This Day in History for 17th December

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All Events Birthdays
Weddings Deaths

Historical Events

Events 1 - 100 of 184

283 - St Gaius begins his reign as Catholic Pope
546 - Gothic War (535-554): The Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome by bribing the Byzantine garrison.
920 - Romanos I is crowned as co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII.
942 - Assassination of William I Longsword, 2nd Duke of Normandy.
1398 - Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.
1526 - Ferdinand of Austria chosen as King of Bohemia
1526 - Pope Clemens VII publishes degree Cum ad zero - forms Inquisition
1531 - Pope Clement VII establishes a parallel body to the Inquisition in Lisbon, Portugal.
1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicated England's King Henry VIII
1572 - Spanish army begins fires in Haarlem Netherlands
1586 - Emperor Go-Yozei becomes Emperor of Japan.
1587 - Earl Leicesters army leaves Netherlands
1637 - Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu.
1638 - French/Swedish troops occupy Breisach on the Rhine
1718 - France, Britain and Austria declare war on Spain.
1728 - Congregation Shearith Israel of NY purchases a lot on Mill Street in lower Manhattan, to build NY's 1st synagogue
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charles army retreats to Scotland
1777 - France recognizes independence of English colonies in America
1777 - George Washingtons army returns to Valley Forge Pa
1788 - Russian army of Grigorij Potemkin occupies Ocharov
1790 - Aztec calendar stone discovered in Mexico City
1791 - NYC traffic regulation creates 1st 1-way street
1792 - Opening of 1st legislative assembly of Lower Canada in Quebec city
1798 - 1st impeachment trial against a US senator (Wm Blount, TN) begins
1807 - France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
1819 - Congress of Angostura establishes Colombia's independence from Spain
1821 - Kentucky abolishes debtors prisons
Naturalist Charles Darwin 1832 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin sails in Strait Le Maire
1852 - 1st Hawaiian cavalry organized
1860 - Anaheim Township created in Los Angeles County
1862 - Gen US Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
1865 - Franz Schubert's "Unvolendete" Symphony," premieres
1875 - Violent bread riots in Montreal
1885 - France declares Madagascar a protectorate
1887 - Georges Feydeaus' "Tailleur Pour Dames" premieres in Paris
1892 - Tsjaikovski's ballet "Casse-noisette," premieres in St Petersburg
1893 - Russia ratifies Duple Alliance with France
1894 - Cricket day 3 1T Aus v Eng Eng 325 all out, 261 behind on 1st inn
1895 - Anti-Saloon League of America formed, Washington, DC
1895 - George Brownell patents a machine to make paper twine (Mass)
1900 - 1st prize of 100,00 francs offered for communications with extraterrestrials. Martians excluded-considered too easy
1900 - New Ellis Island Immigration station completed costing $1.5 million
1902 - Frank Wedekind's "Der Erdgeist," premieres in Berlin
Aviator Orville Wright 1903 - At 10:35 AM, 1st sustained motorized aircraft flight (Orville Wright)
1907 - Ugyen Wangchuck became 1st hereditary king of Bhutan
1909 - Leopold II, king of Belgium, buried in Brussels
1914 - Austrian troops beat Russians in Limanova Poland
1914 - Great Britain declares Egypt a protectorate
1914 - Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities
1919 - Austria parliament approves 8-hour day
1920 - AL votes to let spitball pitchers to continue using it
1920 - British Empire receives League of Nations mandate to Nauru
1920 - Japan receives League of Nations mandate over Pacific islands
1920 - South Africa receives League of Nations mandate over SW Africa
1922 - Last British troops leave Ireland Freestate
1923 - Greek king George II overthrown by army/republic
1924 - 1st US diesel electric locomotive enters service, Bronx, NY
1925 - Col William "Billy" Mitchell court-martial for insubordination
1925 - Russia & Turkey sign non-aggresion pact
1926 - German Marx government falls due to cooperation with red army
1926 - KYA-AM in San Francisco CA begins radio transmissions
1926 - Lithuanian military state under gen Augustine Woldemaras
1926 - Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the ‎1926 coup d'état‎ is successful.
1927 - Bradman scores 118 on 1st-class cricket debut, 188 mins 8 fours
1927 - US sub 'S-4' sinks after collision kills all 34 aboard
1927 - Victoria score 793 against Queensland, Bill Ponsford 437
1928 - John McGraw backs NL Pres John Heydler's designated hitter idea
1932 - Cards trade Jim Bottomley to Reds for Estel Crabtree & Ownie Carroll
1933 - B H Valentine scores 133 on Test Cricket debut, Eng v India at Bombay
1933 - Lala Amarnath scores century on Test Cricket debut (went on to 118)
1933 - Spain's 2nd government of Lerroux forms
1933 - NFL starts official stats as Bears beat Giants 23-21 in champ game
1935 - First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.
1936 - Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen & dummy Charlie McCarthy, appear on TV
1938 - Utrecht Central Station destroyed by fire
1939 - German pocket battleship Graf Spee scuttled by its crew off Uruguay
1940 - British troops occupies Sollum
1941 - Dutch & Australian troops lands on Portuguese-Timor
1941 - German submarine U-31 sunk
1941 - German troops led by Rommel begin retreating in North Africa
1941 - World War II: Beginning of the Siege of Sebastopol.
1942 - Allies in London sentence German war criminals
1943 - Transport 63 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
1944 - Green Bay Packers win NFL championship
1944 - Japanese-Americans released from detention camps
1944 - M-Ocean View streetcar resumes service & is extended to Market St
1944 - US Army announces end of excluding Jap-Americans from West Coast
1944 - US destroyers sink in storm off Philippines, 790 killed
1946 - Bradman & Barnes complete 405 run 5th wkt stand, score 234 ea
1946 - US V-2 rocket reaches 183 km, White Sands Proving Grounds, NM
1947 - NY struck by a blizzard, resulting with 27" of snow
1947 - WEWS TV channel 5 in Cleveland, OH (ABC) begins broadcasting
1949 - "Regina" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 86 performances
1949 - Burma recognizes People's Republic of China
1951 - Dutch Communist Party members forbidden to be civil servants
1953 - Dmitri Shostakovitch' 10th Symphony, premieres in Leningrad
1953 - FCC approves RCA's black & white-compatible color TV specifications
1954 - 1st fully automated railroad freight yard (Gary, Indiana)
1954 - WEAU TV channel 13 in Eau Claire, WI (NBC) begins broadcasting
1957 - US successfully test-fires Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile

