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This is the most common day for winter to begin in the northern hemisphere and summer to begin in the southern hemisphere

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Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

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Events

★ 1603 - Mehmed III Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.

★ 1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies.

★ 1807 - The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

★ 1809 - The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, passes the U.S. Congress.

★ 1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is called off at the last second.

★ 1851 - The first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.

★ 1864 - Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".

★ 1885 - Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.

★ 1894 - The Dreyfus affair begins, in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason, on antisemitic grounds.

★ 1920 - The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.

★ 1937 - The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.

★ 1942 - World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.

★ 1944 - World War II: Battle of the Bulge--German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium; prompting the famous one word reply by General <a href="Anthony_McA