On this day in History - Dec. 23

• 0619 - Boniface V becomes Pope.
• 0679 - Dagobert II was murdered. King of Austria (676-679).
• 0910 - Naum of Preslav dies. Bulgarian scholar
• 0913 - Conrad of Franconia dies.
• 1230 - Berengaria of Navarre dies. Queen of Richard I of England
• 1482 - Peace of Atrecht.
• 1493 - Georg Alt's German translation of Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle is published
• 1513 - Thomas Smith was born (d. 1577). English diplomat and scholar.
• 1537 - John III of Sweden was born (d. 1592). King of Sweden.
• 1556 - Nicholas Udall dies (b. 1504). English playwright.
• 1568 - Roger Ascham dies. Tutor of Elizabeth I of England
• 1575 - Akiyama Nobutomo dies (b. 1531).Japanese warrior.
• 1582 - Severo Bonini was born. Composer.
• 1588 - Henry I, Duke of Guise dies (b. 1550). French Catholic leader.
• 1597 - Martin Opitz von Boberfeld was born (d. 1639). German Poet "Father of Modern German Poetry".
• 1613 - Carl Gustaf Wrangel was born (d. 1676). Swedish soldier.
• 1620 - Construction of Plymouth Colony begins.
• 1621 - Edmund Berry Godfrey was born (d. 1678). English magistrate.
• 1621 - Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham was born (d. 1682). Lord Chancellor of England.
• 1631 - Michael Drayton dies (b. 1563). English poet.
• 1646 - François Maynard dies (b. 1582). French poet.
• 1652 - John Cotton dies (b. 1585). Founder of Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1653 - João Pinto Delgado dies (b. 1580). Portuguese poet. See more about João Pinto Delgado in Rua da Judiaria.
• 1667 - A Inquisição condena o padre humanista Antônio Vieira à reclusão e ao silêncio.
• 1672 - French astronomer, Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, the fifth major satellite of Saturn.
• 1675 - Caesar, duc de Choiseul dies (b. 1602). French marshal and diplomat.
• 1689 - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was born (d. 1755). French composer.
• 1722 - Axel Fredrik Cronstedt was born [d. 1765] ;Swedish mineralogist and chemist who
• as the first to isolate nickel (1751).
• 1722 - Pierre Varignon dies (b. 1654). French mathematician.
• 1728 - Prussian Emperor Karel VI sign Treaty of Berlin .
• 1732 - Richard Arkwright was born (d. 1792). English industrialist and inventor.
• 1734 - Filinto Elísio (Padre Francisco Manuel do Nascimento) nasce em Lisboa; um dos mais importantes poetas do Neoclassicismo português./ Filinto Elísio was born in Lisbon, one of the most important neoclassic Portuguese poets.
• 1736 - Ocorre o último ato de Inquisição no Peru. Dona Ana de Castro é acusada de propagar o judaísmo e é queimada na fornalha.
• 1743 - Ippolit Bogdanovich was born (d. 1803). Russian poet.
• 1748 - D. João, rei de Portugal, e seus sucessores recebem do Papa Bento XIV o título de "Fidelíssimo".
• 1750 - King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony was born (d. 1827).
• 1761 - Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell dies. Scottish Jacobite spy.
• 1771 - Marie-Marguerite d'Youville dies (b. 1701). Canadian saint.
• 1777 - Aleksandr I. P. Romanov, Alexander I of Russia was born (d. 1825). Tsar of Russia (1801-25).
• 1779 - Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol dies (b. 1724). British admiral and politician.
• 1783 - George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army.
• 1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the District of Columbia.
• 1789 - Charles-Michel de l'Épée dies (b. 1712). French philanthropist and developer of signed French.
• 1790 - Jean François Champollion was born (d. 1832). French Egyptologist , deciphered the Rosetta Stone
• 1793 - Johann Adolph Hasse dies (b. 1699). German composer.
• 1795 - Henry Clinton dies (b. 1730). British general.
