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Today in History ~ December 20
Events0069 - General Vespasianus occupies Rome
1192 - Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna
1606 - Virginia Company settlers leave London to establish Jamestown Va
1669 - 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery
1688 - Prince William III's troops pull into London
1699 - Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year changed-Sept 1 to Jan 1
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's army meets de Esk
1790 - 1st successful US cotton mill to spin yarn (Pawtucket, RI)
1803 - Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from France to US for $15M. The Louisiana Purchase effectively doubled the size of the existing U.S. With 827,987 square miles in the deal, that price translates to roughly $18 per square mile -- under 3 cents/acre. [H]
1820 - Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50
1823 - Franz Schubert's "Ballet-Musik aus Rosamunde," premieres in Vienna
1860 - South Carolina votes 169-0 for Ordinace of Secession, 1st state to secede from the Union.
1862 - Battle of Holly Spring, MS
1862 - Brig-gen Nathan B Forrest occupies Trenton, Kentucky
1862 - -Jan 3rd] Vicksburg campaign
1864 - -Dec 27th] Battle of Ft Fisher, NC
1864 - Confederate forces evacuate as Union Gen. William T. Sherman completed his "march to the sea" across the South and arrived in Savannah, Ga.
1879 - Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park
1880 - NY's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as "Great White Way"
1892 - Phileas Fogg completes around world trip, according to Verne
1892 - Pneumatic automobile tire patented, Syracuse, NY
1893 - 1st state anti-lynching statue approved, in Georgia
1912 - J Hartley Manners' "Peg O' My Heart," premieres in NYC
1917 - Russian secret police in Czech forms under Felix Dzerzjinski
1918 - Eugene O'Neill's "Moon of the Caribees," premieres in NYC
1919 - US House of Representatives restricts immigration
1922 - 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)
1924 - Adolf Hitler freed from jail early
1928 - 1st internationsl dogsled mail leaves Minot, Maine for Montreal
1941 - Japanese troops lands on Mindanao
1942 - 1st Japanese bombing of Calcutta
1943 - "International" is no longer USSR National Anthem
1944 - Battle of Bastogne, Nazis surround 101st Airborne (NUTS!)
1944 - Bishop forbids membership in non Catholic unions
1944 - Terence Rattigans "O Mistress Mine," premieres in London
1945 - The Office of Price Administration announced the end of tire rationing, effective Jan. 1, 1946.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam from France. [H]
1949 - Maurice Ravel/John Cranko's ballet "Beauty & the Beast," premieres
1950 - "Harvey," starring James Stewart, premieres in NY
1952 - Elvis Presley sang "Old Shep" at a Christmas Party at his high school in Memphis.
1956 - Montgomery, Ala, removed race-based seat assignments on its buses. The public bus boycott officially ended. The boycott had been called in reaction to the Dec. 1, 1955, arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man.
1957 - Elvis Presley received his draft notice while home at Graceland for the Christmas holidays.
1960 - Auschwitz-commandant Richard Baar arrested in German FR
1963 - Berlin Wall opens for 1st time to West Berliners
1963 - Trial of 21 camp guards of Auschwitz begins
1966 - Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans" was certified gold seven years after its release.
1967 - "Graduate," starring Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft, premieres
1967 - Ian Anderson and bassist Glen Cornick left the John Evan Band to form rock group Jethro Tull. Evan would later join Tull as a keyboardist.
1967 - the Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy (He's My Brother)" was released.
1969 - Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" reaches #1
1972 - Neil Simon's "Sunshine Boys," premieres in NYC
1975 - Joe Walsh replaced Bernie Leadon on lead guitar for the Eagles.
1975 - Paul Simon's "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" was released. It would top the charts for three weeks in February of 1976.
1976 - Israel's PM Yitzhak Rabin resigns
1978 - H R Haldeman, Nixon's White House chief of staff released from jail
1980 - USSR formally announces that former Premier Alexei N. Kosygin had died two days earlier at the age of 76.
1981 - Harry Krieger/Tom Eyen's musical "Dreamgirls," premieres on Broadway at Imperial Theater run for 1522 performances. The show was based on the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes.
1983 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat & 4,000 loyalists evacuate Lebanon
1984 - 33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in Yale library
1985 - Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC
1985 - Position of American Poet Laureate established (Robert Warren is 1st)
1986 - White teenagers beat blacks in Howard Beach, NY
1986 - Randy Travis joined the Grand Ole Opry.
1987 - "Nuts" with Barbra Striesand premieres
1987 - Dona Paz, a Philippine ferry, sinks after crash with oil tanker Vectoroff Mindoro island, 4386 die It was the century's worst peacetime maritime disaster.
1988 - Animal rights terrorists fire-bomb Harrod's dept store, London
1989 - US troops invade Panama to oust Manuel Noriega, (but don't catch him) and install the duly elected civilian government. 23 U.S. troops were killed.
1990 - Pentagon warns Saddam that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15
1990 - Eduard Shevardnadze abruptly resigned as Soviet foreign minister, warning against a dictatorship of hardliners.
1991 - Robert Bardo, the obsessed fan who had stalked actress Rebecca Schaeffer before killing her, was sentenced in Los Angeles to life in prison without parole.
1991 - Boston Pops conductor John Williams announced he would retire after the 1993 season.
1991 - New York Gov. Mario Cuomo ended his 70-day flirtation with a White House bid, saying his first responsibility was to deal with his state's budget problems.
1991 - Philippines prosecutors filed nine counts of graft against former first lady Imelda Marcos, charging she used bogus front companies to bilk millions of dollars from the nation.
