On this day in History - Dec. 22

• 0069 - Vitelio dies. Roman emperor.
• 0401 - St Innocent I began his reign as Catholic Pope.
• 1100 - Duke Bretislaus II of Bohemia dies.
• 1135 - Stephen of Blois was crowned king of England.
• 1178 - Emperor Antoku of Japan was born (d. 1185) .
• 1216 - The Dominican order was sanctioned by Pope Honorius III.
• 1428 - Richard Neville Warwick, 2nd earl of Salisbury, was born.
• 1440 - Bluebeard, pirate was executed.
• 1465 - The Peace of St Truiden was declared. Louis van Bourbon became Bishop of Luik.
• 1481 - The member states of the Swiss Confederation concluded the Diet of Stans, an agreement whereby civil war was averted.
• 1603 - Mehmed III Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies (b. 1566) and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.
• 1639 - Jean Racine was born (other sources report December 21st as his birth date) (d. 1699). French dramatist.
• 1643 - Rene-Robert Cavelier La Salle, French explorer (Louisiana), was born.
• 1646 - Peter Mogila dies (b. 1596). Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia.
• 1660 - André Tacquet dies (b. 1612). Belgian mathematician.
• 1666 - Guru Gobind Singh was born (d. 1708) .
• 1681 - Richard Alleine dies (b. 1611). English Puritan clergyman.
• 1694 - Hermann Samuel Reimarus was born (d. 1768). German philosopher and writer.
• 1696 - James Oglethorpe was born (d. 1785). English general, author and colonizer of Georgia.
• 1708 - Hedwig Sophia, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp dies (b. 1681). Swedish writer.
• 1723 - Karl Friedrich Abel was born (d. 1787). German baroque composer.
• 1727 - William Ellery was born. US attorney and signer of the Declaration of Independence.
• 1738 - Constantia Jones, British prostitute, was executed for stealing 36 shillings and a half-guinea (the equivalent of about £300 today) from one of her clients.
• 1745 - Johann Dismas Zelenka dies in Dresden (b. 1679). Composer.
• 1767 - John Newbery dies (d. 1713). English publisher.
• 1772 - Construction of the first schoolhouse west of the Allegheny Mountains was started in Schoenbrunn, Ohio, by Moravian missionaries.
  1775 - Esek Hopkins was named the first commander of the US Navy. He took command of the Continental Navy, a total of seven ships.
  1783- Washington resigned his military commission as US Army's commander-in-chief
• 1805 - John Obadiah Westwood was born (d. 1893). British entomologist.
• 1807 - Johann Sebastian Welhaven was born (d. 1873). Norwegian poet.
• 1807 - The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the United States Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson
• 1808 - Thomas Cook was born. English tour director (Thomas Cook & Son).
• 1809 - The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, passes the United States Congress
• 1810- British frigate Minotaur sank killing 480.
• 1815 - José Maria Morelos y Pavon, généralissime des forces insurgées de la révolution mexicaine de 1810 après la mort de Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla est fusillé à San Cristobal Ecatepec.
• 1819 - Franz Wilhelm Abt was born (d. 1870). German composer.
• 1828 - Rachel Jackson, wife of the 7th US President Andrew Jackson , dies.
• 1829 - The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opened the first passenger railway line.
• 1838 - Vladimir Vasilyevich Markovnikov, was born [d. 1904]; Russian organic chemist who contributed to structural theory and to the understanding of the ionic addition (Markovnikov addition) of hydrogen halides to the carbon-carbon double bond of alkenes.
• 1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is canceled at the last second.
• 1851 - The first freight train is operated in Roorkee in India.
• 1853 - Teresa Carreño was born (d. 1917). Venezuelan pianist.
• 1856 - Frank B. Kellogg was born. Secretary of State (1925-29) who tried to outlaw war with the Kellogg-Briand Pact. He won a Nobel Prize for Peace in 1929.
• 1858 - Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy (d. 1924). Operatic composer: Madam Butterfly, La Boheme , Tosca, Turandot.
• 1860 - Austin Norman Palmer was born (d. 1927). American penmanship innovator.
