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2007-12-14

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, German empress / Wife of Emperor Henry III, dies .
  • 1136 - Harald IV, "Gylle Krist", King of Norway, murdered .
  • 1287 - St. Lucia's flood: Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapsed, with the loss of 50,000 lives.
  • 1460 - Guarino da Verona dies (b. 1370). Italian humanist and translator.
  • 1503 - Nostradamus [Michel de Nostredame] was born in St. Remy, Provence, France. Astrologuer 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.
  • 1510 - Friedrich of Saxony dies (b. 1473).
  • 1542 - King James V of Scotland (1513-42) dies (b. 1512). Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen Mary I of Scotland.
  • 1546 - Tycho Brahe was born in Knudstrup, Denmark (d. 1601). Astronomer, he constructed the most precise astronomical instruments of his time.
  • 1553 - Henri IV the Bourbon, King of Navarra (Henri III) / France , was born.
  • 1553 - Hanibal Lucić dies (b. 1485). Croatian writer.
  • 1591 - Saint John of the Cross dies (b. 1542). Spanish friar and poet.
  • 1624 - Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham dies (b. 1536). English statesman.
  • 1625 - Barthélemy d'Herbelot de Molainville was born (d. 1695). French orientalist.
  • 1631 - Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway was born (d. 1679). English philosopher.
  • 1640 - Baptism date of Aphra Behn (d. 1689). English playwright and novelist.
  • 1651 - Pierre Dupuy dies (b. 1582). French scholar.
  • 1678 - Daniel Neal was born (d. 1743). English historian.
  • 1702 - (Dec, 14 according to the old calendar; January 30, 1703 by the new calendar) - The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master, Asano Takumi no kami Naganori, by beheading Kira Kōzukenosuke Yoshinaka. Later 46 of the surviving ronin would commit seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment), and would later achieve heroic status as the embodiments of the ideals of the samurai.
  • 1713 - Thomas Rymer dies (b. 1641). English historian.
  • 1715 - Thomas Tenison dies (b. 1636). Archbishop of Canterbury .
  • 1720 - Justus Möser was born (d. 1794). German statesman.
  • 1735 - Thomas Tanner dies (b. 1674). English bishop and antiquarian
  • 1741 - Charles Rollin dies (b. 1661). French historian.
  • 1751 - The Theresian Military Academy was founded as the first Military Academy in the world.
  • 1766 - José Acúrsio das Neves was born (d. 1834). Portuguese politician, historian, essayst and pioneer about Portuguese economic studies.
  • 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.
  • 1782 - Montgolfier brothers first balloon lifted on its very first test flight.
  • 1787 - Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este was born (d.1816). Empress of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia.
  • 1788 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach dies (b. 1714). German compose.
  • 1788 - King Charles III of Spain dies (b. 1716).
  • 1798 - David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented a nut and bolt machine.
  • 1799 - George Washington dies at his Mount Vernon home (b. 1732). He was the first president of the United States (1789-97).
  • 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.
  • 1825 - Advocates of Liberalism in Russia rise up against Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg.
  • 1836 - The Toledo War unofficially ended.
  • 1838 - Jean-Olivier Chénier dies (b. 1806). French Canadian physician and Patriote.
  • 1853 - Salvador Diaz Miron was born. Mexican Poet (Los Cien Mejores Poemas) .
  • 1855 - Ice hockey originated. The first game was played by 2 military teams.
  • 1861 - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, consort of Queen Victoria and one of the Union’s strongest advocates, dies in London (b. 1819); 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.
  • 1865 - Johan Georg Forchhammer dies (b. 1794). Danish geologist.
  • 1866 - Roger Fry was born (d. 1934). British artist and art critic.
  • 1870 - Karl Renner was born (d. 1950). President of Austria
  • 1873 - Louis Agassiz dies (b. 1807). Swiss-born American zoologist and geologist.
  • 1881 - Katherine MacDonald was born (d. 1956). American actress and fim producer.
  • 1884 - Jane Cowl was born (d. 1950). American actress and playwright.
  • 1895 - Paul Eluard was born (d. 1952). French poet.
  • 1895 - King George VI of the United Kingdom was born (d. 1952).
  • 1896 - The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
  • 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.
  • 1897 - Kurt Schuschnigg was born (d. 1977). Austrian politician.
  • 1900 - Max Planck (1858-1947), German physicist, presented the quantum theory at the Physics Society in Berlin. Planck, 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 - Frances Bavier was born (d. 1989). American actress.
  • 1903 - The Wright Brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It crashes, and 3 days later, after repairs, they get it to fly.
  • 1903 - William Ennis became the 1st cop to die in electric chair.
