12/1/1847 :Julia A. Davis Moore, "Sweet Singer of Michigan."

12/1/1886 :Rex Stout, detective novelist.

12/1/1904 :W.A. "Tony" Boyle, former United Mine Workers president.

12/1/1914 :Mary Martin, actress.

12/1/1923 :Stansfield Turner, former CIA director.

12/1/1925 :Jordan Klein, filmaker.

12/1/1935 :Woody Allen (Allen Stuart Konigsberg), comedian-filmmaker.

12/1/1936 :Lou Rawls, blues singer and actor.

12/1/1939 :Lee Trevino, golfer.

12/1/1940 :Richard Pryor, comedian-actor.

12/1/1945 :Bette Midler, singer-actress.

12/1/1958 :Charlene Tilton, actress.

12/1/1960 :Carol Alt, cover girl.

12/2/1856 :Frank Kellogg, American statesman.

12/2/1859 :Georges Pierre Seurat, French painter.

12/2/1863 :Charles Ringling, circus co-founder.

12/2/1906 :Peter Carl Goldmark, engineer (inventor of the LP). (1914?)

12/2/1915 :Adolph Green, actor and composer.

12/2/1916 :Charlie Ventura, musician.

12/2/1923 :Maria Callas, American opera singer.

12/2/1924 :Alexander Meigs Haig Jr, former US Secretary of State.

12/2/1925 :Julie Harris, actress.

12/2/1931 :Edwin Meese III, former US Attorney General.

12/2/1939 :Harry Reid, Nevada Senator.

12/2/1948 :Cathy Lee Crosby, TV host and actress.

12/2/1954 :Stone Phillips, newscaster.

12/2/1958 :Randy Gardner, figure skater.

12/2/1973 :Monica Seles, tennis player.

12/3/1755 :Gilbert Charles Stuart, US presidential portrait painter.

12/3/1838 :Cleveland Abbe, initiator of daily weather bulletins.

12/3/1842 :Charles Pillsbury.

12/3/1857 :Joseph Conrad, Polish novelist.

12/3/1895 :Anna Freud.

12/3/1927 :Ferlin Husky, country singer.

12/3/1928 :Thomas M. Foglietta, Pennsylvania Senator.

12/3/1930 :Andy Williams, singer.

12/3/1930 :Jean Luc Godard, French film director.

12/3/1931 :Jaye P. Morgan, singer. (1932?)

12/3/1948 :Ozzy Osbourne, singer and songwriter.

12/3/1951 :Rick Mears, auto racer.

12/3/1965 :Katarina Witt, former Olympic figure skating champion.

12/3/1981 :Brian Bonsall, actor.

12/4/1795 :Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian.

12/4/1835 :Samuel Butler, English novelist.

12/4/1861 :Lillian Russell (Helen Louise Leonard), actress-singer.

12/4/1875 :Rainer Maria Rilke.

12/4/1892 :Francisco Franco, Spanish dictator.

12/4/1905 :Munro Leaf.

12/4/1921 :Deanna Durbin, actress-singer.

12/4/1924 :Helen M. Chase, co-editor of "Chase's Annual Events."

12/4/1925 :Maurice Binder, title designer.

12/4/1932 :Roh Tae-woo, president of South Korea.

12/4/1934 :Victor French, actor.

12/4/1935 :Robert Vesco, fugitive financier.

12/4/1937 :Max Baer Jr, actor-producer.

12/4/1937 :Stewart Rawlings Mott, philanthropist.

12/4/1942 :Chris Hillman, musician.

12/4/1949 :Jeff Bridges, actor.

12/4/1951 :Patricia Wettig, actor ("thirtysomething.")

12/4/1956 :Bernard King.

12/4/1964 :Marisa Tormei, actress.

12/5/1782 :Martin Van Buren, 8th US president.

12/5/1830 :Christina Rosseti.

12/5/1839 :General George Custer.

12/5/1890 :Fritz Lang, film director.

12/5/1894 :P.K. Wrigley.

12/5/1901 :Walter Elias Disney, cartoon creator.

12/5/1902 :Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Senator.

12/5/1906 :Otto Preminger, film director.

12/5/1918 :Jeff Chandler, actor.

12/5/1927 :Rama IX of Thailand, first king born in the US.

12/5/1932 :Little Richard, singer.

12/5/1934 :Joan Didion, author.

12/5/1935 :Calvin Trillin, author.

12/5/1936 :Chad Mitchell, singer.

12/5/1945 :J.W. "Corkey" Fornof, stunt pilot.

12/5/1946 :Jose Carreras, tenor.

12/5/1947 :Jim Messina, singer and songwriter.

12/5/1951 :Morgan Brittany (Suzanne Cupito), actress.

12/5/1957 :Art Monk, football player.

12/5/1963 :Carrie Hamilton, actress (TV series "Fame").

12/6/1421 :Henry VI, British king.

12/6/1778 :Joseph Gay-Lussac, French chemist.

12/6/1870 :William S. Hart, silent movie Western star.

12/6/1883 :Kahlil Gibran, writer ("The Prophet"). (4/10?) [1/6?]

12/6/1886 :Joyce (Alfred) Kilmer, poet.

12/6/1892 :Osbert Sitwell, writer.

12/6/1893 :Sylvia Townsend Warner.

12/6/1896 :Ira Gershwin, lyricist.

12/6/1898 :Alfred Eisenstaedt, photographer.

12/6/1906 :Agnes Moorehead, actress.

12/6/1913 :Eleanor Holm, actress and swimmer.

12/6/1920 :Dave Brubeck, jazz pianist.

12/6/1924 :Wally Cox, comedian.

12/6/1941 :Walter Perkins, football coach.

12/6/1948 :Don Nickles, Oklahoma Senator.

12/6/1953 :Thomas Hulce, actor.

12/6/1953 :Wil Shriner, TV personality.

12/6/1955 :Steven Wright, comedian.

12/6/1957 :Steve Bedrosian, baseball player.

12/6/1967 :Kevin Appier.

12/7/1598 :Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor.

12/7/1754 :Jack Jouett, American patriot.

12/7/1760 :Marie Grosholtz Tussaud, wax figure creator.

12/7/1810 :Theodor Schwann, German co-originator of cell theory.

12/7/1873 :Willa Cather, novelist.

12/7/1879 :Rudolph Friml, composer ("Indian Love Call").

12/7/1888 :Joyce Cary, novelist ("The Horse's Mouth").

12/7/1909 :Jacob Kainen, aritist and curator.

12/7/1915 :Eli Wallach, actor.

12/7/1923 :Ted Knight (Tadeus Wladslaw Konopka), actor.

12/7/1926 :Victor Kermit Kiam II, business executive.

12/7/1928 :Noam Chomsky, linguist.

12/7/1932 :Ellen Burstyn (Edna Rae Gilhooley), actress.

12/7/1936 :Martha Layne Collins, Kentucky Governor.

12/7/1937 :Thad Cochran, Mississippi Senator.

12/7/1942 :Harry Chapin, rock-folksinger.

12/7/1947 :Gregg Allman, singer and musician. (12/8?)

12/7/1947 :Johnny Bench, baseball player.

12/7/1949 :Tom Waits, singer-songwriter.

12/7/1956 :Larry Bird, basketball player.

12/7/1966 :C. Thomas Howell, actor.

12/8/-65  :Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus).

12/8/1542 :Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

12/8/1765 :Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin.

12/8/1861 :William Crapo Durant, General Motors founder.

12/8/1865 :Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer.

12/8/1886 :Diego Rivera, Mexican muralist.

12/8/1894 :James Grover Thurber, American humorist and artist.

12/8/1911 :Lee J. Cobb, actor.

12/8/1913 :Delmore Schwartz, poet.

12/8/1925 :Sammy Davis Jr, entertainer.

12/8/1930 :Maximilian Schell, actor.

12/8/1933 :Flip Wilson, comedian.

12/8/1937 :James MacArthur, actor.

12/8/1939 :James Galway, Irish flutist.

12/8/1941 :Red Berenson, hockey player.

12/8/1943 :Jim Morrison, singer and songwriter.

12/8/1947 :Gregg Allman, rock singer. (12/7?)

12/8/1949 :Mary Gordon, novelist.

12/8/1953 :Kim Basinger, actress.

12/8/1966 :Sinead O'Connor, singer.

12/9/1561 :Sir Edwin Sandys, English founder of the Virgina Colony.

12/9/1608 :John Milton, English poet.

12/9/1652 :Augustus Quirinus Bachman (a.k.a. Rivinus), botanist.

12/9/1667 :William Whiston, mathematician.

12/9/1848 :Joel Chandler Harris, journalist-author ("Uncle Remus").

12/9/1886 :Clarence Birdseye, industrialist-inventor.

12/9/1898 :Emmett Kelly, circus clown.

12/9/1899 :Jean de Brunhoff, French children's book author.

12/9/1906 :Admiral Grace Hopper (Grace Brewster Murray).

12/9/1909 :Douglas Fairbanks Jr, actor.

12/9/1911 :Broderick Crawford, actor.

12/9/1912 :Thomas Phillip ("Tip") O'Neill, former US congressman.

12/9/1916 :Kirk Douglas (Issur Danielovich Demsky), actor.

12/9/1922 :Redd Foxx (John Elroy Sanford), comedian-actor.

12/9/1925 :Dina Merrill, actress.

12/9/1928 :Dick Van Patten, actor.

12/9/1929 :John Cassavetes, actor.

12/9/1941 :Beau Bridges, actor.

12/9/1942 :Dick Butkus, football player.

12/9/1947 :Thomas Andrew Daschle, South Dakota Senator.

12/9/1949 :Tom Kite (Thomas O. Kite Jr), golfer.

12/9/1950 :Joan Armatrading, singer.

12/9/1952 :Michael Dorn, actor.

12/9/1953 :John Malkovich, actor and producer.

12/9/1955 :Otis Birdsong, basketball player.

12/9/1957 :Donny Osmond, singer.

