On this day in History - Dec. 31

• 192 - Lucius Aurelius Commodus, Roman Emperor dies murdered (b. 161).
• 406 - Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia .
• 1194 - Leopold V of Austria, killed at a tournament in Graz.
• 1378 - Pope Callixtus III was born (d. 1458) .
• 1384 - Muere John Wycliffe, filósofo, teólogo y reformador religioso inglés, precursor de la Reforma protestante.
• 1491 - Jacques Cartier was born , explorer .
• 1492 - Jews are expelled from Sicily.
• 1514 - Andreas Vesalius was born [d. 1564]; Flemish anatomist who, as a university teacher insisted on conducting detailed dissections on human cadavers personally ( "De humani corporis fabrica") .
• 1553 - Pedro de Valdivia funda en Chile los fuertes de Arauco, Puren, Tucapel y la ciudad de Los Confines o Angol.
• 1568 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese daimyo (b. 1493)
• 1588 - Fallece en Lisboa Fray Luis de Granada, escritor ascético español autor de obras muy imitadas por escritores religiosos y profanos .
• 1600 - British East India Company is chartered.
• 1668 - Hermann Boerhaave was born [d. 1738]; Dutch physician and professor of medicine who was the first great clinical, teacher.
• 1679 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli dies [b. 1608]; Italian physiologist who was the first to explain muscular movement and other body functions according to the laws of statics and dynamics. ["De motu animalium (Rome, 1680)].
• 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.
• 1719 - John Flamsteed dies[b. 1646]; English astronomer who established the Greenwich Observatory, as one of a group of scientists who convinced King Charles II to build a national observatory.
• 1738 - Charles Cornwallis was born, general .
• 1744 - James Bradley announced the discovery of Earth's motion of nutation, or wobbling.
• 1775- American Revolutionary War: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Quebec.
• 1784 - Para reforzar la lucha contra los piratas, Carlos III establece la pena de galeras en España.
• 1805 - Nace la escritora francesa Marie de Flavigny, más conocida por el seudonimo de Daniel Stern.
• 1816 - Sir William Withey Gull, was born[ d. 1890]; A leading English physician of his time, lecturer and physician at Guy's Hospital, London, and an outstanding clinical teacher.
• 1846 - Os miguelistas são completamente derrotados em Braga, tendo o seu comandante, Macdonell sido preso e morto em 30 de Janeiro de 1847 (O liberalismo em Portugal).
• 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); meanwhile, the Battle of Stones River is fought near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
• 1864 - Robert Grant Aitken was born [d.1951]; American astronomer who specialized in the study of double stars, of which he discovered more than 3,000 .
• 1868 - É ocupada Assunção, a capital do Paraguai, por uma coluna brasileira sob o comando do Coronel Hermes Ernesto da Fonseca.
• 1869 - Henri Matisse, was born, French painter and graphic artist (d. 1954 ). Along with Picasso, Matisse is considered one of the two foremost artists of the modern period. His contribution to 20th-century art is inestimable.
• 1877 - Gustave Courbet, dies aged 58, French painter .
• 1878 -Elizabeth Arden beautician, business executive.
• 1878 - Nace en Salto, Uruguay, el escritor Horacio Silvestre Quiroga.
• 1879 - Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.
• 1880 -George C. Marshall was born , general and cabinet member, recipient of Nobel Prize in Peace 1953 for the Marshall Plan (d. 1959)
• 1881 - Max Pechstein, was born, painter and graphic artist (d. 1955) .
• 1894 - Pola Negri, was born, Polish actress (d. 1987) .
• 1898 - Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson was born [d. 1975];He was a leading English ethnographer of the Mayan people.
• 1902 - Muere en Baradero, provincia de Buenos Aires, Cándido López, pintor.
• 1903 - Nathan Milstein, was born, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
• 1905 - Aleksandr Popov dies [b. 1859]; Physicist and electrical engineer acclaimed in Russia as the inventor of radio.
• 1905 - Jule Styne, was born, composer (d. 1994)
• 1908 - Simon Wiesenthal, concentration camp survivor, activist
• 1909 - Manhattan Bridge Opens
• 1910 - Carl Dudley, American movie director (died 1973).
• 1911 - Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize .
• 1913 - Seth Carlo Chandler dies[b. 1846]; American astronomer best known for his discovery (1884-85) of the Chandler Wobble, a complex movement in the Earth's axis of rotation (now refered to as polar motion) that causes latitude to vary with a period of 14 months.
• 1916 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the USA at the time, burns to the ground.
• 1923 - The Sahara is traversed by an automobile for the first time.
• 1923 - Se inauguran los servicios aéreos entre Buenos Aires y Montevideo.
• 1924 - Inicio de la Corrida de San Silvestre, celebrada anualmente Sao Paulo, Brasil.
• 1929 - Jeremy Bernstein was born; American physicist, educator, and writer widely known for the clarity of his writing for the lay reader on the major issues of modern physics.
• 1929 - Guy Lombardo plays Auld Lang Syne for the first time .
• 1934 - Cornelia Maria Clapp dies [b. 1849]; American zoologist and educator whose influence as a teacher was great and enduring in a period when the world of science was just opening to women.
• 1935 - Monopoly was patented, game assigned to Parker Brothers, Inc., by Charles Darrow of Pennsylvania.
• 1935 - Manuel Portela Valladares preside un nuevo Gobierno en España.
• 1936 - Miguel de Unamuno, fallecimiento de; escritor y filósofo español.
• 1937 - Anthony Hopkins was born, actor.
• 1938 -The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis.
• 1940 - Arsène d'Arsonval dies [b. 1851]; French physician and physicist who was a pioneer in therapeutic use of electricity, heat, and light.