  • 1906 - First U1 submarine was brought into service in Germany.
  • 1907 - The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Scilly Isles in a gale. The pilot and 15 able seamen are lost.
  • 1907 - Beatriz Costa was born. Portuguese actress.
  • 1908 - The first truly representative Turkish Parliament opened.
  • 1908 - Morey Amsterdam was born (d. 1996). American comedian and actor.
  • 1908 - Claude Davey was born. Welsh rugby player.
  • 1908 - Mária Szepes was born (d. 2007). Hungarian authoress.
  • 1909 - Edward Tatum was born (d. 1975). American geneticist and Nobel Prize laureate in 1958.
  • 1909 -The Labor Conference in Pittsburgh ended with a "declaration of war" on U.S. Steel.
  • 1909 - Leopold II, King of Belgium, dies.
  • 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 - Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressist Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires.
  • 1914 - Attila Petschauer was born (d. 1943). Hungarian Olympic champion fencer.
  • 1914 - Rosalyn Tureck was bon (d.2003). American pianist and harpsichordist
  • 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 (d. 1965). American writer.
  • 1917 - C.-H. Hermansson wa born. Swedish communist leader.
  • 1918 - Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
  • 1918 - James T. Aubrey was born (d. 1994). American television executive.
  • 1918 - B.K.S. Iyengar was born. Indian yoga advocate
  • 1918 - Sidónio Pais dies assassinated. Fourth President of Portugal/ Sidónio Pais, 4º. Presidente da Republica de Portugal, foi assassinado em Lisboa, na Estação do Rossio, baleado por um sargento do exército.
  • 1920 -The League of Nations created a credit system to aid Europe; U.S. export trade was threatened.
  • 1920 - Clark Terry was born. American trumpeter.
  • 1922 - Don Hewitt was born. CBS news executive producer (60 Minutes).
  • 1922 - Nikolay Basov was born (d. 2001). Soviet-born Russian physicist and Noble Prize laureate
  • 1923 - Gerard Reve was born. Dutch writer.
  • 1924 - Raj Kapoor was born (d. 1988). Indian actor.
  • 1925 - Sam Jones was born (d. 1971). Baseball player.
  • 1926 - Theo van Rysselberghe died at 64. Belgian painter (pointillism).
  • 1927 - Iraq gained independence from Britain, but British troops remained.
  • 1927 - Richard Cassilly was born (d. 1998). American tenor.
  • 1927 - Yulian Vasilievich Sokhotski dies (b. 1842). Russian mathematician.
  • 1928 - Lady Chatterley's Lover, de David Herbert Lawrence, se publica.
  • 1929 - Alexander Zaimis elected President of Greece.
  • 1931 - Jon Elia was born (d. 2002). Pakistani scholar, poet and philosopher.
  • 1932 - Charlie Rich was born (d. 1995). American musician.
  • 1932 - Abbe Lane was born. American singer and actress
  • 1933 - Eva Wilma was born. Brazilian actress
  • 1934 - 1st streamlined steam locomotive was introduced in Albany, NY.
  • 1935 - Lee Remick was born (d. 1991). American actress.
  • 1935 - Lewis Arquette was born (d. 2001). American film actor, writer and producer.
  • 1935 - Luís de Magalhães dies in Porto (b. 13 Sep. 1859). Portuguese poet, essayst and politician.
  • 1935 - Stanley G. Weinbaum dies (b. 1902). American science-fiction author.
  • 1937 - Japanese troops conquered and plundered Nanjing.
  • 1938 - Leonardo Boff was born. Brazilian theologian
  • 1939 - The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations.
  • 1939 - João Batista de Andrade was born. Brazilian film director.
  • 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.
  • 1941 - German military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine issued an order, according to which the Jewish population was to move to the city periphery within 2 days, into the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days 15.000 Jews were shot at Drobitsky Yar.
  • 1941 - Ellen Willis was born (. 2006). American journalist.
  • 1941 - Karan Armstrong was born. American soprano
  • 1944 - Congress established the rank of General of Army, the 5-star General.
  • 1946 - Patty Duke was born. Americn actress who 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 -The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City. The UN adopted a disarmament resolution prohibiting the A-bomb.
  • 1946 - Jane Birkin was born in London (d. 1946). British-born actress (Mrs Don Juan, Dark Places, Dust).
  • 1946 - Michael Ovitz was born. American film producer
  • 1946 - Stan Smith was born. American tennis player
  • 1946 - Ruth Fuchs was born. East German athlete
  • 1946 - Joyce Vincent Wilson was born. American singer (Tony Orlando and Dawn)
  • 1947 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
  • 1947 - Christopher Parkening was born. American guitarist
  • 1947 - Linda Sutton was born. British artist
  • 1947 - Edward Higgins dies (b. 1864). General of The Salvation Army.
