December 15
December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in
leap years) in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining.
*
1290 BC -
Seti I,
Pharaoh of
Egypt dies.
Ramesses II becomes
Pharaoh of
Egypt.
*
533 - The
Battle of Ticameron takes place between the armies of the
Vandals, commanded by King
Gelimer and the eastern
Roman Empire under the command of
General Belisarius.
*
687 -
St. Sergius I becomes
Pope.
*
1256 -
Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the
Hashshashin stronghold at
Alamut in present-day
Iran as part of the
Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
*
1791 - The
United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the
Virginia legislature.
*
1891 -
James Naismith introduces the first version of
basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.
*
1913 -
Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the
Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
*
1939 -
Gone with the Wind premiers in
Atlanta, Georgia.
*
1945 -
Occupation of Japan: General
Douglas MacArthur orders that
Shinto be abolished as state religion of
Japan.
*
1960 - King
Baudouin of Belgium marries
Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón in
Brussels.
*
1961 - In
Jerusalem,
Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
*
1965 -
Gemini program:
Gemini 6A, crewed by
Wally Schirra and
Thomas Stafford, is launched from
Cape Kennedy,
Florida. Also the release of
The Sound of Music.
*
1976 -
Samoa becomes a member of the
UN.
*
1993 -
History of Northern Ireland:The
Downing Street Declaration is issued by British
Prime Minister John Major and Irish
Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
*
1994 - The
web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released.
* 1994 -
Palau becomes a member of the
UN.
*
1995 - The
European Communities Court of Justice passes the "
Bosman ruling", giving
EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one
UEFA Federation to another.
*
1997 - A chartered
Tupolev TU-154 from
Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja,
United Arab Emirates airport killing 85.
*
2002 - The
digital radio station BBC7 is launched by the comedian
Paul Merton.
*
2005 - The 43rd known
Mersenne prime is discovered by
Dr. Curtis Cooper &
Dr. Steven Boone of
USA, participants of the
Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search distributed computing project. The
prime number is the largest known Mersenne prime at the time of its discovery, and is more than nine
million digits long.
* 2005 - Latvia edits its
constitution to ban
equal marriage rights to
gays and
lesbians.
* 2005 - Argentina's president
Néstor Kirchner announces the cancellation of the external debt to the
IMF.
*
37 -
Nero, Roman Emperor of the
Julio-Claudian dynasty (d.
68)
*
1859 -
L. L. Zamenhof, Russian initiator of
Esperanto (d.
1917)
*
1860 -
Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician and
Nobel laureate (d.
1904)
* 1860 -
Abner Powell, American baseball player (d.
1953)
*
1861 -
Charles Duryea, American automobile pioneer (d.
1938)
*
1878 -
Hans Carossa, German writer (d.
1956)
*
1888 -
Maxwell Anderson, American writer (d.
1959)
*
1892 -
J. Paul Getty, American oil tycoon (d.
1976)
*
1899 -
Harold Abrahams, British sprinter and Olympic gold medalist (d.
1978)
*
1907 -
Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect
*
1910 -
John H. Hammond, American musician (d.
1987)
*
1912 -
Ray Eames, American designer (d.
1988)
* 1912 -
Stan Kenton, American musician (d.
1979)
*
1913 -
Muriel Rukeyser, American poet (d.
1980)
*
1916 -
Buddy Cole, American pianist (d.
1964)
* 1916 -
Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born physicist,
Nobel laureate (d.
2004)
*
1918 -
Jeff Chandler, American actor (d.
1961)
*
1922 -
Alan Freed, American disc jockey (d.
1965)
*
1923 -
Freeman Dyson, English-born American physicist
* 1923 -
Valentin Varennikov, Russian general and statesman
*
1928 -
Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (d.
2000)
*
1933 -
Tim Conway, American actor and comedian
*
1938 -
Billy Shaw, American football player
*
1939 -
Cindy Birdsong, American singer (
The Supremes)
*
1940 -
Nick Buoniconti, American football player
*
1942 -
Dave Clark, British musician (
The Dave Clark Five)
*
1946 -
Art Howe, American baseball player
*
1949 -
Don Johnson, American actor
*
1952 -
Cassandra Harris, Australian actress (d.