1992 - A former Cuban military pilot who defected to the United States in 1991 flew a small plane back to Cuba to bring his wife and two sons safely to Florida.
1993 - In Serbia, President Slobodan Milosevic's governing Socialist Party claimed victory in parliamentary elections held the day before.
1993 - The NAACP blasted the media coverage of Michael Jackson's child molestation allegations as "excessive."
1994 - Former President Carter announced that the warring parties in Bosnia had agreed to a four-month cease-fire starting on Dec. 23.
1995 - 160 people were killed when an American Airlines 757 crashed into a mountain shortly before it was scheduled to land in Cali, Colombia.
1995 - Buckingham Palace confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II had sent letters to her son, Prince Charles, and his estranged wife, Princess Diana, urging them to seek a divorce as quickly as possible.
1996 - A judge in Orange County, Calif., gave O.J. Simpson full custody of his young children.
1996 - President Clinton selected Federico Pena as energy secretary, Rodney Slater as transportation secretary, Andrew Cuomo as housing secretary and Alexis Herman as labor secretary.
1996 - "Evita" -- starring Madonna as Argentina's legendary first lady Eva Peron -- premiered in Italy. But Madonna angered the VIPs in the audience by showing up more than an hour late. Her publicist later said that her bodyguards wanted to make sure everything was secure.
1996 - A judge granted O.J. Simpson custody of his children, Sydney and Justin, from his marriage with Nicole Brown Simpson.
1998 - A Houston woman gave birth to seven more babies after delivering the first infant 12 days earlier. They were the only known set of octuplets to be born alive in the United States. The smallest baby died a week later.
1998 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declared that the four-night U.S.-British bombing campaign of his country was a victory for Iraq over the "enemies of God and humanity."
1999 - Portugal returns Macau to China
2000 - President-elect Bush named businessman Paul O'Neill to be his treasury secretary; Ann Veneman to be the first female secretary of agriculture; Mel Martinez to be secretary of housing and urban development; and Don Evans, secretary of commerce.
2000 - Frank Zappa’s oldest son, Dweezil, released a cover of the song “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” on his new album “Automatic,” with his brother Ahmet singing the vocals.
Birthdays Today
1579 - John Fletcher, Elizabethan dramatist (Phylaster) (baptized)
1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, [Bonnie Prince Charlie/Young Pretender]
1786 - Pietro Raimondi, composer
1812 - Achille Peri, composer
1833 - Samuel A Mudd, doctor, convicted of giving medical aid to JW Booth
1865 - Maude Gonne, Irish nationalist (Irish Joan of Arc)
1881 - Branch Rickey (baseball: St. Louis [then of the American League])
1886 - Domingo Julio Gomez Garcia, composer
1900 - Gabby (Charles) Harnett (baseball: Chicago Cubs)
1901 - Irene Dunn (actress: Cimarron, Show Boat, Anna and the King of Siam, Life with Father, I Remember Mama)
1902 - Max Lerner, US, columnist (NY Post)
1911 - Hortense Calisher (novelist)
1918 - Ann Richards (actress: Sorry Wrong Number)
1918 - Audrey Totter (actress: The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Carpetbaggers)
1927 - Jim Simpson (sportscaster: NBC, ESPN)
1928 - John Christiansen (football: Detroit Lions: NFL Individual Record: 8 Career punt returns for touchdowns [1951-58])
1938 - Mattie Alou (baseball: San Francisco Giants)
1939 - Dianne Arndt, artist/photographer
1939 - Kim Weston (actress, singer: It Takes Two [w/Marvin Gaye])
1943 - Angel Tompkins (actress: Walking Tall, Part II, The Bees)
1946 - Uri Geller, Israel, psychic (bends forks)
1947 - Peter Criss (Crisscoula) (musician: drummer: group: Kiss [the cat]: Beth)
1948 - Dick Gibbs (basketball)
1949 - Cecil Cooper (baseball: Boston Red Sox)
1949 - Oscar Gamble (baseball: Philadelphia Phillies)
1950 - Bill Clement (hockey)
1952 - Jenny Agutter (Emmy Award-winning actress: The Snow Goose [1971-72]; Logan's Run, An American Werewolf in London, Child's Play)
Famous deaths
0069 - Aulus Vitellius, Roman commandant of Rhine & 7th emperor, murdered
1073 - Domingo, Spanish monastery founder/abbot/saint, dies
1590 - Ambroise Pare, French surgeon, dies at 80
1632 - Nicolas Antoine, French Catholic pastor who converted to Judaism, executed
1783 - Antonio Francisco Jawer Jose Soler, Sp composer (Fandango), dies at 54
1793 - Joseph Legros, composer, dies at 54
1812 - Sacagawea, Shoshone interpreter for Lewis & Clark, dies
1876 - Hannah Omish, at 12 is youngest ever hanged in US
1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (WW I), dies at 72
1939 - Hans Langsdorff, German capt (Graf Spee), commits suicide
1954 - James Hilton, English author (Lost Horizon), dies at 54
1961 - Moss Hart, US dramatist (You can't take it with you), dies a 57
1968 - John Steinbeck, author (Grapes of Wrath, Nobel 1940, 62), dies at 66
1976 - Richard J Daley, (Mayor-D-Chicago), dies at 74
1982 - Artur Rubinstein, pianist (My Young Years), dies in Geneva at 95
1994 - Dean Rusk, US Sect of State (1961-69), dies at 85
1996 - Carl Sagan, scientist (Contact), dies at 62
1997 - Vincent Ciccone, inventor (Blow-Pops candy), dies at 81
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
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