On this day in History - Dec. 14

• 0644 - Osman ibn Affan appointed 3rd kalief of islam.
• 0867 - Adrian II becomes Pope .
• 0872 - John VIII becomes Pope .
• 1009 - Emperor Go-Suzaku of Japan was born (d. 1045)
• 1077 - Agnes of Poitou dies. German empress / Wife of Emperor Henry III.
• 1136 - Harald IV "Gylle Krist" dies murdered. King of Norway
• 1287 - Zuider Zee sea wall collapsed, with the loss of 50,000 lives.
• 1503 - Nostradamus [Michel de Nostredame], was born in St. Remy, Provence, France (d. 2 Jul 1566). French astrologer and physician (d. 1566). He predicted correctly French king Henri II's manner of death. Nostradamus was the author of a book of prophecies that many still believe foretold the future. He wrote in rhyming quatrains, accurately predicting the Great London Fire in 1666, Spain’s Civil War, and a Hitler that would lead Germany into war. He even correctly predicted his own death on July 2, 1566.
• 1542 - James king of Scotland (1513-42), dies at 30.
• 1542 - Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland.
• 1546 - Tycho Brahe was born in Knudstrup (d. 1601). Danish astronomer. He constructed the most precise astronomical instruments of his time.
• 1553 - Henri IV the Bourbon, King of Navarra (Henri III) / France , was born.
• 1625 - Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville was born (d. 1695). French orientalist.
• 1631 - Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway was born (d. 1679). English philosopher.
• 1678 - Daniel Neal was born (d. 1743). English historian.
• 1720 - Justus Möser was born (d. 1794). German statesman.
• 1775 - Philander Chase was born (d. 1852). American founder of Kenyon College.
• 1775 - Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald was born (d. 1860). British admiral.
• 1790 - Alexander Hamilton proposes creation of a Bank of the United States
• 1798 - David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented a nut and bolt machine.
• 1799 - George Washington died at age 67. He was the first president of the United States (1789-97), died at his Mount Vernon, home.
• 1818 -The pirate Hippolyte Bouchard demanded gunpowder and other supplies from the padres at Mission San Juan Capistrano, Ca. The padres refused and the pirate sent 140 men to destroy the mission and the town was stripped of its provisions.
• 1819 - Alabama became the 22nd state in the United States, making 11 slave states and 11 free states.
• 1822 - John Christie, English patron of music, was born. He founded the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
• 1824 - Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was born (d. 1898). French painter.
• 1832 - Ana Betancourt de Mora was born in Puerto Príncipe (d. 1901). Women right activist in Cuba.
• 1853 - Salvador Diaz Miron was born (d. 1928). Mexican Poet (Los Cien Mejores Poemas) .
• 1855 - Ice hockey originated. The first game was played by 2 military teams.
• 1861 - Prince Albert of England dies in London. Husband of Queen Victoria and one of the Union’s strongest advocates; he was cousin of King D. Fernando II of Portugal husband of Queen D. Maria II; The book “Uncrowned King: The Life of Prince Albert” was later written by Stanely Weintraub.
• 1863 - The widow of Confederate General B.H. Helm was given amnesty by President Lincoln after she swore allegiance to the Union. Mrs. Helm was the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln.
• 1866 - Roger Fry was born (d. 1934). English artist and art critic.
• 1870 - Karl Renner was born (d. 1950). President of Austria.
• 1895 - Britain’s King George VI (d.1952), was born. He rule from 1936-1952.
• 1896 - Jimmy Doolittle was born (d. 1993). American Air Force general. He commanded the first bombing mission over Japan. His Tokyo raid was a great boost for American war morale.
• 1897 - Margaret Chase Smith was born (d. 1995). American politician.
• 1900 - Max Planck (1858-1947) publishes his study of quantum theory (The birth of Quantum Theory). German physicist, Planck presented the quantum theory at the Physics Society in Berlin. He demonstrated that energy, in certain situations, can exhibit characteristics of physical matter. Planck was rewarded the Nobel Prize (1918) in Physics for his work on blackbody radiation.
• 1902 - First telegraph cable laid across the Pacific Ocean
• 1902 - Frances Bavier was born (d. 1989). American actress.