• 1862 - Connie Mack was born (d. 1956). Baseball executive and manager.
• 1864 - During the Civil War, Union general William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln saying, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."
• 1864 - Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman
• 1868 - Durante a Guerra do Paraguai, é iniciada a Batalha de Lomas Voletinas.
• 1869 - Edwin Arlington Robinson was born (d. 1935). American poet, Pulitzer prize-winning (Collected Poems [1922], The Man Who Died Twice [1925], Tristram [1928]; Richard Cory, Miniver Cheevy).
• 1872 - Camille Guérin was born (d. 1961). French veterinarian and bacteriologist.
• 1874 - Franz Schmidt was born (d. 1939). Austrian composer.
• 1876 - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was born (d. 1944). Italian poet and editor.
• 1882 -1st string of Christmas tree lights was created by Thomas Edison.
• 1883 - Arthur Wergs Mitchell was born. First African-American to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
• 1883 - Edgar Varèse was born (d. 1965). French-born composer.
• 1885 - Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1887 - Srinivasa Ramanujan was born (d. 1920). Indian mathematician.
• 1888 - J. Arthur Rank was born (d. 1972). American producer.
• 1898 - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock was born (d. 1974). Russian physicist.
• 1891 - Edward L. Bernays, 1st public relations agent, was born in Vienna, Austria.
• 1894 - Debussy's "Prelude l'apres-midi d'un faune," premiered.
• 1894 - French army officer Capt. Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason (guilty of selling secrets to Germany) in a court-martial.
• 1899 - Wiley Post was born in Texas. Aviation pioneer.
• 1899 - Gustav Gründgens was born († 07 Oct 1963). German actor, producer and theatre manager.
• 1900 - O primeiro modelo de carro Daimler é exibido. O veículo é chamado de Mercedes, nome da filha de Emil Jellinek, incentivador do projeto.
• 1902 - Jacques-Philippe Leclerc was born. French WW II heroe (liberator of Paris).
• 1903 - Haldan Keffer Hartline was born (d. 1983). American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1905 - Kenneth Rexroth was born (d. 1982). American poet.
• 1907 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft was born (d. 1991). English actress.
• 1909 - Patricia Hayes was born (d. 1998). Actress on 'Carry On' series, Mama The Turk in "Superbitch".
• 1910 - Chicago Union Stock Yards Fire, 21 firemen were killed.
• 1912 - Lady Bird Johnson was born in Karnak, Texas. Businessperson, she married (1934) Lyndon B. Johnson and played an active role in his political career.
• 1917 - Gene Rayburn was born (d. 1999). American game show host.
• 1918 - The last of the food restrictions, that had been enforced because of the shortages during World War I, were lifted.
• 1922 - Barbara Billingsley was born. American actress
• 1922 - Jack Brooks was born. American politician
• 1922 - Ruth Roman was born (d. 1999). American actress.
• 1929 - Soviet troops left Manchuria after a truce was reached with the Chinese over the Eastern Railway dispute.
• 1933 - Abel Pacheco was born. President of Costa Rica.
• 1935 - Paulo Rocha was born. Portuguese film director.
• 1936 - Hector Elizondo, actor (American Gigolo, Young Doctors in Love), was born in NYC.
• 1936 - James Burke, was born. British writer
• 1937 - The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic.
• 1937 - Eduard Uspensky was born. Russian writer
• 1939 -Ma Rainey (53), "Mother of the Blues", US blues singer and composer, died.
• 1939 - 125 died in train wreck at Magdeburg, Germany.
• 1939 - 99 died in 2nd train wreck at Friedrichshafen, Germany.
• 1940 - Nathanael West (b.1902), [Weinstein], US writer (Cool Million), died in an auto accident at age 37.
• 1941 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with President Roosevelt.
• 1944 - German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium. See Battle of the Bulge; Brigadier Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replied: "Nuts!"
• 1944 - Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Vietnam
• 1944 - Steve Carlton was born. Baseball player
• 1945 - Diane Sawyer was born in Glasgow. Newscaster (60 Minutes, ABC Prime Time)
• 1945 - The U.S. recognized Tito's government in Yugoslavia.