• 1941 - Alex Ferguson, football (soccer) player and well known manager (Manchester United).
• 1943 - John Denver, country/pop musician (d. 1997) .
• 1943 - Ben Kingsley, was born in Scarborough England; actor (Gandhi, Betrayal, Maurice...).
• 1944 - World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany .
• 1946 -President Harry Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
• 1948 - Donna Summer, was born in Boston, singer.
• 1949 - 18 countries recognize Republic Indonesia.
• 1952 -Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones was born; New Zealand mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1990 for his study of functional analysis and knot theory.
• 1955 - General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.
• 1958 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara encabeza la ocupación de Santa Clara. Horas más tarde Fulgencio Batista huye de Cuba.
• 1959 - Val Kilmer, was born, actor ( The Saint, Top Gun, The Doors) .
• 1960 - The farthing coin, used in Britain since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender.
• 1961 -The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe .
• 1963 -Central African Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formally dissolved.
• 1968 - Marien Ngouabi assumed the presidency of the Republic of the Congo.
• 1969 - George Lewis, dies, jazz musician (b. 1900) .
• 1971 US President Richard Nixon signs the National Air Quality Control Act, which calls for a 90% reduction in automobile emissions by 1975. The act also tightened air-pollution controls and fines in other industries.
• 1972 - Muere Roberto Clemente, jugador puertorriqueño de béisbol , el primer hispano elegido miembro del Baseball Hall of Fame , y el segundo cuya imagen aparece en un sello de correos de EE.UU.
• 1975 - Pela primeira vez em 51 anos, a corrida de São Silvestre, maratona internacional realizada todos os anos em São Paulo, aceitou a participação de mulheres.
• 1978 - United States ends official relations with Nationalist China.
• 1978 - En Colombia el Movimiento 19 de Abril sustrae más de cinco mil armas de una guarnición militar conocida como Cantón Norte.
• 1979 - La Reina Isabel II de Inglaterra nombra caballero de la Orden del Imperio Británico al director de cine Alfred Hitchcock.
• 1980 - Muere Herbert Marshall McLuhan.
• 1980 - Léopold Sédar Senghor resigns after 20 years as Senegalese president .
• 1980 - Raoul Walsh, dies, US film director .
• 1981 - Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings becomes Africa's first post-independent head of state after overthrowing Frederick Akuffo's government in Ghana.
• 1982 - Kurt Otto Friedrichs dies[ b. 1901] German mathematician.His main work was on partial differential equations in mathematical physics.
• 1983 - The last day that the AT&T Bell System exists before being broken up by the United States Government.
• 1983 - Nigeria's National Assembly dissolves after military coup .
• 1984 - Luciano Jaramillo Trujillo, dies; Colombian painter.
• 1985 - Rick Nelson, dies, singer (b. 1940).
• 1986 - A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
• 1987 -Robert Mugabe sworn in as Zimbabwe's president.
• 1988 - No Rio de Janeiro o Bateau Mouche IV afunda na Baía de Guanabara matando 55 pessoas.
• 1990 - Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
• 1990 - Vasili Lazarev, dies, cosmonaut (b. 1928).
• 1991 - The Soviet Union officially dissolves.
• 1991 - The civil war in El Salvador ends .
• 1992 - Thames Television ceases broadcasting. Carlton Television takes over its London weekday franchise.
• 1993 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, scientist and writer, first President of the Republic of Georgia (b. 1939).
• 1993 - the last research samples of the smallpox virus (variola) were scheduled to be destroyed. Smallpox was the world's most dreaded plagues until 1977, when it was declared eradicated. However, some scientists who wanted to continue research on the virus stopped the destruction plan. The remaining frozen samples are in Moscow.
• 1995 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
• 1995 - Renuncia del primer ministro italiano Lamberto Dini.
• 1995 - O presidente da Argélia Liamine Zeroual indica Ahmed Ouyahia como seu novo primeiro-ministro.
• 1997 - Michael Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy, killed in a skiing accident on Aspen Mountain in Colorado.
• 1997 - Microsoft buys Hotmail E-mail service.
• 1998 - Fin de la peseta en España.
• 1999 - La administración del Canal de Panamá es entregada por los Estados Unidos a Panamá.
• 1999 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin
• 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 Panama Canal comes completely under Panama's jurisdiction.
• 1999 - Sarah Knauss, dies at the age of 119 years - at death, the world's oldest person alive. (b. 1880).
• 1999 - Elliot Richardson dies, U.S. politician (b. 1920) .
• 1999 Control of Panamá Canal reverts to Panamá.
• 2000 - Alan Cranston, dies U.S. politician.
• 2000 - Kenneth L. Pike dies [b. 1912]; He was a U.S. linguist and anthropologist known for his studies of the aboriginal languages of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, New Guinea, Java, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Nepal, and the Philippines.
• 2000 - José Greco, dies, Spanish Flamenco dance.
• 2000 - Bill Clinton suscribe el tratado para crear el Tribunal Penal Internacional (TPI) con capacidad para investigar y juzgar a individuos acusados de haber cometido graves delitos contra el Derecho Internacional Comunitario. Su sucesor en la presidencia de los EE.UU., George W. Bush, retirará la participación de los EE.UU. en el tribunal.
• 2000 - Manuel de Rivacoba y Rivacoba, muere, penalista y político español.
• 2003 - Arthur R. von Hippel dies, German-born American scientist and professor at MIT
  
