On this day in History - Dec. 15

• 37 - Nero Claudius Augustus Germanicus was born 5th Emperor of Rome (54-68)
• 687 - St. Sergius I becomes Pope
• 1488 -Bartholomeus Diaz returns to Portugal after sailing round Cape of Good Hope
• 1582 - Spanish Netherlands / Denmark / Norway adopt Gregorian calendar
• 1626 - Adriaen de Vries, Dutch Sculptor / painter, dies at about 70
• 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.
• 1791 - The Bill of Rights took effect with Virginia's ratification of it.
• 1792 - 1st life insurance policy issued in US (Phila)
• 1817 - Maria Walewska [Leszczinska], lover of Emperor Napoleon I, dies
• 1832 - Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was born (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
• 1845 - General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan
• 1859 - L. L. Zamenhof, initiator of Esperanto (d. 1917)
• 1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, was born , Denmark Physician / phototherapist (Nobel 1903)
• 1870 - Josef Hoffmann, was born; Tcheck architect.
• 1877 - Thomas Edison patents phonograph
• 1882 Helena Rubinstein, was born, US cosmetic manufacturer.
• 1885 - Fernando de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Fernando II of Portugal, dies (b. 1819)
• 1890 - Sioux Indian chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed by Native American police.
• 1891 - James Naismith invents basketball (Canada)
• 1892 - Jose Maria Castro composer
• 1899 - Battle at Colenso, South Africa, the Boers defeat the British.
• 1907 - Oscar Niemeyer, was born; Brazilien architect
• 1914 - Battle of Lodz ends; Russiana retreat toward Moscow
• 1916 - Maurice Wilkins, fisico inglés codescubridor de la estructura del ADN
• 1916 - the French defeated the Germans in the World War I Battle of Verdun.
• 1917 - Moldavian Republic declares independence from Russia
• 1918 - Jeff Chandler, [Ira Grossel], was born in Brooklyn, actor (Broken Arrow)
• 1927 - Trotski, est exclu du Parti communiste d'URSS.
• 1939 - The movie Gone With the Wind premiered in Atlanta, Georgia. directed by David Selznick, with Vivian Leigh and Clark Gable.
• 1944 - Band leader Glenn Miller 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.
• 1947 - Arthur Machen, dies at age 84, (pseudonym of Arthur Llewellyn Jones), Welsh novelist and essayist
• 1949 -Albert Camus' "Les Justes" premieres in Paris
• 1951 - Eric Drummond, 1st sec-gen League of Nations (1919-33), dies at 75
• 1952 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Orientales Ecclesias
• 1956 - The Communist government of Poland allows religious instruction in schools on a voluntary basis.
• 1961 - 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
• 1964 - Canada adopted its national flag, a red maple leaf on a white background.
• 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 -Animated-cartoon pioneer and movie producer Walt Disney died in Los Angeles (b. 1901)
• 1970 - S Korean ferry Namyong-Ho sinks in Strait of Korea, around 300 killed
• 1971 - Paul Lévy, mathematician, dies.
• 1973 - American Psychiatric Assn declares homosexuality is not mental illness.
• 1976 - Samoa is member of the UN
• 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.
• 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.
• 1981 - NASA launches Intelsat V
• 1982 - Spain reopens border with Gibraltar.
• 1982 - Sao Tome & Principe constitution approved.
• 1985 - Sylvester Stallone & Brigitte Nielson wed
• 1986 - 150 killed during race riot in Karachi
• 1989 - A demonstration that turned into a popular uprising in Romania began the downfall of Nicolae Ceausescu.
• 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.
• 1990 - Rocker Rod Stewart marries super model Rachel Hunter
• 1993 - GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) Uruguay Round completed with approval by 117 countries
• 1993 - British premier Major and Irish premier Reynolds sign Downing Street Declaration concerning Northern Ireland self determination
• 1993 - Haitian premier Robert Malval resigns.
• 1993 - Kakuei Tanaka, PM of Japan (1972-74), dies.
• 1994 - John Bruton becomes Ireland's premier.
• 1994 - Netscape Navigator 1.0 first released.
• 1994 - Palau become member of the UN.
• 1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling.
• 1995. A unidade de conta europeia, a futura moeda europeia, é baptizada com o nome de Euro.
• 1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85.
• 1999 - En medio de una catástrofe natural, y la muerte de miles de venezolanos, es aprobada mediante referendum popular la Constitución de la "República Bolivariana de Venezuela" (fundación de la V República)
• 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.
• 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 - BBC 7, digital radio station launched in UK .
• 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)