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Today in History ~ December 18
Events1352 - Etienne Aubert elected as Pope Innocentius VI
1621 - English parliament unanimously accepts Protestation
1719 - Thomas Fleet publishes "Mother Goose's Melodies For Children"
1774 - Empress Maria Theresa expels Jews from Prague, Bohemia & Moravia
1777 - 1st America Thanksgiving Day, commemorating Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga
1787 - New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1796 - 1st US newspaper to appear on Sunday (Baltimore Monitor)
1799 - George Washington's body interred at Mount Vernon
1813 - British take Ft Niagara in War of 1812
1858 - Passy, at Paris: 1st "Samedi soiree" at villa of lovers of Rossini
1859 - South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth"
1862 - Battle at Lexington, Tennessee (Forrest's Second Raid)
1865 - 13th Amendment ratified, slavery abolished in America [H]
1892 - "The Nutcracker," Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, premieres in St. Petersburg, Russia.
1892 - Anton Bruckner's 8th Symphony, premieres
1912 - Piltdown Quarry in Sussex, England, amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson announces the discovery of two skulls which appear to belong to a primitive hominid and ancestor of man, The missing link was later determined to not be 1 million years old but only 600 and that the fossils had been doctored to look and test to be older. Famous Piltdown Man - Forgery. [H]
1915 - President Wilson, a widower for one year, marries the widow Edith Bolling Galtat her Washington home.
1916 - Battle of Verdun, one of the longest and bloodiest engagements of World War I, ends after ten months of massive losses of life to both sides. [H]
1917 - Soviet regiment (Stalin/Lenin) declares Finland Independent
1936 - Su-Lin, 1st giant panda to come to US from China, arrives in SF
1940 - Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa was launched in June 1941.
1941 - Japanse troops land on Hong Kong
1944 - Destroyers "Hull," "Spence" & "Monaghan" sink in typhoon (Philippines)
1944 - In a pair of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but also said undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained.
1956 - "To Tell the Truth" debuts on CBS-TV
1956 - Israeli flag hoisted on Mount Sinai
1956 - Japan was admitted to the United Nations.
1957 - Shippingport Atomic Power Stn, 1st nuke plant to generate electricity
1961 - Britain's EMI Records originally rejects the Beatles
1964 - Hundreds of distraught fans converged on a Chicago funeral home for the funeral of Sam Cooke, who'd been shot to death a week earlier in Los Angeles.
1965 - Borman & Lovell Splash down in Atlantic ends 2 week Gemini VII mission
1965 - Kenneth LeBel jumps 17 barrels on ice skates
1965 - Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" entered the charts.
1966 - Dr Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs for 1st time on CBS
1969 - Singer Tiny Tim, 44, married 17-year-old Miss Vicky Budinger on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show." The marriage didn't last.
1969 - Britain's Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.
1970 - "Me Nobody Knows" opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC for 587 performances
1970 - Polish uprising fails
1970 - The Beatles released a Christmas album for their fan club titled "From Them To Us."
1971 - Jerry Lee Lewis and his wife, Myra -- who was also his cousin -- were divorced. Their 1958 wedding -- when she was just 13 years old -- caused a scandal, when in fact the only thing illegal about the marriage was the fact that Lewis was not yet divorced from his previous wife when they wed.
1971 - Rev. Jesse Jackson announced in Chicago the founding of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).
1972 - The United States resumed heavy bombing and mining operations against North Vietnam after the communists refused to agree to end the war.
1976 - "A Star is Born," with Barbra Striesand, premieres
1976 - "Wonder Woman" debuts on ABC
1980 - IRA's Sean McKenna becomes critically ill, ends hunger strike
1981 - Rod Stewart headlined a concert at the Los Angeles Forum that was broadcast live around the world. Also on the bill -- Tina Turner.
1983 - On his 40th birthday, Keith Richards married girlfriend Patti Hansen in Mexico. His best man was Mick Jagger.
1985 - Congress approved the biggest overhaul of farm legislation since the Depression, trimming price supports.
