December 22
is the 356th day of the year (357th in
leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 9 days remaining.
*
1603 -
Mehmed III Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his son
Ahmed I.
*
1790 - Storm and capture Russian armies And. Century of
Suvorov of a Turkish fortress
Izmail.
*
1807 - The
Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the
U.S. Congress, at the urging of
President Thomas Jefferson.
*
1809 - The
Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the
Embargo Act except for the
United Kingdom and
France, passes the
U.S. Congress.
*
1849 - The execution of
Fyodor Dostoevsky is canceled at the last second.
*
1851 - The first
freight train is operated in
Roorkee in
India.
*
1864 -
Savannah, Georgia falls to General
William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "
March to the Sea".
*
1885 -
Ito Hirobumi, a
samurai, became the first
Prime Minister of Japan.
*
1894 - The
Dreyfus affair begins, in
France, when
Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of
treason, on
antisemitic grounds.
*
1920 - Opening of 8-th All-Russia congress of Advice in
Moscow (on December, 29th). The statement of the
GOELRO plan.
*
1937 - The
Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in
New York City.
*
1944 -
German troops demand the surrender of
United States troops at
Bastogne,
Belgium. See
Battle of the Bulge.
* 1944 -
Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist
Japanese occupation of
Vietnam.
*
1947 - The
Constituent Assembly of
Italy approves its
constitution.
*
1963 -
Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of
Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
*
1964 -
Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of
obscenity.
* 1964 - First
SR-71 (Blackbird) flight
*
1965 - In the
United Kingdom, a 70mph
speed limit is applied to all rural roads including
motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
*
1974 -
Grande Comore,
Anjouan and
Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of
Comoros.
Mayotte remains under
French administration.
*
1984 - Subway vigilante
Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four
African-American men on an express train in
The Bronx borough of
New York City.
*
1988 -
Chico Mendes, a
Brazilian
rubber tapper,
unionist and
environmental activist, is
assassinated.
*
1989 - After a week of bloody demonstrations,
Ion Iliescu takes over as president of
Romania, ending
Nicolae Ceauşescu's
Communist dictatorship.
* 1989 -
Berlin's
Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of
East and
West Germany.
* 1989 - Two tourist coaches collide on the
Pacific Highway north of
Kempsey NSW (
Kempsey Bus Crash).
*
1990 -
Lech Wałęsa is sworn in as
President of Poland.
*
1997 -
Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of
Roman Catholic activists for
indigenous causes in the small village of
Acteal in the
Mexican state of
Chiapas are
massacred by
paramilitary forces.
*
1999 - The
Spanish Civil Guard finds near
Calatayud (
Zaragoza) another van loaded by
ETA with 750 kg of
explosives (see related event on
December 21 1999).
* 1999 -
Tandja Mamadou becomes
President of
Niger.
*
2001 -
Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the
Afghan Northern Alliance, hands over power in
Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President
Hamid Karzai.
* 2001 -
Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard
American Airlines Flight 63.
* 2001 -
Cc the cat, the first
cloned pet, is born.
*
1178 -
Emperor Antoku of Japan (d.
1185)
*
1639 -
Jean Racine, French dramatist (d.
1699)
*
1666 -
Guru Gobind Singh, (d.
1708)
*
1694 -
Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (b.
1768)
*
1696 -
James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (d.
1785)
*
1723 -
Karl Friedrich Abel, German composer (d.
1787)
*
1805 -
John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist (d.
1893)
*
1807 -
Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (d.
1873)
*
1819 -
Franz Wilhelm Abt, German composer (d.
1870)
*
1853 -
Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist (d.
1917)
*
1856 -
Frank B. Kellogg,
U.S. Secretary of State, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (d.
1937)
*
1858 -
Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (d.
1924)
*
1860 -
Austin Norman Palmer, American penmanship innovator (d.
1927)
*
1862 -
Connie Mack, baseball executive and manager (d.
1956)
*
1869 -
Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (d.
1935)
*
1872 -
Camille Guérin, French veterinarian and bacteriologist (d.
1961)
*
1874 -
Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (d.
1939)
*
1876 -
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian poet and editor (d.
1944)
*
1883 -
Edgard Varèse French-born composer (d.
1965)
*
1887 -
Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (d.
1920)
*
1888 -
J. Arthur Rank, American producer (d.
1972)
*
1898 -
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock, Russian physicist (d.
1974)
*
1899 -
Gustav Gründgens, German actor and director (d.
1963)
*
1903 -
Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1983)
*
1905 -
Kenneth Rexroth, American poet (d.
1982)
*
1907 - Dame
Peggy Ashcroft, English actress (d.
1991)
*
1909 -
Patricia Hayes, actress on 'Carry On' series, Mama The Turk in "Superbitch"(1973) (d.
1998)
*
1912 -
Lady Bird Johnson,
First Lady of the United States*
1915 -
Barbara Billingsley, American actress
*
1917 -
Gene Rayburn, American game show host (d.
1999)
*
1922 -
Jack Brooks, American politician
* 1922 -
Ruth Roman, American actress (d.
1999)
*
1925 -
Lewis Glucksman, American financier and philantrophist (d.
