December 22
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 left in the year.
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[change] Events
- 1603 – Mehmed III Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.
- 1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the United States 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 United States Congress.
- 1849 – The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is canceled at the last second.
- 1851 – The first freight train is operated in Roorkee in India.
- 1864 – Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman
- 1885 – Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan.
- 1894 – The Dreyfus affair begins, in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason, on antisemitic grounds.
- 1910 – Chicago Union Stock Yards Fire, 21 firemen were killed.
- 1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.
- 1944 – German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium. See Battle of the Bulge
- 1944 – Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Vietnam
- 1963 – Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
- 1964 – Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.
- 1965 – A 65 miles per hour speed limit is introduced on country roads and motorways in the United Kingdom.
- 1974 – Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
- 1984 – Subway vigilante Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four African-American youths 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.
- 1988 – Ytzhak Shamir present his 3rd government in front of the Israeli Parliament
- 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 – Two Tourist coaches collide on the Pacific Highway north of Kempsey NSW (Kempsey Bus Crash).
- 1990 – The Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia become independent after the end of their trusteeship.
- 1990 – Lech Wałęsa is sworn in as President of Poland.
- 1992 – An MiG23 and a Boeing 727 of Libyan Arab Airlines collide near Tripoli, killing 157 people.
- 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 were 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, handed over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by Hamid Karzai.
- 2001 – Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
- 2001 – CC the cat, the first cloned pet, is born.
- 2008 – President of Guinea Lansana Conte dies. Following his death, Moussa Dadis Camara takes power in a coup.
- 2010 – The end of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy regarding Homosexuals in the United States Military is signed into law by Barack Obama.
- 2011 – Baghdad is struck by a series of bomb explosions.
[change] Births
- 244 – Diocletian, Roman Emperor (d. 311)
- 1095 – King Roger II of Sicily (d. 1154)
- 1178 – Emperor Antoku of Japan (d. 1185)
- 1639 – Jean Racine, French dramatist (d. 1699)
- 1666 – Gobind Singh, Sikh guru (d. 1708)
- 1694 – Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German writer and philosopher (d. 1768)
- 1696 – James Oglethorpe, English general, founder of the State of Georgia (d. 1785)
- 1723 – Carl Friedrich Abel, German composer (d. 1787)
- 1765 – Johann Friedrich Pfaff, German mathematician (d. 1825)
- 1807 – Johann Christian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (d. 1873)
- 1819 – Franz Abt, German composer (d. 1870)
- 1819 – Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician (d. 1892)
- 1848 – Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, German classical philologist (d. 1931)
- 1856 – Frank B. Kellogg, American lawyer and diplomat, 45th United States Secretary of State (d. 1937)
- 1858 – Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (d. 1924)
- 1876 – Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian poet and editor (d. 1944)
- 1883 – Edgar Varese, French-American composer (d. 1965)
- 1887 – Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (d. 1920)
- 1899 – Gustaf Gruendgens, German actor (d. 1963)
- 1900 – Marc Allegret, French film director and screenwriter (d. 1973)
- 1903 – Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist (d. 1983)
- 1905 – Pierre Brasseur, French actor (d. 1972)
- 1907 – Peggy Ashcroft, British actress (d. 1991)
- 1912 – Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the United States (d. 2007)
- 1915 – Barbara Billingsley, American actress (d. 2010)
- 1936 – Hector Elizondo, American actor
- 1937 – Eduard Uspensky, Russian writer
- 1940 – Luis Francisco Cuellar, Colombian politician (d. 2009)
- 1943 – Paul Wolfowitz, former World Bank President
- 1948 – Noel Edmonds, British television presenter
- 1948 – Lynne Thigpen, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1949 – Maurice Gibb, musician (d. 2003)
- 1949 – Robin Gibb, musician
- 1959 – Bernd Schuster, German footballer
- 1962 – Ralph Fiennes, English actor
- 1963 – Giuseppe Bergomi, Italian footballer
- 1967 – Dan Petrescu, Romanian footballer
- 1967 – Richey James Edwards, Welsh musician (Manic Street Preachers) (disappeared in 1995)
- 1972 – Vanessa Paradis, French actress
- 1975 – Dmitri Khokhlov, Russian footballer
- 1975 – Stanislav Neckar, Czech ice hockey player
- 1978 – Emmanuel Olisadebe, Nigerian-Polish footballer
- 1979 – Jamie Langfield, Scottish footballer
- 1984 – Basshunter, Swedish DJ and singer
- 1986 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Nigerian Islamist militant
- 1988 – Leigh Halfpenny, Welsh rugby player
- 1989 – Jordin Sparks, American singer
- 1990 – Jean-Baptiste Maunier, French singer
[change] Deaths
- 69 – Vitellius, Roman Emperor (b. 15)
- 1603 – Mehmed III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1566)
- 1788 – Percival Pott, English physician and surgeon (b. 1714)
- 1867 – Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician (b. 1788)
- 1880 – George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)
- 1902 – Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychiatrist (b. 1840)
- 1917 – St. Francesca Xavier Cabrini, American Catholic saint (b. 1850)
- 1939 – Ma Rainey, American singer (b. 1886)
- 1940 – Nathanael West, American writer (b. 1903)
- 1943 – Beatrix Potter, British writer (b. 1866)
- 1959 – Gilda Gray, Polish-American singer (b. 1901)
- 1965 – Richard Dimbleby, British broadcaster (b. 1913)
- 1979 – Darryl F. Zanuck, American producer (b. 1902)
- 1988 – Chico Mendes, Brazilian activist (b. 1944)
- 1989 – Samuel Beckett, Irish playwright (b. 1906)
- 1995 – Butterfly McQueen, American actress (b. 1911)
- 1995 – James Meade, British economist (b. 1907)
- 2002 – Joe Strummer, British musician (b. 1952)
- 2002 – Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese politician (b. 1929)
- 2008 – Lansana Conte, President of Guinea (b. 1934)
- 2009 – Luis Francisco Cuellar, Colombian politician (b. 1940)
[change] Observances
- Winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere), sometimes occurs on December 21
- Summer solstice (Southern Hemisphere), sometimes occurs on December 21
- Mother's Day (Indonesia)
- Unity Day (Zimbabwe)
- Dongzhi Festival (East Asia)