• 1804 - Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was born (d. 1869). French literary critic.
• 1805 - Joseph Smith, Jr. was born (d. 1844). Founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement
• 1805 - Pehr Osbeck dies (b. 1723). Swedish explorer and naturalist.
• 1812 - Samuel Smiles was born (d. 16 Apr 1904). Scottish author. He was best known for "Self-Help," (1859) which enshrined the Victorian values associated with the "gospel of work."
• 1819 - Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate was born (d. 1889). Dutch poet and clergyman.
• 1822 - Wilhelm Bauer was boen (d. 1875). German engineer.
• 1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("The night before Christmas"), written by either Clement C. Moore or Maj. Henry Livingston, Jr., was published in the Troy Sentinel of New York.
• 1831 - Lucio Mansilla was born in Buenos Aires (d. 8 Oct 1913). Argentinian writer, soldier and diplomat.
• 1834 - Thomas Malthus dies (b. 1766). English demographer and economist.
• 1834 - English architect, Joseph Hansom, patents his 'safety cab' known as the 'Hansom' cab.
• 1843 - Richard Conner was born (d. 1924). American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient.
• 1846 - Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent dies (b. 1780). French naturalist.
• 1860 - Harriet Monroe was born (d. 1936) . American editor and poet. She founded and edited "Poetry: A magazine of Verse," 1912-36 which championed modern, new verse, poetry.
• 1864 - Zorka of Montenegro wads born (d. 1890). Princess of Serbia.
• 1867 - Madam C.J. Walker was born (d. 1919). American millionaire.
• 1876 - Turkey's first constitution was proclaimed.
• 1878 - Stephen Timoshenko was born (d. 1972). Ukrainian-born mechanical engineer
• 1885 - Pierre Brissaud was born (d. 1964). French artist.
• 1888 - After brandishing a razor at his friend Paul Gauguin in Victor Hugo Plaza at Arles, France, Vincent van Gogh returned home and cut his left ear off.
• 1891 - Alexandr Rodchenko was born (d. 1956). Russian painter and photographer.
• 1893 - the Engelbert Humperdinck opera "Haensel und Gretel" was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.
• 1894 - Debussy's ballet L'aprés-midi d'un faune premiered in Paris.
• 1902 - Frederick Temple dies (b. 1821). Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1907 - Avraham Stern was born (d. 1942). Polish-born Zionist leader.
• 1908 - Yousuf Karsh was born (d. 2002). Turkish-born photographer.
• 1911 - Niels Kaj Jerne was born (d. 1994). English-born immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• 1911 - James Gregory was born (d. 2002). American actor.
• 1909 - Albert I of Belgium becomes King .
• 1911 - Niels Kaj Jerne was born. British-Danish immunologist who (with César Milstein and Georges Köhler) received the 1984 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
• 1912 - Otto Schoetensack dies (b. 1850). German anthropologist.
• 1913 - The Federal Reserve Act becomes law.
• 1916 - World War I: In the Battle of Magdhaba, Allied forces capture a Turkish garrison on the Sinai peninsula .
• 1918 - José de Sousa Barbosa sucede a Sidónio Pais como Presidente da República Portuguesa.
• 1918 - José Greco was born (d. 31 Dec 2000). Flamenco dancer, actor: Ship of Fools, The Proud and the Damned;
• 1918 - Helmut Schmidt was born. Chancellor of Germany (1974-1982).
• 1920 - Ireland divided into 2 parts, each with its own parliament.
• 1921 - Visva-Bharati University inaugurated.
• 1921 - Guy Beaulne was born (d. 2001). French Canadian actor and theatre director.
• 1922 - Pope Pius XI pleas for peace: encyclical Ubi arcano .
• 1922 - Micheline Ostermeyer was born. French athlete and musician
• 1923 - Harold Masursky was born [d. 24 Aug 1990 ] American geologist and senior scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey's astrogeology branch supporting space exploration.
• 1923 - Günther Schifter was born Austrian music journalist.
