December

December 2
1784 George Washington nicknamed New York the "Empire State."
1859 Artist George Seurat was born in Paris, France.
1901 King Camp Gillette invented the safety razor.
1967 Actress Lucy Liu was born in Queens, New York.
1982 The first artificial heart was implanted in a human.

December 3
1621 Galileo perfected the telescope.
1639 The Bronx, New York, was purchased from Indians by Jonas Bronck.
1755 Portrait painter Gilbert Stuart was born near Narragansett Rhode Island.
1928 Singer Andy Williams was born at Wall Lake, Iowa.
1961 Actress Daryl Hannah was born in Chicago.
1965 Ice skater Katarina Witt was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany.

December 4
1619 America's first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated at Berkeley Plantation, Virginia.
1783 George Washington delivered his Farewell Address to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City.
1783 The British evacuated Staten Island and Long Island.
1833 The American Anti-Slavery Society was launched in Philadelphia.
1893 Anarchist and art critic Herbert Read was born in Yorkshire, England.
1921 Actress Deanna Durbin was born.
1949 Actor Jeff Bridges was born in Los Angeles.
1956 Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash dropped by a Carl Perkins recording session at Sun Studios, Memphis, where Jerry Lee Lewis was playing. The ensuing jam session is recorded for posterity, its principals forever to be known as the Million Dollar Quartet.
1964 Actress Marisa Tomei was born in Brooklyn.
1973 Supermodel and talk-show hostess Tyra Banks was born in Los Angeles, California.

December 5
1886 Libertarian author Rose Wilder Lane was born in Dakota Territory.
1901 Cartoonist, film maker, and amusement park developer Walt Disney was born in Chicago.
1932 Singer Little Richard (Richard Penniman) was born in Macon, Georgia.
1933 Prohibition was repealed.
1936 Singer Chad Mitchell was born.

December 6
1777 France recognized American independence.
1849 Abolitionist Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery.
1865 The 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery, was ratified.
1896 Lyricist Ira Gershwin was born in New York City.
1920 Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck was born in Concord, California.
1924 Comedic actor and writer Wally Cox was born in Detroit.

December 7
1761 Marie Grosholtz Tussaud, creator of Madame Tussaud's waxwork museum, was born at Strasbourg, France.
1873 Author Willa Cather was born in Winchester, Virginia.
1877 Thomas Edison demonstrated the first phonograph.
1889 The Gondoliers opened.
1936 Education reformer and private school founder Martha Collins was born.
1947 Baseball star Johnny Bench was born in Oklahoma City.
1956 Basketball star Larry Bird was born in West Baden, Indiana.
1967 Baseball star Tino Martinez was born.

December 8
1765 Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, was born in Westboro, Massachusetts.
1837 Wendell Philips gave his first abolition speech, in protest against the murder of Eligha P. Loverboy.
1865 Composer Jean Sibelius was born in Finland.
1894 Humorist James Thurber was born in Columbus, Ohio.
1925 Singer, dancer, and actor Sammy Davis Jr. was born in Harlem, New York.
1933 Comedian Flip Wilson was born.
1943 Singer Jim Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida.
1953 Actress Kim Basinger was born.
1968 Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
1991 The Soviet Union dissolved.

December 9
1608 John Milton, poet and defender of freedom of the press, was born in London.
1814 Daniel Webster delivered his Draft Is Slavery speech.
1842 Peter Kropotkin, anarchist writer, philosopher, and scientist, was born in Moscow.
1886 Clarence Birdseye, who developed a way to freeze foods and was a founder of General Foods Corporation, was born in Brooklyn.
1909 A monoplane was flown successfully for the first time (by Henry W. Walden, Long Island, New York).
1916 Movie star Issur Demsky (Kirk Douglas) was born in Amsterdam, New York.
1941 Actor Beau Bridges was born in Los Angeles.

December 10
1787 Thomas Gallaudet, founder of the American School for the Deaf, was born in Philadelphia.
1914 Actress Dorothy Lamour was born.

December 11
1725 George Mason, father of the Bill of Rights, was born in Virginia.
1918 Novelist and anti-communist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in Kislovodsk, USSR.
1944 Singer Brenda Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
1949 Actress Teri Garr was born in Los Angeles.
1950 "The Gabby Hayes Show" premiered on TV.
1971 The Libertarian Party was founded in Denver.

