On this day in History – Dec. 15

• 1290 BC – Seti I, Pharaoh of Egypt dies. Ramesses II becomes Pharaoh of Egypt.
• 0037 – Nero was born (d. 0068). 5th Roman Emperor (54-68)
• 0130 – Lucius Verus was born (d. 0169). Roman Emperor.
• 0533 – Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.
• 0687 – St. Sergius I becomes Pope
• 1025 – Basil II dies (b. 0958). Byzantine Emperor
• 1072 – Alp Arslan dies (b. 1029). Turkish sultan in Persia.
• 1167 – Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
• 1230 – King Otakar I of Bohemia dies.
  1242 – Prince Munetaka was born (d. 1274). Japanese shogun.
• 1256 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.
• 1263 – King Haakon IV of Norway dies (b. 1204)
• 1467 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
• 1488 – Bartholomeus Diaz returns to Portugal after sailing round Cape of Good Hope
• 1567 – Christoph Demantius was born (d. 1643). German composer.
• 1570 – The Peace of Stettin was concluded in Livonia. Denmark recognized the independence of Sweden in the Peace of Stettin. Sweden gave up her claim to Norway.
• 1582 – Spanish Netherlands / Denmark / Norway adopt Gregorian calendar.
• 1598 – Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde dies (b. 1538). Dutch writer and statesman.
• 1610 – David Teniers the Younger was born (d. 1690). Flemish artist.
• 1621 – Charles de Luynes dies (b. 1578). Constable of France.
• 1626 – Adriaen de Vries dies about 70. Dutch sculptor and painter.
• 1634 – Thomas Hansen Kingo was born (d. 1703). Danish poet.
• 1640 – (John IV) João IV is crowned King of Portugal after the Independency Restauration against Spanish dominium.
• 1648 – Gregory King was born (d. 1712). English statistician.
• 1673 – Margaret Cavendish dies (b. 1623). English writer.
• 1675 – Johannes Vermeer dies (b. 1632). Dutch painter.
• 1683 – Izaak Walton dies (b. 1593). English writer.
• 1688 – Gaspar Fagel dies (b. 1634). Dutch statesman.
• 1702 – Forty-seven ronin, formerly in the service of Asano Naganori, assault the household of Kira Yoshinaka, and kill him in vengeance for their lord. Their display of the ideals of bushido becomes a national legend.
• 1713 – Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip was born (d. 1802). British statesman.
• 1715 – George Hickes dies (b. 1642). English minister and scholar.
• 1719 – Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt was born (d. 1742)
• 1753 – Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington dies (b. 1694). English architect
• 1791 – The United States Bill of Rights is passed.
• 1792 – 1st life insurance policy issued in US (Philadelphia)
• 1792 – Joseph Martin Kraus dies (b. 1756). Swedish composer.
• 1802 – János Bolyai was born (d. 1860). Hungarian mathematician.
• 1817 – Maria Walewska [Leszczinska] dies. Lover of Emperor Napoleon I
• 1818 – Irwin County, Georgia is created.
• 1832 – Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon (d. 1923). French civil engineer. A noted constructor of bridges and viaducts; he also designed the Eiffel Tower and the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty
• 1852 – Henri Becquerel was born (d. 1908). French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1855 – Jacques Charles François Sturm dies (b. 1803). French mathematician.
• 1859 – L. L. Zamenhof was born (d. 1917). Russian initiator of Esperanto.
• 1860 – Abner Powell was born (d. 1953). American baseball player.
• 1860 – Niels Ryberg Finsen was born (d. 1904). Danish physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1903
• 1861 – Lucinda do Carmo was born (d. 1922). Portuguese actress.
• 1861 – Charles Duryea was born (d. 1938). American automobile pioneer.
• 1870 – Josef Hoffmann was born; Czech architect.
• 1877 – Thomas Edison patents phonograph
• 1878 – Hans Carossa was born (d. 1956). German writer.
• 1882 – Helena Rubinstein, was born, US cosmetic manufacturer.
• 1885 – Fernando de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Fernando II of Portugal, dies (b. 1819)
• 1888 – Maxwell Anderson was born (d. 1959). American writer.
• 1890 – Sioux Indian chief Sitting Bull (b. c. 1831) and 11 other tribe members were killed by Native American police.
• 1891 – James Naismith introduces basketball (Canada).