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Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 232

1239 - Kujo Yoritsugu, Japanese Shogun (d. 1256)
1267 - Emperor Go-Uda of Japan (d. 1324)
1554 - Ernst of Bayern, prince/bishop of Liege/archbishop of Cologne
1619 - Prince Rupert of the Rhine, soldier/chemist/engraver/mathematician, commander in the English Civil War and first Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, (d. 1682)
1632 - Anthony Wood, English antiqurian (d. 1695)
1638 - Johann Ulrich Sultzberger, composer
1685 - Thomas Tickell, English writer (d. 1740)
1706 - Gabrielle Chôtelet, [La belle Emilie], French writer (Voltaire)
1734 - William Floyd, US soldier/signer (Declaration of Independence)
1734 - Maria I of Portugal, Portuguese queen (d. 1816)
1749 - Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (Il Matrimonio Segreto)
1770 - Johann Friedrich Schubert, composer
1778 - Hunphry Davy, English chemist (discovered some elements)
1796 - Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian novelist (d. 1865)
1797 - Joseph Henry, US, scientist/inventor/pioneer of electromagnetism
1800 - Gergely Czuczor, Hung/Czech poet/translator (Great Hung dictionary)
1801 - Johan NMJ, king of Saxon (1854-73) (translated Divina Commedia)
1807 - John Greenleaf Whittier, US, poet (Snow-bound)
1819 - Samuel Jones, Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1887
1820 - Frederick Tracy Dent, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1892
1821 - Frederick West Lander, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1862
1824 - John Kerr, System physicist (electro-visually Kerr-effect)
1824 - Manning Ferguson Force, Bvt Mjr Gen (Union volunteers), died in 1899
1824 - Thomas Starr King, NY, Unitarian clergyman (Christianity & Humanity)
1830 - Jules de Goncourt, France, novelist (Germinie)
1833 - James Thadeus Holtzclaw, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1893
1835 - Alexander E Agassiz, US, businessman/biologist/geology
1838 - Berthold Tours, composer
1840 - Christian Frederik Emil Horneman, composer
1842 - Marius Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician (continous groups)
1847 - Émile Faguet, French writer and critic (d. 1916)
1848 - Frederick Grant Gleason, composer
1853 - Herbert Beerbohm Tree, England, actor/theater manager (Trilby)
1853 - Émile Roux, French physician (d. 1933)
1859 - Paul César Helleu, French artist (d. 1927)
1861 - Fritz Volbach, German musicologist/conductor/composer
1863 - Ion Vidu, composer
1864 - John Felix August Korling, composer
1869 - Nikolay Ivanovich Kazanli, composer
1873 - Ford Madox Ford, England, novelist/editor (Inheritors)
1874 - William Lyon Mackenzie King, (L), 10th Canadian PM (1921-30, 1935-48)
1881 - Aubrey Faulkner, cricketer (great S Afr all-rounder early 20th cent)
1881 - Johannes CB "Jan" Sluyters, Dutch painter
1883 - Raimu, French actor (d. 1946)
1887 - Josef Lada, Czech painter (d. 1957)
1887 - Hermine Reuss, Empress of Germany and Duchess of Bohemia (d. 1947)
1888 - King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (d. 1934)
1891 - Robertson Hare, London England, actor (Our Girl Friday, Banana Ridge)
1892 - Sam Barry, American basketball coach (d. 1950)
1893 - Erwin Piscator, German stage director (Der Stellvertreter)
1894 - Arthur Fiedler, Boston Mass, conductor (Boston Pops)
1894 - Hans Henny Jahnn, writer
1894 - Hans [Henry] Kramers, Dutch theoretical physicist (quantum mechanics)
1894 - Willem Schermerhorn, Neth premier (1945-46)
1894 - David Butler, San Francisco California, director (April in Paris, Calamity Jane)
1900 - Lucijan Marija Skerjanc, Yugoslavia, composer/conductor
1900 - Mary Cartwright, English mathematician (d. 1998)
1900 - Katina Paxinou, Greek actress (d. 1973)
1902 - Simon Drach, writer
1903 - Erskine P Caldwell, author (Tobacco Road, God's Little Acre)
1903 - Ray Noble, English bandleader and actor (d. 1978)
1904 - Dmitri B Kabalevsky, St Petersburg Russia, composer (In the Fire) [OS]
1904 - Paul Cadmus, NYC, etcher/painter (Sailors & Floozies)
1905 - Joseph Heifitz, film director
1905 - Simo Häyhä, Finnish sniper (d. 2002)
1905 - Érico Lopes Veríssimo, Brazilian writer (d. 1975)
1906 - Fernando Lopez-Garcia, composer
1908 - Willard Frank Libby, inventor (carbon-14 "atomic clock" (Nobel 1960))
1908 - William Brocklesby Wordsworth, composer
1910 - Keki Khursedji Tarapore, cricketer (0-72 in his only Test for India)
1910 - Sy Oliver, American jazz arranger and bandleader (d. 1988)
1911 - William Roerick, actor (Guiding Light)
1914 - Mushtaq Ali, cricketer (prolific Indian batsman of 30's & 40's)
1915 - André Claveau, French singer (d. 2003)
1916 - Antoine G T "Toon" Hermans, Dutch entertainer/poet (Kolderliedjes)
1916 - Penelope Fitzgerald, English writer (d. 2000)
1917 - Louis Salvador Palange, composer
1920 - Armin Mueller-Stahl, Tilsit East Prussia, actor (Kafka, Music Box)
1920 - Kenneth E. Iverson, Canadian computer scientist (d. 2004)
1922 - Eric Brand, diplomat
1922 - Hubert H A Beckers, Curacaoan opera singer
1922 - Alan Voorhees, American engineer and urban planner (d. 2005)
1923 - Jaroslav Pelikan, American historian (d. 2006)
1925 - Rijk de Gooyer, Dutch actor (Black Rider, Rififi in Amsterdam)
1926 - Jeremy Brooks, writer
1926 - Patrice Wymore, Miltonville KS, actress (The Big Tree)
1926 - Ray Jablonski, American baseball player (d. 1985)
1927 - Richard Long, Chic Ill, actor (Prof-Nanny & the Professor)
1928 - Marilyn Beck, newspaper columnist
American Political Columnist & Presidential Speechwriter William Safire (1929) 1929 - William Safire, political columnist (NY Times)/speech writer (Nixon), (d. 2009)
1930 - Bob Guccione, [Robert C J Edwa], US publisher (Penthouse, Omni), (d. 2010)
1930 - Julia Meade, actress/TV hostess (Spotlight Playhouse)
1930 - Makoto Moroi, composer
1930 - Bob Mathias, American decathlete and congressman (d. 2006)
1930 - Armin Mueller-Stahl, German actor
1931 - Yvonne Keuls, [Bamberg], Dutch writer (Jan Rap & Co)
1931 - Dave Madden, Canadian-born American actor
1933 - Bruce Morrison, cricketer (one Test NZ v England 1963)
1933 - Paul Snoek, [Edm Schietekat], Belgian poet
1934 - Ray Wilson, English footballer