• 1946 - Rick Nielsen was born. Rock singer-musician (Cheap Trick).
• 1948 - Lynne Thigpen was born (d. 2003). American actress.
• 1949 - Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb (d.2003), were born. Musicians (The Bee Gees) .
• 1951 - Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor was born. Duke of Westminster
• 1953 - Twenty-four Kikuyu tribesmen are sentenced to death in Kenya for their part in the Lari massacre.
• 1956 - The 1st gorilla in captivity was born at Columbus, Ohio zoo.
• 1956 - The evacuation of the Suez Canal was completed by Britain and France.
• 1958 - Frank Gambale was born. Australian guitarist
• 1961 - Eri Johnson was born. Brazilian actor.
• 1962 - Ralph Fiennes was born in Suffolk, England. Actor (English Patient)
• 1963 - Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
• 1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity
• 1964 - A Lockheed SR-71 spy aircraft reached 2,206 mph (3,530 kph), a record for a jet.
• 1965 - The EF-105F Wild Weasel made its first kill over Vietnam.
• 1965 - In the United Kingdom, a 70mph speed limit is applied to all all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
• 1965 - Cinema Premiere of "Doctor Zhivago". David Lean’s three hour film epic "Doctor Zhivago" premiered in New York. The film which was based on a novel written by winner Nobel Prize winner, Boris Pasternak, was awarded five Oscars and six Golden Globes.
• 1966 - The United States announced the allocation of 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine in India.
• 1967 - Dan Petrescu, was born ; English Premiership club Chelsea and Romanian football (soccer) player.
• 1968 - The 82-man crew of the US intelligence ship Pueblo were released after being seized by North Korea
• 1969 - José Régio dies (b. 17 Sep 1901, in Vila do Conde). Portuguese poet.
• 1969 - Josef von Sternberg dies at 75. Austrian director (Shanghai Express).
• 1969 - Myriam Bédard was born. Canadian athlete
• 1970 - Treblinka SS commander Franz Stangl was sentenced to life in prison.
• 1970 - Ricardo Waddington was born in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian actor and director.
• 1970 - Tato Gabus Mendes was born in São Paulo. Brazilian actor.
• 1971 - The U.N. General Assembly voted to ratify the election of Kurt Waldheim as secretary-general.
• 1972 - 6.25 earthquake struck Managua, Nicaragua, and over 12,000 were killed. Pres. Somoza was later believed to have pocketed millions of dollars in foreign aid. The diversion of funds undermined his government and helped pave the way for the 1979 revolution.
• 1972 - Vanessa Paradis was born. French singer and actress.
• 1972 -In Vietnam Bac Mai hospital was bombed by American B-52s when they missed an air base on the outskirts of Hanoi. 18 hospital workers and patients were killed.
• 1974 - Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
• 1977 -Three dozen people were killed when a 250-foot-high grain elevator at the Continental Grain Co. plant in Westwego, La., exploded.
• 1981 - Na Argentina, o general Leopoldo Galtieri se torna o novo presidente após uma junta ter deposto o presidente Viola.
• 1981 - O atleta João do Pulo, um dia depois de ter sido eleito como o maior desportista latino-americano do ano, sofre um grave acidente de carro e tem a perna direita amputada.
• 1983 - Egyptian president Mubarak met with PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
• 1983 - Jennifer Hawkins was born. Miss Universe 2004
• 1984 - Subway vigilante Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four African-American youths on an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City.
• 1986 - Kaila Amariah was born in Silver Lake, Califórnia. American actress.
• 1987 - The Reagan administration criticized Israel's handling of the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, particularly the military's use of live ammunition against civilians.
• 1988 - 2 robbers wearing police uniforms robbed an armored truck of $3 Million in NJ
• 1988 - Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, was assassinated.
• 1989 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.
• 1989 - Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
• 1989 - Two Tourist coaches collide on the Pacific Highway north of Kempsey NSW (Kempsey Bus Crash).
• 1989 - Samuel Beckett dies. Irish writer and Nobel Prize.