• 1892 – J. Paul Getty was born (d. 1976). American oil tycoon.
• 1892 – Jose Maria Castro was borm. Argentine composer and conductor.
• 1896 – The Brazilian Academy of Letters (Academia Brasileira de Letras) is founded. Machado de Assis is proclaimed the first President
• 1899 – Harold Abrahams was born (d. 1978). British athlete who won a gold medal in the 100-metre dash at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, a victory that became the subject of the Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire (1981). [Note of the webmaster: I watched this film on my wedding’s day]
• 1899 – Battle at Colenso, South Africa, the Boers defeat the British.
• 1907 – Oscar Niemeyer was born. Brazilian architect.
• 1908 – Gualberto Villarroel was born. President of Bolívia (1943-1946)
• 1910 – John H. Hammond was born (d. 1987). American musician and record producer.
• 1912 – Ray Eames was born (d. 1988). American designer.
• 1912 – Stan Kenton was born (d. 1979). American musician.
• 1913 – Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1913 – Muriel Rukeyser was born (d. 1980). American poet.
• 1913 – Roger Gaudry was born (d. 2001). French Canadian chemist, businessman and corporate director.
• 1914 – The Battle of Łódź ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
• 1914 – World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
• 1915 – World War I: Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig replaces John French, 1st Earl of Ypres as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.
• 1916 – Maurice Wilkins was born (d. 2004). New Zealand-born, English physician who was laureate with The Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1992 (shared with Francis Crick and James Watson)
• 1916 – the French defeated the Germans in the World War I Battle of Verdun.
• 1916 – Buddy Cole was born (d. 1964). American pianist.
• 1916 – Maurice Wilkins was born (d. 2004). New Zealand-born physicist, Nobel laureate
• 1916 – Miguel Arraes was born in Ceará. Brazilian politician, co-founder of the Socialist Party
• 1917 – World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Bolshevik government and the Central Powers.
• 1917 – Moldavian Republic declares independence from Russia
• 1917 – Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee was born (d. 2005). Pakistanese linguist and writer
• 1918 – Jeff Chandler [Ira Grossel] was born in Brooklyn (d. 1961). American actor (Broken Arrow).
• 1919 – Max Yasgur was born (d. 1973). Owner of the Woodstock Festival site
• 1920 – China won a place on the League Council; Austria was admitted.
• 1920 – Kurt Schaffenberger was born (d. 2002). American comics artist
• 1922 – Alan Freed was born (d. 1965). American disc jockey.
• 1923 – Freeman Dyson was born. English-born physicist.
• 1923 – Valentin Varennikov was born. Russian general and statesman.
• 1925 – Sam Pollock, National Hockey League general manager
• 1927 – Trotski is excluded from the URSS Comunist Party.
• 1928 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser was born (d. 2000). Austrian artist.
• 1928 – Jerry Wallace was born. American country and popular music singer.
• 1933 – Sattiraju Lakshmi Narayana a.k.a Bapu was born. Indian Cartoonist, designer and film director
• 1933 – Tim Conway was born. American actor and comedian.
• 1938 – Billy Shaw was born. American football player.
• 1939 – Cindy Birdsong was born. American singer (Supremes)
• 1939 – Gone with the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia. This film directed by David Selznick and starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable is an adaptation from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell
• 1940 – Nick Buoniconti was born. American football player.
• 1941 – Annihilation of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine: in the proximity of the Rogan works, 8 km away from Kharkiv, in “Drobitsky Ravine” (Drobitsky Yar), over 15 000 Jews were shot, at -15 degrees C below zero.
• 1942 – Dave Clark was born. British musician (Dave Clark Five)
• 1943 – Kathleen Blanco was born. American Democratic politician
• 1943 – Lucien den Arend was born. Dutch artist.
• 1943 – Fats Waller dies (b. 1904). American musician.
• 1944 – Band leader Glenn Miller (b. 1904) disappeared in a plane crash over the English Channel.
• 1944 – American forces invaded Mindoro Island in the Philippines.
• 1944 – the Senate approved the promotions of Henry H. Arnold, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur and George C. Marshall to the five-star rank of General of the Army and the nominations of William D. Leahy, Ernest J. King and Chester W. Nimitz as Admirals of the Fleet.