2006)
*
1934 -
David Pearson, NASCAR Driver 1960-1986
*
1937 -
Eduard Uspensky, Russian writer
*
1938 -
Matty Alou, Baseball player
*
1939 -
James Gurley, American musician
*
1943 -
Paul Wolfowitz, American politician
*
1944 -
Steve Carlton, baseball player
*
1945 -
Diane Sawyer, American journalist
*
1946 -
Rick Nielsen, American musician (
Cheap Trick)
*
1948 -
Lynne Thigpen, American actress (d.
2003)
* 1948 -
Noel Edmonds, UK game show host
* 1948 -
Patricia Hewitt, Senior British Labour Politician
*
1949 -
Maurice Gibb, English musician (
The Bee Gees) (d.
2003)
* 1949 -
Robin Gibb, English musician (
The Bee Gees)
*
1951 -
Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster
*
1953 -
Ian Turnbull, Canadian ice hockey player
*
1957 -
Carole James, Canadian politician
*
1958 -
Frank Gambale, Australian guitarist
* 1958 -
Mikael Nordfors, Swedish physician and author
*
1959 -
Bernd Schuster, German footballer
*
1960 -
Patrick Fitzgerald, US Attorney
*
1961 -
Andrew Fastow,
Enron CFO, convicted of fraud
*
1962 -
Ralph Fiennes, English actor
*
1966 -
Dmitry Bilozerchev, Soviet gymnast
*
1967 -
Dan Petrescu, Romanian footballer
* 1967 -
Richey James Edwards, Manic Street Preachers songwriter/guitarist, (missing since 1995)
*
1969 -
Myriam Bédard, Canadian athlete
*
1974 -
Heather Donahue, American actress, famous for her role in
The Blair Witch Project*
1975 -
Crissy Moran, American erotic actress
*
1975 -
Stanislav Neckář, Czech ice hockey player
*
1977 -
Steve Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
*
1980 -
Devin Anderson, American composer
*
1983 -
Jennifer Hawkins, Miss Universe 2004
*
1100 - Duke
Bretislaus II of Bohemia*
1603 -
Mehmed III,
Ottoman Emperor (b.
1566)
*
1646 -
Peter Mogila, Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (b.
1596)
*
1660 -
André Tacquet, Belgian mathematician (b.
1612)
*
1681 -
Richard Alleine, English Puritan clergyman (b.
1611)
*
1708 -
Hedwig Sophia, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish writer (b.
1681)
*
1738 -
Constantia Jones, British prostitute (executed)
*
1767 -
John Newbery, English publisher (b.
1713)
*
1788 -
Percivall Pott, English physician and surgeon (b.
1714)
*
1806 -
William Vernon, American merchant (b.
1719)
*
1870 -
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet and writer (b.
1836)
*
1828 -
William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (b.
1766)
*
1880 -
George Eliot, English writer (b.
1819)
*
1899 -
Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b.
1837)
*
1902 -
Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychiatrist (b.
1840)
*
1936 -
Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (b.
1856)
*
1939 -
Ma Rainey, American singer (b.
1886)
*
1940 -
Nathanael West, American writer (b.
1903)
*
1942 -
Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b.
1858)
*
1943 -
Beatrix Potter, English writer (b.
1866)
*
1947 -
Hans Aumeier, German Nazi official and concentration camp commandant (b.
1906)
*
1959 -
Gilda Gray, Polish-born American dancer and actress (b.
1901)
*
1965 -
Richard Dimbleby, English journalist and broadcaster (b.
1913)
*
1971 -
Godfried Bomans, Dutch author and television personality (b.
1913)
*
1979 -
Darryl F. Zanuck, American producer (b.
1902)
*
1980 -
Karl Dönitz, German politician and U-boat commander (b.
1891)
*
1985 -
D. Boon, American singer and guitarist (
The Minutemen) (b.
1958)
*
1988 -
Chico Mendes, Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist, and environmental activist (assassinated) (b.
1944)
*
1989 -
Samuel Beckett, Irish writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1906)
*
1995 -
Butterfly McQueen, American actress (b.
1911)
* 1995 -
James Meade, English economist,
Bank of Sweden Prize winner (b.
1907)
*
2002 -
Desmond Hoyte,
President of Guyana (b.
1929)
* 2002 -
Joe Strummer, British musician (
The Clash) (b.
1952)
*
2003 -
Dave Dudley, American singer (b.
1928)
*
2004 -
Doug Ault, baseball player (b.
1950)
*
2005 -
James Dungy, eldest son of
Tony Dungy (b.
1987)
*
R.C. Saints - commemoration of
Frances Xavier Cabrini* Also see
December 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)*
Japan - Tōji (
winter solstice)
* In the
Northern Hemisphere, the
winter solstice occurs on or very close to this date. In the
Southern Hemisphere, the
summer solstice occurs around this time.
*
Astrology: First day of sun sign
Capricorn*
Spain: the main draw of
Spanish National Lottery, where it is a Christmas tradition.
*
BBC: On This Day*
Today in History: December 22December 21 -
December 23 -
November 22 -
January 22 --
listing of all days