• 1989 - Chad adopts its Constitution.
• 1990 - Twenty-one sailors returning from shore leave to the aircraft carrier USS “Saratoga” drowned when the Israeli ferry they were traveling on capsized.
• 1990 - Lech Wałęsa sworn in as President of Poland .
• 1990 - The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was promulgated, granting such classic civil rights as freedom of speech, religion, information, and association, as well as guaranteeing the equality of nationalities.
• 1991 - The body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found dumped along a highway in Lebanon.
• 1992 - President-elect Clinton chose Warren Christopher to be his secretary of state and tapped Les Aspin to be defense secretary.
• 1992 - A Libyan Boeing 727 jetliner crashed, killing 157 people.
• 1993 - Singer Michael Jackson, fighting back against child molestation allegations, issued a video statement in which he said he was "totally innocent of any wrongdoing" .
• 1993 - Os Estados Unidos concedem asilo político a Alina Fernandez Revuelta, filha do ditador cubano Fidel Castro.
• 1993 - O parlamento da África do Sul aprova uma nova constituição que abole o regime racista de apartheid no país.
• 1994 - The Andy Warhol Museum opened in Pittsburgh.
• 1994 - Renuncia Silvio Berlusconi, primeiro ministro italiano.1994 - House Democrats chastised Speaker-to-be Newt Gingrich for accepting a $4.5 million book advance from Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
• 1994 - North Korea handed over the body of American pilot David Hilemon, killed when his helicopter was shot down over the communist country three days earlier.
• 1995 - Actress Butterfly McQueen, who’d played the scatterbrained slave Prissy in “Gone With the Wind,” died at age 84.
• 1996 - Eight workers were killed in an explosion at the Wyman Gordon Forgings metal-fabricating plant in northwest Houston. They had been doing maintenance on 9-story pressurized tanks.
• 1996 - Peruvian guerrillas holding more than 360 hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima released 225 hostages but still held 140 of their captives.
• 1997 -Actress Hunter Tylo, whose pregnancy got her fired from TV's steamy soap "Melrose Place," was awarded $4.9 million by jurors who agreed she was wrongfully terminated.
• 1997 -In Algeria attackers stormed Shari hamlet and killed 28 villagers including 15 children and 5 women. The same night 53 villagers, mostly women and children, died in a massacre in the neighboring Sidi el Antar hamlet. Another 11 had their throats cut in Algiers in the Bainem area.
• 1997 -In Colombia a new wave of paramilitary attacks began in the Riosucio region and some 500 more peasants fled to Pavarando for safety.
• 1997 -In Lithuanian a vote count showed Arturas Paulauskas led the country’s 2nd presidential vote since breaking with the Soviet Union. A runoff with Vladas Adamkus was set for Jan 4. Vytautas Landsbergis, who ran third, threw his support behind Adamkus.
• 1997 - Acteal massacre: In Mexico some 70 pro-government gunmen of the Peace and Justice paramilitary group killed 45 people, including 21 women 9 men and 15 children, in the Tzoztzil Indian village of Acteal. The government paid compensation to families of the victims and to the wounded. In 1999 20 government supporters were sentenced to 35 years in prison and 81 people were still scheduled for trial.
• 1997 - In Somalia leaders of the rival factions approved a plan to restore national government. An interim government was planned with power to be shared among the factions.
• 1998 - The Energy Dept. for the first time awarded a billion-dollar contract to the Tennessee Valley Authority to produce tritium at a TVA nuclear reactor for military use.
• 1998 - The Bil Mar meat packing plant in Michigan recalled 35 million pounds of hot dogs and lunch meats following the deaths of 16 people due to the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. In Jan. another 30 million pounds were recalled from the Thorn Apple Valley plant in Arkansas.
• 1998 - In Angola rebels shelled Kuito and 26 people were reported killed. Some 60,000 refugees had fled there to escape fighting elsewhere.
• 1998 - A third Chinese dissident, Qin Yongmin, was sentenced to prison for trying to organize an opposition party.
• 1998 - In Iraq UN aid groups returned to Baghdad.