  • 1948 - Lester Bangs was born (d. 1982). American music journalist.
  • 1948 - Dee Wallace-Stone was born. American actress
  • 1949 - Bill Buckner was born. American baseball player
  • 1949 - Cliff Williams was born. British-born bassist (AC/DC)
  • 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 grandmaster.
  • 1952 - Germain Houde was born. Quebec actor.
  • 1952 - Teixeira de Pascoaes dies. Portuguese poet. / Faleceu em Amarante Teixeira de Pascoaes, defensor do Saudosismo como estética literária.
  • 1953 - René Eespere was born. Soviet-born Estonian composer.
  • 1953 - Vijay Amritraj was born. Indian former tennis player.
  • 1953 - Mikael Odenberg was born. Swedish politician.
  • 1954 - Alan Kulwicki was born (d. 1993). American race car driver.
  • 1954 - James Horan was born. American actor
  • 1954 - Steven MacLean was born. Canadian astronaut
  • 1956 - John Diefenbaker was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative party in Canada. he succeeded John Drew.
  • 1956 - Hanni Wenzel was born. Liechtenstein skier.
  • 1956 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi dies (b. 1870). President of Finland.
  • 1957 - Gary Ferris was born. American author
  • 1958 - The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first-ever to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
  • 1958 - Mike Scott was born. British singer and songwriter (The Waterboys)
  • 1958 - Spider Stacy (Peter Richard Stacy) was born. British-born tin whistle player (The Pogues)
  • 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.
  • 1959 - Jorge Vaca was born. Mexican boxer.
  • 1960 - Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) forms.
  • 1960 - A U.S. B-52 bomber set a 10,000 mile non-stop record without refueling.
  • 1960 - Bob Paris was born. American bodybuilder and gay rights advocate
  • 1961 - Tanganyika (now Tanzania) is admitted to the UN.
  • 1962 - NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
  • 1962 - The Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million, the highest insurance valuance for a painting in history.
  • 1962 - Ginger Lynn (Ginger Lynn Allen) was born. American adult film actress.
  • 1963 - Cynthia Gibb was born. American actress
  • 1963 - Dinah Washington dies (b. 1924). American singer.
  • 1964 - William Bendix dies (b. 1906). American actor.
  • 1965 - Craig Biggio was born. American baseball player
  • 1965 - Ken Hill was born. Baseball player
  • 1966 - Bill Ranford was born. Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1966 - Fabrizio Giovanardi was born. Italian racecar driver
  • 1966 - Tim Skold was born. Swedish/American musician
  • 1967 - DNA synthesized for the first time.
  • 1967 - Ewa Białołęcka was born. Polish writer.
  • 1969 - Scott Hatteberg was born. American baseball player.
  • 1970 - Anna Maria Jopek was born. Polish singer.
  • 1970 - Beth Orton was born. English singer-songwriter
  • 1970 - Franz Schlegelberger dies (b. 1876). German Nazi politician.
  • 1971 - Natascha McElhone was born. British actress
  • 1971 - Dick Tiger dies (b. 1929). African-born boxer.
  • 1972 - Willy Brandt re-elected West German chancellor
  • 1972 - Astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene 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.
  • 1972 - Eric Anderson was born. American musical theatre actor
  • 1972 - Marcus Jensen was born. Baseball player.
  • 1973 - Tomasz Radzinski was born. Polish-born Canadian international football player
  • 1973 - Thuy Trang was born (d. 2001). American actress.
  • 1973 - Tia Texada was born. American actress and singer
  • 1974 - Billy Koch was born. Baseball player
  • 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)
  • 1975 - Justin Furstenfeld was born. American rock singer.
  • 1976 - Karl Carstens is elected Presuident of Germany.
  • 1976 - André Couto was born. Portuguese racing driver
  • 1976 - Santiago Ezquerro was born. Spanish football player
  • 1976 - Leland Chapman was born. Bounty Hunter, son of Duane "Dog" Chapman.
  • 1977 - The film Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta, premiered in NYC.
  • 1977 - War criminal Pieter Menten sentenced in Amsterdam to 15 years.
  • 1977 - KaDee Strickland was born. American actress.
  • 1978 - Kim St-Pierre was born. Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1978 - Radu Sârbu was born. Singer (O-Zone)
  • 1978 - Salvador de Madariaga dies (b. 1886). Spanish diplomat, writer, historian and pacifist.