• 1923 - Claudio Scimone was born. Italian conductor.
• 1923 - James Stockdale was born (d. 2005). U.S. Navy admiral.
• 1926 - Robert Bly was born. American poet. "He was a leading figure in the revolt against rhetoric in poetry; wrote "The Light Around the Body," What Have I Ever Lost by Dying? , Iron John: A Book About Men
• 1928 - the National Broadcasting Company set up a permanent, coast-to-coast network.
• 1929 - [Alberto da] Costa Pereira was born. Portuguese footballer (goalkeeper of Benfica).
• 1929 - Chet Baker was born (d. 1988). American jazz trumpet player.
• 1930 - Bette Davis arrives in Hollywood under contract to Universal Studios .
• 1931 - No Vaticano, ocorre o desmoronamento da Sala Sistina e vários volumes de sua biblioteca são destruídos.
• 1931 - Ronnie Schell was born. American actor.
• 1931 - Wilson Bentley dies. Discovered that no two snowflake are the same.
• 1933 - Emperor Akihito of Japan, was born.
• 1933 - The Pope condemned the Nazi sterilization program.
• 1933 - Train crash in Eastern Paris - 230 die.
• 1933 - Alleged Reichstag Arsonist Sentenced : The Dutchman Marinus van der Lubbe was sentenced to death for his role in the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933. He was executed in Leipzig in 1934.
• 1935 - Paul Hornung was born. American football player.
• 1935 - Esther Phillips was born (d. 1984). American singer.
• 1936 - Frederic Forrest was born. American actor.
• 1936 - Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1937 - First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.
• 1938 - Bob Kahn was born. American computer scientist who co-created the ARPANET and TCP/IP protocols that enable computers to exchange information on the Internet.
• 1939 - The first Canadian troops for WW II arrive in Britain.
• 1939 - Anthony Fokker dies (b. 1890). Dutch-American airman and pioneer aircraft manufacturer who, during WW I, produced more than 40 types of airplanes (designed by Reinhold Platz) for the German High Command.
• 1940 - Jorma Kaukonen was born. American musician
• 1940 - Eugene Record was born (d. 2095). American singer (The Chi-Lites).
• 1941 - Tim Hardin was born (d. 1980). American musician.
• 1941 - World War II: Japanese Imperial Army occupied Wake Island.
• 1941 - During World War II, American forces on Early in World War II, invading Japanese forces defeated U.S. troops at the Battle of Wake Island
• 1942 - John Peterman was born. American fashion designer
• 1943 - Mikhail Gromov was born. Russian-born mathematician
• 1943 - Ron Allen was born. Baseball player
• 1943 - Elizabeth Hartman was born (d. 1987). American actress (A Patch of Blue)
• 1943 - Harry Shearer was born. Actor, voice actor (This Is Spinal Tap, The Simpsons).
• 1943 - Silvia Sommerlath was born; Queen of Sweden , wife of King Carl XVI .
• 1943 - Mikhail Gromov was born. Russian-born mathematician.
• 1944 - Wesley Clark was born. U.S. general and NATO Supreme Allied Commander
• 1945 - Frederick Astons "Cinderella" premieres in London.
• 1946 - Susan Lucci was born. Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress: All My Children [1999]; Dallas, French Silk, Lady Mobster, Mafia Princess, Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, Invitation to Hell, Secret Passions
• 1947 - The transistor was invented by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley (they shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for their work ) .
• 1948 - Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed for crimes of war.
• 1948 - Jack Ham was born. American football player.
• 1948 - Hideki Tojo dies hanged (b. 1884). Prime Minister of Japan
• 1948 - Akira Muto dies hanged (b. 1883). Japanese army commander.
• 1949 - Adrian Belew was born. American musician
• 1950 - Michael C. Burgess was born. American politician
• 1950 - Vincenzo Tommasini dies at 72. Composer.