• 1903 - William Ennis became the 1st cop to die in electric chair.
• 1906 - First U1 submarine was brought into service in Germany.
• 1907 - Beatriz Costa was born (d. 1986). Portuguese actress.
• 1908 - The first truly representative Turkish Parliament opened.
• 1908 - Morey Amsterdam was born (d. 1996). American comedian and actor.
• 1909 - Edward Tatum was born (d. 1975). American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1909 -The Labor Conference in Pittsburgh ended with a "declaration of war" on U.S. Steel.
• 1909 - Leopold II dies. King of Belgium.
• 1911 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating an expedition led by Robert F. Scott. He use dog sleds that averaged fifteen miles a day in sub-zero temperatures.
• 1911 - Spike Jones was born (d. 1965). American comedian and musician.
• 1913 - Dan Dailey was born (d. 1978). American actor.
• 1914 - Karl Carstens was born (d. 1992). President of Germany.
• 1914 - Rosalyn Tureck was born (d. 2003). American pianist and harpsichordist.
• 1915 - Jack Johnson became the 1st black world heavyweight boxing champion.
• 1916 - Shirley Jackson was born. Novelist and short story writer (Life Among Savages, The Lottery)
• 1918 - Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounced the Finnish throne.
• 1918 - Sidónio Pais, Portuguese President of Republic, dies assassinated at Rossio Station in Lisbon.
• 1918 - B.K.S. Iyengar was born. Indian yoga advocate.
• 1919 - Shirley Jackson was born (d. 1965). American writer.
• 1920 -The League of Nations created a credit system to aid Europe; U.S. export trade was threatened.
• 1922 - Don Hewitt was born. NYC, CBS news executive producer (60 Minutes).
• 1922 - Nikolay Basov was born (d. 2001). Russian physicist, Noble Prize laureate.
• 1923 - Gerard Reve was born. Dutch writer.
• 1926 - Theo van Rysselberghe dies at 64. Belgian painter (pointillism).
• 1928 - Lady Chatterley's Lover by David Herbert Lawrence is published.
• 1929 - Alexander Zaimis elected President of Greece.
• 1932 - Charlie Rich was born (d. 1995). American musician.
• 1934 - 1st streamlined steam locomotive was introduced in Albany, NY.
• 1935 - Lee Remick was born. American actress.
• 1937 - Japanese troops conquered and plundered Nanjing.
• 1938 - Leonardo Boff was born. Brazilian theologian
• 1939 - The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.
• 1941 - US Treasury Sec. Henry Morgenthau asked his assistant Harry Dexter White to prepare a paper outlining the possibilities for coordinated monetary arrangements between the US and its allies. White’s proposal said the primary goal should be to stabilize the exchange rates of the Allied countries to encourage the flow of capital. The later led to the establishment of the gold standard at Bretton Woods, N.H., in 1944.
• 1941 - German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel ordered the construction of defensive positions along the European coastline.
• 1944 - Congress established the rank of General of Army, the 5-star General.
• 1946 - Jane Birkin was born. English-born actress (Mrs Don Juan, Dark Places, Dust )
• 1946 - Patty Duke was born. American actress, was born. She started her career at seven and won an Oscar for her portrayal of Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker." He went on to star in television's "The Patty Duke Show."
• 1946 - UN General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City. The UN adopted a disarmament resolution prohibiting the A-bomb.
• 1947 - NASCAR founded .
• 1947 - Christopher Parkening was born. American guitarist
• 1949 - Bill Buckner was born. Baseball player
• 1949 - Bulgarian ex-Premier Traicho Kostov was sentenced to die for treason in Sofia.
• 1950 - El coronel Osorio asume la presidencia de El Salvador.
• 1951 - Jan Timman was born. Dutch chess player
• 1952 - Teixeira de Pascoaes dies in Amarante. Portuguese poet.
• 1953 - René Eespere was born. Estonian composer
• 1955 - Portugal is admitted in United Nations.
• 1956 - John Diefenbaker was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative party in Canada. he succeeded John Drew.
• 1958 - Mike Scott was born. Rock singer-musician (The Waterboys).
