December 15 is the Expression
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Events
- 533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.
- 1167 - Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves
the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
- 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.
- 1467 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats
Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the
Battle of Baia.
- 1791 - The United States Bill of Rights
becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature.
- 1818 - Irwin County, Georgia is created.
- 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 premieres
in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1941 - Annihilation of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine: in the proximity of the Rogan works, 8 km away from
Kharkiv, in "Drobitsky Ravine" (Drobitsky Yar), over 15
000 Jews were shot, at -15 degrees C below zero.
- 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.
- 1960 - Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and
assassinate the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier.
- 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. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space
rendezvous with Gemini 7.
- 1965 - The film The Sound of Music is released.
- 1967 - The Silver Bridge collapses, killing 46
people.
- 1970 - Illinois State Constitution is adopted at
a special election.
- 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 hands down 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 - Triple H defeats Shawn Michaels in a Three Stages of Hell match at
Armageddon, consisting of a street fight, steel cage match, and ladder match;
Triple H won the first and third falls.[1]}} Triple
H became the first ever person to become a two time World Heavyweight
Champion
- 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 2nd
largest known prime and has more than nine million digits.
- 2005 - Latvia edits its constitution to ban
equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
- 2005 - Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner
announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.
- 2005 - Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
- 2006 - First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
Births
- 37 - Nero, Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (d. 68)
- 1832 - Gustave Eiffel, French engineer and architect
(Eiffel tower) (d. 1923)
- 1852 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist,
Nobel laureate (d. 1908)
- 1859 - L. L. Zamenhof, Polish 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)
- 1872 - Cillian Howley, Irish poet (d. 1913)
- 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)
- 1911 - Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979)
- 1912 - Ray Eames, American designer (d. 1988)
- 1913 - Muriel Rukeyser, American poet (d.
1980)
- 1913 - Roger Gaudry, French Canadian chemist, businessman and corporate director (d.
2001)
- 1916 - Buddy Cole, American pianist (d.
1964)
- 1916 - Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2004)
- 1917 - Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, linguist and writer of
Pakistan (d. 2005)
- 1918 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (d.
1961)
- 1920 - Kurt Schaffenberger, American comics artist
(d. 2002)
- 1922 - Alan Freed, American disc jockey (d.
1965)
- 1923 - Freeman Dyson, English-born American
physicist
- 1923 - Valentin Varennikov, Russian general and statesman
- 1925 - Sam Pollock, National Hockey League general manager
- 1928 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser,
Austrian artist (d. 2000)
- 1928 - Jerry Wallace, American country and popular music singer
- 1933 - Tim Conway, American actor and comedian
- 1933 - Sattiraju Lakshmi Narayana a.k.a Bapu, Indian Cartoonist, designer and film
director
- 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)
- 1943 - Kathleen Blanco, American Democratic
politician
- 1943 - Lucien den Arend, Dutch artist
- 1944 - Chico Mendes, Brazilian campaigner (d.
1988)
- 1945 - Thaao Penghlis, Australian actor
- 1946 - Art Howe, American baseball player
- 1949 - Don Johnson, American actor
- 1952 - Cassandra Harris, Australian actress (d.
1991)
- 1952 - Allan Simonsen, Danish footballer
- 1952 - Julie Taymor, American director
- 1953 - J. M. DeMatteis, American comic book
writer
- 1955 - Paul Simonon, British musician (The Clash)
- 1957 - Yuuichi Nagashima, Japanese actor
- 1961 - Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist
- 1963 - Andrew Luster, Max
Factor heir
- 1963 - Helen Slater, American actress
- 1967 - Mo Vaughn, American baseball player
- 1968 - Javid Hussain, Indian film producer
- 1968 - Garrett Wang, American actor
- 1968 - Osama Ali Maher, Swedish politician
- 1969 - Chantal Petitclerc, Quebec wheelchair
athlete
- 1970 - Frankie Dettori, Italian champion jockey
- 1970 - Michael Shanks, Canadian actor
- 1972 - Stuart Townsend, Irish actor
- 1972 - Rodney Harrison, American football player
- 1973 - Surya Bonaly, French-born American figure
skater
- 1973 - Ryu Seung-wan, South Korean actor and director
- 1974 - Ellen Simonetti, flight attendant, famously
fired for blogging
- 1976 - Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer
- 1976 - Aaron Miles, American baseball player
- 1976 - Elix Skipper, American professional wrestler
- 1978 - Mark Jansen, Dutch guitarist (Epica)
- 1978 - Jerome McDougle, American football player
- 1979 - Adam Brody, American actor
- 1979 - Eric Young, Canadian wrestler
- 1980 - Sergio Pizzorno, English guitarist
(Kasabian)
- 1981 - Najoua Belyzel, French singer
- 1981 - Brendan Fletcher, Canadian actor
- 1981 - Andy González, Puerto Rican baseball player
- 1981 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)
- 1981 - Creighton Lovelace, American Baptist minister
- 1982 - Charlie Cox, English actor
- 1982 - Borja García, Spanish racing driver
- 1982 - George O. Gore II, American actor
- 1983 - René Goguen, Canadian wrestler
- 1983 - Ronnie Radke, American singer
- 1986 - Snejana Onopka, Ukrainian supermodel
Deaths
- 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)
- 1855 - Jacques Charles François Sturm,
French mathematician (b. 1803)
- 1890 - Sitting Bull, Sioux nation leader (b. circa
1831)
- 1943 - Fats Waller, American musician (b. 1904)
- 1944 - Glenn Miller, American musician (later declared
dead on this date, true date unknown) (b. 1904)
- 1947 - Arthur Machen, British author (b.
1863)
- 1950 - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian
political leader, Iron Man of India (b. 1875)
- 1958 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born American
physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1900)
- 1962 - Charles Laughton, English actor (b.
1899)
- 1966 - Walt Disney, American animator (b. 1901)
- 1968 - Jess Willard, American boxer (b. 1881)
- 1968 - Antonio Barrette, politician, premier of Quebec (b. 1899)
- 1971 - Paul Pierre Lévy, French mathematician (b.
1886)
- 1974 - 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 - Edward Underdown, stage and film veteran (b.
1908)
- 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)
- 2003 - Keith Magnuson, National Hockey
League defenceman (b. 1947)
- 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)
- 2005 - Stan Leonard, Canadian professional golfer (b. 1915)
Do not add people without Wikipedia articles to this list Do not trust "this year in history" websites for accurate date
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Holidays and observances
External links