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Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 12 of 12

1600 - Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici.
1969 - 50m TV viewers saw singer Tiny Tim marry Miss Vicky, on Tonight Show
1993 - Tennis star Boris Becker (26) weds Barbara Feltus (27)
1994 - Actress Heather Locklear (33) weds Bon Jovi lead guitarist Richie Sambora (35) at The American Cathedral in Paris, France
1994 - Queen of Pop Celine Dion (26) weds her manager Rene Angelil (52) at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal, Canada
2005 - Race car driver Gary Paffett (24) weds his lady love Lisa in England
2005 - "Modern Day Drifter" country singer Dierks Bentley (30) weds Cassidy Black in Mexico
2005 - Australian country singer Kasey Chambers (29) weds singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson in Avoca, New South Wales
2006 - Contemporary Christian and Latin pop singer Jaci Velasquez (27) weds "Salvador" lead singer Nic Gonzalez in Austin, Texas
2011 - Backstreet Boys member A. J. McLean (34) weds model Rochelle Karidis (30) in an outdoor wedding at Beverly Hills, California
2011 - "The Descendants" actress Judy Greer (36) weds "Real Time with Bill Mahe"r co-executive producer Dean Johnsen at the Los Angeles Athletic Club
2012 - Minnesota Vikings football quarterback Christian Ponder (25) weds ESPN reporter Samantha Steele (27) in Hudson, Wisconsin

Famous Divorces

Divorces 1 - 1 of 1

2007 - Actor Dermot Mulroney (44) divorces actress Catherine Keener (48) due to irreconcilable differences after 17 years of marriage

