - Aleksis Kivi, Finnish author (b. 1834)
● 1877 - Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)
● 1888 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (b. 1808)
● 1889 - Ion Creangă, Romanian writer (b. 1837 or 1839)
● 1894 - Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, Dutch mathematician (b. 1856)
● 1905 - Alexander Popov, Russian physicist (b. 1859)
● 1910 - John Moisant, American aviator (b. 1868)
● 1910 - Arch Hoxsey, American aviator (b. 1884)
● 1921 - Boies Penrose, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)
● 1936 - Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (b. 1864)
● 1948 - Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (b. 1885)
● 1953 - Albert Plesman, Dutch aviation pioneer (b. 1889)
● 1964 - Ólafur Thors, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1892)
● 1964 - Bobby Byrne, baseball player (b. 1884)
● 1969 - George Lewis, American clarinetist (b. 1900)
● 1971 - Pete Duel American actor (b. 1940)
● 1971 - Marin Sais, American actress (b. 1890)
● 1971 - Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (b. 1919)
● 1972 - Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican baseball player (b. 1934)
● 1977 - Sabah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, ruler of Kuwait (b. 1924)
● 1980 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (b. 1911)
● 1980 - Raoul Walsh, American film director (b. 1887)
● 1985 - Rick Nelson, American singer (b. 1940)
● 1986 - Lloyd Haynes, American actor (b. 1934)
● 1990 - Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1928)
● 1990 - George Allen, American football coach
● 1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (b. 1939)
● 1993 - Brandon Teena Transsexual murdered
● 1994 - Woody Strode, American actor and decathlete (b. 1914)
● 1997 - Floyd Cramer, American musician (b. 1933)
● 1997 - Billie Dove, American actress (b. 1903)
● 1997 - Michael Kennedy, American politician (b. 1958)
● 1999 - Elliot Richardson, American politician (b. 1920)
● 2000 - Alan Cranston, American politician (b. 1914)
● 2000 - José Greco, Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer (b. 1918)
● 2001 - Eileen Heckart, American actress (b. 1919)
● 2002 - Kevin MacMichael, American guitarist (Cutting Crew) (b. 1951)
● 2003 - Arthur R. von Hippel German-born physicist (b. 1898)
● 2004 - Gerard Debreu, French-born economist, Bank of Sweden Prize laureate (b. 1921)
● 2005 - Phillip Whitehead, British politician (b. 1937)
● 2005 - Enrico di Giuseppe, American tenor (b. 1932)
● 2006 - George Sisler, Jr., baseball executive (b. 1917)
HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES
● Roman Catholic:
● St. Barbatian
● St. Columba of Sens
● St. Donata
● St. Hermes
● St. Melania
● St. Offa
● Sts. Sabinian & Potentian
● St. Slyvester
● St. Zoticus
● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 18 (Civil Date: December 31)
● Nativity Fast.
● Martyr Sebastian at Rome and his companions: Martyrs Nicostratus, Zoe, Castorius, Tranquillinus, Marcellinus, Mark, Claudius, Symphorian, Victorinus, Tiburtius, and Castulus.
● St. Modestus, Archbishop of Jerusalem.
● St. Florus, Bishop of Amisus.
● St. Micahel the Confessor at Constantinople.
● Martyr Eubotius at Cyzicus.
● St. Sebastian, abbot of Poshekhonye Monastery (Vologda).
● Righteous Simeon, Wonderworker of Verkhoturye.
● Greek Calendar:
● Hieromartyr Zacchaeus the Deacon and St. Alphaeus the Reader, of Caesarea.
● St. Sophia the Wonderworker.
● Last Day of the Year Celebration, special non-working holiday in the Philippines.
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
Permanent Backlink to Post
No comments:
Post a Comment