1991)
* 1952 -
Julie Taymor, American director
* 1952 -
Allan Simonsen, Danish footballer
*
1953 -
J. M. DeMatteis, American comic book writer
*
1955 -
Paul Simonon, British musician (
The Clash)
*
1961 -
Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist
*
1963 -
Andrew Luster,
Max Factor heir
*
1967 -
Mo Vaughn, American baseball player
*
1968 -
Javid Hussain, Indian film producer
* 1968 -
Garrett Wang, American actor
*
1970 -
Michael Shanks, Canadian actor
* 1970 -
Frankie Dettori, Italian champion jockey
*
1972 -
Stuart Townsend, Irish actor
*
1973 -
Surya Bonaly, French-born American figure skater
*
1976 -
Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer
* 1976 -
Aaron Miles, American baseball player
*
1978 -
Mark Jansen, Dutch guitarist (
Epica)
* 1978 -
Jerome McDougle, American football player
*
1979 -
Adam Brody, American actor
* 1979 -
Eric Young, Canadian wrestler
*
1981 -
Thomas Herrion, American football player (d.
2005)
* 1981 -
Creighton Lovelace, American Baptist minister
*
1983 -
René Goguen, Canadian wrestler
*
1025 -
Basil II,
Byzantine Emperor (b.
958)
*
1072 -
Alp Arslan, Turkish sultan in Persia (b.
1029)
*
1230 - King
Otakar I of Bohemia*
1263 - King
Haakon IV of Norway (b.
1204)
*
1598 -
Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, Dutch writer and statesman (b.
1538)
*
1621 -
Charles de Luynes, Constable of France (b.
1578)
*
1673 -
Margaret Cavendish, English writer (b.
1623)
*
1675 -
Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter (b.
1632)
*
1683 -
Izaak Walton, English writer (b.
1593)
*
1688 -
Gaspar Fagel, Dutch statesman (b.
1634)
*
1715 -
George Hickes, English minister and scholar (b.
1642)
*
1753 -
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect (b.
1694)
*
1792 -
Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (b.
1756)
*
1890 -
Sitting Bull, Sioux nation leader (b. circa
1831)
*
1939 -
Reinhard Hetze, South american religious pioneer (b.
1851)
*
1943 -
Fats Waller, American musician (b.
1904)
*
1944? -
Glenn Miller, American musician (b.
1904)
*
1947 -
Arthur Machen, British author (b.
1863)
*
1958 -
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born American physicist and
Nobel laureate (b.
1900)
*
1966 -
Walt Disney, American animator (b.
1901)
*
1968 -
Jess Willard, American boxer (b.
1881)
*
1971 -
Dr. Md. Fazle Rabbee, Bangladeshi cardiologist (b.
1932)
*
1975 -
Anatole Litvak, Russian-born filmmaker (b.
1902)
*
1977 -
Wilfred Kitching, the 7th General of
The Salvation Army (b.
1893)
*
1984 -
Jan Peerce, American tenor (b.
1904)
* 1984 -
Lennard Pearce, British actor (b.
1915)
*
1989 -
Arnold Moss, American character actor (b.
1910)
*
1991 -
Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, Russian-born Soviet sniper (b.
1915)
*
2001 -
Russ Haas, American professional wrestler (b.
1974)
* 2001 -
Rufus Thomas, American musician (b.
1917)
*
2003 -
George Fisher, American political cartoonist (b.
1923)
*
2004 -
Pauline Gore, mother of American Vice President
Al Gore (b.
1912)
*
2005 -
William Proxmire, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (b.
1911)
* 2005 -
Darrell Russell, American football player (b.
1976)
* 2005 -
Heinrich Gross, Austrian physician (b.
1914)
*
Roman festivals -
Consualia in honor of
Consus is held.
*
R.C. Saints -
St. Valerian;
Saint Wunibald of
Heidenheim;
Saint Nino;
St. Drostan.
*
Zamenhof Day -celebrated in the
Esperanto movement in honor of
L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto.
*
BBC: On This DayDecember 14 -
December 16 -
November 15 -
January 15 --
listing of all days