• 1998 - In Lebanon an Israeli rocket killed woman and her 6 children.
• 1999 - In Atlanta, Georgia, federal drug police seized $72 million worth of cocaine in "Operation Juno," a 3 year sting operation that also netted $10-26 million laundered through a fake brokerage firm. 5 people were arrested in Tucker and another 47 nationwide.
• 1999 - An Algerian accused of trying to smuggle nitroglycerin and other bomb-making materials into the United States from Canada pleaded innocent in Seattle to all five counts of a federal indictment.
• 1999 -In Algeria a 5.8 earthquake struck near Oran and at least 20 people were killed and 75 injured.
• 1999 - In Britain a Korean Air 747 cargo plane crashed near London and all 4 people aboard were killed.
• 1999 - In Italy Premier Massimo D'Alema won a vote of confidence for a new cabinet.
• 1999 - In Mozambique Pres. Joaquim Chissano was declared the winner of elections that were held earlier in the month. He won 52% as opposed to 48% for Afonso Dhlakama of the Mozambique Resistance Movement, known as Renamo. In parliament Frelimo won 133 seats vs. 117 for Renamo.
• 1999 - In the Philippines the MV Asia South Korea ferry with 606 passengers sank southeast of Manila near Bantayan Island and at least 9 people were killed. 58 people were missing.
• 1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (Zaragoza) another van loaded by ETA with 750 kg of explosives
• 1999 - Tandja Mamadou became President of Niger.
• 1999 - In Venezuela 2 helicopters crashed on aid missions and at least 4 people were killed.
• 2000 - Pres. Clinton granted Christmastime clemency 59 (62) people including Dan Rostenkowski, former Illinois congressman and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
• 2000 - Pres.-elect Bush named Sen. John Ashcroft of Missouri to become US Attorney General, and Gov. Christie Todd Whitman of New Jersey as head of the EPA.
• 2000 - Madonna and film director Guy Ritchie wed in Scotland.
• 2000 - The US, Japan, Europe and other industrial powers agreed to provide debt relief to 22 poor nations: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras and Nicaragua.
• 2000 - In Germany 3 American teenagers were convicted of murder for the Feb 27 deaths of 2 people, killed from rocks thrown from a freeway overpass.
• 2000 -In India separatists attacked the Red Fort in New Delhi and 3 people were killed.
• 2000 - Israel announced that it is prepared to surrender sovereignty over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as part of a peace agreement.
• 2000 - In Mexico the army closed a base in Chiapas and continued to pull troops from the region.
• 2000 -In South Korea some 15,000 bank workers went on strike to protest merger plans that threatened mass layoffs.
• 2000 - Three armed robbers stormed into Stockholm's National Museum and made off with a Rembrandt self-portrait and two masterpieces by Renoir. Eight men were later sentenced to prison for their roles in the theft; only one of the three paintings has been recovered.
• 2000 -In Turkey government prison raids ended after 430 inmates surrendered at Umraniye. The 4-day siege left 28 people dead including 16 burned alive. Government forces had not been able to enter the leftist controlled wards of Bayrampasa prison in Istanbul for a decade.
• 2001 - It was reported that a new “thermobaric” bomb had been developed by the Pentagon for use in caves and tunnels. The BLU-118b was capable of destroying a tunnel’s contents without collapsing the tunnel mouth.
• 2001 - A cloned cat named Carbon Copy was born following a year of experimentation by scientists at Texas A&M scientists. The $3.7 million research project was funded by John Sperling (81), founder of the Univ. of Phoenix.
• 2001 - A fishing boat from North Korea, suspected of spying, exchanged fire with Japanese coast vessels and sank after a 6-hour chase. 15 crewmen were lost. 2 bodies were later recovered. North Korea later denied any links to the fishing boat and accused Japan of a “smear campaign.”
• 2001 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, handed over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
• 2001 - Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
• 2001 - Richard Colvin Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner (Paris-Miami) by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes.
• 2004 - Scientists using the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES) discovered a distant planet the size of Jupiter, 32 times further than the Sun. They named it TrES-1b.