12/10/1787:Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of first school for the deaf.

12/10/1830:Emily Dickinson, US poet.

12/10/1851:Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey, American librarian.

12/10/1907:Rumer Godden, English novelist.

12/10/1910:Dennis Morgan, actor.

12/10/1911:Chet Huntley, TV newscaster.

12/10/1913:Morton Gould, composer-conductor.

12/10/1914:Dorothy Lamour, actress.

12/10/1923:Harold Gould, actor.

12/10/1925:Carolyn Kizer, musician.

12/10/1930:Clayton Yeutter, former US Secretary of Agriculture.

12/10/1946:Gloria Loring, singer and actress.

12/10/1952:Susan Dey, actress.

12/10/1959:Mark Aguirre, basketball player.

12/10/1960:Kenneth Branagh, actor and director.

12/10/1961:Nia Peeples, dancer.

12/10/1985:Raven-Symone, actress.

12/11/1781:David Brewster, Scottish physicist and kaleidoscope inventor.

12/11/1803:Hector Berlioz, French composer.

12/11/1810:Alfred de Musset, French poet.

12/11/1843:Robert Koch, German pioneer bacteriologist.

12/11/1863:Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer.

12/11/1882:Fiorello Henry La Guardia, former New York Mayor.

12/11/1882:Max Born.

12/11/1913:Carlo Ponti, producer.

12/11/1918:Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, Soviet novelist.

12/11/1922:Grace Paley.

12/11/1923:Betsy Blair, actress.

12/11/1930:Jean-Louis Trintignant, actor.

12/11/1931:Rita Moreno, actress.

12/11/1935:James G. Martin, North Carolina Governor.

12/11/1935:Ron Carey, actor.

12/11/1939:Tom Hayden, California state assemblyman. (1940?)

12/11/1940:David Gates, singer and songwriter.

12/11/1941:Max Baucus, Montana Senator.

12/11/1943:Donna Mills, actress.

12/11/1943:John F. Kerry, Massachusetts Senator.

12/11/1944:Brenda Lee (Brenda Mae Tarpley), country singer.

12/11/1946:Lynda Day George, actress.

12/11/1949:Teri Garr, actress.

12/11/1952:Susan Seidelman, movie director.

12/11/1954:Jermaine Jackson, singer.

12/11/1962:Curtis Williams, musician.

12/12/1731:Erasmus Darwin, doctor, poet, and grandfather of Charles.

12/12/1745:John Jay, first chief justice of the US Supreme Court.

12/12/1805:William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist.

12/12/1821:Gustave Flaubert, French novelist.

12/12/1863:Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter.

12/12/1893:Edward G. Robinson, actor.

12/12/1897:Lillian Smith.

12/12/1915:Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra, singer.

12/12/1923:Bob Barker, TV host.

12/12/1924:Edward Irwin Koch, former New York City Mayor.

12/12/1929:John Osborne, English playwright ("Look Back in Anger").

12/12/1938:Connie Francis (Constance Franconero), singer.

12/12/1941:Dionne Warwick, singer.

12/12/1943:Grover Washington Jr, jazz musician.

12/12/1948:David K. Karnes, Nebraska Senator.

12/12/1952:Cathy Rigby, gymnast.

12/12/1956:Ana-Alicia Ortiz.

12/12/1958:Sheila E. (Sheila Escoveda), singer.

12/12/1962:Tracy Austin, tennis player.

12/12/1975:Mayim Bialik, actress.

12/13/1797:Heinrich Heine, German poet.

12/13/1810:Clark Mills, American sculpter.

12/13/1818:Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln.

12/13/1835:Phillips Brooks, preacher (wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem").

12/13/1887:Sgt. Alvin York, WWI hero.

12/13/1910:Van Heflin, actor.

12/13/1920:George P. Shultz, former US Secretary of State.

12/13/1925:Dick Van Dyke, comedian-actor.

12/13/1927:Christopher Plummer, actor.

12/13/1941:John Davidson, singer.

12/13/1941:Oscar Arias Sanchez, president of Costa Rica.

12/13/1943:Ferguson Jenkins, baseball player.

12/13/1948:Ted Nugent, singer.

12/13/1953:Tom Sanders, aerial cameraman.

12/13/1958:Lynn-Holly Johnson, actress.

12/13/1959:Johnny Whitaker.

12/13/1960:Richard Lamar Dent, football player.

12/13/1981:Chelsea Hertford.

12/14/1503:Nostradamus (Michel de Notredame), French prophet.

12/14/1546:Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and mathematician.

12/14/1896:General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, WWII US air ace.

12/14/1897:Margaret Chase Smith, former Maine Senator.

12/14/1911:Spike Jones, slapstick bandleader.

12/14/1914:Morey Amsterdam, comedian.

12/14/1919:Shirley Jackson, horror novelist.

12/14/1922:Don Hewitt, TV news producer.

12/14/1932:Abbe Lane, singer.

12/14/1932:Charlie Rich, country singer.

12/14/1932:George Furth, actor-writer.

12/14/1935:Lee Remick, actress.

12/14/1938:Leonardo Boff, Brazilian Catholic theologian.

12/14/1946:Michael Ovitz.

12/14/1946:Patty Duke (Anna Maria Duke), actress.

12/14/1946:Stan Smith, tennis player.

12/14/1949:Bill Buckner, baseball player.

12/15/37  :Nero, Roman emperor.

12/15/1832:Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, French designer of the Eiffel Tower.

12/15/1859:Dr. Ludwik L. Zamenhof, Polish inventor of Esperanto.

12/15/1861:Charles E. Duryea, automobile inventor.

12/15/1888:Maxwell Anderson, playwright ("Winterset").

12/15/1904:Betty Smith, American novelist ("A Tree Grows in Brooklyn").

12/15/1910:John Henry Hammond, former recording company executive.

12/15/1913:Muriel Rukeyser.

12/15/1928:Friedrich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist.

12/15/1932:Edna O'Brien, Irish author. (1931?)

12/15/1933:Tim Conway, actor-comedian.

12/15/1940:Nick Buoniconti, football player.

12/15/1942:Dave Clark, musician.

12/15/1949:Don Johnson (Donald Wayne), actor.

12/15/1961:Daryl Turner, football player.

12/16/1485:Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII.

12/16/1770:Ludwig Van Beethoven, composer.

12/16/1775:Jane Austen, English novelist.

12/16/1863:George Santayana, Spanish philosopher and author.

12/16/1899:Sir Noel Coward, playwright-composer.

12/16/1900:V.S. Pritchett, author.

12/16/1901:Margaret Mead, anthropologist.

12/16/1917:Arthur Charles Clark, science fiction novelist.

12/16/1928:Bruce N. Ames, biochemist and cancer researcher.

12/16/1932:Quentin Blake, author and illustrator.

12/16/1939:Liv Johanne Ullmann, actress. (1943?)

12/16/1941:Lesley Stahl, CBS news correspondent.

12/16/1943:Steven Bochco, TV writer and producer.

12/16/1951:Mike Flanagan, baseball player.

12/16/1955:Carol Browner.

12/16/1962:William "The Refrigerator" Perry, football player.

12/16/1964:Billy Ripkin.

12/17/1734:William Floyd, signer of the US Declaration of Independence.

12/17/1760:Deborah Sampson (alias Robert Shurtleff), Revolutionary War

          :soldier.

12/17/1807:John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet.

12/17/1873:Ford Madox Ford (Ford Hermann Hueffer), English novelist.

12/17/1894:Arthur Fiedler, founder and conductor of the Boston Pops.

12/17/1903:Erskine Caldwell, novelist.

12/17/1908:Willard Frank Libby, inventor of "carbon dating."

12/17/1910:Sy Oliver, music arranger and composer.

12/17/1917:Gene Rayburn, TV game show host. (12/22?)

12/17/1929:William Safire, New York Times columnist.

12/17/1930:Bob Guccione (Robert Charles Joseph Edwa), Penthouse Publisher.

12/17/1936:Tommy Steele, singer-actor.

12/17/1946:Eugene Levy, comedian.

12/17/1959:Albert King, basketball player.

12/18/1778:Joseph Grimaldi, "greatest clown in history."

12/18/1786:Carl Maria von Weber, German composer.

12/18/1856:Joseph Thompson, discoverer of the electron.

12/18/1870:Saki (H. H. Munro), British story writer.

12/18/1879:Paul Klee, Swiss modernist painter.

12/18/1886:Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb, baseball player.

12/18/1890:Edwin Howard Armstrong, inventor of FM radio.

12/18/1904:George Stevens, film director ("Giant").

12/18/1907:Christopher Fry.

12/18/1913:Willy Brandt, former West German chancellor.

12/18/1916:Betty Grable, actress and pin-up girl.

12/18/1917:Ossie Davis, actor.

12/18/1927:(William) Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General.

12/18/1943:Keith Richards, rock star.

12/18/1947:Steven Spielberg, film director ("E.T., the Extraterrestrial").

12/18/1950:Leonard Maltin, movie reviewer.

12/18/1954:Ray Liotta.

12/18/1963:Charles Oakley, basketball player.

12/18/1965:Brad Pitt, actor.

12/18/1971:Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, tennis player.

12/19/1790:Sir William Edward Parry, British Arctic explorer.

12/19/1821:Mary Ashton Livermore, women's suffrage leader.

12/19/1861:Ettore Schmitz (a.k.a. Italo Svevo), novelist.

12/19/1861:Nikolai Ivanovich Andrusov, geologist and zoologist.

12/19/1865:Minnie Maddern Fiske, American theater actress.

12/19/1868:Eleanor Porter, novelist ("Pollyanna").

12/19/1902:Ralph Richardson, actor.

12/19/1906:Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet President.

12/19/1910:Jean Genet, French dramatist.

12/19/1934:Al Kaline, baseball player.

12/19/1939:Cicely Tyson, actress ("Sounder").

12/19/1941:Maurice White, singer.

12/19/1944:Richard E. Leakey, anthropologist.

