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Today in History ~ December 15
Events1488 - Bartholomeo Diaz returns to Portugal after sailing round Cape of Good Hope
1593 - State of Holland grants patent on windmill with crankshaft
1612 - Simon Marius, is 1st to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
1791 - 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania
1791 - Bill of Rights, comprising the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, ratified when Virginia gave its approval [H]
1792 - 1st life insurance policy issued in US (Phila)
1794 - Revolutionary Tribunal abolished in France
1811 - Earthquake hits New Madrid, Missouri
1836 - Patent Office burns in Wash, DC
1854 - 1st street-cleaning machine in US 1st used in Philadelphia
1859 - GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of Sun
1864 - Battle of Nashville, TN
1877 - Thomas Edison patents phonograph
1891 - Teaching staff of Springfield College in Massachusetts presented Canadian James E. Naismith, a physical education instructor, with a challenge: devise a game able to keep a group of incorrigible students busy during the winter. A year later, the first formal basketball game was played.
1916 - French defeat Germans in WW I Battle of Verdun
1938 - Groundbreaking begins for Jefferson Memorial in Wash DC
1939 - "Gone With the Wind" premieres in Atlanta it was the first movie premiere ceremony to be televised. The governor of Georgia proclaimed the day a state holiday in commemoration of the event and the holiday celebrations continued for three days.
1939 - 1st commercial manufacture of nylon yarn, Seaford, Delaware
1943 - The Battle of San Pietro between American forces and a German panzer battalion left the 700-year-old Italian town in ruins.
1944 - US Congress gives General Eisenhower his 5th star a day after Congress establishes rank.
1948 - Former state dept official Alger Hiss indicted by a federal grand jury in NYC for perjury
1950 - NYC's Port Authority opens
1954 - The first segment of "Davy Crockett". Aired in a series of five segments on Walt Disney's "Disneyland" show may be considered TV's first mini-series.
1961 - Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer regarded as the architect of the World War II Jewish Holocaust, was condemned to death by an Israeli war crimes tribunal [H]
1961 - Equal access rule, political parties get TV broadcasting time
1964 - Canada adopts maple leaf flag
1973 - American Psychiatric Association reversed its longstanding position and declared that homosexuality is not a mental illness.
1973 - Jean Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, was found alive near Naples, five months after his kidnapping by an Italian gang
1976 - Argo Merchant tanker off Massachusetts' SE coast, spills 7.6 m gallons of crude when ship ran aground
1979 - Deposed Shah of Iran leaves US for Panama
1982 - Teamsters Union President Roy Williams and four others were convicted in federal court of conspiring to bribe Sen. Howard Cannon, D-Nev.
1983 - Last 80 US combat soldiers in Grenada withdrew
1989 - Panamanian lawmakers designated Gen. Manuel Noriega head of state and declared that a "state of war" existed with the United States.
1990 - In a landmark right-to-die case, a Missouri judge cleared the way for the parents of Nancy Cruzan to remove their daughter from life-support systems.
1991 - More than 400 people drowned when a ferry headed from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Egypt sank in the Red Sea; 150 were rescued.
1992 - The governor of Michigan signed a bill making assisted suicide a felony on the same day two chronically ill women killed themselves with the help of "Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian.
1992 - A college student in Great Barrington, Mass., went on a shooting rampage, killing a professor and another student and wounding four other people.
1992 - Salvadorans celebrated the formal end to their country's 12-year civil war.
1993- Secretary of Defense Les Aspin announced he was resigning for "personal reasons." Aspin was the first member of the Clinton Cabinet to quit.
1993 - British Prime Minister John Majors and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds issued a "framework for lasting peace" in Northern Ireland.
1993 - The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ended with agreement on new global-trade regulations.
1996 - Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas agreed to merge to form the world's largest aerospace company.
1997 - The Pentagon ordered all 1.4 million men and women in uniform to be inoculated against anthrax.
1997 - 85 people were killed when a Tajik charter airliner crashed in the United Arab Emirates.
1997 - SF 49ers retire Joe Montana's #16
1998 - President Clinton met with Israeli Prime Minister Binjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at an Israeli border point.
2000 - First Lady and Senator-elect Hillary Clinton signed an $8 million book deal to write a memoir of her years in the White House.
Birthdays Today
0037 - Nero Claudius Augustus Germanicus, 5th emperor of Rome (54-68)
1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, composer
1832 - Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, French engineer (Eiffel tower)
1852 - Antoine Henri Becquerel, discovered radioactivity (Nobel 1903)
1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Denmark, physician/phototherapist (Nobel 1903)
1863 - Arthur D Little, US, chemist (patented rayon)
1882 - Helena Rubinstein, US cosmetic manufacturer
1892 - J Paul Getty, Minneapolis Mn, oil magnate (Getty Oil)
1892 - J. (Jean) Paul Getty (oil magnate: Getty Oil; once the richest man in the world)
1904 - Kermit Bloomgarden (producer)
1916 - Buddy (Edwin) Cole (pianist: group: The Buddy Cole Trio; sang with Rosemary Clooney: LP: Swing Around Rosie)
1918 - Jeff Chandler (Ira Grossel) (actor)
1920 - Eddie Robinson (baseball)
1922 - Alan Freed (disc jockey: WJW, Cleveland, WMGM & WABC, New York: The Moondoggy Show; fired on air at WABC for alleged involvement in the payola scandal of the late 1950s)
1928 - Ernest Ashworth (Country Music Hall of Famer: Talk Back Trembling Lips; Member of Grand Ole Opry)
1928 - Jimmy Nelson (ventriloquist)
1933 - Tim Conway (actor, comedian: McHale's Navy, The Tim Conway Show, The Carol Burnett Show, various Dorf Does videos)
1938 - Jerry Wallace (singer: Primrose Lane, Shutters and Boards)
1939 - Cindy Birdsong (singer: group: Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles, group: Diana Ross and The Supremes: Love Child, Someday We'll be Together, River Deep-Mountain High [with Four Tops])
1940 - Nick Buoniconti (football)
1943 - Pete Duranko (football)
1944 - Stan Bahnsen (baseball: NY Yankees pitcher: Rookie of the Year [1968])
1946 - Carmine Appice (composer, drummer: groups: Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, KGB, King Kobra; co-wrote: Da Ya Think I'm Sexy with Rod Stewart)
1948 - Charlie Scott (basketball)
1948 - Dick Rau (baseball)
Famous deaths
1025 - Basilius II, the Bulgarendoder, Byzantine emperor (976-1025), dies
1626 - Adriaen de Vries, Dutch sculptor/painter, dies at about 70
1817 - Maria Walewska [Leszczinska], lover of emperor Napoleon I, dies
1826 - William Browser, revolting slave, executed in NYC
1890 - Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa-Sioux chief (Little Big Horn), is killed by Indian police at his home in a remote corner of the Standing Rock Reservation, allegedly while resisting arrest [H]
1966 - Walt Elias Disney, animator, dies at 65
1972 - Herbert Eimert, German composer (Glockenspiel), dies at 75
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
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