  

Amigo Secreto EcuaBlogs 2004

Poemas y otros cuentos mas es mi "amigo secreto" iniciativa de EcuaBlogs .

Entonces mi regalo singelo es un poema de un gran autor Ecuatoriano, que publico aquí com los votos de un Feliz Año Nuevo repleto de felicidad.

CARTA A UNA COLEGIALA

Para leer esta carta
baja hasta nuestro río.
Escucharás, de pronto, una cosecha de aire
pasar sollozando en la corriente.

Escucharás la desnudez unánime
del agua y el sonido.
Y el rumor del minuto más antiguo
formado con el átomo de un día.
Mas, de repente, escucharás, oh bella música femenina,
la catarata inmóvil del silencio.

Entonces, te hablaré desde las letras:
Era enero. Salimos del colegio.

Veo tu blusa de naranja ilesa.
Tus principiantes senos de azucena,
y siento que me duele la memoria.

Bella aprendiz de cartas y de melancolía,
con los ojos cerrados y las bocas unidas,
tomamos esa tarde una lección de idiomas
sobre el musgo que hablaba de la cartografía.

¿Cómo has pasado estas vacaciones?
¿Sientes alguna vez entre los labios
ese azúcar azul de la distancia?

Mañana son dos años, siete meses.
Te conocí con toda mi alma ausente;
sufría entonces, por la primavera,
un bellísimo mal que ya no tengo.

Recuerdo: producías con los labios
un delgado chasquido de violeta.
Pienso en la estatua de aire de tu olvido
mirándome de todas las esquinas,
mi colegiala mía, música femenina.

Tú, en el divino campo. Yo, en la ciudad terrestre.
La calle pasa con su algarabía.
Un fraile. Unas mujeres de la vida...
Un niño con un cesto de hortalizas...
Un carro lento dividido en siglos...

Mañana entramos ya en el mes de junio.
Flotarán en su cielo de anchos aires
objetos de uso azul como las aguas;
y una lejana inquietud de rosas
habrá en el horizonte de la tarde.
En este claro mes de agua plateada
te conocí. Entonces yo sufría
una enfermedad de primavera,
un bellísimo mal que ya no tengo ...

CÉSAR DÁVILA ANDRADE
(Cuenca, 1918-1967)