• 1958 - 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility
• 1959 - Motown, a famed record label whose roster included The Supremes, The Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men and many other musicians, was founded in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1960 - The convention establishing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was signed by 18 European countries, the United States, and Canada..
• 1960 - A U.S. B-52 bomber set a 10,000 mile non-stop record without refueling.
• 1961 - Tanganyika (now Tanzania) is admitted to the UN.
• 1962 - The U.S. space probe Mariner 2 approached Venus, transmitting information about the planet.
• 1962 - The Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million, the highest insurance valuance for a painting in history.
• 1962 - Ginger Lynn was born. American actress.
• 1963 - Cynthia Gibb was born. American actress.
• 1963 - Dinah Washington dies (b. 1924). American singer.
• 1967 - DNA synthesized for the first time.
• 1967 - Ewa Bialolecka was born. Polish writer.
• 1972 - Willy Brandt re-elected West German chancellor.
• 1972 - Astronauts Schmitt and Cernan blasted off from the moon to join the command module America in lunar orbit, thus ending America’s manned lunar exploration for the 20th century.
• 1975 - Six South Moluccan extremists surrendered after holding 23 hostages for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen.
• 1975 -Inga Drozdova was born. Latvia playmate (Nov. 1997)
• 1976 - Karl Carstens is elected President of Federeal Republic of Germany.
• 1977 - The film "Saturday Night Fever,” starring John Travolta, premiered in NYC.
• 1977 - War criminal Pieter Menten sentenced in Amsterdam to 15 years
• 1979 - Michael Owen, was born. English football (soccer) star
• 1980 - After four days of meetings, members of NATO warned the Soviets to stay out of the internal affairs of Poland, saying that intervention would effectively destroy the détente between East and West.
• 1980 - Fans around the world paid tribute to John Lennon, six days after he was shot to death in New York City.
• 1981 - Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967. The parliament approved the annexation of the Golan Heights with legislation in one day.
• 1982 - Gerardo Iglesias es elegido secretario general del PCE (Partido Comunista de España) en sustitución de Santiago Carrillo.
• 1983 - Sara Afonso dies (b. 1983). Portuguese painter.
• 1984 - Vicente Aleixandre dies (b. 1898). Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1985 - Roger Maris dies of cancer at 51. HR hitter (61 in 61, NY Yankees).
• 1985 - Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
• 1986 - The experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world. (The trip took nine days.)
• 1987 - Supreme Court nominee Anthony M. Kennedy told his confirmation hearing he had no hidden agenda for abortion and privacy cases.
• 1987 - Chrysler pleaded no contest to federal charges of selling several thousand vehicles as new even though they'd been driven by employees with the odometer disconnected.
• 1987 - In the worst attack on merchant shipping in the 'Gulf War', 21 crewmen from a Norwegian tanker are killed.
• 1988 - In a dramatic policy shift, President Reagan authorized the United States to enter into a "substantive dialogue" with the Palestine Liberation Organization, after chairman Yasser Arafat said he was renouncing "all forms of terrorism."
• 1989 - Nobel Peace laureate Andrei D. Sakharov died in Moscow at age 68.
• 1989 - Chile holds its first free election in 16 years. Patricio Aylwin was elected president.
• 1990 - President Bush said he would nominate Lynn Martin to succeed Elizabeth H. Dole as labor secretary.
• 1990 - President Bush prodded Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to agree to talks on the Persian Gulf crisis by January third.
• 1990 - Right to Die case permitted Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed she died 12 days later.
• 1991 - Joaquim de Almeida, Portuguese actor receives de Interpretation Prize in Cairo Cinema, for his performance in Luís Galvão Teles' film Retrato de Família.
• 1991 - A rock slide takes off 10 metres of Mount Cook's elevation in New Zealand.
• 1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin lost a battle with hard-liners as he was forced to abandon his reformist prime minister, Yegor Gaidar, in favor of Communist-era technocrat Viktor Chernomyrdin.
• 1993 - A Colorado judge struck down the state's voter-approved Amendment Two prohibiting gay rights laws, calling it unconstitutional.
• 1993 - United Mine Workers approved a five-year contract, ending a strike that had reached seven states and involved some of the nation's biggest coal operators.
• 1993 - Myrna Loy dies in New York at age 88. Actress.