• 1944 – Chico Mendes was born (d. 1988). Brazilian campaigner.
• 1945 – Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan
• 1945 – Thaao Penghlis was born. Australian actor.
• 1946 – Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh sent a note to the new French Premier, Leon Blum, asking for peace talks.
• 1946 – Art Howe was born. American baseball player.
• 1947 – All India Muslim League meeting in Karachi resolved to split itself into two separate organizations for Pakistan and India.
• 1947 – Arthur Machen [pseudonym of Arthur Llewellyn Jones] dies (b. 1863). Welsh-born novelist and essayist
• 1948 – João Tamagnini de Sousa Barbosa dies (b. 1883). Former Prime-Minister of Portugal.
• 1948 – Former U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss was indicted on two charges of perjury for lying about his dealings with Whittaker Chambers, who accused him of membership in a communist espionage ring.
• 1949 – Don Johnson was born. American actor
• 1949 – Albert Camus’ “Les Justes” premieres in Paris
• 1949 – José António de Matos Martinho Marques was born in Albernoa, Beja. Portuguese poet.
• 1950 – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel dies (b. 1875). Indian political leader, Iron Man of India.
• 1951 – Eric Drummond dies at 75. 1st Secretay-General of League of Nations (1919-33)
• 1952 – Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Orientales Ecclesias
• 1952 – Cassandra Harris was born (d. 1991). Australian actress.
• 1952 – Allan Simonsen was born. Danish footballer.
• 1952 – Julie Taymor was born. American director.
• 1953 – J. M. DeMatteis was born. American comic book writern
• 1955 – RTP-Radiotelevisão Portuguesa, SARL is incorporated.
• 1955 – Paul Simonon was born. English bassist (The Clash)
• 1956 – José Sabogal dies (b. 19 Mar 1888). Peruvian painter.
• 1956 – The Communist government of Poland allows religious instruction in schools on a voluntary basis.
• 1957 – Mario Marois was born. Quebec ice hockey player.
• 1957 – Yuuichi Nagashima was born. Japanese actor.
• 1958 – Alfredo Ormando was born (d. 23 Jan. 1998). Italian writer
• 1958 – Álvaro Ramiro da Cruz Barros Rosa was born in Lisbon (d. Mar. 2005). Portuguese physician
• 1958 – Wolfgang Ernst Pauli dies (b. 1900). Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1960 – King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón
• 1960 – Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier.
• 1961 – In Jerusalem, Adolf Eichmann the Nazi SS colonel who organized Adolf Hitler’s “final solution of the Jewish question,” was sentenced to death by an Israeli court.
• 1961 – Karin Resetarits was born. Austrian journalist.
• 1962 – Charles Laughton dies (b. 1899). English actor.
• 1963 – Andrew Luster was born. Max Factor heir
• 1963 – Helen Slater was born. American actress
• 1963 – Cristiana Oliveira was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1964 – Canada adopted its national flag, a red maple leaf on a white background.
• 1965 – Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida.
• 1965 – The film The Sound of Music is released.
• 1965 – two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered to within 10 feet of each other while in orbit.
• 1965 – Bangladesh windstorm kills 10,000
• 1965 – The United States bombs an industrial center near Haiphong Harbor, North Vietnam.
• 1966 – Walt Disney dies in Los Angeles (b. 1901). American animator- cartoon pioneer and movie producer.
• 1967 – The Silver Bridge over the Ohio River collapses, killing 46 people.
• 1967 – Mo Vaughn was born. American baseball player
• 1968 – Javid Hussain was born. Indian film producer
• 1968 – Garrett Wang was born. American actor.
• 1968 – Osama Ali Maher was born. Swedish politician
• 1968 – Jess Willard dies (b. 1881). American boxer.
• 1968 – Antonio Barrette dies (b. 1899). Politician, premier of Quebec
• 1969 – Adriana Esteves was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actress.
• 1969 – Chantal Petitclerc was born. Quebec wheelchair athlete.
• 1970 – Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election.
• 1970 – Michael Shanks was born. Canadian actor.
• 1970 – S Korean ferry Namyong-Ho sinks in Strait of Korea, around 300 killed
• 1970 – Frankie Dettori was born. Italian champion jockey.
• 1970 – Michael Shanks was born. Canadian actor.
• 1971 – Paul Lévy dies (b. 1886). French mathematician.