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 103

535 - Emperor Ankan of Japan (b. 466)
695 - Begga, ancestress of the Carolingians/saint, dies [or 693]
1187 - Gregory VIII, [Alberto de Morra], Italian Pope (1187), dies
1195 - Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut (b. 1150)
1213 - Jean de Matha, French saint, dies at 53
1273 - Rumi (b.1207)
1471 - Isabella of Portugal, duchess of Burgundy, dies
1562 - Adrian Willaert, Flemish singer/bandmaster/composer, dies at about 82
1651 - Wolfgang Schonsleder, composer, dies at 81
1663 - Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (b. 1583)
1679 - Don Juan, ruler of Spain, dies
1711 - Arnold Moonen, vicar/literature (Defeated German Spraekkunst), dies
1721 - Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, English statesman (b. 1640)
1751 - Kilian I von Dientzenhofer, Czech master builder, dies at 62
1811 - John Antes, composer, dies at 71
1811 - Louis-Abet Deffroy de Reigny, composer, dies at 54
1829 - Bernard Jumentier, composer, dies at 80
1830 - Simón Bolívar, South American revolutionary and president (Colombia), dies at 47 in Santa Marta, Colombia
1833 - Kaspar Hauser, German son of grand duke Karel of Bathe, murdered at 21
Military and Political Leader Simon Bolivar (1830) 1847 - Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, second wife of Napoleon (b. 1791)
1860 - Désirée Clary, Queen of Sweden and Norway (b. 1777)
1870 - Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante, composer, dies at 75
1881 - Lewis H Morgan, US ethnologist (Iroquois-indians), dies at 62
1891 - Msiri, ruler of the Garanganze Kingdom, Congo (Katanga), dies in battle against Belgian funded expedition
1891 - Omer Bodson, Belgian captain, dies in battle against Msiri, ruler of Garanganze Kingdom in the Congo
1893 - Levinus T Keuchenius, Dutch min of Colonies (1888-90), dies at 71
1899 - Frederick "Freddy" Roberts, son of Brit field marshal, dies in battle
1907 - Kelvin of Largs, [William Thomson], Br physicist (Kelvin), dies at 83
1913 - Stefano Gobatti, composer, dies at 61
1917 - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician (b. 1836)
1917 - Frank Gotch, American professional wrestler (b. 1878)
1925 - A N "Monkey" Hornby, cricketer (England capt at Oval 1882), dies
1926 - Alexandr Dmitriyevich Kastal'sky, composer, dies at 70
1930 - Peter Warlock, composer, dies at 36
1933 - Hans Vaihinger, German philosopher (Side-Studies), dies at 81
1933 - Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama (b. 1876)
1937 - Gerard Vissering, banker/president of Dutch Bank, dies at 72
1940 - Alicia Boole Stott, Irish mathematician (b. 1860)
1944 - Pieter A Roodenburgh, student/resistance fighter, dies at 26
1944 - Vassily V Kandinsky, Russian/German/French painter, dies
1946 - Constance [Clara] Garnett, Russian-English translator, dies at 84
1948 - Edgar Istel, composer, dies at 68
1949 - David Stanley Smith, composer, dies at 72
1956 - Eddie Acuff, actor (Guns of Pecos), dies at 48
1957 - Dorothy Sayers, [Atherton Fleming], author (Whose body), dies at 64
1961 - Marion Perkins, sculptor (Man of Sorrow), dies at 53