1985 - UN Security Council unanimously condemns "acts of hostage-taking"
1986 - A Houston judge said while heavy metal music glorifying violence was "filth," it was not responsible for the conduct of a 16-year-old who shot and killed her mother after a fight over a knitting needle.
1987 - Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's future pres, marries Asif Ali Zardari
1987 - Ivan F Boesky sentenced to 3 years for insider trading
1989 - A pipe bomb killed Savannah, Ga., City Councilman Robert Robinson, hours after a pipe bomb is discovered at the Atlanta federal courthouse. A racial motive was cited in a rash of bomb incidents.
1989 - The Romanian government sealed the borders amid reports of a deadly crackdown on dissidents.
1990 - Moldavia became the sixth Soviet republic to refuse to participate in a 10-day meeting in a mounting affront to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
1991 - Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler rescued his wife, baby daughter and pet cat from their burning home in the Boston suburb of Marshfield Hills, Mass. No one was hurt.
1991 - General Motors announced it would close 21 plants and eliminate 74,000 jobs in the next four years in a sweeping restructuring of the world's largest company to offset record losses.
1993 - Vice President Gore wrapped up a tour of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia -- during which he signed a series of agreements.
1994 - Socialist Party (ex-communist) wins Bulgaria parliamentary election
1995 - Fire swept the first floor of Kenny G's Los Angeles mansion. No one was hurt. Officials said the fire's cause was accidental.
1996 - Madonna told reporters in London that she expected to be nominated for an Oscar for her role in "Evita." She wasn't.
1996 - TV industry execs agree to adopt a ratings system
1996 - Aides to President Clinton disclosed that Asian-American businessman Charles Yah Lin Trie, who delivered $460,000 in questionable donations to the Clintons' legal defense fund, had been to the White House at least 23 times since 1993.
1996 - FBI agent Earl Edwin Pitts was arrested, accused of selling secrets to the Russians. (Pitts was sentenced in June 1997 to 27 years in prison after admitting that he'd conspired and attempted to commit espionage.)
1997 - South Koreans elected longtime leftist opposition leader Kim Dae Jong president, marking the first time in the nation's history that a member of the opposition had defeated a candidate of the New Korea Party and its predecessors.
1997 - The six-mile-long Tokyo Bay tunnel connecting the cities of Kawasaki and Kisarazu opened. The project took 8 1/2 years to complete and cost $17 billion.
1998 - A federal judge ordered former Temptation Dennis Edwards to stop performing under the group's name.
2000 - Antitrust regulators approved the merger of British drug companies Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC.
2000 - The Electoral College cast its ballots, with President-elect Bush receiving the expected 271; Al Gore, however, received 266, one fewer than expected, because of a District of Columbia Democrat who left her ballot blank to protest the district's lack of representation in Congress.
2002 - Insurance giant Conseco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, third largest such action in U.S. history behind only Enron and Worldcom.
2002 - Lebanon's information minister said state television network would not broadcast U.S.-supplied television spots aimed at repairing America's image in the Arab world because they were inaccurate.