On this day in History - Dec. 30

• 39 - Tito Flavio Vespasiano was born , Roman emperor.
• 0274 - St Felix I ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
• 1460 - Wars of the Roses: The Duke of York is defeated at the Battle of Wakefield.
• 1525 - Jacob Fugger (66), German banker and merchant, died.
• 1591 - Pope Innocent IX dies (b. 1519).
• 1644 - Jan Baptista van Helmont dies [ b. 1580]; Belgian chemist, physiologist, and physician who recognized the existence of discrete gases and identified carbon dioxide. He was part medieval alchemist and part scientist.
• 1691 - Robert Boyle dies [b. 1627], Irish chemist and natural philosopher noted for his pioneering experiments on the properties of gases and his espousal of a corpuscular view of matter that was a forerunner of the modern theory of chemical elements ( See Boyle's law ).
• 1703 -Tokyo hit by Earthquake; about 37,000 die .
• 1741 - Bartolomeo Giacometti, composer, was born.
• 1781 - John Needham dies [b. 1713]; English naturalist and Roman Catholic priest.
• 1788 - Francesco Zuccarelli, Italian rococo painter/etcher, dies at 86.
• 1819 - Theodor Fontane, was born, German novelist and poet (d. 1898).
• 1850 - John Milne was born [d. 1913]; English seismologist and geologist who invented the horizontal pendulum seismograph and promoted the establishment of seismological stations.
• 1851 -Asa Griggs Candler was born [d. 1929]; U.S. soft-drink manufacturer who developed Coca-Cola®.This soft drink began in 1886 when a druggist named John "Doc" Pemberton started selling the syrup that he used in his drugstore fountain drinks. When he died, the formula (still a very well kept secret) was sold to Asa Candler, a marketing genius.
• 1852 - future U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes married Lucy Ware Webb in Cincinnati.
• 1853 - The United States bought some 45,000 sq mi of land from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase, to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
• 1853 - 20-strong dinner party held inside life-size model of Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.
• 1861 -US, banks stops payments in gold.
• 1862 - USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
• 1865- Rudyard Kipling, was born in Bombay, India; British writer ("Jungle Book" and "Soldiers Three") and recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature 1907 (d. 1936).
• 1868 - Capitulación de las tropas paraguayas ante el duque de Caxias. Francisco Solano López no se rinde y acompañado por un puñado de combatientes, emprende al retirada hacia el norte de Paraguay .
• 1873 - the American Metrological Society was formed in New York City.
• 1873 - Alfred E. Smith was born, U. S. politician (d. 1944).
• 1879 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England).
• 1880 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger, its first president
• 1882 - Nace Ángel Roffo, investigador y médico argentino
• 1883 - John Henry Dallmeyer dies [b. 1830] German-born British inventor and manufacturer of lenses and telescopes.
• 1883. Nascimento do filósofo português Leonardo Coimbra (1883-1936) em Lixa, Amarante. Foi um dos fundadores da Renascença Portuguesa.
• 1884 - Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948).
• 1890 - The Dressel Missions fight happens today.
• 1890 - Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, naissance ; président du Mexique, entre 1952 et 1958 (d. 1973) .
• 1896 - José Rizal was executed by firing squad in Manila.
• 1897 - Natal annexes Zululand.
• 1897 - Alfredo Bracchi, was born, Italian author.
• 1898 - Luís da Câmara Cascudo, nascimento deste escritor e folclorista brasileiro.
• 1899 - Helge Ingstad, Norwegian explorer, discoverer of the only confirmed Viking settlement in America (d. 2001).
• 1899 - James Paget, dies [b. 1914] English surgeon and physiologist who is considered (with Rudolf Virchow) to be a founder of the science of pathology. Paget discovered (1834) in human muscle the parasitic worm that causes trichinosis. In 1877, he described Paget's disease of bone (osteitis deformans), a chronic disease of bones.
• 1900 - Battleships are sent to Tangiers by the Spanish government as the first part of its intended invasion of Morocco.
• 1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago kills 600.
• 1906 - Iran becomes a constitutional monarchy.
• 1911 -Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.
• 1913 - Tungsten filaments: Dr William David Coolidge patented a method for making ductile tungsten for the purpose of making filaments for electric lamps
• 1917 - Un cataclismo de grandes dimensiones asola Guatemala, cuya ciudad capital quedó convertida en ruinas.
• 1918 - La liga Espartaco liderada por Rosa Luxemburgo toma el nombre de Partido Comunista Alemán.
• 1919 - Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.
• 1920 -Albania was admitted to the League of Nations as sovereign and independent state
• 1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed.
• 1923 - Sara Lidman, Swedish writer (d. 2004) .
• 1923 - Inauguración del primer servicio público aéreo en Argentina (de Buenos Aires a Montevideo).
• 1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
• 1927 - The Ginza Line, the oldest subway line in Asia, opened in Tokyo.
• 1931 - Tyrone Power Sr, actor (Big Trial, Test of Donald Norton), dies at 62.
• 1933 - O primeiro-ministro da Roménia, Íon Duca, é assassinado por um membro da Guarda de Ferro.
• 1933 - El ministro Javier Burgos establece la división de España en 49 provincias.
• 1934 - Del Shannon, singer (d. 1990)
• 1935 - Sandy Koufax , was born, baseball player
• 1936 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
• 1938 - An electronic television system was patented by V.K. Zworykin.
• 1940 - California opens its first freeway: the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
• 1943 - Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
• 1944 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.
• 1944 - Romain Roland, French writer/pacifist (Nobel 1915), dies at 78.
• 1946 - Singer Patti Smith, was born.
• 1947 - Alfred North Whitehead dies [b.1961]; English mathematician and philosopher, who collaborated with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica (1910-13).
• 1947 - King Michael of Romania is obliged to abdicate and the Romanian republic is proclaimed.
• 1948 - The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.
• 1949 - India recognizes People's Republic of China.
• 1950 - Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia become Independent states in France Union.
• 1953 - The first color television sets go on sale for about USD $1,175.
• 1954 -1.st use of 24-sec shot clock in pro basketball (Rochester vs Boston) .
• 1957 -Israeli government of Ben-Gurion, resigns.
• 1961 - Ben Johnson, was born ; Canadian athlete.
• 1963 - Alessandra Mussolini, actress (Ferragosto OK), was born in Naples, Italy.
• 1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomesPresident of the Philippines
• 1972 - Vietnam War : President Nixon halted the heavy bombing on North Vietnam.
• 1974 - Beatles are legally disbanded (4 years after suit was brought) .
• 1975 - Tiger Woods was born, golfer.
• 1975 - Constitution of Democratic Republic of Madagascar comes into force.
• 1976 - Actress Meredith Monroe was born.
• 1978 - Singer Tyrese was born.
• 1979 - Rock group, Emerson, Lake & Palmer break up
• 1979 - Togo adopts constitution.
• 1980 - Actress Eliza Dushku was born.
• 1982 - Kristin Kreuk was born, Canadian actress.
• 1983 -A 7.2 earthquake killed 26 people in Afghanistan (14) and Pakistan (12).
• 1985 -Pakistan restores constitution.
• 1987 - The Transkei government is overthrown in a bloodless coup led by General Bantubonke Holomisa, commander of the Transkei Defence Force.
• 1987 -Premier Mugabe elected President of Zimbabwe.
• 1989 -Dmitri Volkov swims world record 50m freestyle (27.15 sec).
• 1993 -Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement of mutual recognition to put an end to Jewish-Christian hostilities.
• 1996 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
• 1996 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
• 1997 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, 400 people are killed from four villages.
• 1997 - In Spain a judge accused 36 Argentine military and police officers of involvement in torture and the disappearance of 600 Spaniards during the dirty war from 1976-1983. Most of those named served in the ESMA, a torture center used by the military regime.
• 1997- In Italy Danilo Dolci, advocate of nonviolent social reform, died at age 73. His writings and poetry chronicled Sicily’s beauty and despair. His books include: “Report From Palermo,” “Waste,” and “Sicilian Lives”.
• 1999 - O ex-beatle George Harrison foi esfaqueado no tórax dentro de sua mansão em Londres por Michael Abram, de 33 anos. Houve luta corporal. Ele foi internado e liberado dias depois.
• 2000 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
• 2001 -Pakistan arrested Hafiz Saeed, leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Army of the Pure) as India moved more troops to the border.
• 2002 - Eleanor Jack Gibson dies [b. 1910]; American psychologist who studied learning processes in children. She is remembered for her “visual cliff” experiment which showed how an infant's depth perception helps prevent injuries and falls.
• 2003 -The Bush administration announced it was banning the sale of ephedra, and urged consumers to immediately stop using the herbal stimulant linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks and strokes.
• 2003 - John Gregory Dunne, American novelist and screenwriter dies.
  
  

Beautiful celebrities birthdays Today: Eliza Dushku and Kristin Kreuk

Reeembolsos de IRS por pagar ...ainda efeitos do deficit orçamental ?

Ouvi dizer hoje nas notícias que o Governo estava a atrasar os pagamentos de algumas prestações sociais por causa do déficit. Nem quiz acreditar. Nem um governo de gestão teria a coragem de fazer isso... . É claro que houve desmentidos ...de que não há conhecimento de nada disso, etc, etc... .

Mas há motivos para ficar descansado? Quando toda a gente sabe que o Estado não vem pagando aos seus fornecedores atempadamente? E quem não paga ao Estado? Não tem que pagar juros e multas?

Pois não há mesmo motivos para estar descansado. Eu particularmente não tenho e por experiência própria. É que ainda não recebi o reembolso de IRS a que tenho direito do ano de 2003 ...e já estamos no final de 2004. Mas isso afinal não é muito grave! Houve um erro, errar todos erramos... o Governo, isto é, a Administração Fiscal vai corrigir, vai pagar um pouco mais tarde, mas vai compensar o contribuinte com juros. Ou não?

