December 15

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

– Proverbs 8:34

December is:

Art Art and Architecture Book Month - Promotes books about art, architecture, photography, buildings and other fine art. Sponsor: Book Marketing Update.

Born on this Day

• 0037 A.D.: The Roman emperor Nero. NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS GERMANICUS, also called (AD 50-54) NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR DRUSUS GERMANICUS, original name LUCIUS DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS the fifth Roman emperor (AD 54-68), stepson and heir of the emperor Claudius.
  

• 1485: Katherine of Aragon
  

• 1643: Thomas Kingo. A clergyman and poet whose works are considered the high point of Danish Baroque poetry.
  

• 1657: Michel-Richard Delalande He was the leading composer of sacred music in France in the early 18th century, one of the few composers who asserted any influence while Jean-Baptiste Lully lived.
  

• 1793: Economist Henry C(harles) Carey. American economist and sociologist, often called the founder of the American school of economics, widely known in his day as an advocate of protectionism.
  

• 1820: British theologian and preacher John Caird He was an exponent of theism in Hegelian terms.
  

• 1832: Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel
  

• 1852: Physicist Henri Becquerel. French physicist who discovered radioactivity through his investigations of uranium and other substances. In 1903 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie.
  

• 1859: Polish linguist Ludwik Zamenhof, creator of the international language Esperanto
  

• 1861: Charles Edgar Duryea, with his brother, invented 1st auto to be built and operated in US.
  

• 1883: William A. Hinton, developer of the "Hinton Test" for diagnosing syphilis.
  

• 1888: Playwright Maxwell Anderson
  

• 1892: Billionaire oilman John Paul Getty. American oil billionaire reputed to be the richest man in the world at the time of his death. He owned a controlling interest in Getty Oil Company and in nearly 200 other concerns.
  

• 1904: Tony Award-winning producer Kermit Bloomgarden (The Diary of Anne Frank)
  

• 1920: Baseball player Eddie Robinson
  

• 1922: Disc jockey Alan Freed (WJW, Cleveland, WINS & WABC, New York: The Moondoggy Show; fired on air at WABC for alleged involvement in the payola scandal of the late 1950s)
  

• 1928: Country singer Ernest Ashworth
  

• 1928: Ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson (Danny O'Day, Farfel the Dog)
  

• 1932: Edna O'Brien Irish novelist, short-story writer, and screenwriter whose work has been noted for its portrayal of women, evocative description, and sexual candour.
  

• 1933: Actor-comedian Tim Conway
  

• 1939: Singer Cindy Birdsong (The Supremes)
  

• 1942: Singer Dave Clark (Group: The Dave Clark Five: Bits and Pieces, Do You Love Me, Glad All Over, Everybody Knows, Red Balloon, Good Old Rock & Roll, Everybody Get Together)
  

• 1946: Rock musician Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge)
  

• 1949: Actor Don (Wayne) Johnson (Nash Bridges, Miami Vice, Harrad Experiment, A Boy and His Dog, The Long, Hot Summer, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Revenge of the Stepford Wives)
  

• 1954: Movie director Alex Cox ("Repo Man")
  

• 1954: Actor Justin Ross
  

• 1955: Rock musician Paul Simonon (The Clash)
  

• 1960: Country singer Doug Phelps (Brother Phelps; Kentucky Headhunters)
  

• 1961: Movie director Reginald Hudlin ("House Party")
  

• 1963: Actress Helen Slater
  

• 1977: "Crowd-hyper" Kito Trawick (Ghostown DJs) 

Events in History on this day
  

• 0687: Election of Sergius I as Pope
  

• 1025: Basil II is succeeded as emperor Constantine VIII, his brother and co-ruler.
  

• 1268: Death of Haakon IV "the Old," King of Norway
  

• 1562: Mary Stuart holds her second interview with John Knox
  

• 1788: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach died.
  

• 1791: The first ten amendments to the US Constitution -- the Bill of Rights -- went into effect following ratification by Virginia.
  

• 1862: Nathan B. Forrest crosses the Tennessee River at Clifton with 2,500 men to raid the communications around Vicksburg.
  

• 1877: Patent granted to Mr. Edison for the phonograph.
  

• 1890: In an attempt to arrest Sitting Bull at his Standing Rock, South Dakota, cabin, shooting breaks out and Lt. Bullhead shoots the great Sioux leader. In the ensuing fracas eleven other tribe members were killed.
  

• 1903: Parliament places a 15-year ban on whale fishing in Norway.
  

• 1916: The French defeated the Germans in the World War One Battle of Verdun.
  

• 1918: Portuguese President Sidoni is assassinated.
  

• 1924: Soviets warn the U.S. against repeated entry of ships into the territorial waters of the USSR.
  

• 1938: Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial took place in Washington DC.
  

• 1938: Washington sends its fourth note to Berlin demanding amnesty for Jews.
  

• 1939: The motion picture "Gone With the Wind" had its world premiere in Atlanta.
  

• 1939: Nylon yarn was sold to hosiery mills to make women’s stockings; marking the first use of commercial yarn for apparel. The DuPont product enabled a record number of ladies’ hose to go on sale for the first time in May, 1940. And it all started in nylon’s hometown: Wilmington, Delaware.
  

• 1941: The first automobile licenses are issued by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. They are made from plastic.
  

• 1941: A musical standard was recorded on Victor Records. Lena Horne sang the torch classic that became her signature: "Stormy Weather."
  

