December 22

Birthdays:

1970 ~ Ted Cruz (né Rafael Edward Cruz), Canadian-born American politician who launched a campaign for the 2016 United States Presidential election.

1968 ~ Lauralee Bell, American soap opera actress known for her role as Christine Blair on The Young and the Restless.

1962 ~ Ralph Fiennes, English actor.

1960 ~ Jean-Michel Basquiat (d. Aug. 12, 1988) American artist.  He died at age 27 of a heroin overdose.

1955 ~ Thomas C. Südhof, German-born American biochemist and recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his study of synaptic transmission.

1949 ~ Maurice Gibb (d. Jan. 12, 2003), Australian musician and member of the Bee Gees.  He was the twin brother of Robin Gibb (1949 ~ 2012).  Maurice died 3 weeks after his 53^rd birthday.

1949 ~ Robin Gibb (d. May 20, 2012), Australian musician and the brother who launched the Bee Gees during the disco era.  His twin brother was Maurice Gibb (1949 ~ 2003).  Robin died of cancer at age 62.

1945 ~ Diane Sawyer, American journalist.

1935 ~ Donald Harrington (d. Nov. 7, 2009), American novelist who created a surreal Ozark world.  He died at age 73.

1931 ~ Adolfo Calero (d. June 2, 2012), Nicaraguan who lead the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, the largest contras rebel group opposing the Sandinista government.  He died of complications of pneumonia and kidney disease at age 80.

1922 ~ James “Jim” Wright (d. May 6, 2015), United States Speaker of the House of Representatives who resigned in 1989 in scandal amid allegations he was receiving kickbacks from business associates and lobbyists.  He had served from January 1987 until his ouster.  He was the congressional representative from Texas.  He was 92 years old at the time of his death.

1917 ~ Gene Rayburn (né Eugene Jelyevich, d. Nov. 29, 1999), American game show host.  He died in Gloucester, Massachusetts 23 days before his 82^nd birthday.

1915 ~ Barbara Billingsley (née Barbara Lillian Combes, d. Oct. 16, 2010), American actress.  She is best known for her role as June Cleaver on Leave It to Beaver.  She died at age 94.

1912 ~ Lady Bird Johnson (née Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, d. July 11, 2007), First Lady of the United States and wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson.  She died at age 94.

1903 ~ Haldan Keffer Hartline (d. Mar. 17, 1983), American physiologist and recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 79.

1901 ~ André Kostelanetz (d. Jan. 13, 1980), Russian-born American orchestra conductor and composer.  He died 22 days after his 78^th birthday.

1898 ~ Vladimir Fock (d. Dec. 27, 1974), Russian mathematician.  He died 5 days after his 76^th birthday.

1887 ~ Srinivasa Ramanujan (d. Apr. 26, 1920), Indian mathematician.  He was the subject of the 2015 movie The Man Who Knew Infinity.  He died at age 32 from tuberculosis.

1869 ~ Dmitri Egorov (d. Sept. 10, 1931), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 61.

1869 ~ Edward Arlington Robinson (d. Apr. 6, 1935), American poet from Maine.  He died of cancer at age 65.

1862 ~ Connie Mack, (né Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy (d. Feb. 8, 1956), American baseball manager and executive who helped organize Baseball’s American League.  He died at age 93.

1858 ~ Giacomo Puccini (d. Nov. 29, 1924), Italian composer best known for his opera Madame Butterfly.  He died 23 days of complications from throat cancer less than a month before his 66^th birthday.

1856 ~ Frank B. Kellogg (d. Dec. 21, 1937), American politician and 45^th Secretary of State.  He served under Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover from March 1925 until March 1929.  He was also the recipient of the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died 1 day before his 81^st birthday.

1853 ~ Yevgraf Fyodorov (d. May 21, 1919), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 65.

1823 ~ Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (d. Oct. 11, 1815), French naturalist.  He was later fired from his teaching job because he allowed girls to attend his science classes.  He died at age 91.

1819 ~ Pierre Ossian Bonnet (d. June 22, 1892), French mathematician.  He died at age 72

1765 ~ Johann Friedrich Pfaff (d. Apr. 21, 1825), German mathematician.  He died at age 59.

1696 ~ James Oglethorpe (d. June 30, 1784), English general and founder of the colony of Georgia in what would later become the United States.  He died at age 88.

1639 ~ Jean Racine (né Jean-Baptiste Racine, d. Apr. 21, 1699), French dramatist.  He died at age 59.