Não se fie! É que a Admnistração Fiscal não só não processa o reembolso, como ainda já veio ameaçar com um processo de execução fiscal por a liquidação primitiva (errada) não ter sido paga. Agora informa-nos a Repartição de Finanças de que se quizer parar com o processo de execução fiscal tem que se reclamar ( bem melhor mesmo é impugnar judicialmente!!) e apresentar garantia, para que não veja a casa ou o carro hipotecada/penhorado. E afinal isto tudo, quando o sistema já conhece a existência de uma declaração oficiosa dos serviços a corrigir o erro que haviam cometido.

Parafraseando um grande homem da comunicação social que nos deixou muitas saudades ... "e esta hein?"

On this day in History - Dec. 29

• 1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by four knights acting under the orders of Henry II.
• 1223 - El Papa Honorio III aprueba la regla de la Orden de los Frailes Menores (Franciscanos) fundada por San Francisco de Asis en 1209.
• 1586 - Francisco de Moncada Spanish was born, earl of Osuna/marquis of Aytona.
• 1678 - Gotthard Wagner, was born, composer.
• 1689 - Thomas Sydenham dies [1624]; English physician who has been called “the English Hippocrates” as a founder of clinical medicine and epidemiology, emphasizing detailed observations of patients and maintaining accurate records.
• 1709 - Elisabeth Petrovna, was born, tsarina of Russia / Daughter of Peter the Great .
• 1721 - Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (Madame De Pompadour) was born [d.1764] mistress of French King Louis XV.
• 1721 - Occupation de l'Île Maurice par les Français, qu'ils baptisent Ile de France .
• 1731 -Brook Taylor dies [b. 1685] British mathematician noted for his contributions to the development of calculus. In 1708, Taylor produced a solution to the problem of the centre of oscillation. His (1715) “Direct and Indirect Methods of Incrementation” introduced what is now called the calculus of finite differences.
• 1766 - Charles Macintosh, was born in Glasgow; Scottish chemist and manufacturer. He developed his famous method of waterproofing cloth (1823), [d.1843] .
• 1788 - Christian Jürgensen Thomsen was born [d.1865) Danish archaeologist who devoloped the three-part system of prehistory, naming the Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages for the successive stages of man's technological development in Europe.
• 1799 - Joaquín Acosta, was born [d. 1852]; Colombian scientist, historian, and statesman who sought to preserve knowledge of his country's early history.
• 1800 - Charles Goodyear was born; invented vulcanized rubber [d. 1860].
• 1808 - Andrew Johnson, was born [d. 1875];17th President of the United States .
• 1809 - William Ewart Gladstone was born , statesman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom .
• 1813 - Alexander Parkes was born [d. 1890]; British chemist and inventor who developed various industrial processes and materials.
• 1813 - War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York .
• 1816 - Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig was born [d. 1895]; he was a founder of the physicochemical school of physiology in Germany. He developed the kymograph (1847) and a mercurial blood-gas pump (1859) which enables the separation of blood from the mixture of gases in it for analysis.
• 1825 - Simon Bolivar Palacios abandonne la Présidence de la Bolivie, qu'il laisse à son lieutenant Antonio José de Sucre Alcala.
• 1825 - Muere Jacques David, pintor francés que introdujo el neoclasicismo en su país.
• 1840 - Anton Dohrn, zoologist (d. 1909).
• 1841 - Se le concede por gracia la nacionalidad chilena al naturalista francés Claudio Gay.
• 1845 - Texas became the 28th state in the United States.
• 1851 - The first American-based YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts .
• 1859 - Venustiano Carranza, was born; President of México (1915-20) .
• 1860 - The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, the HMS Warrior is launched.
• 1869 - Se funda el Observatorio Astrónomico de Córdoba, Argentina.
• 1876 - The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster, 64 injured, 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio. .
• 1876 -Pablo Casals was born in Venrdell; Spanish cellist, conductor, composer (d. 1973) .
• 1877 - Muere el político argentino Adolfo Alsina.
• 1890 - The last major battle of the Indian Wars, at Wounded Knee Creek, took place with hundreds of Indian men, women, and children of the Great Sioux Nation massacred.
• 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the radio.
• 1891 - Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician, dies [b. 1823] His major contributions in elliptic functions, the theory of algebraic equations, and the theory of algebraic numbers. However the topics he studied were restricted by the fact that he believed in the reduction of all mathematics to arguments involving only the integers and a finite number of steps.
• 1893 - Vera Brittain was born , novelist, poet .
• 1896 - David Alfaro Siqueiros, was born; Mexican painter/muralist (Liberation of Chile).
• 1898 - Se estrena en Munich el poema sinfónico Don Quijote, de Richard Straus.
• 1911 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China .
• 1911 - Klaus Fuchs was born [d.1988]; Emil Klaus Julius Fuchs was a German-born physicist and spy who was arrested and convicted (1950) for giving vital American and British atomic-research secrets to the Soviet Union.
• 1913 - The first serial motion picture, The Unwelcome Throne is released by Seligs Polyscope Company.
• 1916 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk, dies (b. 1869) .
• 1921 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Prime Minister of Canada .
• 1925 - Le Parti communiste français est crée .
• 1929 - Wilhelm Maybach dies [b. 1846] ; German engineer and industrialist who was the chief designer of the first Mercedes automobiles (1900-01).
• 1934 - The first college basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York City is played, between the University of Notre Dame and New York University .
• 1934 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
• 1936 - Mary Tyler Moore was born, actress .
• 1937 - The Constitution of Ireland, changing the Irish Free State into Eire, went into effect.
• 1938 - Jon Voight, was born, American actor (Deliverance, Midnight Cowboy) .
• 1940 -During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.
• 1941-Tullio Levi-Civita dies [b. 1873]; Italian mathematician known for his work on the absolute differential calculus with its applications to the theory of relativity .
• 1946 - Marianne Faithfull, was born, singer.
• 1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.
• 1952- A coelacanth, once thought to have been extinct for 75 million years, is caught off the Comoros and sent to scientists in South Africa.
• 1954 -William Merriam Burton dies [b. 1865]; American chemist who developed a thermal cracking process for increasing the proportion of gasoline obtainable from crude petroleum.
• 1956 - Em Lisboa, foi inaugurado o Metro, uma rede subterrânea de transporte colectivo.
• 1957 - singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married in Las Vegas.
• 1960 - Frederick Fuller Russell dies [b. 1870]; American scientist who developed the first successful U.S. typhoid fever vaccine.
• 1960 - Henri-Gaston Busignies was born [d. 1981]; French-born American electronics engineer permitted the U.S. Navy during World War II to detect enemy transmissions ( from wich a radio transmission was coming) throught his high-frequency direction finders (HF/DF) Busignies invented also the radiocompass (1926) .
• 1961 - Anton Flettner dies [b. 1885]; German inventor of the rotor ship, a vessel propelled by revolving cylinders mounted vertically on the deck. He also developed a device that allowed airplane pilots to raise or lower a plane's nose for better control.
• 1966 - Dexter Holland, was born, Rock musician (The Offspring).
• 1967 - Aos 76 anos de idade morre Paul Whiteman, o “Rei do Jazz”. Seus sucessos incluem “My Blue Heaven” e “All of Me”.
• 1968 - Numa operação antiterrorista, comandos israelitas destroem 13 aviões de guerra libaneses.
• 1972 - An Eastern Airlines Lockheed Tristar crashed on approach ro Miami, International Airport killing 101 .
• 1975 - A bomb explodes at New York City's LaGuardia Airport killing 11.
• 1983 - Mariage de Caroline de Monaco et Stefano Casiraghi.
• 1986 Harold Macmillan, 92, former British Prime Minister, dies in Sussex, England .
• 1987 - Yuri Romanenko, cosmonaute soviétique, revient sur terre après avoir établi le record de la plus longue mission dans l'espace soit 326 jours, 11 heures et 40 minutes.
• 1989 - Vaclav Havel was elected President of Czechoslovakia.
• 1989 - Hermann Julius Oberth dies [b. 1894]; German scientist who is considered to be one of the founders of modern astronautics.
• 1989 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
• 1992 - Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, resigned.
• 1992 - Itamar Franco is the new President of Brazil.
• 1992- President Daniel Torotich arap Moi wins the first multi-party elections held in Kenya for 26 years.
• 1995 - Nello Celio, President of Switz (1972), dies at 81.
• 1996 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord that ends a 36 year a civil war.
• 1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
• 1998 - Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million in the 1970s.
• 1999 - Jerzy Waldorff, dies; Polish film and music critic .
• 1999 -The Nasdaq composite index closed above 4,000 for the first time, ending the day at 4,041.46.
• 2001 - Cássia Eller dies.
  29 Dez - Dia Internacional da Biodiversidade