12/19/1944:Tim Reid, actor.

12/19/1945:Elaine Joyce, actress.

12/19/1946:Robert Urich, actor.

12/19/1947:Janie Fricke, singer.

12/19/1957:Kevin McHale, basketball player.

12/19/1963:Jennifer Beals, actress ("Flashdance").

12/19/1972:Alyssa Milano, actress ("Who's the Boss?").

12/20/1833:Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, gave medical aid to John Wilkes Booth.

12/20/1865:Elsie de Wolfe (Lady Mendl), author-decorator.

12/20/1868:Harvey Samuel Firestone, US industrialist.

12/20/1881:Branch Rickey, baseball player.

12/20/1894:Robert Gordon Menzies, Australian statesman.

12/20/1895:Susanne K. Langer, American philosopher.

12/20/1901:Robert Van de Graaff, US nuclear physicist.

12/20/1902:Sidney Hook, philosopher and educator.

12/20/1904:Irene Dunne, actress.

12/20/1922:George Roy Hill, movie director ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance

          :Kid").

12/20/1925:Mahathir bin Mohamed, prime minister of Malaysia.

12/20/1926:David Levine, artist and caricaturist.

12/20/1932:John Hillerman, actor.

12/20/1946:Uri Geller, psychic and clairvoyant.

12/20/1952:Jenny Agutter, actress.

12/21/1401:Masaccio (Tommaso Guidi?), Florentine Renaissance painter.

12/21/1773:Robert Brown, botanist.

12/21/1804:Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman.

12/21/1879:Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Soviet dictator.

12/21/1905:Anthony Powell, novelist.

12/21/1909:George W. Ball, former US Undersecretary of State.

12/21/1917:Heinrich Boll, German novelist.

12/21/1918:Kurt Waldheim, former Austrian President.

12/21/1922:Paul Winchell, ventriloquist.

12/21/1924:Joe Paterno.

12/21/1928:Ed Nelson, actor.

12/21/1935:Phil Donahue, talk show host.

12/21/1936:Barbara Roberts, Oregon Governor.

12/21/1937:Jane Fonda, actress.

12/21/1940:Frank Zappa (Francis Vincent, Jr), rock musician.

12/21/1948:Dave Kingman, baseball player.

12/21/1954:Chris Evert, tennis star.

12/21/1959:Florence Griffith Joyner, track athlete.

12/21/1960:Andrew James Van Slyke, baseball player.

12/22/1639:Jean Racine, French writer.

12/22/1696:General James Edward Oglethorpe, colonizer of Georgia.

12/22/1727:William Ellery, signer of the US Declaration of Independence.

12/22/1858:Giacomo Puccini, Italian opera composer.

12/22/1862:Connie Mack, Philadelphia A's manager and "Dean of Baseball."

12/22/1869:Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet ("Richard Cory").

12/22/1912:Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson, wife of Lyndon Baines

          :Johnson.

12/22/1917:Gene Rayburn, TV personality. (12/17?)

12/22/1922:Barbara Billingsley, actress ("Leave It To Beaver").

12/22/1922:Jim Wright, former US House Speaker.

12/22/1936:Hector Elizondo, actor.

12/22/1944:Steve Carlton, baseball player.

12/22/1945:Diane K. Sawyer, ABC news correspondent.

12/22/1948:Steve Garvey, baseball player.

12/22/1949:Maurice Gibb, musician.

12/22/1949:Robin Gibb, musician.

12/22/1951:Jan Stephenson, golfer.

12/22/1954:Ron Greschner.

12/22/1956:Colo, first gorilla born in captivity (Columbus, Ohio, zoo).

12/22/1968:Lauralee Bell, actress.

12/23/1193:Saint Thorlac.

12/23/1790:Jean Francois Champollion, decipherer of the Rosetta Stone.

12/23/1805:Joseph Smith, Mormon church founder.

12/23/1810:Edward Blyth, zoologist.

12/23/1812:Samuel Smiles, Scottish writer.

12/23/1860:Harriet Monroe, founder of "Poetry" magazine.

12/23/1885:Vincent Sardi Sr, Manhattan restauranteur.

12/23/1888:J. Arthur Rank, British film executive.

12/23/1896:Giuseppe di Lampedusa, Italian novelist ("The Leopard").

12/23/1907:Don McNeill, "Breakfast Club" radio program emcee.

12/23/1908:Yousuf Karsh, photographer.

12/23/1911:James Gregory, actor.

12/23/1918:Helmut Schmidt, West German Chancellor.

12/23/1918:Jose Greco, dancer.

12/23/1921:Gerald S. O'Loughlin, actor.

12/23/1924:Floyd Kalber, newscaster.

12/23/1924:Ruth Roman, actress. (1923?)

12/23/1925:Harry Guardino, actor.

12/23/1926:Robert Bly, author.

12/23/1933:Emperor Akihito, head of Japanese royal family.

12/23/1933:Rachel W. (Rac) Slider, baseball coach.

12/23/1947:Bill Rogers, marathon runner.

12/23/1949:Susan Lucci, actress.

12/23/1963:Jim (James Joseph) Harbough, football player.

12/23/1971:Corey Haim, actor.

12/24/1167:King John I of England.

12/24/1737:Silas Deane, US diplomat.

12/24/1745:Benjamin Rush, physician-chemist.

12/24/1809:Christopher "Kit" Carson, frontiersman.

12/24/1818:James Prescott Joule, English physicist and inventor.

12/24/1822:Matthew Arnold, English poet and essayist.

12/24/1881:Juan Ramon Jimenez.

12/24/1888:Michael Curtiz, film director ("Casablanca").

12/24/1905:Howard Robard Hughes, industrialist.

12/24/1907:Isidor Feinstein Stone, journalist and author.

12/24/1922:Ava Gardner (Lucy Johnson), actress.

12/24/1927:Mary Higgins Clark, author. (1931?)

12/24/1931:Jill Bennett, actress.

12/24/1940:Anthony Fauci, US health administrator.

12/24/1945:Nicholas Meyer, author and director.

12/25/1642:Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and scientist.

12/25/1771:Dorothy Wordsworth.

12/25/1821:Clarissa "Clara" Harlowe Barton, American Red Cross founder.

12/25/1865:Evangeline Cory Booth, Salvation Army general.

12/25/1876:Mohammed Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.

12/25/1892:Dame Rebecca West (Cicely Isabel Fairfield), English author.

12/25/1899:Humphrey DeForest Bogart, actor ("The African Queen").

12/25/1907:Cab(ell) Calloway, band leader and singer.

12/25/1931:Carlos Castaneda.

12/25/1934:Bob Martinez, former Governor of Florida.

12/25/1945:Gary Sandy, actor.

12/25/1946:Jimmy Buffett, musician.

12/25/1946:Larry Csonka, football player.

12/25/1948:Barbara Ann Mandrell, country and western singer.

12/25/1949:Mary Elizabeth "Sissy" Spacek, actress.

12/25/1954:Annie Lennox, British singer and songwriter.

12/25/1958:Rickey Henderson, baseball player.

12/26/1716:Thomas Gray, English poet.

12/26/1738:Thomas Nelson, signer of the US Declaration of Independence.

12/26/1778:Juan Lovera, Venezuelan "Artist of Independence."

12/26/1791:Charles Babbage, developer of first speedometer.

12/26/1837:Adm. George Dewey, US Naval hero.

12/26/1891:Henry Valentine Miller, American novelist.

12/26/1893:Mao Tse-Tung, leader of Chinese communist revolution.

12/26/1894:Jean Toomer.

12/26/1914:Richard Widmark, actor.

12/26/1918:Anwar Sadat, Egyptian President.

12/26/1921:Steve Allen, entertainer.

12/26/1927:Alan King (Irwin Alan Kniberg), comedian.

12/26/1940:Phil Spector, record producer.

12/26/1944:Jane Lapotaire, actress.

12/26/1947:Carlton Fisk, baseball player.

12/26/1948:Chris Chambliss, baseball player.

12/26/1952:Ray Knight. (12/28?)

12/26/1954:Ozzie Smith, baseball player.

12/26/1954:Susan Butcher, Iditarod champion.

12/26/1955:Evan Bayh, Indiana Governor.

12/26/1961:Storm Davis.

12/27/1571:Johannes Kepler, German astronomer and mathematician.

12/27/1773:Sir George Cayley, English father of aerodynamics.

12/27/1822:Louis Pasteur, French bacteriologist.

12/27/1901:Marlene Dietrich, actress.

12/27/1911:Anna Russell, comedienne.

12/27/1915:Dr. William Howell Masters, physician (... and Johnson).

12/27/1924:James A. McClure, former Idaho Senator.

12/27/1926:Lee Salk, psychologist and author.

12/27/1935:Bernard Lanvin, fashion designer.

12/27/1940:John Amos, actor.

12/27/1943:Cokie Roberts.

12/27/1948:Gerard Depardieu, actor.

12/27/1952:Tovah Feldshuh, actress.

12/28/1763:John Molson, patriarch of Molson brewery family.

12/28/1856:Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president.

12/28/1903:John von Neumann.

12/28/1905:Earl "Fatha" Hines, jazz pianist.

12/28/1908:Lew Ayres, actor.

12/28/1913:Lou Jacobi, actor.

12/28/1929:Owen Bieber, United Auto Workers union president.

12/28/1931:Martin Milner, actor.

12/28/1932:Manuel Puig, Argentine writer.

12/28/1934:John Akers, business executive.

12/28/1934:Maggie Smith, actress.

12/28/1943:David Peterson, Canadian political leader.

12/28/1946:Edgar Winter, singer and musician.

12/28/1946:Hubie Green, golfer.

12/28/1952:Ray Knight. (12/26?)

12/28/1953:Richard Clayderman, pianist.

12/28/1954:Denzel Washington, actor.

12/28/1958:Carlos Carson, football player.

12/28/1963:Mel Stottlemyre Jr.

12/29/1721:Madame de Pompadour, lover of Louis XV of France.