• 1943: Famed composer, blues singer, piano and pipe organ player, Fats (Thomas Wright) Waller, died at the age of 39 from pneumonia. He began playing piano at the age of six, recording songs by 16. A few of his many songs include On the Sunny Side of the Street, I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Ain’t Misbehavin’, I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Fallin’, Honeysuckle Rose, I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter and It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie.
  

• 1944: A single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, a US Army major, disappeared over the English Channel while en route to Paris.
  

• 1946: Vietnam leader Ho Chi Minh sends a note to the new French Premier, Leon Blum, asking for peace talks.
  

• 1948: A federal grand jury in New York indicted former State Department official Alger Hiss on perjury charges.
  

• 1948: President Nixon announces the third round of Vietnam withdrawals. While the military is responsible for fighting a war, its civilian superiors determine how it will be fought.
  

• 1949: After a decade on radio, "Captain Midnight" was heard for the final time.
  

• 1954: "Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter" was featured on Walt Disney’s TV series for the first time. Crockett was played by Fess Parker. It wasn’t long before the Davy Crockett craze brought a new number one song to the pop music charts. "Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier."
  

• 1961: Adolf Eichmann, the former German Gestapo official accused of a major role in the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews, is sentenced by a Jerusalem court to be hanged. Adolf Eichmann was the administrator of the so-called Final Solution and supervised the transportation of prisoners to concentration camps.
  

• 1962: The first record album to poke fun at a U.S. President became the #1LP in the country. Vaughn Meader’s "The First Family" made the humorist a household word. The album stayed at #1 for three months.
  

• 1964: Canada's House of Commons approved dropping the "Red Ensign" flag in favor of a new design.
  

• 1965: 1st rendevous in space: Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 link up.
  

• 1965: The U.S. drops 12 tons of bombs on an industrial center near Haiphong.
  

• 1966: Movie producer Walt Disney died in Los Angeles.
  

• 1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the meat bill in the presence of Upton Sinclair the author of the controversial book "The Jungle."
  

• 1968: President Nixon announces the third round of Vietnam withdrawals. While the military is responsible for fighting a war, its civilian superiors determine how it will be fought.
  

• 1972: The Commonwealth of Australia orders equal pay for women.
  

• 1973: The American Psychiatric Association reversed its longstanding position and declared that homosexuality is not a mental illness.
  

• 1974: Bert Jones, quarterback of the Baltimore Colts, set an NFL record by completing seventeen consecutive passes in a game against the New York Jets.
  

• 1980 - Dave Winfield signed a ten-year contract with the New York Yankees this day for somewhere between $1.3 and $1.5 million. He become the wealthiest player in the history of U.S. team sports.
  

• 1982: Teamsters Union President Roy Williams and four others were convicted in federal court of conspiring to bribe Senator Howard Cannon, D-Nev.
  

• 1986: Violinist Isaac Stern arrived in a horse-drawn carriage to cut the ribbon for the renovated Carnegie Hall in New York City.
  

• 1987: Gary Hart, who had dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination amid questions about his relationship with Miami model Donna Rice, made a surprise return to the campaign, saying, "Let's let the people decide."
  

• 1988: US Ambassador Robert H. Pelletreau Junior telephoned the PLO's headquarters in Tunisia, one day after President Reagan authorized direct talks.
  

• 1989: Drug trafficker Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha was killed in northern Colombia following a shootout with police.
  

• 1989: A popular uprising that resulted in the downfall of Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu began as demonstrators gathered in Timisoara to prevent the arrest of the Reverend Laszlo Tokes, a dissident clergyman. 
  

• 1990: European Community leaders wrapped up a historic summit in Rome committed to creating a politically unified federation. 
  

• 1990: With one month left before a U.N. deadline for Iraq to leave Kuwait, Iraq gave no indication it was prepared to pull out. 
  

• 1991: At least 464 people were left dead or missing when an Egyptian-registered ferry sank in the Red Sea.
  

• 1992: President-elect Clinton concluded a two-day conference on the economy, saying the nation must tame "the monster of spiraling health care costs" if it was ever to slash the huge budget deficit.
  

• 1992: IBM announced it would eliminate 25,000 more employees in the coming year.
  

• 1993: Defense Secretary Les Aspin announced his resignation, citing "personal reasons."
  

• 1993: In Geneva, 117 countries completed the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, agreeing on a reform package intended to kick-start the global economy.
  

• 1993: John Williams made his final appearance as the conductor of the Boston Pops this week. On this night Williams conducted Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" and the "Hallellujah Chorus" from "Messiah," among other things.
  

• 1994: President Clinton, in a 12-minute prime-time address, presented a package of tax cuts for middle-income families raising children, and outlined deep reductions in government programs to help pay for them.
  

• 1995: President Clinton defied a deadline for turning over a former aide's Whitewater notes, prompting a deeply divided Senate investigative committee to vote to challenge him in federal court. (The White House agreed six days later to turn over the notes.) 
  

• 1995: French rail workers voted to end a three-week-old strike. 
  

• 1996: Boeing Company announced plans to pay $13.3 billion to acquire rival aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas Corporation.
  

• 1997: Over Republican objections, President Clinton appointed Bill Lann Lee acting assistant attorney general for civil rights.
  

• 1998: President Clinton concluded his three-day Middle East journey on a disappointing note as Israel refused to resume the West Bank troop withdrawals called for under the Wye River peace accord; nevertheless, Clinton declared his trip a success.
  

• 1999: With President Clinton's close mediation, Syria reopened peace talks with Israel in Washington.   

Today's History Focus

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