• 1951 - Anthony Phillips was born. British guitarist (Genesis)
• 1951 - Enrique Santos Discépolo dies (b. 27 Mar 1901). Argentinian poet, composer (tango), actor and playwright.
• 1952 - William Kristol was born. American political commentator
• 1952 - Mário Botas was born in Nazaré (d. 29 Sep 1983). Portuguese painter.
• 1953 - Lavrenty Beria dies (b. 1899). Soviet Communist leader.
• 1954 - The classic movie, 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea, was released. The film was one of Walt Disney’s most successful. Kirk Douglas and James Mason starred / O filme “20.000 Léguas Submarinas” estréia nos Estados Unidos e se torna um dos maiores sucessos dos estúdios Walt Disney.
• 1954 - The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1954 - Toby Ziegler was born. The West Wing character.
• 1954 - René Iché dies (b. 1897). French sculptor.
• 1956 - Jubilation as allied troops leave Suez : Crowds of Egyptians have poured onto the streets of Port Said to celebrate the withdrawal of British and French forces from Egyptian soil (Source: BBC).
• 1956 - Michele Alboreto was born(d. 2001). Italian Formula one driver
• 1956 - Dave Murray was born. English musician (Iron Maiden)
• 1957 - Dan Bigras was born. Quebec rock singer
• 1958 - Victoria Williams was born. American singer .
• 1961 - Moïse Kapenda Tshombe leads the Congo province of Katanga into secession.
• 1961 - Train accident in Italy, 70 die .
• 1961 - Carol Smillie was born. British television personality
• 1962 - Keiji Muto was born. Japanese professional wrestler
• 1962 - President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, a leading exponent of Pan-Africanism, orders the release of the last of his political prisoners, previously detained under the Preventive Detention Act of 1958.
• 1962 - Cuba starts returning US prisoners from Bay of Pigs invasion .
• 1963 - During a fire on the Greek ship Laconia, 128 people lost their lives.
• 1963 - Beach Boys 1st appearance on "Shindig" .
• 1963 - Jim Harbaugh was born. American football player.
• 1964 - India and Ceylon were hit by a cyclone, an estimated 4,850 were killed.
• 1964 - Eddie Vedder was born. American musician (Pearl Jam)
• 1966 - Cláudia Raia was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1968 - Missão na Órbita Lunar - Apollo 8 : a primeira missão com tripulação humana atinge a órbita lunar.
• 1968 - 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
• 1968 - Carla Bruni was born. Italian-French model, songwriter and singer
• 1969 - Martha Byrne was born. American actress.
• 1970 - The North Tower of the World Trade Center is topped out at 1,368 feet, making it the tallest building in the world.
• 1970 - Catriona LeMay Doan was born. Canadian speed skater
• 1970 - Raymont Harris was born. American football player.
• 1970 - Charles Ruggles was born (d. 1886). American actor.
• 1971 - Corey Haim was born. Canadian actor
• 1971 - Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was born. British socialite
• 1972 - The Nicaraguan capital of Managua is struck by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake, killing more than 10,000.
• 1972 - 16 plane crash survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 are rescued after 70 days, survived by cannabalism .
• 1972 - Palmeiras sagra-se campeão brasileiro de futebol de 1972.
• 1972 - Andrei Tupolev dies (b. 1888). Soviet aircraft
• 1973 - A Sobelair Caravelle passenger jet crashes in Morocco, killing 106 .
• 1973 - Charles Atlas dies (b. 1892). Italian-born bodybuilder.
• 1973 - Irna Phillips dies (b. 1901). American television writer, director, and producer.
• 1974 - Agustín Delgado was born. Ecuadorian football playtr
• 1975 - Sky Lopez was born. American actress
• 1976 - Jamie Noble was born. American professional wrestler
• 1977 - Cat Stevens formally changed his name to Yusef Islam.
• 1977 - Born this day, Helen Mahmastol, Miss Universe-Estonia (1996).
