December 15 - All About All

December 15

December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining.

Events

• 533 - The Battle of Ticameron begins
• 687 - St. Sergius I becomes Pope
• 1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.
• 1791 - The United States Bill of Rights is passed
• 1891 - James Naismith introduces basketball.
• 1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1914 - The Battle of Łódź ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
• 1916 - France defeats Germany in Battle of Verdun
• 1939 - Gone with the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia
• 1945 - General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan
• 1960 - King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón
• 1961 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust
• 1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A is launched
• 1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN
• 1994 - Netscape Navigator 1.0 is first released
• 1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.
• 1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling
• 1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85
• 2002 - BBC 7, digital radio station is launched in UK

Births

• 37 - Nero, Roman Emperor (d. 68)
• 130 - Lucius Verus, Roman Emperor (d. 169)
• 1242 - Prince Munetaka, Japanese shogun (d. 1274)
• 1567 - Christoph Demantius, German composer (d. 1643)
• 1610 - David Teniers the Younger, Flemish artist (d. 1690)
• 1648 - Gregory King, English statistician (d. 1712)
• 1802 - János Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1860)
• 1832 - Gustave Eiffel, French civil engineer (d. 1923)
• 1852 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1908)
• 1859 - L. L. Zamenhof, Russian initiator of Esperanto (d. 1917)
• 1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician (d. 1904)
• 1861 - Charles Duryea, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
• 1888 - Maxwell Anderson, American writer (d. 1959)
• 1892 - J. Paul Getty, American oil tycoon (d. 1976)
• 1899 - Harold Abrahams, British athlete (d. 1978)
• 1907 - Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect
• 1910 - John A. Hammond, American musician and record producer (d. 1987)
• 1912 - Ray Eames, American designer (d. 1988)
• 1912 - Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979)
• 1916 - Buddy Cole, American pianist (d. 1964)
• 1918 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (d. 1961)
• 1922 - Alan Freed, American disc jockey (d. 1965)
• 1923 - Freeman Dyson, English-born physicist
• 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 (Supremes)
• 1942 - Dave Clark, American musician (Dave Clark Five)
• 1949 - Don Johnson, American actor
• 1952 - Cassandra Harris Australian actress (d. 1991)
• 1955 - Paul Simonon, British bassist (The Clash)
• 1961 - Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist and politician
• 1968 - Javid Hussain, Indian film producer
• 1968 - Garrett Wang, American actor
• 1970 - Michael Shanks, Canadian actor
• 1973 - Surya Bonaly, French-born figure skater
• 1976 - Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer
• 1979 - Adam Brody, American actor
• 1981 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)

Deaths

• 1025 - Basil II, Byzantine Emperor (b. 958)
• 1072 - Alp Arslan, Turkish sultan in Persia (b. 1029)
• 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)
• 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. c.1831)
• 1943 - Fats Waller, American musician (b. 1904)
• 1958 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
• 1966 - Walt Disney, American animator (b. 1901)
• 1968 - Jess Willard, American boxer (b. 1881)
• 1975 - Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-born writer (b. 1902)
• 1984 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
• 1989 - Arnold Moss, American character actor (b. 1910)
• 1991 - Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet World War II hero (b. 1915)
• 2001 - Rufus Thomas, American musician (b. 1917)
• 2001 - Russ Haas, Pro Wrestler (b. 1974)
• 2003 - George Fisher, American political cartoonist (b. 1923)

Holidays and observances

• Roman Empire - Consualia in honor of Consus is held.
• Feast day of St. Valerian, martyred in 457
• Zamenhof Day celebrated in the Esperanto movement in honor of L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto.
• Bill of Rights Day in the United States, in honor of the 1791 ratification of the United States Bill of Rights

External links

• BBC: On This Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/15)

December 14 - December 16 - November 15 - January 15 -- listing of all days