• 1972 – Rodney Harrison was born. American football player.
• 1972 – Stuart Townsend was born in Howth, Country Dublin, Irland. Actor.
• 1973 – American Psychiatric Assn declares homosexuality is not mental illness.
• 1973 – Ryu Seung-wan was born. South Korean actor and director
• 1973 – Surya Bonaly was born. French-born figure skater
• 1974 – Anatole Litvak dies (b. 1902). Ukrainian-born filmmaker.
• 1976 – Samoa becomes a member of the UN
• 1976 – Baichung Bhutia was born. Indian footballer
• 1976 – Aaron Miles was born. American baseball player
• 1976 – Elix Skipper was born. American professional wrestler
• 1977 – Josh Kern was born. Minor-pro hockey player.
• 1977 – Wilfred Kitching dies (b. 1893). the 7th General of The Salvation Army.
• 1978 – US to recognize Communist China, dump Taiwan. President Jimmy Carter states that as of January 1, 1979, the United States will recognize the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) and sever relations with Taiwan.
• 1978 – Mark Jansen was born. Dutch guitarist (Epica)
• 1978 – Jerome McDougle was born. American football player
• 1979 – the deposed Shah of Iran left the United States for Panama, the same day the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Iran should release all its American hostages.
• 1979 – Adam Brody was born. American actor.
• 1979 – Eric Young was born. Canadian wrestler.
• 1980 – Charles Burton (d. 2002) and his party arrived at the South Pole on their 3-year journey to follow the meridian line connecting Greenwich to the North and South Poles.
• 1980 – Sergio Pizzorno was born. English guitarist (Kasabian).
• 1981 – NASA launches Intelsat V
• 1981 – Najoua Belyzel was born. French singer.
• 1981 – Brendan Fletcher was born. Canadian actor
• 1981 – Andy González was born. Puerto Rican baseball player
• 1981 – Thomas Herrion was born (d. 2005). American football player.
• 1981 – Creighton Lovelace was born. American Baptist minister
• 1981 – Aubrey Vaughn was born. American editor, Mother Earth News
• 1982 – Spain reopens border with Gibraltar.
• 1982 – Sao Tome & Principe constitution approved.
• 1982 – Charlie Cox was born. English actor.
• 1982 – Borja García was born. Spanish racing driver.
• 1982 – George O. Gore II was born. American actor
• 1983 – René Goguen was born. Canadian wrestler
• 1983 – Ronnie Radke was born. American singer (Escape the Fate)
• 1984 – Jan Peerce dies (b. 1904). American tenor.
• 1984 – Lennard Pearce dies (b. 1915). British actor.
• 1985 – Sylvester Stallone & Brigitte Nielson wed
• 1986 – 150 killed during race riot in Karachi
• 1986 – Snejana Onopka was born. Ukrainian supermodel
• 1987 – President of Costa Rica, Óscar Arias, is laureate with the Peace Nobel Prize
• 1989 – A demonstration that turned into a popular uprising in Romania began the downfall of Nicolae Ceausescu from power a few days afterward.
• 1989 – Mercenary coup in Comoros gives up power after 21 days. The mercenary leader and ex-presidential bodyguard, Bob Denard, attempted to create a ‘pirate kingdom’ after the assassination of the president Ahmed Abderrahman Abdallah.
• 1989 – Arnold Moss dies (b. 1910). American character actor
• 1989 – Edward Underdown, stage and film veteran (b. 1908)
  1990 – Rocker Rod Stewart marries supermodel Rachel Hunter
• 1991 – Vasily Zaitsev dies (b. 1915). Russian World War II hero.
• 1991 – At least 464 people were left dead or missing when an Egyptian-registered ferry sank in the Red Sea near the port of Safaga.
• 1991 – Eunice Cho was born. American actress
• 1992 – American rapper, Dr. Dre, releases his highly influential debut album, The Chronic. The Chronic is often labelled as the first ever G-Funk album.
• 1993 – History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
• 1993 – GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) Uruguay Round completed with approval by 117 countries
• 1993 – Haitian premier Robert Malval resigns.
• 1993 – Silvana Ocampo dies (b. 1903). Argentine writer.
• 1994 – John Bruton becomes Ireland’s premier.
• 1994 – The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released.
• 1994 – Palau become member of the UN.