December 12
1673 Parishioners of the Lawnes Creek Church in Surry County, Virginia, led the first organized tax rebellion in America.
1805 Abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
1821 Novelist Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, France.
1893 Movie star Edward G. Robinson was born in Rumania.
1901 Marconi's wireless signal was heard across the Atlantic.
1915 Singer and actor Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
1938 Singer Connie Francis was born in Newark, New Jersey.
1941 Singer Dionne Warwick was born in East Orange, New Jersey.
1955 Backstage at a show in Amory, Mississippi, Johnny Cash suggested to fellow Sun artist Carl Perkins that he write a song about blue suede shoes. One week later, Perkins recorded Blue Suede Shoes with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.

December 13
1769 Dartmouth College was chartered.
1925 Actor and comedian Dick Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri.
1933 Comedian Tim Conway was born in Willoughby, Ohio.
2004 Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured.

December 14
1782 Charleston, South Carolina, was evacuated by the British.
1853 Anarchist writer Errico Malatesta was born in Italy.
1911 Silly band leader Spike Jones was born in California.
1914 Comedian Morey Amsterdam was born in Chicago.
1935 Actress Lee Remick was born in Quincy, Massachusetts.

December 15
1791 The Bill of Rights took effect.
1832 Alexandre Eiffel, who designed the Eiffel Tower and helped design the Statue of Liberty, was born in Dijon, France.

December 16
1770 Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany.
1773 The Sons of Liberty, led by Sam Adams, held the Boston Tea Party to protest the Tea Act.
1775 Novelist Jane Austin was born in Steventon, Hampshire, England.
1776 American Crisis by Thomas Paine was published in the Philadelphia Journal.
1917 Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, England.
1939 Swedish actress Liv Ullman was born in Tokyo, Japan.

December 17
460 Moral philosopher Hippocrates was born.
1760 Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man so she could join the Continental Army and participate in the war for independence, was born in Plympton, Massachusetts.
1797 Scientist Joseph Henry was born in Albany, New York.
1807 Poet and abolitionist John Green Leaf Whittier was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
1821 Kentucky became the first state to outlaw prison sentences for debtors.
1860 At Columbia, the South Carolina Secession Convention issued a resolution in favor of seceding from the Federal Union.
1903 The Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

December 18
1737 Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari was born.
1865 Slavery, except for convicted criminals, was abolished this day by the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1886 Baseball great Ty Cobb was born in Narrows, Georgia.
1930 Yankee first-baseman Bill Skowron was born in Chicago.
1942 Boxing great and war resister Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay) was born in Louisville, Kentucky.
1943 Musician Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones was born in Dartford, England.
1947 Film maker Steven Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1964 Actor Brad Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
1966 Actor Kiefer Sutherland was born in Los Angeles.

December 19
1732 Benjamin Franklin printed Poor Richard's Almanac.
1828 The South Carolina legislature adopted resolutions calling the tariff an abomination and ordered publication of John Calhoun's South Carolina Exposition and Protest, which expounded the doctrine of nullification.
1907 Humorist H. Allen Smith was born.
1915 Singer Edith Piaf was born in Paris.
1998 The U. S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for purgery and obstruction of justice.

December 20
1835 Texas declared itself independent of Mexico.
1860 South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.
1868 Industrialist and founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. Harvey Firestone was born in Columbiana County, Ohio.
1880 Broadway lights were electrified in New York City.
1989 A popular uprising toppled the Communist regime in the city of Timisoara, Romania.

December 21
1620 The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth.
1898 The Runaway Seamen Act was repealed.
1908 Andrew Carnegie told Congress, "Take back your protection; we are now men, and we can beat the world."
1937 Actress Jane Fonda was born in New York City.
1940 Satirical rock musician and composer Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1948 Actor Samuel L. Jackson was born.
1959 Olympic gold medal track athlete Delores Florence Griffith Joyner ("Flo Jo") was born in Los angeles, California.
1954 Tennis star Chris Evert was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
1966 Actor Kiefer Sutherland was born.

December 22
1731 Dutch people revolted against a tax on meat.
1888 Filmmaker J. Arthur Rank was born.
1944 Pitching star Steve Carlton was born in Miami, Florida.
1949 Singer and musician Maurice Gibb was born in Manchester, England.
1949 Singer and musician Robin Gibb was born in Manchester, England.