12/29/1800:Charles Goodyear.

12/29/1808:Andrew Johnson, 17th US president.

12/29/1809:William Ewart Gladstone, English statesman and author.

12/29/1876:Pablo Carlos Salvador Defillio de Casals, famed Spanish cellist.

12/29/1893:Vera Brittain.

12/29/1917:Tom Bradley, Los Angeles Mayor.

12/29/1920:Viveca Lindfors, actress.

12/29/1922:William Gaddis, novelist.

12/29/1932:Inga Swenson, actress.

12/29/1934:Ed Flanders, actor.

12/29/1934:Thomas Edwin Jarriel, ABC newscaster.

12/29/1936:Mary Tyler Moore, actress.

12/29/1938:Jon Voight, actor.

12/29/1946:Laffit Pincay, jockey.

12/29/1946:Marianne Faithfull, singer and actress.

12/29/1946:Paul S. Trible Jr, former Virginia Senator.

12/29/1947:Ted Danson, actor.

12/29/1952:Gelsey Kirjland.

12/29/1959:Mervyn Fernandez, baseball player.

12/29/1985:Alexa Ray Joel.

12/30/1705:Georg Wolfgang Knorr, writer and publisher.

12/30/1865:Rudyard Kipling, British author ("The Jungle Book").

12/30/1867:Simon Guggenheim, American capitalist and philanthropist.

12/30/1869:Stephen Leacock, Canadian economist and humorist.

12/30/1884:Tojo Hideki, Japanese WWII Prime Minister.

12/30/1910:Paul Bowles, movelist ("The Sheltering Sky").

12/30/1911:Jeanette Nolan, actress.

12/30/1914:Bert Parks, former Miss America Pageant emcee.

12/30/1919:Jo Van Fleet, actress. (1922?)

12/30/1928:Bo Diddley, rock 'n' roll pioneer.

12/30/1930:Jack Lord, actor. (1928?)

12/30/1935:Sandy Koufax, baseball player.

12/30/1942:Michael Nesmith, singer and musician.

12/30/1946:Davy Jones, actor and singer.

12/30/1959:Tracey Ullman, actress and TV personality.

12/30/1961:Ben Johnson, sprinter.

12/31/1491:Jacques Cartier, French explorer.

12/31/1720:Charles Edward Stuart, Scotland's "Bonnie Prince Charlie."

12/31/1869:Henri Matisse, French painter.

12/31/1880:General George Catlett Marshall, "Marshall Plan" formulator.

12/31/1905:Jule Styne, composer.

12/31/1908:Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi hunter.

12/31/1930:Odetta (Odetta Homes Felious Gordon), folk-blues singer.

12/31/1932:George Schlatter, TV producer.

12/31/1937:Anthony Hopkins, actor.

12/31/1941:Sara Miles, actress.

12/31/1943:Ben Kingsley (Krishna Bhanji), actor.

12/31/1943:John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf), singer.

12/31/1947:Diane Halfin Von Furstenberg, fashion designer. (1946?)

12/31/1948:Donna Summer (LaDonna Andrea Gaines), singer.

12/31/1948:Tim Matheson, actor.

12/31/1959:Val Kilmer, actor.

12/31/1972:Joe McIntyre, vocalist.

12:Bingo's Birthday Month

12:Colorectal Cancer Education and Awareness Month

12:Universal Human Rights Month

#: Events depending on weekdays

M(12/7) :National Day (Central African Republic) (first Monday).

R(12/7) :Lover's Fair (Belgium) (first Thursday).

S(12/14):Army and Navy Union Day (Massachusetts) (second Saturday).

M(12/19):US Electoral College votes during election years (Monday

        :following the second Wednesday).

M(12/21):Nuts Fair (Belgium) (third Monday).

F(12/21):Underdog Day (third Friday).

#: Normal events

12/1      :Computer Security Day.

12/1      :Independence Day (Portugal).

12/1      :National Day (Central African Republic).

12/1      :National Roof-Over-Your-Head Day.

12/1      :Restoration of Independence Day (Macau).

12/1      :University Students' Celebration (Iceland).

12/1      :World Aids Day (UN).

12/1/66   :Saint Eligius, patron of veterinarians, locksmiths, cabdrivers,

          :and jockeys, died.

12/1/1145 :Second Crusade began.

12/1/1751 :First manual training school opened (Talbot County, Maryland).

12/1/1797 :Oliver Wolcott, signer of the US Declaration of Independence,

          :died.

12/1/1842 :First naval officer condemned for mutiny hanged.

12/1/1878 :First phone in White House.

12/1/1913 :Continuous moving assembly line introduced by Ford (a car every

          :two hours, 38 minutes).

12/1/1913 :First drive-in gasoline station opened for business (Pittsburgh).

12/1/1917 :Boys Town founded (Father Edward Flanagan, Omaha, Nebraska).

12/1/1918 :Iceland became an independent state from Denmark.

12/1/1924 :First nation corn-husking championship (Alleman, Iowa).

12/1/1924 :George and Ira Gershwin's "Lady, Be Good!" opened on Broadway.

12/1/1927 :Model A introduced.

12/1/1939 :LaGuardia Airport (New York) opened to the public.

12/1/1955 :Rosa Parks refused to move to back of the bus (Montgomery,

          :Alabama).

12/1/1956 :Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" opened on Broadway.

12/1/1958 :Central African Republic gained autonomy.

12/1/1965 :Cuban refugees began airlift to Miami.

12/1/1970 :Italy gave final approval to its first divorce law.

12/1/1973 :David Ben-Gurion, first Israeli prime minister, died.

12/1/1988 :Atlantis (US) launched.

12/1/1989 :Alvin Ailey, dancer and choreographer, died.

12/2      :National Day (United Arab Emirates).

12/2      :Pan American Health Day.

12/2      :Walter Plinge Day.

12/2/1594 :Gerardus Mercator died.

12/2/1804 :Napoleon crowned Emperor of France.

12/2/1814 :The Marquis de Sade died.

12/2/1823 :Monroe Doctrine proclaimed.

12/2/1859 :John Brown, abolitionist, hanged.

12/2/1863 :Jane Means Appleton Pierce, wife of Franklin Pierce, died.

12/2/1899 :US acquired American Samoa.

12/2/1910 :Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science church, died.

12/2/1924 :Sigmund Romberg's "The Student Prince" opened on Broadway.

12/2/1927 :First Model A Ford sold ($395).

12/2/1933 :Transatlantic telephone wedding took place (Detroit).

12/2/1942 :First sustained chain reaction on squash court at University of

          :Chicago.

12/2/1961 :Fidel Castro disclosed he was a communist.

12/2/1968 :Henry Kissinger named special assistant for national security.

12/2/1969 :Boeing 747 made its inaugural flight.

12/2/1971 :Mars 3 (USSR) made the first softlanding on Mars.

12/2/1974 :Soyuz 16 (USSR) launched.

12/2/1982 :First permanent artificial heart transplant (Barney C. Clark).

12/2/1986 :Desi Arnaz died.

12/2/1988 :US Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on a secret mission.

12/2/1990 :Aaron Copland, American composer, died.

12/3      :Farmers Day (Ghana).

12/3      :National Holiday (Laos).

12/3/1639 :First annulment of a marriage by court decree (Boston).

12/3/1775 :First official US flag raised (aboard naval vessel Alfred).

12/3/1787 :First steam-powered boat demonstrated.

12/3/1818 :Illinois became 21st US state.

12/3/1818 :Tin cans introduced to the US.

12/3/1833 :First co-educational college in US (Oberlin College, Ohio).

12/3/1838 :First abolitionist elected to Congress (Joshua R. Giddings -

          :Ohio).

12/3/1894 :Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author, died.

12/3/1905 :John Bartlett, compiler of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, died.

12/3/1910 :First neon light display (Paris).

12/3/1929 :Ford employees got a raise ($7 per day up from $6 per day).

12/3/1947 :"A Streetcar Named Desire" opened on Broadway.

12/3/1948 :First news of the Whittaker Chambers spy case.

12/3/1960 :Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot" opened on Broadway.

12/3/1967 :First successful human heart transplant (led by Dr. Barnard).

12/3/1967 :20th Century Limited (from Chicago to New York) made its last run.

12/3/1971 :Montreux Casino burned down during Frank Zappa concert.

12/3/1973 :Pioneer 10 (US) made the first flyby of Jupiter.

12/3/1979 :Rush for seats at a Cincinnati general admission Who concert (11

          :killed).

12/3/1980 :Bernadine Dohrn, leader of "Weather Underground," surrendered.

12/3/1984 :Poison gas leaked at a Union Carbide pesticide factory in India.

12/4      :Day of the Artisans.

12/4/1674 :First building built on what is now Chicago (Jesuit mission

          :house).

12/4/1735 :#10 Downing Street became the official home of England's prime

          :minister.

12/4/1783 :Washington took leave of his officers at Fraunce's Tavern, New

          :York.

12/4/1786 :Mission Santa Barbara founded.

12/4/1812 :Horsepower mower patent granted (Peter Galliard).

12/4/1843 :Manila paper patented (J.M. and L. Hollingsworth, Braintree,

          :Massachusetts).

12/4/1867 :National Grange founded.

12/4/1875 :William Marcy "Boss" Tweed escaped Ludlow Street jail.

12/4/1930 :Vatican approved the rhythm method.

12/4/1942 :Works Progress Administration liquidated.

12/4/1950 :Jesse Leroy Brown, first black American naval aviator, died.

12/4/1957 :"Chase's Calendar of Annual Events" first appeared in print.

12/4/1963 :Malcolm X suspended by Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad.

12/4/1971 :E. Pakistan became the republic of Bangladesh.

12/4/1973 :Alfred Carl Fuller, founder of the Fuller Brush Co, died.

12/4/1976 :(Edward) Benjamin Britten, English composer, died.

12/4/1976 :Tommy Bolin died.

12/4/1978 :Pioneer Venus 1 (US) became the first craft to orbit Venus.

