From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 9 days remaining.
This is the most common day for winter to begin in the northern hemisphere and summer to begin in the southern hemisphere
[edit] 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 Anthony McAuliffe: "NUTS!"
- 1944 - World War II: Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
- 1947 - The Constituent Assembly of Italy approves its constitution.
- 1956 - Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.
- 1963 - Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
- 1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.
- 1964 - First SR-71 (Blackbird) flight.
- 1965 - In the United Kingdom, a 70mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
- 1974 - Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
- 1974 - Ted Heath's house is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.
- 1984 - Subway vigilante Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four African-American men on an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City.
- 1988 - Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.
- 1989 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.
- 1989 - Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
- 1989 - Kempsey bus crash: Two tourist coaches collide on the Pacific Highway north of Kempsey, New South Wales
- 1990 - Lech Wałęsa is sworn in as President of Poland.
- 1990 - Paul Coffey of the Pittsburgh Penguins becomes the National Hockey League's first defenseman to score 1,000 points. He would finish his career with 1,531 points.
- 1997 - Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces.
- 1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (Zaragoza) another van loaded by ETA with 750 kg of explosives (see related event on December 21, 1999).
- 1999 - Tandja Mamadou becomes President of Niger.
- 2001 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
- 2001 - Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
[edit] Births
- 1178 - Emperor Antoku of Japan (d. 1185)
- 1546 - Kuroda Yoshitaka, Japanese Daimyo (d. 1604)
- 1550 - Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher (d. 1631)
- 1639 - Jean Racine, French dramatist (d. 1699)
- 1666 - Guru Gobind Singh, Sikh guru (d. 1708)
- 1690 - Meidingnu Pamheiba, King of Manipur (d. 1751)
- 1694 - Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (d. 1768)
- 1696 - James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (d. 1785)
- 1723 - Karl Friedrich Abel, German composer (d. 1787)
- 1765 - Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician (d. 1825)
- 1805 - John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist (d. 1893)
- 1807 - Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (d. 1873)
- 1819 - Franz Wilhelm Abt, German composer (d. 1870)
- 1819 - Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician (d. 1892)
- 1853 - Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist (d. 1917)
- 1853 - Yevgraf Fyodorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1919)
- 1856 - Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. Secretary of State, Nobel laureate (d. 1937)
- 1858 - Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (d. 1924)
- 1860 - Austin Norman Palmer, American penmanship innovator (d. 1927)
- 1862 - Connie Mack, American baseball executive (d. 1956)
- 1869 - Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (d. 1935)
- 1869 - Dmitri Egorov, Russian mathematician (d. 1931)
- 1872 - Camille Guérin, French veterinarian and bacteriologist (d. 1961)
- 1874 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (d. 1939)
- 1876 - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian poet and editor (d. 1944)
- 1883 - Edgard Varèse French-born composer (d. 1965)
- 1887 - Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (d. 1920)
- 1888 - J. Arthur Rank, British film producer (d. 1972)
- 1898 - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock, Russian physicist (d. 1974)
- 1899 - Gustav Gründgens, German actor (d. 1963)
- 1901 - André Kostelanetz, American popular music orchestra leader and arranger (d. 1980)
- 1903 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1983)
- 1905 - Kenneth Rexroth, American poet (d. 1982)
- 1905 - Pierre Brasseur, French actor (d. 1972)
- 1907 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft, English actress (d. 1991)
- 1909 - Patricia Hayes, American actress (d. 1998)
- 1912 - Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the United States
- 1915 - Barbara Billingsley, American actress
- 1917 - Gene Rayburn, American game show host (d. 1999)
- 1921 - Hawkshaw Hawkins, American country singer (d. 1963)
- 1922 - Jack Brooks, American politician
- 1922 - Ruth Roman, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1925 - Lewis Glucksman, American financier (d. 2006)
- 1934 - David Pearson, American racecar driver
- 1936 - James Burke, British writer
- 1936 - Hector Elizondo, American actor
- 1936 - Wojciech Frykowski, Polish actor (d. 1969)
- 1937 - Eduard Uspensky, Russian writer
- 1938 - Matty Alou, Dominican baseball player
- 1938 - Lucien Bouchard, Quebec politician
- 1939 - James Gurley, American musician
- 1942 - Dick Parry, English musician (Pink Floyd)