1962 - Thomas Mitchell, US, actor (Outlaw), dies of cancer at 70
1964 - Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1883)
1965 - Tito [Raffaele A] Schipa, Italian tenor/composer (Rondine), dies at 76
1966 - Gustaf Paulson, composer, dies at 68
1967 - Harold Holt, Australian premier (1966-67), drowns at 59
1967 - [Francis] Barry Byrne, Chicago Ill, architect, dies at 83
1967 - Jack Perrin, American actor (b. 1896)
1969 - Arturo da Costa e Silva, President of Brazil (1967-69), dies at 67
1972 - Erwin Dressel, composer, dies at 63
1973 - Charles G Abbot, US astronomer (Sun Constant), dies at 101
1973 - Patrick Hadley, composer, dies at 74
1975 - Frank Sully, actor (Parachute Nurse, Inside the Law), dies at 67
1975 - Noble Sissle, jazz musician, dies at 86
1978 - Don Ellis, American jazz band leader (b. 1934)
1982 - Leonid B Kogan, Russian violist, dies at 58
1982 - Philipp Jarnach, composer, dies at 90
1982 - Homer S. Ferguson, American politician (b. 1889)
1983 - Erik Christensen, NHL player
1985 - Otto Gotsche, writer, dies
1986 - Ron Kass, record co pres (MGM), dies at 52 of cancer
1987 - Bernard Cardinal Alfrink, archbishop of Utrecht Neth, dies at 87
1987 - Marguerite Yourcenard, author (Memoirs of Hadrien), dies at 84
1987 - Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian novelist (b. 1903)
1990 - Don Draper, actor (Pepper Agent 00X), dies of AIDS at 61
1990 - Mieke Verstraete, Belgian/Neth actress (Pleasant Settled), dies at 79
1991 - John Blatnik, (Rep-Minnesota, 1947-75), dies at 80
1992 - Dana Andrews, US actor (Laura), dies of pneumonia at 83
1993 - Janet Margolin, US actress (Annie Hall), dies at 50 of ovarian cancer
1994 - Jan Wiegel, director/producer (Uninhabitable Country), dies at 64
1995 - Lila Clark Knapp, publisher, dies at 63
1996 - Elizabeth Hill, teacher of Salvonic languages, dies at 96
1996 - Francesco Siciliani, opera administrator, dies at 85
1996 - Irving Caesar, songwriter, dies at 101
1996 - Michael Saunders, barrister, dies at 22
1996 - Ruby Murray, singer, dies at 61
1996 - Stanko Todorov, PM of Bulgaria (1971-81), dies
1997 - Reginald Victor Jones, scientist, dies at 86
1999 - Grover Washington, Jr., American saxophonist (b. 1943)
1999 - Rex Allen, American actor, singer and songwriter (b. 1920)
2002 - James Hazeldine, English actor (b. 1947)
2003 - Brian Lee, father of Wikipedia user, James Lee (b. 1948)
2003 - Ed Devereaux, Australian actor (b. 1925)
2003 - Otto Graham, American football player (b. 1921)
2004 - Tom Wesselmann, American collage artist (b. 1931)
2005 - Jack Anderson, American journalist (b. 1922)
2005 - Marc Favreau, French Canadian humourist (Sol) (b. 1929)
2006 - Larry Sherry, American baseball player (b. 1935)
2008 - Dave Smith, American baseball player (b. 1955)
2008 - Sammy Baugh, American football player (b. 1914)
2008 - Freddy Breck, German schlager singer, composer, record producer and news anchor (b. 1942)
2009 - Chris Henry, American football player (b. 1983)
2009 - Jennifer Jones, American actress (b. 1919)
2009 - Dan O'Bannon, Screenwriter, after a short illness (b.1943)
2010 - Captain Beefheart, American musician (b. 1941)