Paints of Jacques-Louis David

The Oath of the Horatii (1784) Oil on canvas130 x 167 1/4 in. (330 x 425 cm) Musee du Louvre, Paris (on the left)

The Sabine Women (1796-99) Oil on canvas12' 8" x 17' 3/4"Musee du Louvre, Paris (on the right side)

Um beijo - Olavo Bilac

Foste o beijo melhor da minha vida,
ou talvez o pior...Glória e tormento,
contigo à luz subi do firmamento,
contigo fui pela infernal descida!

Morreste, e o meu desejo não te olvida:
queimas-me o sangue, enches-me o pensamento,
e do teu gosto amargo me alimento,
e rolo-te na boca malferida.

Beijo extremo, meu prêmio e meu castigo,
batismo e extrema-unção, naquele instante
por que, feliz, eu não morri contigo?

Sinto-me o ardor, e o crepitar te escuto,
beijo divino! e anseio delirante,
na perpétua saudade de um minuto....

Olavo Bilac [ 1865-1918]

Ao coração que sofre - Olavo Bilac

Faz hoje 86 anos que faleceu Olavo Braz Martins dos Guimarães Bilac, um grande poeta da língua portuguesa. Assim, neste blog, onde a poesia ocupa lugar de destaque, junto a outros poemas aqui já divulgados mais dois poemas deste autor que merece ser mais conhecido:

Ao Coração Que Sofre

Ao coração que sofre, separado
Do teu, no exílio em que a chorar me vejo,
Não basta o afeto simples e sagrado
Com que das desventuras me protejo.
Não me basta saber que sou amado,
Nem só desejo o teu amor: desejo
Ter nos braços teu corpo delicado,
Ter na boca a doçura de teu beijo.

E as justas ambições que me consomem
Não me envergonham: pois maior baixeza
Não há que a terra pelo céu trocar;

E mais eleva o coração de um homem
Ser de homem sempre e, na maior pureza,
Ficar na terra e humanamente amar