• 1994 - Former Arkansas Governor Orval E. Faubus, died at age 84. His refusal to let nine black students into Little Rock's Central High School in 1957 forced President Eisenhower to send in federal troops.
• 1994 - Suleiman Cassamo, escritor moçambicano, recebe o Prémio da União Latina pelo seu livro de contos O Regresso do Morto.
• 1995 - AIDS patient Jeff Getty received the first-ever bone-marrow transplant from a baboon. The experimental procedure at a San Francisco hospital was criticized by animal rights activists.
• 1995 - A way to genetically improve resistance to leaf blight in rice plants was reported found by scientists.
• 1995 - An agreement for peace in Bosnia, reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, was formally signed. Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia signed the Bosnian peace treaty in Paris. The agreement divided Bosnia into 2 autonomous territories and granted 51% of Bosnia to the Muslim-Croat federation and 49% to the Serbs. Elections were scheduled and a force of 60,000 Western troops was planned for deployment. A 3-member presidency and a national parliament was also part of the plan.
• 1996 - Teamsters President Ron Carey won election to a second term. Later, the results were overturned, and Carey was barred from a rerun vote by a court-appointed monitor who ruled that Carey had used union money for his campaign.
• 1996 - A massive freightliner hits the Riverwalk mall and hotel complex in New Orleans, Louisiana, injuring 116.
• 1997 - Astronomers detected the brightest explosion ever detected in a galaxy 12 billion light-years away.
• 1997 - Cuban President Fidel Castro declared Christmas 1997 an official holiday to ensure the success of Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit in Jan.
• 1997 - From India it was reported that Bombay film studios churn out 900 features a year in Hindi and other Indian languages at an average cost of $2.24 million.
• 1997 - Iran's new president, Mohammad Khatami, called for a dialogue with the people of the United States - a nation reviled by his predecessors as "The Great Satan."
• 1997 - In Mexico the 500-seat Chamber of Deputies approved Pres. Zedillo’s $108.9 billion budget for 1988. The secret budget was reduced to $6.25 million.
• 1997 -From Mexico it was reported that the Korean owners of the Han Young plant in Tijuana have agreed to cut ties with the government union and recognize the independent Unidad Obrera (Worker Unity) that was elected on Oct 6.
• 1998 -Researchers reported that the protein IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor type1, was found to sustain muscle maintenance and repair when injected into muscle cells. The protein was packaged in the shell of a virus that causes no disease.
• 1998 -The peak of the Geminid meteor shower.
• 1998 -In Algeria Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia resigned.
• 1998 - In Angola UNITA rebels launched an offensive at Cuito and Huambo and claimed to have shot down a government jet.
• 1998 - In Brazil legislators proposed to give themselves a 59% pay raise as the economy slipped into recession.
• 1998 - The British human rights group, Global Witness, reported that in Angola UNITA was selling diamonds to finance its battles against government forces.
• 1998 - In China the armed forces completed the hand over of their commercial holdings to civilian control.
• 1998 - In Guinea Lansana Conte was re-elected president to a 7-year term with 54.1% of the vote.
• 1998 - In Iran authorities arrested several suspects in the recent string of murders of opposition figures. Pirouz Davani, leader of the United Left, and Rostami Hamedani, an activist with Davani, were reported missing.
• 1998 - In Mexico the Senate approved a new law that ended restrictions limiting foreign ownership of the nation’s top banks.
• 1998 - In Kosovo Serbian border guards killed 31 ethnic Albanian guerrillas on the Albanian border.
• 1998 -In Pec masked Albanian rebels opened fire in the Panda barroom and killed 6 young Kosovo Serbs.
• 1999 - Macau is returned to China.
• 1999 - Jorge Edwards is laureate with the Cervantes Prize.
• 1999 - In Seattle Ahmed Ressam (32) was arrested after crossing the border at Port Angeles from Canada with a car trunk with over 150 pounds of bomb-making materials that included 200 pounds of urea, timing devices and a bottle of RDX, cyclotrimethylene trinitramine. Canadian authorities later issued an arrest warrant for Abdelmajed Dahoumane for possessing or making explosives. Dahoumane was arrested in Algeria In Oct, 2000. In 2001 Ressam admitted that he planned to detonate a bomb at the LA Int’l. Airport. Mokhtar Haouari provided fake ID and $3,000 to Ressam. Haouari was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2002.
