December 15
December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 16 days remaining. Events533 - The Battle of Ticameron begins687 - St. Sergius I becomes Pope1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.1791 - The United States Bill of Rights is passed1891 - James Naismith introduces basketball1914 - The Battle of Lodz ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow1916 - France defeats Germany in Battle of Verdun1939 - Gone With the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia1945 - General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan1961 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A is launched1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN1994 - Netscape Navigator 1.0 is first released1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 852002 - BBC 7, digital radio station is launched in UK
Births37 - Nero, Roman emperor (d. 68)130 - Lucius Verus, Roman emperor (d. 169)1242 - Prince Munetaka, Shogun of Japan (d. 1274)1802 - János Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician1832 - 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 architect1910 - 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, physicist1928 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, painter and graphic artist (d. 2000)1933 - Tim Conway, actor, comedian1938 - Michael Bogdanov, film director and theatre manager1938 - Billy Shaw, Pro Football Hall of Famer1939 - Cindy Birdsong, singer, member of the Supremes1942 - Dave Clark, musician ("Dave Clark Five")1949 - Don Johnson, actor (Miami Vice)1952 - Cassandra Harris Australian actress (d. 1991)1955 - Paul Simonon, musician1961 - Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist and politician1968 - Javid Hussain, film producer1969 - Rick Law, illustrator, producer1973 - Surya Bonaly, figure skater1976 - 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
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