December 28

Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. 

– Proverbs 8:34

December is:

Church Library Month

Born on this Day

• 1763: Brewer John Molson
  

• 1856: Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States
  

• 1882: Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, English astronomer who confirmed Eistein’s theory of relativity.
  

• 1896: The American composer Roger Sessions.
  

• 1905: Jazz pianist Earl "Fatha" Hines
  

• 1905: Comedian Cliff Arquette (Charlie Weaver)
  

• 1908: Actor Lew Ayres (All Quiet on the Western Front, Johnny Belinda, Advice and Consent, Of Mice and Men, Battle for the Planet of the Apes)
  

• 1911: Humorist Sam Levinson (Today I Am a Fountain Pen)
  

• 1913: Actor Lou Jacobi (Irma La Douce, Arthur, Avalon, The Diary of Anne Frank, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex)
  

• 1914: Rhythm-and-blues singer Pop Staples
  

• 1921: Bandleader R & B Johnny Otis (Every Beat of My Heart, Dance with Me Henry) (some sources list 1924)
  

• 1922: Writer for Marvel Comics Stan Lee
  

• 1925: Actress Hildegarde (Neff) (The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Three Penny Opera, Svengali, Bluebeard)
  

• 1927: Actor Martin Milner (Surfside 6, Adam 12, Columbo, The Halls of Montezuma, Mr. Roberts, Valley of the Dolls)
  

• 1929: Former United Auto Workers union president Owen Bieber
  

• 1934: Actress Dame Maggie Smith (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, A Room with a View, Sister Act)
  

• 1934: Golfer Peggy Wilson
  

• 1935: Actor Bruce Yarnell (The Road Hustlers, Irma la Douce, The Outlaws)
  

• 1938: Rock singer-musician Charles Neville
  

• 1943: Singer Bobby Comstock (Tennessee Waltz, I Want To Do It)
  

• 1946: Golf champion Hubie (Hubert) Green
  

• 1946: Rock singer-musician Edgar Winter
  

• 1947: Baseball Player Aurelio Rodriguez
  

• 1948: Jockey Jorge Velasquez
  

• 1950: Rock singer-musician Alex Chilton (The Box Tops; Big Star)
  

• 1954: Actor Denzel Washington (Glory, Malcolm X, St. Elsewhere)
  

• 1958: Country singer Joe Diffie
  

• 1958: Country musician Mike McGuire (Shenandoah)
  

• 1960: Country singer-musician Marty Roe (Diamond Rio)
  

• 1960: Actor Chad McQueen
  

• 1960: Country singer-musician Marty Roe (Diamond Rio)
  

• 1989: Actress Mackenzie Rosman ("7th Heaven")

Events in History on this day
  

• 0418: Election of Boniface I as Pope
  

• 0856: The Vikings burn Paris
  

• 1065: Consecration of Westminister Abbey
  

• 1384: Death of Wycliffe
  

• 1594: 1st known Shakespearean production, "Comedy of Errors" at Gray's Inn
  

• 1622: Death of St. Francis de Sales
  

• 1669: A patent for chewing gum is granted to William Semple.
  

• 1688: William of Orange makes a triumphant march into London as James II flees.
  

• 1694: Queen Mary the Second of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William the Third.
  

• 1849: M Jolly-Bellin discovers dry-cleaning, he accidentally upset lamp containing turpentine & oil on his clothing & sees cleaning effect.
  

• 1832: John Calhoun, at odds with President Andrew Jackson, became the first U.S. vice president to resign.
  

• 1846: Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.
  

• 1869: William E. Semple, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, patented "the combination of rubber with other articles adapted to the formation of an acceptable chewing gum."
  

• 1872: A U.S. Army force defeats a group of Apache warriors at Salt River Canyon, Arizona Territory, with 57 Indians killed but only one soldier.
  

• 1877: John Stevens, of Neenah, WI, applied for a patent for his flour-rolling mill which boosted production by 70%.
  

• 1879: The Gilbert and Sullivan opera "The Pirates of Penzance" was to be premiered in New York, but Sullivan left the music in England! Sullivan recomposed the entire opera from memory on this day just three days before the curtain went up on the show.
  

• 1897: "Cyrano de Bergerac," the play by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris.
  

• 1902: The first professional indoor football game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
  

• 1904: Farmers in Georgia burn two million bales of cotton to prop up falling prices.
  

• 1912: The first municipally-owned street cars took to the streets of San Francisco, California.
  

• 1917: The New York "Evening Mail" published a facetious essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America.
  

• 1937: Composer Maurice Ravel died in Paris.
  

• 1944: The musical, "On the Town", opened in New York City. It had a run of 462 performances. The show’s hit song, "New York, New York", continues to be a success. "On the Town" was Leonard Bernstein’s first big Broadway success.
  

