December 15

December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining.

Events

• 533 – The Battle of Ticameron begins
• 687 – St. Sergius I becomes Pope
• 1256 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.
• 1791 – The United States Bill of Rights is passed
• 1891 – James Naismith introduces basketball
• 1914 – The Battle of Lodz ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
• 1916 – France defeats Germany in Battle of Verdun
• 1939 – Gone With the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia
• 1945 – General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan
• 1961 – An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust
• 1965 – Gemini program: Gemini 6A is launched
• 1976 – Samoa becomes a member of the UN
• 1994 – Netscape Navigator 1.0 is first released
• 1994 – Palau becomes a member of the UN.
• 1995 – The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling
• 1997 – A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85
• 2002 – BBC 7, digital radio station is launched in UK

Births

• 37 – Nero, Roman emperor (d. 68)
• 130 – Lucius Verus, Roman emperor (d. 169)
• 1242 – Prince Munetaka, Shogun of Japan (d. 1274)
• 1802 – János Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician
• 1832 – Gustave Eiffel, civil engineer (d. 1923)
• 1852 – Antoine Henri Becquerel, French physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1903 (d. 1908)
• 1859 – L. L. Zamenhof, initiator of Esperanto (d. 1917)
• 1860 – Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician (d. 1904)
• 1861 – Charles Duryea, automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
• 1888 – Maxwell Anderson, writer (d. 1959)
• 1892 – J. Paul Getty, oil tycoon (d. 1976)
• 1899 – Harold Abrahams, British athlete (d. 1978)
• 1907 – Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect
• 1910 – John Hammond, musician (d. 1987)
• 1912 – Ray Eames, American designer (d. 1988)
• 1912 – Stan Kenton, musician (d. 1979)
• 1916 – Buddy Cole, pianist (d. 1964)
• 1918 – Jeff Chandler, actor (d. 1961)
• 1922 – Alan Freed, disc jockey (d. 1965)
• 1923 – Freeman Dyson, physicist
• 1928 – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, painter and graphic artist (d. 2000)
• 1933 – Tim Conway, actor, comedian
• 1938 – Michael Bogdanov, film director and theatre manager
• 1938 – Billy Shaw, Pro Football Hall of Famer
• 1939 – Cindy Birdsong, singer, member of the Supremes
• 1942 – Dave Clark, musician ("Dave Clark Five")
• 1949 – Don Johnson, actor (Miami Vice)
• 1952 – Cassandra Harris Australian actress (d. 1991)
• 1955 – Paul Simonon, British musician, bassist with The Clash
• 1961 – Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist and politician
• 1968 – Javid Hussain, film producer
• 1968 – Garret Wang, actor (Star Trek: Voyager)
• 1969 – Rick Law, illustrator, producer
• 1973 – Surya Bonaly, figure skater
• 1976 – Baichung Bhutia, football player

Deaths

• 1025 – Basil II, Byzantine emperor (b. 958)
• 1072 – Alp Arslan, Seljuk sultan (b. 1029)
• 1263 – King Haakon IV of Norway (b. 1204)
• 1683 – Izaak Walton, writer (b. 1593)
• 1792 – Joseph Martin Kraus, composer (b. 1756)
• 1816 – Charles Stanhope, engineer, inventor of the calculator
• 1872 – Mary Anne Evans, wife of Benjamin Disraeli (b. 1792)
• 1890 – Sitting Bull, Sioux nation leader (b. c.1831)
• 1943 – Fats Waller, musician (b. 1904)
• 1944 – Glenn Miller, bandleader (presumed date) (b. 1904)
• 1958 – Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, physicist (b. 1900)
• 1966 – Walt Disney, animator, cartoonist (b. 1901)
• 1968 – Jess Willard, boxer
• 1970 – Michael Shanks, Canadian actor.
• 1975 – Anatole Litvak, writer
• 1984 – Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
• 1991 – Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet sniper, World War II hero.
• 2001 – Rufus Thomas, musician (b. 1917)
• 2003 – Johnny Cunningham, Scottish musician, member of Silly Wizard
• 2003 – George Fisher, American political cartoonist
• 2003 – Keith Magnuson, National Hockey League player (car accident)
• 2004 – Chiang Fang-liang, the widow of Chiang Ching-kuo and the First Lady of the Republic of China on Taiwan from 1978 to 1988.

Holidays and observances

• Roman Empire – Consualia in honor of Consus is held.
• Feast day of St. Valerian, martyred in 457

External links

• BBC: On This Day

December 14 – December 16 – November 15 – January 15 — listing of all days