• 1977 - Alge Crumpler was born. American football player
• 1978 - Andra Davis was born. American football player
• 1978 - Esthero was born. Canadian musician and singer
• 1978 - Víctor Martínez was born. Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
• 1978 - Jodie Marsh was born. British adult model
• 1978 - Estella Warren was born. Canadian actress and model. See wallpapers
• 1979 - Soviet military units occupy Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
• 1979 - Summer Altice was born. American model and actress. See wallpapers
• 1979 - Peggy Guggenheim dies (b. 1898). American art collector.
• 1980 - a state funeral was held in Moscow for former Premier Alexei N. Kosygin, who had died at age 76.
• 1981 - Beth was born. Spanish singer
• 1982 - The Environmental Protection Agency recommends the evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri due to dangerous levels of dioxin contamination.
• 1982 - Jack Webb dies (b. 1920). American actor, producer, and director.
• 1983 - Michael Chopra was born. English football player.
• 1983 - Colin Middleton dies (b. 1910). Northern Irish artist.
• 1985 - Harry Judd was born. British drummer (McFly)
• 1986 - The Soviet Union's most prominent dissident, Andrei Sakharov, has returned to Moscow after almost seven years of internal exile.
• 1986 - the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, non-refueled, round-the-world flight as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
• 1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. (She was recaptured two days later).
• 1990 - Republic of Slovenia votes to secede from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• 1992 - Vincent Fourcade dies (b. 1934). French American interior designer and socialite.
• 1992 - Eddie Hazel dies (b. 1950). American guitarist (Funkadelic).
• 1994 - Sebastian Shaw dies (b. 1905). English actor.
• 1995 - Aleksander Kwasniewski inaugurated as Polish President after having narrowly defeated Lech Walesa, Poland's first postcommunist president.
• 1996 - 4 women ordained priests in Jamaica, 1st in 330-year Anglican history .
• 1997 - a jury in Denver convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, declining to find him guilty of murder.
• 1997 - Woody Allen, 62 weds Soon-Yi Previn 27, adopted Daughter of Mia Farrow.
• 1997 - O México divulga o massacre de 45 índios, entre eles 21 mulheres e 15 crianças, ocorrido em Chiapas, no dia anterior.
• 1998 - Anatoly Rybakov dies in New York at age 87. Russian writer
• 1999 - The Nasdaq composite index briefly crossed 4,000 and closed at a record high for the 58th time in 1999.
• 1999 - In Haiti violence began when a customer was killed trying to cash in a winning lottery ticket. 50 tin-roofed shacks were torched in Cite Soleil.
• 1999 - In Sri Lanka fighting broke out at Iyakachchi and at least 101 guerrillas and soldiers were later reported killed.
• 2000 - In Serbia elections the 18-party Kostunica coalition won 64.5% of the vote and over two-thirds of the seats of the 250-seat parliament. Zoran Djindjic (48) was projected to become prime minister.
• 2000 - Billy Barty dies (b. 1924). American actor.
• 2000 - Victor Borge dies (b. 1909). Danish-born comedian and pianist.
• 2001 - Argentina announced the suspension of payments on its external debt—the biggest debt default in history to date.
• 2003 - The government announced the first suspected (later confirmed) case of mad cow disease in United States.
• 2004 - An earthquake measured 8.1 on the Richter scale hits Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean, one day before the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake.
• 2004 - P. V. Narasimha Rao dies (b. 1921). Ninth Prime Minister of India
• 2005 - Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan to Aktau, Kazakhstan crashed shortly after takeoff killing 23 people.
• 2005 - Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18th attack on Adre, which left about 100 people dead.
• 2005 - Norman D. Vaughan dies (b. 1905). Polar explorer and dogsled driver
• 2005 - Lajos Baróti dies (b. 1914). Hungarian footballer and coach.
• Japan - The Emperor's Birthday - Birthday of Akihito, the current Emperor of Japan
• Sweden - Birthday of Queen Silvia, an official flag day
• Oaxaca - Night of the Radishes
• Ancient Latvia - Ziemassvetki held