• 1945: Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States.
  

• 1948: Premier Nokrashy Pasha of Egypt is assassinated by a member of the outlawed Moslem Brotherhood because of his failure to achieve victory in the war against Israel.
  

• 1950: Advancing Chinese troops crossed the 38th Parallel, dividing line between North and South Korea, to help the communist North Koreans fight American-led United Nations forces.
  

• 1951: The U.S. pays $120,000 to free four fliers convicted of espionage in Hungary.
  

• 1956: The last "Ding Dong School" was seen on NBC-TV. Miss Frances (Dr. Frances Horwich) rang the bell for one last time after five years on television.
  

• 1964: Principal filming of the movie classic, "Dr. Zhivago", began on location near Madrid, Spain. When completed, the film was 197 minutes long and so spectacular that it received ten Oscar nominations, winning five of them.
  

• 1965: U.S. bars oil sales to Rhodesia.
  

• 1968: Israel attacks an airport in Beirut, destroying 13 planes.
  

• 1971: U.S. Justice Department sues Mississippi officials for ignoring the ballots of blacks.
  

• 1973: Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system.
  

• 1973: The Chamber of Commerce of Akron, Ohio terminated its association with the All-American Soap Box Derby, stating that the race had become "a victim of cheating and fraud." Overanxious youngsters and their dads were found to be hiding things like heavy lead etc. in secret places in the home-built cars.
  

• 1974: More than 5,200 people killed in Pakistan earthquake
  

• 1981: Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American "test-tube" baby, was born in Norfolk, Virginia.
  

• 1982: Nevell Johnson Junior, a black man, was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade, setting off three days of race-related disturbances that left another man dead.
  

• 1985: Lebanese Moslem and Christian leaders signed a peace agreement backed by Syria.
  

• 1987: The bodies of 14 relatives of R. Gene Simmons were found at his home near Dover, Arkansas, following a shooting spree by Simmons in Russellville that claimed two other lives. (Simmons was later executed.)
  

• 1988: British authorities investigating the explosion that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, concluded that the blast had been caused by a bomb on board the jumbo jet.
  

• 1989: Alexander Dubcek, the former Czechoslovak Communist leader who was deposed in a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, was named chairman of the country's parliament.
  

• 1990: The government reported that its chief economic forecasting gauge, the Index of Leading Indicators, plunged one-point-two percent the previous month, the fifth consecutive monthly drop. 
  

• 1990: Two people died in a subway fire in New York City; 33 people were injured in a trolley collision in Boston. 
  

• 1991: Ted Turner is named Time Magazine Man of the Year
  

• 1991: Nine people died in a crush to get into a rap basketball game at City College in New York.
  

• 1992: Somalia's two main warlords, Mohamed Farrah Aidid and Ali Mahdi Mohamed, promised an end to their hostilities.
  

• 1993: Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary told CNN that people weongfully exposed to radiation through federally funded experiments more than 40 years ago deserved to be compensated.
  

• 1993: Journalist William Shirer, author of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," died in Boston at age 89.
  

• 1994: CIA Director R. James Woolsey resigned, ending a tenure that was shadowed by the Aldrich Ames spy scandal.
  

• 1994: President Clinton nominated Dan Glickman to be agriculture secretary, succeeding Mike Espy.
  

• 1995: CompuServe obeyed a German order to suspend member access to 200 Internet newsgroups deemed pornographic. 
  

• 1995: President Clinton vetoed a $265 billion defense bill, saying it would waste money on an unneeded missile defense system. (Congress failed to override the veto.)
  

• 1996: Leftist rebels in Peru released 20 more hostages, including two ambassadors, from Japan's embassy residence, following the first face-to-face talks between guerrillas and the government's negotiator.
  

• 1997: One woman was killed, more than 100 other people hurt, when a United Airlines jumbo jet en route from Tokyo to Honolulu encountered severe turbulence over the Pacific.
  

• 1998: Four people were killed, two gone missing and presumed dead, when fierce gales struck during an Australian yacht race.
  

• 1998: American warplanes exchanged missile fire with Iraqi air defenses, and President Clinton said there would be no letup in American and British pressure on Saddam Hussein.
  

• 1999: Clayton Moore, television's "Lone Ranger," died in West Hills, California, at age 85. 
  
  

• 2000 - U.S. District Court Judge Matsch held a hearing to ensure that confessed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh understood that he was dropping his appeals. McVeigh said that he wanted an execution date, set but wanted to reserve the right to seek presidential clemency.
  
  

• 2000 - Shannen Doherty was arrested for driving under the influence.
  
  

• 2001: The National Guard was called out to help Buffalo, New York, dig out from a paralyzing, five-day storm that had unloaded nearly 7 feet of snow.
  
  

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