December 23
1812 Writer Samuel Smiles was born in Haddington, Scotland.
1872 Painter of Native Americans George Catlin was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

December 24
1798 Virginia Resolutions, drafted by James Madison in reaction to the Alien and Sedition Acts, were approved by the governor.
1814 The Treaty of Ghent officially ended the War of 1812.
1818 Physicist James Joule was born Salford, Lancashire, England.
1922 Actress Ava Gardner was born in Smithfield, North Carolina.
1946 Irene Riley was born near Whitehall, New York.

December 25
0 BC Pacifist religious reformer Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem.
1642 Scientist, mathematician, and author Isaac Newton was born.
1776 George Washington's army crossed the Delaware River at night for a surprise attack victory at Trenton, New Jersey.
1821 Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was born was born in Oxford, Massachusetts.
1868 Andrew Johnson proclaimed unconditional pardon and amnesty for all concerned in the Rebellion.
1893 Cartoonist Robert Ripley was born in California.
1899 Actor Humphrey Bogart was born in New York City.
1907 Singer and band leader Cab Calloway was born in Rochester, New York.
1924 Writer and Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling was born.
1935 Singer and songwriter "Little" Richard Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia.
1945 Libertarian moral philosopher Roy Halliday was born on Long Island, New York.
1946 Singer Jimmy Buffett was born at Pascagoula, Mississippi.
1949 Actress Sissy (Mary Elizabeth) Spacek was born in Quitman, Texas.
1958 Baseball great Ricky Henderson was born in Chicago.
1989 Romanian dictator Nicolai Ceausescu was shot and killed.
1991 The Societ Union broke up, ending 72 years of Communist terror.

December 26
1776 Nearly 1000 Hessian mercenaries were captured by George Washington's army in a surprise attack near Trenton, New Jersey.
1792 Mathematician Charles Babbage was born in Teignmouth, England.
1898 Pierre and Marie Currie discovered radium.
1914 Movie star Richard Widmark was born in Sunrise, Minnesota.
1921 Steve Allen, TV star, comedian, author, and songwriter, was born in New York City.
1940 Rock music producer Phil Spector was born in the Bronx.
1947 Baseball star Carlton Fisk was born in Bellows Falls, Vermont.
1954 Baseball star Osborne (Ozzie) Smith was born in Mobile, Alabama.

December 27
1571 Johannes Kepler, mathematician and the father of modern astronomy, was born in Wurttemberg, Germany.
1822 Scientist Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France.
1901 Actress Marlene Deitrich was born in Berlin, Germany.
1906 Pianist, actor, and author Oscar Levant was born in Pittsburgh.
1932 Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City.
1947 The Howdy Doody TV show premiered.

December 28
1763 Brewer John Molson was born in Lincolnshire, England.
1897 Cyrano de Bergerac was first produced.
1934 Actress Maggie Smith was born in Ilford, England.
1954 Movie star Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York.

December 29
1809 Free-market reformer William Gladstone was born in Liverpool, England.
1876 Cellist Pablo Casals was born in Venrell, Spain.
1936 Actress Mary Tyler Moore was born in Brooklyn.
1938 Actor John Voight was born in Yonkers, New York.

December 30
1828 The Georgia legislature condemned the tariff.
1865 Writer Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India.
1869 Stephen Leacock, Canadian author of Nonsense Novels, was born.
1928 Rock and Roll legend Bo Diddley was born in McCombs, Mississippi.
1935 Pitching star Sanford "Sandy" Koufax was born in Brooklyn.
1975 Golf champion Tiger Woods was born in Cypress, California.
1984 Basketball star LeBron James was born.

December 31
192 Lucius Aurelius Commodus, emperor of Rome, was killed.
1783 The African slave trade was prohibited by all northern states plus Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia.
1869 Painter Henri Matisse was born in Le Cateau, France.
1879 The Pirates of Penzance opened in New York City.
1930 Folk singer Odetta Gordon was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
1937 Actor Anthony Hopkins was born in Port Talbot, South Wales.
1943 Actor Ben Kingsley was born in Yorkshire, England.
1948 Singer and songwriter Donna Summer (LaDonna Andrea Gaines) was born in Boston.
1959 Actor Val Kilmer was born in Los Angeles.
1974 Gold trading was made legal again in the U.S.A.

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This page was last updated on August 1, 2009.
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