12/4/1984 :Dr. John Rock, "father of the Pill," died.

12/4/1993 :Frank Zappa, musician, died.

12/5      :Discovery Day (Haiti).

12/5      :International Volunteer Day of Economic and Social Development.

          :(UN)

12/5      :King's Birthday and National Day (Thailand).

12/5/1492 :Haiti discovered (Christopher Columbus).

12/5/1776 :Phi Beta Kappa (first scholastic fraternity in US) founded

          :(William and Mary).

12/5/1791 :Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer, died.

12/5/1848 :Discovery of gold in California confirmed.

12/5/1854 :Folding theater chair patented.

12/5/1865 :Sir Henry Bessemer's method for steel production granted US

          :patent.

12/5/1868 :Velocipede bicycle riding school opened (New York).

12/5/1870 :Alexandre Dumas, French novelist ("The Three Musketeers"), died.

12/5/1876 :Ulysses S. Grant apologized to US Congress.

12/5/1876 :Pipe wrench patented (Daniel C. Stillson).

12/5/1908 :Hoover "suction sweeper" first advertised.

12/5/1926 :Claude Monet, French painter, died.

12/5/1931 :Vachel Lindsay, poet, committed suicide by drinking Lysol.

12/5/1933 :21st Amendment to the US Constitution (repeal of Prohibition)

          :ratified (3:32 pm MST).

12/5/1945 :Flight 19 diappeared over the Bermuda Triangle.

12/5/1955 :AFL-CIO formed.

12/5/1955 :Bus boycott began (Montgomery, Alabama).

12/5/1966 :Roman Catholics first allowed to eat meat on Friday.

12/5/1985 :Dow Jones industrial average broke the 1500 mark for the first

          :time.

12/6      :Day of Quito (Ecuador).

12/6      :Independence Day (Finland).

12/6/342  :Saint Nicholas (patron of Russia, Greece, and Sicily) died.

12/6/1534 :Quito Equador founded.

12/6/1790 :US Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.

12/6/1865 :13th Amendment to the US Constitution (abolishing slavery)

          :ratified. (12/18?)

12/6/1877 :First sound recording made (Thomas Edison).

12/6/1882 :Anthony Trollope, English novelist, died.

12/6/1889 :Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, died.

12/6/1902 :Martha Washington became the first US woman on a US stamp.

12/6/1917 :Explosion in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia (>1600 killed).

12/6/1917 :Finland declared independence from Russia.

12/6/1921 :W.L. Mackenzie King elected Canadian Prime Minister.

12/6/1922 :Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) officially

          :proclaimed.

12/6/1923 :First official US government radio message broadcast.

12/6/1955 :Honus Wagner (John Peter Wagner), baseball player, died.

12/6/1957 :First US satelite launch attempt (max altitude, 5 feet).

12/6/1961 :First black won the Heismann Memorial Trophy (Ernest Davis).

12/6/1969 :Altamont Concert.

12/6/1975 :$2.3 billion emergency loan to save New York from bankruptcy

          :authorized.

12/6/1984 :Longest women's tennis winning streak ended (Navratilova, 74

          :matches).

12/6/1988 :Roy Orbison, singer, died.

12/6/1989 :Gunman killes 14 women at University of Montreal.

12/6/1993 :Don Ameche (Dominic Felix Amici), actor, died.

12/7      :Independence Day (Ivory Coast and Panama).

12/7      :National Day (Cote D'Ivoire).

12/7      :National Fire Safety Day.

12/7      :Prophet Mohammed's Birthday (Fiji).

12/7/1787 :Delaware became the first US state.

12/7/1862 :Battle of Prairie Grove.

12/7/1877 :Thomas A. Edison first demonstrated the gramophone.

12/7/1902 :Thomas Nast, political cartoonist, died.

12/7/1909 :Bakelite patented (Leo Baekeland).

12/7/1926 :Gas refrigerator patented.

12/7/1941 :Pearl Harbor attacked (7:55 am local time, approximately 2,400

          :killed).

12/7/1945 :Microwave oven patented.

12/7/1949 :Chiang Kai-shek fled to Formosa.

12/7/1960 :Ivory Coast gained full independence.

12/7/1972 :Apollo 17 (US), final manned lunar landing mission, launched.

12/7/1975 :Thornton Wilder, American playwright, died.

12/7/1979 :National Fire Safety Council founded.

12/7/1985 :Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of US Supreme Court, died.

12/7/1988 :Earthquake in Armenia (>25,000 killed, 5,000,000 homeless).

12/8      :Blessing of the Water (Uruguay).

12/8      :Buddha's Enlightenment Celebrated (Japan).

12/8      :Lady of Camarin Day (Guam).

12/8      :Mother's Day (Panama).

12/8      :Needle Day (Japan).

12/8      :Our Lady of the Cacupe (Paraguay).

12/8      :Shakyamuni Buddha gained "perfect enlightenment", 6th century BC.

12/8/1741 :Captain Bering died of scurvy.

12/8/1794 :First issue of the Herald of Rutland, Vermont came out.

12/8/1831 :James Hoban, White House architect, died.

12/8/1859 :Thomas de Quincey, writer ("Confessions of an English

          :Opium-Eater"), died.

12/8/1886 :AFL founded (Columbus, Ohio).

12/8/1941 :US, Britain, and Australia declared war on Japan.

12/8/1949 :Chinese Nationalist government retreated to the island of Taiwan.

12/8/1949 :Jule Styne's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" opened on Broadway.

12/8/1963 :Frank Sinatra Jr kidnapped.

12/8/1965 :First Ph.D. awarded by Computer Science Department (University of

          :Pennsylvania).

12/8/1978 :Golda Meir, Israeli prime minister, died.

12/8/1982 :James Hoffa, former Teamster union leader, declared legally dead

          :(as of 7/30/1982).

12/8/1982 :Nuclear war opponent killed by police after threat to destroy the

          :Washington Monument.

12/9      :Independence and Republic Day (Tanzania).

12/9/1502 :Patent of exploration granted to "Company of Adventurers to the

          :New World."

12/9/1640 :Hugh Bewitt banished from Massachusetts Colony for declaring

          :himself free of original sin.

12/9/1775 :Battle at Great Bridge (Virginia).

12/9/1792 :First formal cremation of human remains in US (Henry Laurens).

12/9/1793 :First daily newspaper founded ("American Minerva" - Noah Webster,

          :New York).

12/9/1803 :12th Amendment to the US Constitution passed (new electoral

          :college rules).

12/9/1842 :First Christmas card created (England).

12/9/1842 :Samual Woolworth died.

12/9/1854 :"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

          :published.

12/9/1884 :Ball-bearing roller skates patented.

12/9/1889 :The Chicago Auditorium opened.

12/9/1907 :Christmas Seals first placed on sale in the Post Office in

          :Wilmington, Delaware.

12/9/1909 :First American monoplane flown.

12/9/1920 :Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize.

12/9/1948 :UN General Assembly approved Genocide Punishment Convention.

12/9/1961 :First paired six-day bicycle race (New York).

12/9/1961 :Tanganyika became independent of Britain.

12/9/1967 :Charles Robb married Lynda Bird Johnson.

12/9/1971 :Ralph Johnson Bunch, US statesman and UN official, died.

12/9/1973 :"Tommy" premiered (London).

12/9/1980 :John Lennon killed.

12/10     :Constitution Day (Thailand).

12/10     :Foundation of Worker's Party (Angola).

12/10     :Human Rights Day (UN).

12/10     :Nobel Prizes Awarded.

12/10     :Wyoming Day.

12/10/1799:Metric system established in France.

12/10/1817:Mississippi became the 20th US state.

12/10/1869:Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote.

12/10/1877:Jared Kirtland, US physician and naturalist, died.

12/10/1896:Alfred Bernhardd Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, died.

12/10/1898:Peace treaty signed, ending the Spanish-American War.

12/10/1901:First Nobel prizes awarded.

12/10/1905:"Gift of the Magi" published.

12/10/1909:Red Cloud, Sioux indian chief, died.

12/10/1911:Joseph Dalton Hooker, botanist, died.

12/10/1915:1,000,000th Ford automobile built.

12/10/1931:First American woman won the Nobel Peace Prize (Jane Addams).

12/10/1941:Japanese troops landed on northern Luzon in the Philippines.

12/10/1945:Preston Tucker revealed plans to produce the Torpedo, a new 150

          :mile per hour car.

12/10/1946:Alfred Damon Runyon, US newspaperman and author, died.

12/10/1950:First black American won the Nobel Peace Prize (Ralph J. Bunche).

12/10/1971:Mets trade Nolan Ryan and three others to Angels for Jim Fregosi.

12/10/1977:Soyuz 26 (USSR) launched.

12/10/1984:First "planet" outside our solar system discovered.

12/10/1985:Bill to balance the federal budget passed by Congress.

12/10/1990:Armand Hammer died.

12/11     :Independence Day (Upper Volta).

12/11/1789:University of North Carolina chartered.

12/11/1816:Indiana became the 19th US state.

12/11/1838:US Congress passed the Atherton Gag Law (prohibit discussion of

          :slavery).

12/11/1844:Anesthesia first used in dentistry.

12/11/1882:First theatrical performance lit by incandescent lights (Bijou

          :Theater, Boston - "Iolanthe" - 650 bulbs).

12/11/1936:George VI became English Sovereign.

12/11/1936:King Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson.

12/11/1941:Germany and Italy declared war on US.

12/11/1946:UNICEF established.

12/11/1953:Alaska's first TV station went on the air (KTVA).

12/11/1958:Republic of Upper Volta attained autonomy.

12/11/1961:First direct military support for South Vietnam arrived in Saigon.

12/11/1963:Frank Sinatra Jr released after his father paid $240,000 ransom.

12/11/1964:Cuban freedom fighters attacked UN with bazooka.

12/11/1964:Sam Cooke, soul singer, killed.

12/11/1971:US Libertarian Party founded.

12/11/1972:Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17) landed on moon.