- 1943 - Paul Wolfowitz, American politician
- 1944 - Steve Carlton, American baseball player
- 1945 - Diane Sawyer, American journalist
- 1948 - Noel Edmonds, English game show host
- 1948 - Steve Garvey, American baseball player
- 1948 - Patricia Hewitt, British politician
- 1948 - Rick Nielsen, American musician (Cheap Trick)
- 1948 - Lynne Thigpen, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1949 - Maurice Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003)
- 1949 - Robin Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees)
- 1951 - Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster
- 1953 - BernNadette Stanis, actress
- 1953 - Ian Turnbull, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1955 - Lonnie Smith, American baseball player
- 1957 - Carole James, Canadian politician
- 1958 - Frank Gambale, Australian musician
- 1958 - Mikael Nordfors, Swedish physician and author
- 1959 - Bernd Schuster, German footballer
- 1960 - Jean-Michel Basquiat, American artist (d. 1988)
- 1960 - Patrick Fitzgerald, American attorney
- 1961 - Andrew Fastow, American businessman
- 1962 - Ralph Fiennes, English actor
- 1963 - Giuseppe Bergomi, Italian footballer
- 1966 - Dmitry Bilozerchev, Soviet gymnast
- 1967 - Dan Petrescu, Romanian footballer
- 1967 - Richey James Edwards, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers) (disappeared in 1995)
- 1967 - Stéphane Gendron, Quebec politician
- 1967 - Paul Morris, Australian racing driver
- 1968 - Dina Meyer, American actress
- 1968 - Lauralee Bell, American actress
- 1969 - Myriam Bédard, Canadian athlete
- 1972 - Big Tigger, television host
- 1972 - Vanessa Paradis, French singer
- 1974 - Heather Donahue, American actress
- 1975 - Crissy Moran, American erotic actress
- 1975 - Dmitri Khokhlov, Russian footballer
- 1975 - Stanislav Neckář, Czech ice hockey player
- 1977 - Steve Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 - Lee Eun-ju, South Korean actress (d. 2005)
- 1980 - Chris Carmack, American Actor
- 1983 - Jennifer Hawkins, Australian Miss Universe
- 1984 - Jonas Altberg, Swedish musician (Basshunter)
- 1987 - Brian Barnes, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 - Jean-Baptiste Maunier, French actor
- 1990 - Megan Heath, Canadian singer
[edit] Deaths
- 1100 - Duke Bretislaus II of Bohemia
- 1603 - Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (b. 1566)
- 1646 - Peter Mogila, Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (b. 1596)
- 1660 - André Tacquet, Belgian mathematician (b. 1612)
- 1681 - Richard Alleine, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1611)
- 1708 - Hedwig Sophia, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish writer (b. 1681)
- 1738 - Constantia Jones, British prostitute (executed)
- 1767 - John Newbery, English publisher (b. 1713)
- 1788 - Percivall Pott, English physician and surgeon (b. 1714)
- 1806 - William Vernon, American merchant (b. 1719)
- 1867 - Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician (b. 1788)
- 1870 - Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet and writer (b. 1836)
- 1828 - William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (b. 1766)
- 1880 - George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)
- 1899 - Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)
- 1902 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychiatrist (b. 1840)
- 1917 - Mother Cabrini, first American citizen canonized by the Catholic Church (b. 1850)
- 1936 - Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (b. 1856)
- 1939 - Ma Rainey, American singer (b. 1886)
- 1940 - Nathanael West, American writer (b. 1903)
- 1942 - Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b. 1858)
- 1943 - Beatrix Potter, English writer (b. 1866)
- 1944 - Harry Langdon, American silent film actor (b. 1884)
- 1947 - Hans Aumeier, German Nazi official and concentration camp commandant (b. 1906)
- 1947 - Therese Brandl, Nazi concentration camp guard (b. 1902)
- 1959 - Gilda Gray, Polish-born American dancer and actress (b. 1901)
- 1965 - Richard Dimbleby, English journalist and broadcaster (b. 1913)
- 1971 - Godfried Bomans, Dutch author and television personality (b. 1913)
- 1979 - Darryl F. Zanuck, American producer (b. 1902)
- 1985 - D. Boon, American singer and guitarist (The Minutemen) (b. 1958)
- 1988 - Chico Mendes, Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist, and environmental activist (assassinated) (b. 1944)
- 1989 - Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 1992 - Frederick Franz, Watchtower president (b. 1893)
- 1993 - Don DeFore, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1995 - Butterfly McQueen, American actress (b. 1911)
- 1995 - James Meade, English economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (b. 1907)
- 1998 - Michelle Thomas, American actress (b. 1969)
- 2002 - Desmond Hoyte, President of Guyana (b. 1929)
- 2002 - Joe Strummer, English musician (The Clash) (b. 1952)
- 2003 - Dave Dudley, American singer (b. 1928)
- 2004 - Doug Ault, American baseball player (b. 1950)
- 2006 - Galina Ustvolskaya, Russian composer (b. 1919)
- 2006 - Dennis Linde, songwriter (b. 1943)
[edit] Holidays and observances
[edit] External links