Ver também neste blog: Ouvir estrelas e Delírio

On this day in History - Dec. 28

• 418 - St. Boniface I becomes Pope
• 1065 -Westminster Abbey consecrated.
• 1484 - Joachim Vadianus, [von Watt], was born; Swiss physician/mayor of Sankt Gallen
• 1622- Francois de Sales (55), French bishop of Geneva, writer and saint, died
• 1669 - William Semple patenta el chicle.
• 1694, Queen Mary II of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.
• 1777 - Alexander I - Russia, was born, Czar de Russia.
• 1798 -Thomas Henderson was born (died 23-Nov-1844). Scottish astronomer who, as royal astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope (1831-33), was the first to measure the parallax of a star (Alpha Centauri).
• 1814 - Sir John Bennet Lawes was born (d. 31-Aug-1900), (1st Baronet) English agronomist who founded the artificial fertilizer industry and Rothamsted Experimental Station, the oldest agricultural research station in the world.
• 1832 - John C. Calhoun became the first vice president in U.S. history to resign from office.
• 1836 - Spain recognizes independence of Mexico.
• 1846 -Iowa became the 29th state in the United States.
• 1852 - Leonardo Torres Quevedo , was born at Santa Cruz de Iruña, Santander, España, scientist and inventor.
• 1856 - Woodrow Wilson, was born in Staunton, Va ; 28th President of the United States (d. 1924); He won Nobel Peace Prize 1919.
• 1861 - Se funda la ciudad de Mulchen en Chile.
• 1861 - Autoproclamación como Rey de la Araucania de Orélie-Antoine.
• 1862 -Joaquim Casimiro Junior, composer, dies at 54.
• 1869 -William F. Semple patented chewing gum.
• 1878 -Jose Bernardo Alcedo, composer, dies at 90.
• 1878 -Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Quod apostolici muneris (socialism).
• 1879 - The Tay Bridge Disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland collapses as a train passed over it, killing 75.
• 1882 -Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington was born; English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician who did his greatest work in astrophysics, investigating the motion, internal structure, and evolution of stars.
• 1892 -Alfred Irving Hallowell was born; a U.S. cultural anthropologist known for his work on the North American Indians.
• 1894 - Alfred Sherwood Romer, was born (died 5 Nov 1973). U.S. paleontologist widely known for his concepts of evolutionary history of vertebrate animals.
• 1895 -The Lumiere Brothers gave the first commercial movie show at the Grand Cafe in Paris.
• 1897 - The play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, premieres in Paris.
• 1902 - The first indoor professional American football game is played in New York City at Madison Square Garden.
• 1903 - John von Neumann, was born, mathematician (d. 1957) (Bocher Award 1938).
• 1903 - French Congo is split into Ubangi-Shari, Chad, Gabon, and Middle Congo.
• 1906 - Ecuador adopts its constitution.
• 1908 - An earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily killing over 75,000.
• 1916 - Eduard Strauss, was born, Austrian composer (b. 1835)
• 1917, the New York Evening Mail published a facetious — as well as fictitious — essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America.
• 1918 - Olavo Bilac, dies, Brazilien poet (b. 1865)
• 1923 - Gustave Eiffel dies (b. 15-Dec.1832); French civil engineer renowned for the tower in Paris that bears his name. He specialized in metal structures, building a number of iron bridges, beginning with one at Bordeaux in 1858. Eiffel was one of the first engineers to employ compressed-air caissons in bridge building.
• 1927- Muere en Buenos Aires el notable pintor Ernesto de la Cárcova, autor del cuadro "Sin pan y sin trabajo" (1894). Nació en Buenos Aires el 3 de marzo de 1866.
• 1934 - Actress Maggie Smith was born this day ( Death on Nile, Clash of Titans).
• 1935 - Fernando Lopes, was born in Portugal, director (Encoberto, Matar Saudades)
• 1937 - A primeira Constituição da República da Irlanda é estabelecida. Na época, o primeiro-ministro era Eamon de Valera, fundador do Exército Republicano Irlandês (IRA).
• 1937 - Maurice Ravel dies in Paris (b. 1875); musician.
• 1944 - Kary Banks Mullis, was born ; American biochemist, cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1993) for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
• 1945 - Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.
• 1947 - Victor Manuel III, último rei de Itália, morreu em Alexandria, Egipto, no exílio. Rei desde 1900, devido ao assassinato do seu pai, nomeou Mussolini primeiro ministro, não tendo sido capaz de impedir os fascistas de tomar o poder. Tinha abdicado em 1946.
• 1948 - Egyptian premier, Mahmoud Fatimy, is assassinated by a member of Al Ikhwan al Muslimun (the Muslim Brotherhood).
• 1950 - The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park.
• 1953 - Richard Clayderman, was born, pianist.
• 1954 - Denzel Washington, was born, actor (Dr Chandler-St Elsewhere).
• 1958 - Patrice Emery Lumumba, head of the Congolese National Movement, declares that "independence is a right, not a privilege."
• 1959 - Se promulga la Ley de Seguridad Social que consagra catorce prestaciones y por la que la Dirección de Pensiones Civiles se transformará en Instituto de Seguridad Social de los Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado (ISSSTE), que entrará en vigor el 1º de enero del próximo año (Mexico).
• 1970 - Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) adopts constitution.
• 1970 - Muere en Buenos Aires Elena Sansisena de Elizalde, fundadora de la Asociación Amigos del Arte. Organizó las polémicas muestras de los pintores Emilio Pettoruti y Juan Del Prete y publicó valiosas ediciones de arte, como el "Martín Fierro", ilustrado por Adolfo Belloc. Nació en Buenos Aires en 1882.
• 1973 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel awarded) published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system.
• 1981 -Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.
• 1982 - Nevell Johnson Jr., a black man, was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade, setting off three days of race-related disturbances that left another man dead.
• 1983 - Dennis Wilson, musician ("The Beach Boys"), dies (b. 1944).
• 1984 - Sam Peckinpah, film director, dies (b. 1925) .
• 1986 - Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian movie director, dies (b. 1932) .
• 1989 - O Brasil quebra o recorde negativo de inflação na sua história, chegando a 1.764,86% ao ano.
• 1989 - Alexandre Dubcek, ex-líder comunista da Tchecoslováquia, é nomeado líder do parlamento.
• 1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog Game Gear version is released in Japan.
• 1991 - Ted Turner is named Time Magazine Man of Year.
• 1992 - O parlamento iugoslavo vota a remoção do primeiro-ministro Milan Panic.
• 1993 - O Vaticano reconhece oficialmente a existência do Estado de Israel.
• 1993 - Banesto, bajo la dirección de Mario Conde, es intervenido por el Banco de España.
• 1994 - CIA Director R. James Woolsey resigned, ending a tenure that was shadowed by the Aldrich Ames spy scandal.
• 1997 - O governo de Hong Kong mata e incinera 1,3 milhão de galinhas na tentativa de eliminar o vírus da gripe, que havia matado quatro pessoas e causado temor de uma epidemia.
• 1999 - Saparmurat Niyazov was proclaimed President for Life in Turkmenistan.
• 2000 - Adrian Năstase became the Prime Minister of Romania.
• 2000 - U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
• 2001 -In Argentina thousands of people flooded banks as the government eased a 5-day bank holiday. Demonstrations ensued and riot police used rubber bullets and tear gas to quell violence at the Government House known as Casa Rosada.
• Pakistan arrested some 50 leading members of 2 Islamic militant groups: Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mahammed.
• 2001 - Japan’s Nikkei closed at its lowest year-end mark since 1983: 10,542.
• 2003 - Libya for the first time allowed U.N. nuclear officials to inspect four sites related to its nuclear weapons program.
  