• 1995 – The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling giving EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one UEFA Federation to another
• 1995 – The future european coin is baptized with the name of EURO
• 1995 – Louis Monier of digital Equipment Corp. unveiled the Alta Vista search engine. It used several hundred “spiders” in parallel to index the web.
• 1995 – Vasco Graça Moura receives The Pessoa Prize for his translations of Dante. Born in 1942 in Porto, Vasco Graça Moura is one of the leading contemporary poets of the Portuguese language. He has published more than 60 books (poetry, prose, essays, and literary translations) and has won a great many distinctions including the “Golden Crown” of the 43rd edition of the Struga Poetry Evenings.
• 1995 – Diogo Neto dies. Portuguese general.
• 1995 – Varela Silva dies. Portuguese actor.
• 1996 – In Mexico Humberto Roque Villanueva was sworn in as the new head of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
• 1996 – The Russian Booker Prize for literature, inaugurated in 1992, was awarded to Andrei Sergeyev for his book “Stamp Album.”
• 1997 – A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85
• 1997 – The U.S. Department of Defense ordered that all 1.4 million Americans in its service be inoculated against anthrax, a potential weapon of biological warfare.
• 1997 – In Guyana elections for president were held. Janet Jagan (77) led the elections with 55%, becoming the first elected female president in South America and the first white president of Guyana.
• 1998 – A 40-nation conference on the Dayton accord opened in Madrid.
• 1999 – In Venezuela a vote for the approval of a new constitution was scheduled. The new document contained 368 articles and included the possibility of recall referendums. Voters approved the new constitution which included changing the name of the country to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
• 2000 – US First Lady and Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed to an $8 million book deal with publisher Simon and Schuster for her White House memoirs.
• 2000 – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant shut down for good Operators shut down the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with the flip of a switch, closing the facility for good 14 years after it spawned the world’s worst nuclear accident.
• 2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens to visitors (no more than 30 at a time), after being closed since 1990, while its tilt was being reduced from 4.50 meters to 4.09 meters.
• 2001 – Russ Haas dies (b. 1974). American professional wrestler.
• 2001 – Rufus Thomas dies (b. 1917). American musician.
• 2002 – BBC 7, digital radio station is launched in UK
• 2002 – Election to the 182-seat state assembly of Gujarat, India. The anti-Muslim Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which also leads the national coalition government, wins 126 seats, the Congress Party 51. Gujarat, whose population is 55 million, has 5 million Muslims.
• 2002 – Japan won golf’s World Cup for the first time in 45 years.
• 2002 – In Venezuela hundreds of thousands of people marched through the capital demanding Pres. Chavez step down. The strike had cut oil output by at least 70%.
• 2003 – Former nurse Charles Cullen was charged with murder after telling prosecutors he had killed 30 to 40 severely ill patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 1987 by injecting them with drugs
• 2003 – Keith Magnuson dies. National Hockey League player (car accident)
• 2003 – George Fisher dies (b. 1923). American political cartoonist.
• 2003 – In Peru President Alejandro Toledo, with his popularity dropping, swore in a new Cabinet chief and several ministers. Toledo named congressman Carlos Ferrero to replace Prime Minister Beatriz Merino.
• 2004 – Pauline Gore dies (b. 1912). Mother of American Vice President Al Gore
• 2005 – The 43rd known Mersenne prime is discovered by Dr. Curtis Cooper & Dr. Steven Boone of USA, participants of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search distributed computing project. The prime number is 2nd largest known prime and has more than nine million digits.
• 2005 – Latvia edits its constitution to ban equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
• 2005 – Argentina‘s president Néstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.
• 2005 – Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
• 2005 – William Proxmire dies (b. 1911). U.S. Senator from Wisconsin.
• 2005 – Darrell Russell dies (b. 1976). American football player
• 2005 – Heinrich Gross dies (b. 1914). Austrian physician
• 2005 – Stan Leonard dies (b. 1915). Canadian professional golfer
• 2005 – Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
• 2006 – First flight of the F-35 Lightning II. “SarahLouise”
• Roman Empire – Consualia in honor of Consus is held.
• Zamenhof Day celebrated in the Esperanto movement in honor of L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto.
• R.C. Saints – St. Valerian; Saint Nino; St. Drostan.
• Bill of Rights Day, as stated by Franklin Roosevelt.