12/11/1981:Big Ben stopped by cold weather (12:27 pm).

12/11/1981:Muhammad Ali announced his retirement (third time).

12/11/1983:30,000 women tried to rip down fences around US cruise missile

          :base at Greenham Common, England.

12/11/1984:Nativity scene first displayed near the White House since 1973.

12/12     :Bonza Bottler Day.

12/12     :Guadalupe Day (Mexico).

12/12     :Jamhuri Day (Kenya).

12/12     :La Virgen de Guadalupe (Mexico).

12/12/1787:Pennsylvania became the second US state.

12/12/1792:Beethoven paid Haydn $.19 for first music lesson.

12/12/1792:The First Bank of the United States opened its main office

          :(Philadelphia).

12/12/1808:First bible society organized (Bible Society of Philadelphia).

12/12/1851:Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, introducer poinsettia to US, died.

12/12/1870:First black US Congressman sworn in (Joseph R. Rainey).

12/12/1889:Robert Browning, English poet, died.

12/12/1901:First transatlantic wireless message transmitted (Marconi).

12/12/1913:"Mona Lisa," stolen in 1911 announced recovered.

12/12/1917:Boys Town (Omaha, Nebraska) founded.

12/12/1937:US gunboat Panay sunk by Japanese planes (Yangtze River).

12/12/1939:Douglas Fairbanks Sr, actor, died.

12/12/1963:Kenya declared independence.

12/12/1975:Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to trying to kill US president

          :Ford.

12/12/1980:Da Vinci notebook purchased for $5,126,000 (Armand Hammer).

12/12/1981:Martial law imposed in Poland.

12/12/1982:Largest armored car robbery ($11 million - Sentry Armored Courier

          :office, New York).

12/12/1987:Jascha Heifetz died.

12/13     :Luciadagen (Sweden).

12/13     :National Day (St. Lucia).

12/13     :Republic Day (Malta).

12/13/1577:Drake embarked on a three year circumnavigation of the globe.

12/13/1642:New Zealand discovered (Abel Tasman, Dutch navigator).

12/13/1759:First music store in America opened.

12/13/1766:Gloucester Fox Hunting Club (first of its kind) met.

12/13/1769:Dartmouth College chartered.

12/13/1784:Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (wrote first English dictionary),

          :died.

12/13/1816:First US savings bank (Provident Institute for Savings, Boston)

          :opened.

12/13/1862:Battle at Marye's Heights (outside Fredericksburg, Virginia).

12/13/1869:First waffle iron patented.

12/13/1918:First US president to visit Europe while in office (Wilson).

12/13/1918:US soldiers crossed the Rhine river.

12/13/1924:Samuel Gompers, labor leader, died.

12/13/1928:George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" premiered.

12/13/1944:A Japanese kamikaze plane crashed into  US cruiser Nashville.

12/13/1947:Maine Turnpike opened to traffic.

12/13/1961:Anna Mary "Grandma" Moses, primitive painter, died.

12/13/1964:US and Mexico diverted the Rio Grande River, changing their

          :border.

12/13/1974:Malta became a republic.

12/13/1983:Highest scoring NBA game (Detroit 186 - Denver 184, triple

          :overtime).

12/13/1988:Hefty raises proposed for US government leaders.

12/14/1542:King James V died.

12/14/1774:First military operation of the American Revolution (Portsmouth,

          :New Hampshire).

12/14/1799:George Washington, first US president, died.

12/14/1819:Alabama became the 22nd US state.

12/14/1861:Prince Albert died.

12/14/1873:Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, Swiss naturalist, died.

12/14/1902:Julia Dent Grant, wife of Ulysses Simpson Grant, died.

12/14/1911:Captain Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South

          :Pole.

12/14/1934:Streamlined steam locomotive introduced (Albany, New York).

12/14/1939:USSR was expelled from the League of Nations.

12/14/1946:New York voted to be the UN headquarters.

12/14/1962:Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to pass another world (Venus).

12/14/1974:Walter Lippmann, journalist, died.

12/14/1984:Bank robbery in Geronimo, Oklahoma (4 killed and 3 wounded -

          :$17,000 stolen).

12/14/1984:Howard Cosell retired from Monday Night Football.

12/14/1985:Longest soccor US soccor match (UCLA 1 - American University 0 in

          :eighth overtime).

12/14/1989:Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov, Soviet physicist, died.

12/14/1989:The ANSI Board of Standards Review approved the proposed C

          :programming language standard.

12/14/1993:Myrna Loy, actress, died.

12/15     :Kingdom Day and Antillean Flag (Curacao).

12/15     :Statue Day (Netherlands Antilles).

12/15/1683:Izaac Walton, English author ("The Compleat Angler"), died.

12/15/1791:Bill of Rights became effective.

12/15/1796:"Mad" Anthony Wayne, American Revolutionary War general, died.

12/15/1815:"Emma" by Jane Austen published.

12/15/1854:First street cleaning machine used.

12/15/1857:Sir George Cayley, English father of aerodynamics, died.

12/15/1877:Edison patented the phonograph.

12/15/1890:Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake) shot.

12/15/1891:James Naismith invented basketball.

12/15/1903:Patent for the ice cream cone issued (Italo Marchiony).

12/15/1939:"Gone With the Wind" premiered (Loew's Grand Theater, Atlanta).

12/15/1944:Alton Glenn Miller disappeared over the English Channel.

12/15/1944:US forces landed at Mindoro, Philippines.

12/15/1948:Alger Hiss indicted for perjury.

12/15/1954:Netherlands Antilles granted complete autonomy.

12/15/1959:Antillean Flag first hoisted.

12/15/1960:Tefal pans first went on sale.

12/15/1964:First quintuplet arrested (Marie Dionne, for assault).

12/15/1966:Walter Elias Disney, cartoon creator, died.

12/15/1969:San Francisco Fire Department replaced leather helmets with

          :plastic.

12/15/1970:Venera 7 (USSR) became the first to softland on Venus.

12/15/1973:American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality not a

          :mental illness.

12/15/1976:Argo Merchant oil spill.

12/15/1980:Angus Campbell, professor of psychology and sociology, died.

12/15/1982:Roy L. Williams, Teamsters president, convicted of bribery.

12/15/1984:Jan Peerce died.

12/15/1984:Vega I (USSR) launched.

12/15/1985:Carlos Romulo, Filipino statesman, died.

12/15/1985:Sylvester Stallone married Brigitte Nielson.

12/15/1989:Military dictatorship ended in Chile.

12/16     :Constitution Day (Nepal).

12/16     :Day of the Covenant (South Africa).

12/16     :Independence Day (Bahrain).

12/16     :Victory Day (Bangladesh).

12/16/1773:Boston Tea Party (30-60 patriots and 342 chests of tea).

12/16/1809:Napoleon divorced Empress Josephine.

12/16/1811:Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee formed by an earthquake.

12/16/1835:Fire swept through New York.

12/16/1859:Wilhelm Carl Grimm, historian and compiler (with Jacob) of

          :"Grimm's Fairy Tales," died.

12/16/1864:Battle of Nashville (Tennessee).

12/16/1879:Battle of Isandhlwana (Zulus defeat British forces).

12/16/1905:First issue of "Variety" distributed.

12/16/1917:Ice jam on Ohio River Warsaw, Kentucky backed up river 100 miles.

12/16/1944:"Battle of the Bulge" began.

12/16/1965:W. Somerset Maugham, English author ("Of Human Bondage"), died.

12/16/1971:"American Pie" released.

12/16/1979:Sound barrier on land broken (Stan Barrett).

12/16/1980:Colonel Harland Sanders, of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, died.

12/16/1988:Lyndon LaRouche, former presidential candidate, convicted of

          :conspiracy and mail fraud.

12/17     :First Day of Saturnalia.

12/17     :National Day (Bhutan).

12/17     :Pan American Aviation Day.

12/17     :Wright Brothers Day.

12/17/63  :Lazarus died for the second time.

12/17/1777:France recognized American independence.

12/17/1790:Aztec calendar discovered.

12/17/1830:Simon Bolivar, South American revolutionary, died.

12/17/1843:"A Chistmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published.

12/17/1857:Sir Francis Beaufort, developer of Beaufort Scale, died.

12/17/1862:General Grant expelled Jews from his command.

12/17/1903:Orville and Wilbur Wright made history's first airplane flights.

12/17/1914:US government passed the Harrison Act (narcotics by prescription

          :only).

12/17/1919:Pierre Auguste Renoir, French painter, died.

12/17/1925:General William "Billy" Mitchell found guilty of "conduct

          :prejudicial to the good of the armed services."

12/17/1935:DC-3 flew for the first time.

12/17/1939:Graf Spee, Nazi warship, was scuttled off the coast of Uruguay.

12/17/1944:Japanese-Americans released from detention camps.

12/17/1961:Brazilian circus fire (323 killed).

12/17/1962:Dulles International Airport opened.

12/17/1969:"Project Blue Book" (US Air Force UFO investigation) closed.

12/17/1969:Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki on "The Tonight Show."

12/17/1971:"Diamonds are Forever" released in the US.

12/17/1991:Largest point difference in an NBA game (Cleveland 148 - Miami

          :80).

12/17/1992:Dana Andrews, actor ("The Best Years of Our Lives"), died.

12/18     :Feast of Our Lady of Solitude (Mexico).

12/18     :Most Boring Celebrities Announced.

12/18     :Republic Day (Niger).

12/18/1737:Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker, died.

12/18/1787:New Jersey became the third US state.

12/18/1789:Virginia released Kentucky from its jurisdiction.

12/18/1796:First Sunday newspaper ("Monitor," Baltimore).

12/18/1862:First orthopedic hospital opened.

12/18/1865:13th amendment to US Constitution (abolishing slavery) ratified.

          :(12/6?)

12/18/1892:"The Nutcracker" first performed.

12/18/1895:Motor vehicles were denied access to Lincoln Park, Illinois.

12/18/1898:First official automobile speed record set (39.24 miles per hour).