Events that Changed the World:

2010 ~ President Barack Obama signed into law the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that banned homosexuals from serving openly in the United States military.

2001 ~ Richard Reid (b. 1973), a British member of al-Qaeda, attempted to blow up American Airlines Flight 63, by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes.  His plan failed, but his actions changed airline regulations by requiring passengers to remove their shows when entering the boarding areas in airports.

1990 ~ Lech Wałęsa (b. 1943) was elected President of Poland.  He served as President from December 1990 until December 1995.

1989 ~ Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate reopened after nearly 30 years, thereby ending the division between East and West Germany.

1989 ~ The authoritarian regime of Romania’s Communist ruler, Nicolae Ceauşescu (1918 ~ 1989), ended following a bloody uprising.  Ion Iliescu (b. 1930) took over as President of Romania.  Ceauşescu and his wife Elena tried to flee Bucharest in a helicopter.  They were ultimately captured and executed 3 days later.

1984 ~ Bernard Goetz (b. 1947) shot and wounded four African-American alleged muggers on a subway train in Manhattan, New York.  Goetz was later charged with attempted murder, but was acquitted of these charges in a jury trial.

1968 ~ During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong (1893 ~ 1976) issued the edict that all intellectual youth were required to go into the country to be reeducated by living in rural poverty.

1956 ~ Colo, the first gorilla bred in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo in Columbus, Ohio.  On December 22, 2016, Colo celebrated his 60^th birthday.  She died on January 17, 2017, just 25 days after her 60^th birthday.

1937 ~ The Lincoln Tunnel, connecting New Jersey with New York City, opened to traffic.

1894 ~ The Dreyfus affair began in France, in a case that triggered worldwide protests of anti-Semitism, after French naval officer Alfred Dreyfus (1859 ~ 1935) was wrongly convicted of treason.

1885 ~ Itō Hirobumi (1841 ~ 1909), a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.

1864 ~ Savannah, Georgia fell to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 ~ 1891), thereby concluding his self-proclaimed “March to the Sea” during the American Civil War.

1808 ~ Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 ~ 1827) conducted and performed at a concert in Vienna, Austria.  It was the premiere of his Fifth Symphony.

1135 ~ Stephen of Blois (1092 ~ 1154) became King of England.

Good-Byes:

2014 ~ Joe Cocker (né John Robert Joseph Cocker, b. May 20, 1944), British singer-songwriter.  He died of lung cancer at age 70.

1995 ~ Butterfly McQueen (née Thelma McQueen, b. Jan. 7, 1911), American actress, best known for her role as Prissy, Scarlett O’Hara’s maid in Gone with the Wind.  She died 16 days before her 85^th birthday.

1995 ~ James Meade (b. June 23, 1907), British economist and recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 88.

1989 ~ Samuel Beckett (b. Apr. 13, 1906), Irish playwright best known for his play, Waiting for Godot.  He was also the recipient of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 83.

1979 ~ Darryl F. Zanuck (b. Sept. 5, 1902), American actor and movie director.  He died of jaw cancer at age 77.

1943 ~ Beatrix Potter (née Helen Beatrix Potter, b. July 28, 1866), English author and creator of the Peter Rabbit stories.  She died at age 77.

1940 ~ Nathanael West (né Nathan Weinstein, b. Oct. 17, 1903), American author.  He was killed in a car accident at age 37.

1923 ~ Georg Luger (b. Mar. 6, 1849), Austrian designer of the Luger pistol.  He died at age 74.

1880 ~ George Eliot (née Mary Anne Evans, b. Nov. 22, 1819), English writer, best known for her novels, Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner.  She died a month after her 61^st birthday.

1867 ~ Jean-Victor Poncelet (b. July 1, 1788), French mathematician.  He died at age 79.

1828 ~ Rachel Donelson Jackson (b. June 15, 1767), wife of President Andrew Jackson.  She died at age 61.  She died after Jackson had been elected President, but before his inauguration, hence, she was never First Lady.

1809 ~ William Cooper (b. Dec. 2, 1754), American politician and founder of Cooperstown, New York.  He was the father of author James Fenimore Cooper.  He died 20 days after his 55^th birthday.

1767 ~ John Newbery (b. July 9, 1713), English publisher known as the Father of Children’s Literature.  The Newbery Award for children’s literature is named after him.  He died at age 54.

1660 ~ André Tacquet (b. June 23, 1612), Flemish mathematician.  He died at age 48.

1115 ~ Olaf Magnusson (b. 1099), King of Norway.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been 17 when he died of an illness.