On this day in History - Dec. 27

• 537- St Sofia-church in Constantinople, initiated .
• 1437- Albrecht II von Habsburg becomes king of Bohemia .
• 1492 - Cristóbal Colón descubre la isla de Cuba, a la que llama "Juana" y después "Fernandina", pero que mantendrá finalmente su nombre autóctono.
• 1512 - Se promulgan las Reales Ordenanzas dadas para el buen regimiento y tratamiento de los indios, más conocidas como Leyes de Burgos.
• 1571 - Johannes Kepler was born, [d. 1630]; German astronomer .
• 1703 - Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.
• 1732 - Em Portugal região de Loulé no Algarve ficou parcialmente destruída, como consequência de um sismo devastador.
• 1763 - Tratado de paz de Fontainebleau, por el que los británicos devuelven Manila a los españoles.
• 1773 -Sir George Cayley was born, scientist and aerial navigator .
• 1822 - Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France.[d. 1895]; French scientist, chemist and microbiologist whose contributions were among the most varied and valuable in the history of science and industry.
• 1831-Darwin began his historic voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.
• 1836 - The worst ever avalanche in England occurs at Lewes, Sussex, killing 8 people.
• 1845 - Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time (Dr. Crawford Williamson Long in Jefferson, Georgia).
• 1852 - Dom João G da Câmara was born, Portuguese journalist/songwriter.
• 1864 - Hood's army crosses the Tennessee River .
• 1871 - World's 1st Cat show (Crystal Palace, London) .
• 1879 - Sydney Greenstreet was born, actor (1879) .
• 1884- Netherlands recognizes king Leopold II's Congo Free State .
• 1900- militant prohibitionist Carry A. Nation carried out her first public smashing of a bar, at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kan.
• 1901 -Marlene Dietrich was born, actress.
• 1904 - Peter Pan, by James Barrie, opens in London .
• 1904 - El Banfield Athletic Club se refunda como Club Atlético Banfield (Argentina).
• 1906 - Muere en Buenos Aires el político argentino Bernardo de Irigoyen.
• 1909 - Se funda el club Atlético Concepción, de Tucumán.
• 1915 - William H. Masters, was born [d. 1951]; William H(owell) Masters with his wife, Virginia Johnson, an American research team, and, respectively, physician and psychologist, noted for their studies of human sexuality.
• 1923 - Nasce em Lisboa o escultor Lagoa Henriques .
• 1925 - Michel Piccoli, was born in Paris France, actor (Topaz, Peril, May Fools).
• 1927 - the musical play "Show Boat," with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opened at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York.
• 1932 - Radio City Music Hall in New York City opened.
• 1934 - Persia comienza a denominarse Irán, por disposición del Gobierno.
• 1939 -Between 20,000 & 40,000 die in magnitude 8 quake (Erzincam Turkey) .
• 1943 - Joan Manuel Serrat was born in Barcelona, singer.
• 1943 -German warship "Scharnhorst" sinks in Barents Sea.
• 1945-The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.
• 1945- 28 nations signed an agreement creating the World Bank.
• 1947 - the children’s television program "Howdy Doody" made its debut on NBC.
• 1947 - Primera Constitución italiana tras la Guerra Mundial.
• 1948 - Gerard Depardieu was born, actor (1948).
• 1949 - Jazz singer-musician T.S. Monk was born.
• 1949 - United States of Indonesia gains independence from Netherlands ~
• 1950 - Nace Roberto Bettega, delantero del fútbol italiano.
• 1951- 40th Davis Cup: Australia beats USA in Sydney (3-2) .
• 1951 - Nace Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, quien fuera presidente de México de 1994 a 2000.
• 1952-Rock musician David Knopfler (Dire Straits) .
• 1956- 5.580 Egyptian prisoners of war are exchanged for four Israelis held by Egypt following the Tripartite Invasion.
• 1957 - James Sanford, was born, US runner (world record 50m indoor) .
• 1959 - Alfonso Reyes, Mexican Poet / Historian / diplomat, dies at 70.
• 1960 - ance detonates its third atomic device in the Sahara.
• 1968 - Apollo 8 returns to Earth
• 1978 - King Juan Carlos ratifies Spain's 1st democratic constitution.
• 1979 - The Soviet Union took control of Afghanistan, installing Afghan politician Babrak Karmal as president.
• 1985- Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of 20 people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel.
• 1988 - Hall Ashby, US director (Shampoo, 8 Million Ways to Die), dies at 59 .
• 1993 - Dow-Jones hits record 3792.93 .
• 1994 - Four Roman Catholic priests — three French and a Belgian — were shot to death in their rectory in Algiers, a day after French commandos killed four radicals who’d hijacked an Air France jet from Algiers to Marseille.
• 1996 -Rwanda's first genocide trial opened for the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis.
• 2001 -The U.S. announced plans to hold Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• 2001 -President Bush permanently normalized trade relations with China.