12/18/1899:Golf tee patented (George Grant).

12/18/1915:Woodrow Wilson married Edith Bolling Galt.

12/18/1917:Prohibition Amendment passed.

12/18/1936:First living Giant Panda reached US (Su-Lin).

12/18/1958:Atlas satellite (US) launched.

12/18/1965:A US spaceship returned to earth after spending 14 days in orbit.

12/18/1969:"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" released in the US.

12/18/1971:Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr, first golfer to win grand slam,

          :died.

12/18/1973:Soyuz 13 (USSR) launched.

12/18/1986:William Casey, CIA chief, had a cancerous brain tumor removed.

12/19/1154:Henry II became the English Sovereign.

12/19/1732:Publication of "Poor Richard: An Almanack" announced.

12/19/1776:"American Crisis" (Thomas Paine) published.

12/19/1777:Continental Army began a winter encampment at Valley Forge,

          :Pennsylvania.

12/19/1815:Benjamin Smith Barton, botanist, died.

12/19/1823:First state birth registration law enacted (Georgia).

12/19/1828:South Carolina opposed the Tariff of Abominations.

12/19/1843:"A Christmas Carol" published.

12/19/1848:Emily Bronte, English novelist ("Wuthering Heights"), died.

12/19/1911:Association of American Sculptors and Painters formed.

12/19/1915:Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist, died.

12/19/1946:War in Indochina.

12/19/1957:"The Music Man" opened on Broadway.

12/19/1958:President Eisenhower's Xmas peace message "from space."

12/19/1959:Walter Williams, last living Civil War veteran (aged 117), died.

12/19/1966:Climbers reached summit of Vinson Massif, Antarctica.

12/19/1968:Norman Thomas, six time Socialist party presidential candidate,

          :died.

12/19/1971:Intelsat 4 F-3 (US) launched.

12/19/1972:Apollo 17 splashed down.

12/19/1974:Nelson Rockefeller sworn in as US vice president.

12/19/1974:"The Man with the Golden Gun" released in the US.

12/19/1984:Britain agreed to return Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty by 1997.

12/19/1984:Cosmos 1614 (USSR) (unmanned space shuttle) launched.

12/19/1985:US Poet Laureate selection authorized.

12/19/1985:First female artificial heart transplant (Mary Lund).

12/20/1606:Virgina Company expedition left for America.

12/20/1790:First US cotton mill (Samuel Slater, Pawtucket, Rhode Island).

12/20/1803:The US took over territory acquired from France in the Louisiana

          :Purchase.

12/20/1812:Sacagawea, Indian woman who traveled with Lewis and Clark, died.

12/20/1820:Missouri imposed a $1 per year bachelor's tax on men from 21 to

          :50.

12/20/1821:First mention of the Christmas tree in the New World

          :(Pennsylvania).

12/20/1849:William Miller, religious leader (creator of Millerism), died.

12/20/1860:South Carolina voted to secede from the Union.

12/20/1862:Confederate forces under General Van Dorn attacked Union forces

          :at Holly Springs (Mississippi).

12/20/1864:General William Sherman completed his "march to the sea." (12/21?)

12/20/1879:First private demonstration of Edison's incandescent light.

12/20/1880:First electric lights on Broadway, New York.

12/20/1892:Pneumatic automobile tire patented.

12/20/1912:"Peg o' My Heart" opened (New York).

12/20/1922:USSR formed.

12/20/1937:Erick Ludendorff, WWI German General, died.

12/20/1963:Berlin Wall opened for the first time.

12/20/1965:"The Dating Game" first aired.

12/20/1966:Seattle granted an NBA franchise.

12/20/1968:John Steinbeck, novelist, died.

12/20/1973:Bobby Darin died.

12/20/1976:Richard J. Daley, Chicago mayor, died.

12/20/1978:H.R. Haldeman released after serving 18 months for Watergate

          :crimes.

12/20/1980:Dynorphin found (200 times more powerful than morphine).

12/20/1981:Arthur Rubinstein, pianist, died.

12/20/1984:33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in the Yale library.

12/20/1985:Position of poet laureate established in US.

12/20/1989:US invaded Panama. (12/19?)

12/20/1990:First joint Siberian-American musical theatre production.

12/20/1992:Steven J. Ross, Time Warner chief executive, died.

12/21     :Forefathers Day (New England).

12/21     :Humbug Day.

12/21     :National Flashlight Day.

12/21/1375:Giovanni Boccaccio died.

12/21/1620:First Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

12/21/1624:First Swedish colony to America authorized.

12/21/1824:James Parkinson, English physician and paleontologist, died.

12/21/1864:Union forces under General Sherman captured Savannah, Georgia.

          :(12/20?)

12/21/1872:Phileas Fogg completed his trip around the world in less than 80

          :days.

12/21/1881:First Ivory soap ad ("The Independent").

12/21/1913:First crossword puzzle appeared (New York Sunday World).

12/21/1937:"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" opened (Los Angeles).

12/21/1940:Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, novelist ("The Great Gatsby"), died.

12/21/1942:Six week Nevada divorces upheld by the Supreme Court.

12/21/1945:General George Smith Patton Jr died.

12/21/1968:Apollo 8 (US) launched.

12/21/1974:Charges brought against the CIA for domestic spying.

12/21/1975:William Lundigan, actor, died.

12/21/1988:Pan Am flight exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland (270 killed).

12/21/1988:Space endurance record of 365 days set (USSR).

12/21/1991:Soviet Union disbanded.

12/22/1662:First catamaran launched.

12/22/1785:American Continental Navy organized (four ships). (1775?)

12/22/1807:Embargo Law passed.

12/22/1828:Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson, wife of Andrew Jackson, died.

12/22/1849:Fyodor Dostoevsky was to be executed but pardoned at the last

          :minute.

12/22/1880:George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), English novelist, died.

12/22/1894:US Golf Association formed.

12/22/1917:Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, first US Roman Catholic saint, died.

12/22/1938:Coelacanth caught off the coast of South Africa.

12/22/1939:Ma (Gertrude Bridget) Rainey, "Mother of the Blues," died.

12/22/1940:Nathanael West, novelist, died.

12/22/1943:(Helen) Beatrix Potter, author ("The Tale of Peter Rabbit"), died.

12/22/1944:General Anthony McAuliffe replied "Nuts!" when ordered to

          :surrender.

12/22/1972:Chemical Bank of New York provided motion pictures for waiting

          :customers.

12/22/1984:Bernhard Goetz shot four youths in a New York subway.

12/22/1988:Bess Myerson, former Miss America, acquitted on conspiracy, etc.

12/22/1989:Romania topples Ceausescu regime.

12/22/1989:Samuel Beckett, playwright, died.

12/23     :Birthday of the Emperor (Japan).

12/23     :Last Day of Saturnalia.

12/23     :Night of the Radishes (Mexico).

12/23     :Victory Day (Egypt).

12/23/1617:First penal colony in US established (Virginia).

12/23/1672:Giovanni Cassini discovered a moon of the planet Saturn (Rhea).

12/23/1749:Mark Catesby, botanist, died.

12/23/1776:"Crisis" by Thomas Paine published.

12/23/1783:General George Washington resigned his commission.

12/23/1823:"A visit from Saint Nicholas" published.

12/23/1834:Thomas Malthus, English economist and author, died.

12/23/1852:First train run west of Mississippi (Saint Louis to Cheltenham,

          :Missouri).

12/23/1863:William Makepeace Thackeray, English novelist (Vanity Fair"),

          :died.

12/23/1871:First Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration (Thespis).

12/23/1873:Sarah Moore Grimke, American antislavery and women's rights

          :advocate, died.

12/23/1888:Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear.

12/23/1913:US Federal Reserve Banking System went into effect.

12/23/1919:USS Relief, hospital ship, launched.

12/23/1923:Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, French designer of the Eiffel Tower,

          :died.

12/23/1928:NBC established a permanent coast-to-coast radio hookup.

12/23/1938:Boogie-woogie, eight-to-the-bar bass introduced (Carnegie Hall).

12/23/1943:First submarine to be struck by an enemy submarine (Covina, US).

12/23/1947:Transistor invented (William Shockley).

12/23/1948:Tojo Hideki and six others hanged by the Allied War Crimes

          :Commission.

12/23/1968:Crew of the captured spy ship Pueblo was released by North Korea.

12/23/1973:Baseball "free-agency" created.

12/23/1975:Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act.

12/23/1982:Jack Webb, actor-writer-director, died.

12/23/1987:First non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world completed

          :(216 hours).

12/24     :"Silent Night, Holy Night" Celebrations (Austria).

12/24/1784:Methodist Episcopal Church in America founded.

12/24/1801:Skeleton of a mastodon unveiled (Charles Willson Peale).

12/24/1814:Treaty of Ghent (end of the War of 1812) signed.

12/24/1851:Fire in Library of Congress and part of the Capitol building.

12/24/1856:Hugh Miller, geological writer, committed suicide.

12/24/1865:KKK formed (Pulaski, Tennessee).

12/24/1913:Louis Francis Sockalexis, first native American baseball player,

          :died.

12/24/1914:John Muir, naturalist and author, died.

12/24/1920:Caruso's last US performance.

12/24/1938:Declaration of Lima.

12/24/1942:Admiral Jean Louis Darlan, French administrator of North Africa,

          :killed.

12/24/1942:First surface-to-surface guided missile launched.

12/24/1948:First solar heating system (Dr. Maria Telkes, Dover,

          :Massachusetts).

12/24/1949:Dick Tracy and Tess Trueheart married.

12/24/1953:First color and black-and-white telecast sponsored ("Dragnet").

12/24/1959:New York policemen ordered to stop using tubular whistles.

12/24/1968:Apollo 8 (US) became the first manned craft to orbit the moon.

12/24/1990:Christmas bells rang at St. Basil's Cathedral for the first time

          :since Lenin's death.

12/24/1993:Reverand Norman Vincent Peale, author and radio evangelist, died.