  • 1979 - Punk rock group The Clash release London Calling in the UK, a landmark album in rock music.
  • 1979 - Michael Owen was born. English football (soccer) star
  • 1979 - Jean-Alain Boumsong was born. French football player.
  • 1979 - Sophie Monk was born. Australian actress, singer, and model
  • 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.
  • 1980 - Frankie J was born. Spanish singer.
  • 1980 - Tata Young was born. Thai-American singer.
  • 1981 - Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.
  • 1981 - Amber Chia was born. Malaysian model and actress
  • 1981 - Emilie Heymans was born. Canadian diver
  • 1981 - Johnny Jeter was born. American professional wrestler
  • 1981 - Shaun Marcum was born. American baseball player
  • 1982 - Government of the 23rd Dáil first sits.
  • 1982 - Gerardo Iglesias es elegido secretario general del PCE (Partido Comunista de España) en sustitución de Santiago Carrillo.
  • 1982 - Anthony Way was born. British singer and actor.
  • 1982 - Josh Fields was born. American baseball player
  • 1982 - Steve Sidwell was born. English footballer.
  • 1983 - Sara Afonso dies (b. 1899). Portuguese painter and ilustrator.
  • 1984 - Chris Brunt was born. Northern Irish football player.
  • 1984 - Edward Rainsford was born. Zimbabwean cricketer
  • 1984 - Vicente Aleixandre dies (b. 1898). Spanish writer and Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1985 - Tom Smith was born. Welsh Rugby Union Player.
  • 1985 - Nonami Takizawa was born. Japanese actress
  • 1985 - Catherine Doherty dies (b. 1896). Social justice activist.
  • 1985 - Roger Maris dies (b. 1934). Baseball player (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."
  • 1988 - Nicolas Batum dies. French basketball player
  • 1988 - Vanessa Anne Hudgens dies. American actress
  • 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.
  • 1989 - Pedro Roberto Silva Botelho was born. Brazilian footballer.
  • 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.
  • 1990 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt dies (b. 1921). Swiss writer.
  • 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 - Jeff Alm dies (b. 1968). American football player.
  • 1993 - Myrna Loy dies in New York (b. 1905). American 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.
  • 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 - Dayton Agreement: 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 - In New Orleans, the 700-foot freighter, Bright Field, lost power on the Mississippi River, went out of control and slammed into a riverfront structure and then hit a crowded mall. No one was killed.
  • 1996 - Gaston Miron dies (b. 1928). Quebec poet and editor.
  • 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.
  • 1997 - Kurt Winter dies (b. 1946)., Canadian guitarist (The Guess Who).
  • 1997 - Stubby Kaye dies (b. 1918). American actor.
  • 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.
  • 1998 - Norman Fell dies (b. 1924). American actor.
  • 1998 - Annette Strauss dies (b. 1924). American philanthropist and Mayor of Dallas, Texas.
  • 1998 - Aloyisus Leon Higginbotham, Jr. dies (b. 1928). American civil rights activist and author.
  • 1999 - Charles M. Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, announces his retirement.
  • 1999 - Jorge Edwards es galardonado con el Premio Cervantes.
  • 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. ref#62190
    2000 U.S. businessman Edward Pope was pardoned and released by Russia after being convicted of espionage.
  • 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 - Portugal Douro: A UNESCO designa a região vinhateira do Rio Douro na lista dos locais que são Património da Humanidade
  • 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.
  • 2003 - Pakistani dictator Gen. Pervez Musharaf [b. 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 - The La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, rebuilt following arson, is reopened.
  • 2003 - Jeanne Crain dies (b. 1925). American actress.
  • 2003 - Blas Ople dies (b. 1927). Foreign minister of the Philippines.
  • 2004 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, spanning the valley of the River Tarn near Millau, France and designed by British architect Lord Foster in collaboration with French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, is officially opened.
  • 2004 - Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King released.
  • 2004 - Rod Kanehl dies (b. 1934). American baseball player.
  • 2004 - Fernando Poe, Jr. dies (b. 1939). Filipino actor and presidential candidate.
  • 2005 - Dr. Rodney William Whitaker of pen name Trevanian, dies (b. 1931). American author.
  • 2006 - Ahmet Ertegün dies (b. 1923). Co-founder of Atlantic Records
  • 2006 - Anton Balasingham dies (b. 1938). Chief political strategist of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
  • 2006 - Mike Evans dies (b. 1949), American actor.
  • 2006 - Sivuca dies (b. 1930). Brazilian musician.
  • R.C. Saints - Memorial of Saint John of the Cross
  • Precalentines Day - Unofficial Mathematics Holiday
  • National Energy Conservation Day - India


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