December 29

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

• 1607: Powhatan, the Indian Chief, spares John Smith’s life after the pleas of his daughter Pocahontas.
  

• 1721: Madam Jeanne Poisson de Pompadour, influential mistress of Louis XV.
  

• 1800: Industrialist Charles Goodyear
  

• 1808: Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States
  

• 1809: British statesman William Gladstone
  

• 1876: Pablo Casals Vendrell Catalonia Spain, violinist/conductor/composer
  

• 1907: Robert C. Weaver, first black American to serve in FDR’s cabinet
  

• 1912: The composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks was born.
  

• 1917: Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley
  

• 1934: ABC newscaster Tom Jarriel
  

• 1937: Actress Mary Tyler Moore
  

• 1938: Actor Jon Voight
  

• 1940: Country singer Ed Bruce
  

• 1946: Singer Marianne Faithfull
  

• 1946: Jockey Laffit Pincay
  

• 1947: Actor Ted Danson
  

• 1951: Singer-actress Yvonne Elliman
  

• 1959: Comedian Paula Poundstone
  

• 1961: Rock singer-musician Jim Reid (The Jesus and Mary Chain)
  

• 1970: Rock singer-musician Glen Phillips (Toad The Wet Sprocket) 
  

• 1972: Actor Jude Law
  

• 1975: Actor Shawn Hatosy
  

• 1983: Country singer Jessica Andrews

Events in History on this day
  

• 1165: Canonization of Charlemagne (reduced to "Blessed" in 18th century.)
  

• 1170: Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in England.
  

• 1610: Arrest, by Count Thurzo, of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, on over 650 charges of murder, torture, and "satanistic terror."
  

• 1616: Death of Stephen Bocskay, Prince of Transylvania
  

• 1778: British troops, attempting a new strategy to defeat the colonials in America, capture Savannah, the capital of Georgia. In some of the bloodiest fighting of the Revolutionary War, American and French troops failed to take Savannah.
  

• 1813: The British burned Buffalo, New York, during the War of 1812.
  

• 1837: Canadian militiamen destroyed the "Caroline," a US steamboat docked at Buffalo, New York.
  

• 1845: Texas (comprised of the present State of Texas and part of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) admitted as the 28th state, with the provision that the area (389, 166 square miles) should be divided into no more than five states "of convenient size."
  

• 1848: Gas lights were installed at the White House for the first time. (some sources 1849)
  

• 1851: The first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized, in Boston.
  

• 1852: Emma Snodgrass arrested in Boston for wearing pants
  

• 1890: The last major conflict of the Indian wars takes place at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota after Colonel James W. Forsyth of the 7th Cavalry tries to disarm Chief Big Foot and his followers. Some 300 Sioux Indians were killed by US troops sent to disarm them.
  

• 1893: The sole string quartet of Claude Debussy was premiered in Paris.
  

• 1921: Sears, Roebuck President, Julius Rosenwald, pledges $20 million of his personal fortune to help Sears through hard times.
  

• 1934: Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
  

• 1940: In a radio interview, President Roosevelt proclaims the U.S. is the ‘arsenal of democracy.’
  

• 1940: During World War Two, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.
  

• 1948: Tito declares Yugoslavia will follow its own Communist line.
  

• 1955: Barbra Striesand's 1st recording "You'll Never Know" at age 13.
  

• 1956: President Eisenhower asks Congress for the authority to oppose Soviet aggression in the Mideast.
  

• 1957: Singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married in Las Vegas, Nevada.
  

• 1965: A Christmas truce is observed in Vietnam, while President Johnson tries to get the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table.
  

• 1967: Star Trek's "The Trouble With Tribbles" airs for the first time.
  

• 1972: Eastern Tristar Jumbo Jet crashes near Everglades killing 101
  

• 1975: A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport, killing eleven people.
  

• 1981: President Reagan curtails Soviet trade in reprisal for Polish policy.
  

• 1983: The United States announced its withdrawal from UNESCO.
  

• 1986: Former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan died at his home in Sussex, England, at age 92.
  

• 1987: NASA announced it was delaying the planned June launch of the space shuttle -- the first since the "Challenger" disaster -- because of the failure of a motor component during a test-firing of the shuttle's redesigned booster rocket.
  

• 1988: The Federal Aviation Administration, responding to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, announced tightened security measures for US air carriers at 103 airports in the Middle East and Western Europe.
  

• 1989: Playwright Vaclav Havel was sworn in as the first non-communist president of Czechoslovakia since 1948.
  

• 1990: Olympic gymnist Mary Lou Retton weds Shannon Kelley
  

• 1990: Iraq denied a report that it was engaged in secret contacts with the US to avert war, and might withdraw from Kuwait before the January 15th United Nations deadline. 
  

• 1992: The United States and Russia announced agreement on a nuclear arms reduction treaty. Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello resigned.
  

• 1992: New York Governor Mario Cuomo commuted the prison sentence of Jean Harris, the convicted killer of "Scarsdale Diet" author Herman Tarnower.
  

• 1992: David and Sharon Schoo of St. Charles, Illinois, were arrested at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago upon their return from vacation for leaving their young daughters at home, alone.
  

• 1993: The six-volume complete set of the orchestral music of Paul Hindemith was completed.
  

• 1993: Nearly three weeks after the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was repaired by the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour, scientists reported "absolutely no sign of problems."
  

• 1994: US officials confirmed the release of US Army helicopter pilot Bobby Hall from North Korean custody (due to the time difference, it was December 30th in Korea when Hall crossed the demilitarized zone to freedom).
  

• 1995: Japan's finance minister (Masayoshi Takemura) announced the resignation of the deputy finance minister (Kyosuke Shinozawa) over several scandals, including the ministry's cover-up of trading losses at Daiwa Bank's New York office. 
  

• 1996: War-weary guerrilla and government leaders in Guatemala signed an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict. North Korea apologized for sending a spy submarine into South Korean waters.
  

• 1997: Hong Kong began killing 1.4 million chickens to stem the spread of a mysterious bird flu that had already killed four people.
  

• 1998: Two top Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the deaths of as many as two million people during their regime in the 1970s, and asked Cambodians to forget the past.
  

• 1999: The Nasdaq composite index closed above 4,000 for the first time, ending the day at 4041.46. 
  

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