• 1999 - US and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slave and forced laborers.
• 1999 - Charles Schultz, creator of the Peanuts cartoon, announced that he would retire and that the last Peanuts cartoon would appear Feb 13, 2000.
• 1999 - In Germany the government and industry officials agreed to establish nearly $5.2 billion fund to compensate slave laborers of the Nazi regime.
• 1999 - It was reported that Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa had recently announced a $3.75 billion environmental crusade in an effort to reduce pollution. An 80% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions by 2005 was planned. Hong Kong's yearly emissions for sulfur dioxide was 80,000 tons. Guangdong Province on the Chinese mainland put out 630,000 tons.
• 1999 - In Jammu-Kashmir, India, at least 6 people were killed in clashes between secessionist guerrillas and security forces.
• 1999 - In Mexico a passenger bus collided head-on with a gas truck and at least 26 people were killed near Salvatierra in Guanajuato.
• 1999 - In Panama former US Pres. Jimmy Carter symbolically turned over the Panama Canal. The official ownership transfer date was Dec 31.
• 1999 -In Romania Pres. Constantinescu fired Prime Minister Radu Vasile, though the constitution did not grant him that power. Alexandru Athanasiu, the Labor and Social Welfare minister, was named to replace Vasile. The average monthly salary was down to $89.
• 1999 - In South Africa Clarence Mlokoti (69), co-founder of the Kaizer Chiefs soccer team, was killed during an attempted car-jacking in Soweto.
• 1999 - Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national, was arrested after authorities allegedly found nitroglycerin in the trunk of his car as he arrived from Canada by ferry at Port Angeles, Wash. (Ressam was convicted in April 2001 of terrorist conspiracy and eight other charges.)
• 2000 -Pres. Clinton spoke in England and urged the US and other rich countries to end farm subsidies, spend money on fighting disease in the 3rd World and to cut emissions to thwart global warming.
• 2000 President-elect George W. Bush conferred by phone with congressional leaders of both parties and planned a goodwill tour of Washington, D.C.; he also received a flood of congratulatory calls from world leaders on his first full day as president-elect.
• 2000 -The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.
• 2000 - In the southern Philippines Muslim extremists killed 3 passengers on a motorcycle taxi.
• 2000 - In Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe claimed that his government has no control over the economy and blamed the “white man” as the real enemy during an address to a Congress of the ruling Zanu-PF Party
• 2001 - The US vetoed a UN Security council vote that condemned all “acts of terror” against Israelis and Palestinians.
• 2001 - American and British commandos behind a screen of local Afghan fighters contained the last remnants of al Qaeda forces in the White Mountains of Tora Bora. American Marines occupied Kandahar airport.
• 2001 - The US shipped a load of corn to Cuba, the 1st American food shipment there since 1963.
• 2001 - European leaders agreed to send 4,000 troops to Afghanistan.
• 2001 - European nations began distributing a “Eurokit” of euro coins in advance of the Jan 1 day when the euro becomes legal tender.
• 2001 - The German parliament approved a plan to shut down all nuclear power plants within 20 years.
• 2001 - W.G. Sebald (b.1944), German-born British author, died in a car accident. His books included “The Emigrants” (1996), “The Rings of Saturn” (1998) and “Austerlitz” (2001). The National Books Critics Circle awarded “Austerlitz” top honors in 2002.
• 2001 - Alto Douro Wine Region is classified by UNESCO as World Heritage.
• 2003 - Pakistani dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf [11 Aug 1943~] escapes an assassination attempt when a powerful bomb explodes a couple of minutes after his highly-guarded convoy crossed a bridge in Rawalpindi. There are no casualties.
• 2003 - Celebration of the reopening of the Fenice Theater in Venice, Italy.
• 2003 - Saddam Hussein captured The ousted President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, is under arrest after being found by US soldiers hiding in a cellar.
• 2004 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, is officially opened.
• 2004 - Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King released.
• 2004 - Fernando Poe, Jr. dies (b. 1939). Filipino actor and 2004 presidential candidate
• R.C. Saints - Memorial of Saint John of the Cross