Birthdays Today
1569 - Jakob Hassler, composer
1633 - Willem van de Velde the Young, Dutch seascape painter, baptised
1707 - Charles Wesley, co-founder (Methodist movement)
1709 - Elizabeth, empress of Russia (to Peter the Great & Catherine I)
1734 - Jean-Baptiste Rey, composer
1778 - Joseph Grimaldi, known as the "greatest clown in history,"
1786 - Baron Karl von Weber (opera composer: Der Freischutz)
1788 - Camille Pleyel, Austria, piano builder/composer
1844 - Ludwig J von Brentano, German economist
1856 - Joseph John Thomson, Eng, physicist discovered electron (Nobel 1906)
1860 - Edward Alexander MacDowell, US, composer (Indian Suite)
1870 - Saki, [Hector Hugo Munro], Burma, author (Reginald, When William Came)
1879 - Paul Klee, Switzerland, abstract painter (Twittering Machine)
1886 - Ty (Tyrus) Cobb (baseball outfielder: played 3,000+ games; .367 batting average: Detroit Tigers[1905-1926], Philadelphia Athletics [1927-28]; American League MVP [1911])
1888 - Robert Moses, power broker (built Long Island & NYC parks & roads)
1890 - Edwin Howard Armstrong, NYC, radio pioneer inventor (FM)
1904 - George Stevens (Academy Award-winning director: A Place in the Sun [1951], Giant [1956]) (Alice Adams, Penny Serenade)
1907 - Christopher Fry (Harris) (poet, dramatist: The Boy with a Cart, A Phoenix Too Frequent, The Lady's Not for Burning, Ring Around the Moon)
1910 - Abe Burrows (Tony Award-winning director and playwright: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying [1962]) (Guys & Dolls 1951 TONY)
1911 - Jules Dassin, Middletown CT, director (Circle of Two, Never on Sunday)
1913 - Betty Grable (Elisabeth Grasle) (actress: The Gay Divorcee, Follow the Fleet, Tin Pan Alley, College Swing, Collegiate, Down Argentine Way, Sweet Rosie O'Grady)
1913 - Lynn Bari (Marjorie Bitzer) (actress)
1913 - Willy Brandt, [Herbert Frahm], German chancellor (1969-74, Nobel 1971)
1917 - Ossie Davis (writer, actor: A Raisin in the Sun, Grumpy Old Men, Evening Shade, Hot Stuff, Man Called Adam)
1919 - Anita O'Day (Colton) (jazz singer: Chickery Chick, Boogie Blues; films: The Gene Krupa Story, Jazz on a Summer's Day, Zigzag, The Outfit)
1920 - Rita Streich, German singer
1927 - Ramsey Clark (U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson [1967-1969])
1931 - Gene Shue (basketball)
1932 - Moose (Bill) Skowron (baseball: Pittsburgh Pirates)
1938 - Bryan 'Chas' Chandler (musician: bass: group: Animals: House of the Rising Sun; manager: Jimi Hendrix, then Slade)
1939 - Zoilo Versalles (Minnesota Twins shortstop: Baseball Writers's MVP Award, American League [1965])
1941 - Sam Andrew (musician guitar: group: Big Brother and the Holding Company)
1943 - Keith Richards (or Richard) (guitar: group: The Rolling Stones: Time is on My Side, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Get Off of My Cloud, Start Me Up)
1946 - Greg Landry (football)
1946 - Stephen (Steve) Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist
1947 - Stephen Spielberg (Academy Award-winning director: Schindler's List [1993]; E.T., Jaws, Indiana Jones, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, The Color Purple; Oscar's Irving G. Thalberg Award [1986].
1948 - Len Garrett (football)
1950 - Movie critic Leonard Maltin )
1951 - Doug Dennison (football)
1955 - Actor Ray Liotta
1964 - Actor Brad Pitt
1966 - Actor Kiefer Sutherland
1978 - Actress Katie Holmes ("Dawson's Creek")
1980 - Singer Christina Aguilera in 1980
Famous deaths
0468 - Huna Mari bar Mar Zutra, rabbi, executed in Pumpedita
1505 - John IX van Horne, prince-bishop of Lieges, executed
1565 - Benedetto Varchi, Italian humanist/historian (L'Ercolano), dies at 62
1737 - Antonio Stradivari, renowned violin-maker, dies in Cremona Italy at 93
1829 - Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, French nature investigator, dies at about 85
1869 - Louis Moreau Gottschalk, composer, dies at 40
1919 - Horatio William Parker, composer, dies at 56
1928 - Lucien Capet, composer, dies at 55
1948 - Janet Fay, hammered to death by Honeymoon Killers
1959 - Dorothy L Sayers, writer, dies at 66
1977 - Cyril Ritchard, actor (Peter Pan), dies at 80
1980 - Alexei N Kosygin, Soviet PM (1964-80), suffers heart attack at 76
1996 - Arthur Jacobs, musicologist, dies at 74
1997 - Chris Farley, comedian (SNL, Tommy Boy), dies at 33
2000 - Newspaper heir Randolph Apperson Hearst, the last surviving son of William Randolph Hearst, died in New York at age 85.
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
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