December 9

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

– Proverbs 8:34

December is:

Read a New Book Month

Born on this Day

• 1482: Frederick "the Wise," Elector Palantine of the Rhine
  

• 1561: Sir Edwin Sandys Opponent of King James I of England and a founder of the colony of Virginia
  

• 1575: Augustine Baker English Benedictine monk who was an important writer on ascetic and mystical theology.
  

• 1594: Gustavus II of Sweden was born. Sweden had become the strongest power in Europe at the time of his death in 1632.
  

• 1608: English poet John Milton in London. One of the greatest poets of the English language, best known for his epic poem "Paradise Lost." Also a noted historian, scholar and civil servant for the Parliamentarians.
  

• 1809: William Barret Travis, Commander of the Texas troops at the battle of the Alamo
  

• 1847: English comedian and singer George Grossmith (created many of the chief characters in the original productions of Gilbert and Sullivan light operas)
  

• 1848: Journalist Joel Chandler Harris, author of the "Uncle Remus" stories
  

• 1882: The composer Joaquin Turina
  

• 1886: American businessman and inventor Clarence Birdseye (process for freezing foods)
  

• 1898: Circus clown Emmett Kelly
  

• 1905: Screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo (member of the Hollywood Ten)
  

• 1909: Actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
  

• 1916: Actor Kirk Douglas
  

• 1925: Actress Dina Merrill
  

• 1926: American nuclear physicist Henry Way Kendall (Shared the 1990 Nobel Prize for Physics with Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E. Taylor for being the first researchers to obtain experimental evidence for the existence of the subatomic particles known as quarks)
  

• 1928: Actor Dick Van Patten
  

• 1929: American film director and actor John Cassavetes
  

• 1930: Actor-writer Buck Henry
  

• 1933: Talk show host Morton Downey Junior
  

• 1934: Blues musician Junior Wells.
  

• 1934: Actress Dame Judi Dench
  

• 1941: Actor Beau Bridges
  

• 1942: Football Hall-of-Famer Dick Butkus
  

• 1943: Rock singer-musician Rick Danko (The Band)
  

• 1945: Actor Michael Nouri
  

• 1947: Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle (Democrat, South Dakota)
  

• 1950: Singer Joan Armatrading
  

• 1952: Actor Michael Dorn
  

• 1953: Actor John Malkovich
  

• 1956: Country singer Sylvia
  

• 1957: Singer Donny Osmond
  

• 1958: Rock musician Nick Seymour (Crowded House)
  

• 1961: Actor Joe Lando
  

• 1969: Actress Allison Smith
  

• 1972: Rock musician Tre Cool (Green Day)
  

• 1974: Rapper Canibus
  

• 1976: Rock musician Eric Zamora (Save Ferris)

Events in History on this day
  

• 0297: Martyrdom of Sts. Hipparchus and Philotheus
  

• 0861: Murder of Mutawakkil, Caliph of Baghdad
  

• 1165: Death of Malcolm IV, King of Scotland
  

• 1212: Coronation of Frederick II as King of Germany
  

• 1292: Death of Sa'di, Persian poet
  

• 1437: Death of Sigsimund, King of Hungary, Bohemia, Germany and Lombardy, and Emperor of Rome
  

• 1469: Death of Fra Filippo Lippi
  

• 1502: King Henry VII grants patent to Co. of Adventurers to the New World
  

• 1565: Death of Pope Pius IV
  

• 1640: Banishment of Hugh Bewitt from the Massachusetts Colony for declaring himself free of Original Sin
  

• 1641: Death of Anthony Van Dyck, painter
  

• 1793: Noah Webster establishes New York's 1st daily newspaper.
  

• 1836: Mikhail Glinka became the first internationally acclaimed composer after "A Life for the Czar" premiered in St. Petersburg.
  

• 1854: Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," was published in England.
  
  

• 1907: Christmas seals went on sale for the first time: at the Wilmington, Delaware, post office; proceeds went to fight tuberculosis.
  

• 1920: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Wilson.
  

• 1940: British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War Two.
  

• 1941: China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.
  

• 1942: The Aram Khachaturian ballet "Gayane," featuring the surging "Saber Dance," was first performed by the Kirov Ballet.
  

• 1950: Harry Gold gets 30 years imprisonment for passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II.
  

• 1955: Sugar Ray Robinson knocks out Carl Olson to regain world middleweight boxing title.
  

• 1958: Robert H.W. Welch Junior and eleven other men met in Indianapolis to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society.
  

• 1965: Nikolai V. Podgorny replaced Anastas I. Mikoyan as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
  

• 1974: White House aide John Ehrlichman testified at the Watergate trial that President Nixon was responsible for the cover-up.
  

• 1979: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the religious broadcaster, died in New York City at age 84.
  

• 1995: Congressman Kweisi Mfume (Democrat, Maryland) was chosen to become the new head of the NAACP.
  

• 1987: On the second day of their White House summit, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev grappled with differences over Afghanistan and cutbacks in long-range nuclear arms.
  

• 1988: In the wake of the Armenian earthquake that claimed tens of thousands of lives, countries around the world began sending emergency supplies and offering pledges of relief funds.
  

• 1989: President Bush's national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger began a surprise visit to Beijing, six months after China's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
  

• 1990: Lech Walesa won Poland's first direct presidential vote.
  

• 1990: The first American hostages to be released by Iraq began arriving in the United States.
  

• 1992: Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple's divorce became final August 28th, 1996.)
  

• 1992: Former CIA spy chief Clair George was convicted of lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair (however, he was pardoned by President Bush).
  

• 1992: Russian President Boris Yeltsin suffered a defeat when the Russian Congress rejected his reform-minded nominee for prime minister.
  

• 1993: The Air Force destroyed the first of 500 "Minuteman Two" missile silos marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.
  

• 1993: Astronauts aboard the space shuttle "Endeavour" completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.
  

• 1993: Scientists at Princeton University in New Jersey produced a controlled fusion reaction equivalent to 3 million watts.
  

• 1994: President Clinton fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders after learning she'd told a conference that masturbation should be discussed in school as a part of human sexuality.
  

• 1994: Representatives of the Irish Republican Army and the British government opened peace talks in Northern Ireland.
  

• 1995: Congressman Kweisi Mfume, D-Maryland, was chosen to become the new head of the NAACP.
  

• 1996: More than four months after the Olympic bombing, the FBI posted a $500,000 reward.
  

• 1996: The United Nations gave Iraq the go-ahead to resume oil exports for the first time since 1990 to buy food and medicine.
  

• 1996: Archaeologist and anthropologist Mary Leakey died in Kenya at age 83.
  

• 1997: Confronting her critics, Attorney General Janet Reno traded testy remarks with House Republicans on the House committee investigating campaign fund-raising as she defended her decision not to seek an independent counsel for fund-raising calls made by President Clinton and Vice President Gore.
  

• 1998: Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee drew up four articles of impeachment against President Clinton, all stemming from his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky and long campaign to cover it up.
  

• 1999: In Worcester, Mass., six firefighters who had died in a warehouse blaze were honored as fallen heroes by thousands of their brethren from around the world. 

    
  

Today's History Focus

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