Birthdays:
1971 ~ Ricky Martin, Puerto Rican singer.
1962 ~ Kate Spade, American fashion designer.
1957 ~ Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan.
1955 ~ Scott Fischer (d. 1996), American
mountaineer and guide. He was best known
for his ascents of the world’s highest mountains. In 1996, he was leading a group of hikers up
Mt. Everest when a sudden blizzard arose.
He did not survive the storm. He
was the subject of the book, Into Thin
Air: Death on Everest. He was 40 at
the time of his death.
1930 ~ Robert Joffrey (d. 1988), American dancer
and choreographer. He was the founder of
the Joffrey Ballet. He died at age 57.
1927 ~ Mary Higgins Clark, American mystery writer.
1925 ~ Yafa
Yakoni (d. 2012), Israeli singer. She
died 8 days after her 86th birthday.
1922 ~ Ava Gardner (d. 1990), American actress. She died a month after her 67th
birthday.
1921 ~ William McGarvey “Bill” Dudley (d. 2010),
American NFL halfback who was known as “Bullet Bill.” He died at age 88.
1910 ~ Max Mideinger (d. 1980), Swiss typeface designer best known
for creating the Helvetica typeface in 1957.
He died at age 69.
1907 ~ I.F. Stone (né Isador Feinstein, d. 1989), American
journalist and writer. He died at age 81
in Boston, Massachusetts.
1905 ~ Howard Hughes (d. 1976), American film producer, inventor and
recluse. He died at age 70.
1881 ~ Juan Ramón Jiménez (d. 1958), Spanish
writer and recipient of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died at age 76.
1880 ~ Johnny Gruelle (d. 1938), American cartoonist, children’s
author and creator of the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. He died 15 days after his 57th
birthday of a heart attack.
1879 ~ Queen Alexandrine of Denmark (d. 1952), Queen Consort to King
Christian X. She died 4 days after her
73rd birthday.
1869 ~ Emanuel Lasker (d. 1941), German
mathematician. He died of a kidney
infection at age 72.
1818 ~ James Joule (d. 1889), British physicist. He is best known for studying law of
conservation of energy and the first law of thermodynamics. He died at age 70.
1809 ~ Kit Carson (né Christopher Houston Carson, d. 1868), American
frontiersman. He died at age 58.
1166 ~ King John of England (d. 1216). He was also known as John Lackland. He was the youngest of five sons to King
Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and did not expect to become
ruler. He is most associated with the
sealing of the Magna Carta. He died at age 49.
Events that Changed the
World:
2016 ~ The first night of Chanakkah.
1973 ~ The residents of Washington, D.C., were finally granted the
legal authority to elect their own local government, following the passage of
the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.
1968 ~ Apollo 8 became the first manned crew to orbit the
Moon.
1955 ~ The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) began
the annual tradition of tracking Santa Clause.
1951 ~ Libya gained its independence from Italy. In 1969, Colonel Mu’ammar Muhammad al-Qadhafi
led a revolution and became the head of the Libyan government until he was
ousted and killed in 2011.
1943 ~ General Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 ~ 1969) became the Supreme
Allied Commander during World War II.
1914 ~ The World War I Christmas truce began. It was a series of unofficial ceasefires that
occurred along the Western Front. British and German soldiers began to exchange
Christmas greetings on occasionally entered into the “no-man’s land” to mingle,
to exchange food and tokes and sing Christmas songs.
1906 ~ Reginald Fessenden (1866 ~ 1932), a radio pioneer, transmitted
the first radio broadcast. It consisted
of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
1871 ~ Verdi’s opera, Aida, was first performed in Cairo,
Egypt.
1865 ~ The Ku Klux Klan was formed.
1851 ~ The United States Library of Congress burned.
1818 ~ The first performance of Silent Night was held at St.
Nikolaus Church in Oberndorf, Austria.
1814 ~ The Treaty of Ghent was signed by the United States and the
United Kingdom, thereby ending the War of 1812.
1777 ~ Kiritimati, also known as Christmas Island, was discovered by
James Cook (1728 ~ 1779).
1294 ~ Pope Boniface VIII (1230 ~ 1303) was elected Pope, replacing
Pope Celestine V (1215 ~ 1296), who had resigned after serving only a few
months.
Good-byes:
2012 ~ Charles Durning (b. 1923), American actor. He died at age 89.
2012 ~ Jack Klugman (né Jacob Joachim Klugman, b.
1922), American actor. He died at age 90
of prostate cancer.
2008 ~ Harold Pinter (b. 1930), British playwright and recipient of
the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. He
died at age 78.
2008 ~
Samuel Huntington (b. 1927), American scholar who predicted a class of
cultures. He was best known for arguing
that religion and culture, particularly Christianity and Islam, would fuel the
conflicts of the 21st century.
He died at age 81.
1999 ~ William Jay “Bill” Bowerman (b. 1911),
American sports coach and businessman.
He was a co-founder of Nike, Inc.
He died at age 88.
1993 ~ Norman Vincent Peale (b. 1898), American minister and writer
who promoted “positive thinking.” He
died at age 95.
1984 ~ Peter Lawford (né Peter Sydner Ernest Aylen, b. 1923),
British actor and former in-law to the Kennedy clan upon his marriage to
Patricia Kennedy. He died at age 61of
cardiac arrest.
1967 ~ Burt Baskin (b. 1913), American entrepreneur and founder of
the Baskin and Robbins ice cream franchise. He died of a heart attack 7 days after his 54th
birthday.
1962 ~ Wilhelm Ackermann (b. 1896), German
mathematician. He died at age 62.
1914 ~ John Muir (b. 1838), Scottish-American naturalist and founder
of the Sierra Club. He died at age 76.
1873 ~ Johns Hopkins (b. 1795), American philanthropist and businessman.
The Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore
is named after him. He died at age 78.
1869 ~ Edwin Stanton (b. 1814), 25th US
Attorney General. He served in this
position under President James Buchanan.
He also served as the 27th Secretary of the Navy under
Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
He died 5 days after his 55th birthday.
1863 ~ William Makepeace Thackeray (b. 1811), British writer best
known for his novel Vanity Fair.
He died at age 52.
1660 ~ Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b. 1631). She died of smallpox at age 29.
1524 ~ Vasco da Gama (b. 1469), Portuguese explorer.
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