12/25     :Birthday of Quaid-i-Azam (Pakistan).

12/25     :Children's Day (Congo).

12/25     :Taisho Tenno Sai, Commemoration of the Demise of the Late Emperor

          :(Japan).

12/25/1644:England forbade observance of Christmas.

12/25/1651:Massachusetts General Court ordered a fine (five shillings) for

          :"observing any such day as Christmas."

12/25/1761:Empress Elizabeth died.

12/25/1776:George Washington's troops crossed the Delaware River.

12/25/1818:First known Christmas carol ("Silent Night, Holy Night") sung.

12/25/1831:Louisiana and Arkansas became first US states to observe

          :Christmas as a legal holiday.

12/25/1868:Linus Yale, developer of cylinder lock, died.

12/25/1878:Anna Claypoole Peale, US painter of miniatures, died.

12/25/1917:"Why Marry," first drama to win Pulitzer Prize, opened (New York).

12/25/1937:NBC Symphony debuted.

12/25/1940:Rodgers and Hart's "Pal Joey" opened on Broadway.

12/25/1946:Claude William Dukenfield (W.C. Fields), actor and juggler, died.

12/25/1964:"Goldfinger" released in the US.

12/25/1977:Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, film comedian, died.

12/25/1989:Nicolae Ceausescu shot.

12/25/1989:Billy Martin, former baseball manager, died.

12/26     :Blessing of the Wine (Luxembourg).

12/26     :Boxing Day (Canada, UK, Australia).

12/26     :Day of the Wren (Ireland).

12/26     :Family Day (South Africa).

12/26     :Feast of Our Theotokos (Greece).

12/26     :God-Awful Tie Day.

12/26     :Junkanoo (Bahamas).

12/26     :National Whiner's Day.

12/26     :Second Christmas.

12/26/800 :Charlemagne crowned emperor.

12/26/1066:William the Conquerer crowned King William I of England. (10/14?)

12/26/1135:Stephen became the English Sovereign.

12/26/1620:Main body of Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

12/26/1776:Battle of Trenton (New Jersey).

12/26/1865:Coffee percolator patented (James H. Nason, Franklin,

          :Massachusetts).

12/26/1878:First electric lighting installed in a store (Philadelphia).

12/26/1910:A plane flew at 11,474 feet.

12/26/1917:Federal Government took control of US railroads for WWI.

12/26/1931:Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey, American librarian, died.

12/26/1931:"Of thee I Sing" opened (New York).

12/26/1944:"The Glass Menagerie" first performed publicly (Chicago).

12/26/1951:DPMA founded.

12/26/1972:Harry S Truman, 33rd US president, died.

12/26/1974:Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky), comedian, died.

12/26/1981:Three Indian tribes won a court battle to use gill nets.

12/26/1991:William Buckley's body found in Beirut.

12/26/1993:Big Bertha, world's oldest cow (49), died.

12/27     :Bank Holiday (Cayman Islands).

12/27     :Constitution Day (North Korea).

12/27     :Public Holiday (Lesotho and Zimbabwe).

12/27/1831:Charles Darwin set out on a Pacific voyage.

12/27/1834:Charles Lamb, English critic, poet, and essayist, died.

12/27/1836:Stephen Fuller Austin, namesake of Texas capital, died.

12/27/1845:Ether first used as anesthetic in childbirth.

12/27/1892:American Psychological Association first met.

12/27/1892:Foundation Stone of the Cathedral of Saint John laid (New York).

12/27/1900:Carry Nation, militant prohibitionist, smashed her first bar.

12/27/1903:"Sweet Adeline" first sung.

12/27/1904:"Peter Pan" opened.

12/27/1906:American Sociological Society held first annual meeting.

12/27/1927:"Show Boat" opened (Ziegfeld Theater, New York).

12/27/1929:Cadillac introduced its Fleetwood Custom models.

12/27/1932:Radio City Music Hall opened (New York).

12/27/1941:Japanese planes bombed Manila.

12/27/1945:The World Bank created.

12/27/1947:"Puppet Playhouse" (later "Howdy Doody") first telecast (NBC).

12/27/1956:APT report published.

12/27/1968:Apollo 8 astronauts returned to earth after 10 moon orbits.

12/27/1970:"Hello Dolly!" closed on Broadway.

12/27/1979:USSR seized control of Afghanistan.

12/27/1981:Hoagland Howard "Hoagie" Carmichael, actor and songwriter, died.

12/27/1983:Propane gas explosion (Buffalo, New York - six killed).

12/27/1984:First artificial comet made.

12/28     :National Holiday (Nepal).

12/28     :Proclamation Day (Australia).

12/28/1732:First known ad for "Poor Richard's Almanack" ("The Pennsylvania

          :Gazette").

12/28/1832:John Caldwell Calhoun became the first US vice president to

          :resign.

12/28/1836:Spain recognized the independence of Mexico.

12/28/1846:Iowa became the 29th US state.

12/28/1859:Thomas Babington Macaulay, English essayist and historian, died.

12/28/1869:Chewing gum patented (William F. Semple, Mount Vernon, Ohio).

12/28/1908:Messina, Italy struck by an earthquake (nearly 80,000 died).

12/28/1928:Last recording of Ma Rainey, "Mother of the Blues," made.

12/28/1935:Clarence Day, writer ("Life with Father"), died.

12/28/1944:Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town" opened on Broadway.

12/28/1945:Congress officially recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."

12/28/1945:Theodore Dreiser, US novelist, died.

12/28/1946:Carrie Jacobs Bond, American composer ("I Love You Truly"), died.

12/28/1948:US announced a study to launch an Earth satellite.

12/28/1950:Chinese troops crossed the 38th Parallel in Korea.

12/28/1961:Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, second wife of Woodrow Wilson, died.

12/28/1963:Abbott Joseph Liebling, American journalist and writer, died.

12/28/1963:Paul Hindemith, composer and teacher, died.

12/28/1973:Comet Kohoutek at perihelion.

12/28/1973:Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago."

12/28/1980:Jersey calf lived 222 days with an artificial heart.

12/28/1980:Mexico terminated fishing agreements with US.

12/28/1981:First US test tube baby born (Norfolk, Virginia).

12/28/1984:Creosote bush determined to be 11,700 years old.

12/28/1984:Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister of India.

12/29     :His Majesty, the King's Birthday (Nepal).

12/29/1170:Thomas Becket murdered at Canterbury Cathedral.

12/29/1837:The Caroline was boarded and set afire by Canadian militia.

12/29/1845:Texas became the 28th US state.

12/29/1848:Gas lights first installed in the White House.

12/29/1851:First YMCA opened (Boston).

12/29/1890:Battle of Wounded Knee (200 Indians killed).

12/29/1913:First movie serial (Adventures of Kathleen) began playing

          :(Chicago).

12/29/1916:Grigori Efimovich Rasputin (Novjkh), Russian mystic, shot.

12/29/1919:Sir William Osler, physician and teacher, died.

12/29/1933:"Flying Down to Rio," the first Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

          :movie, released.

12/29/1938:Work began on first pontoon bridge of reinforced concrete.

12/29/1940:Hitler firebombed London.

12/29/1960:Eden Phillpotts, English novelist and poet, died.

12/29/1961:Minimum wage law approved for New York City public contract work.

12/29/1965:"Thunderball" released in the US.

12/29/1967:"The Trouble With Tribbles" first aired.

12/29/1969:Dick Cavett replaced Joey Bishop in ABC's late night spot.

12/29/1975:Terrorist bombing at LaGuardia airport (11 killed, 75 injured).

12/29/1983:US announced its withdrawal from UNESCO.

12/29/1989:Havel became president of Czechoslovakia.

12/30     :National Holiday (Madagascar).

12/30     :Rizal Day (Philippines).

12/30/1691:Robert Boyle, Irish physicist, chemist, and author, died.

12/30/1723:Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, doctor and botanist, died.

12/30/1816:Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley married.

12/30/1853:US paid Mexico $10 million for Arizona-New Mexico.

12/30/1862:"Monitor" sank in a storm.

12/30/1873:American Metrological Society formed.

12/30/1879:Dress rehersal for "Pirates of Penzance" (New York).

12/30/1894:Amelia Jenks Bloomer, social reformer for whom the female

          :undergarment was named, died.

12/30/1896:Dr. Jose Rizal martyred.

12/30/1903:Iroquois Theater fire (Chicago) (up to 602 died).

12/30/1940:First Los Angeles freeway dedicated (Arroyo Seco Parkway).

12/30/1948:Cole Porter's "Kiss Me, Kate" opened on Broadway.

12/30/1952:Tuskegee Institute reported that 1952 was the first year in 71

          :years with no lynchings in US.

12/30/1959:First ballistic missile submarine commissioned (George

          :Washington).

12/30/1972:Bombing of North Vietnam ordered halted.

12/30/1986:Exxon withdrew from South Africa because of racial policies.

12/30/1992:Ling-Ling, giant panda, died.

12/30/1993:Mack David, songwriter (theme song to "Cinderella"), died.

12/31     :Bank Holiday (El Salvador, Honduras, and Pakistan).

12/31     :Feed Yourself Day (Benin).

12/31     :First Night (Boston).

12/31     :Hogmanay (Scotland).

12/31     :Leap Second Adjustment Time.

12/31     :Make Up Your Mind Day.

12/31     :Namahage (Japan).

12/31     :New Year's Eve.

12/31     :Proclamation of the Republic (Congo).

12/31     :Revolution Day (Ghana).

12/31     :Samoan Fire Dance (Western Samoa).

12/31     :You're All Done Day.

12/31/1335:Pope Sylvester I died.

12/31/1781:The Bank of North America established by Congress.

12/31/1802:Francis Lewis, signer of US Declaration of Independence, died.

12/31/1807:Last legal date for importation of slaves into the US.

12/31/1808:John Nixon, revolutionary patriot, died.

12/31/1857:Queen Victoria named Ottawa capital of Canada.

12/31/1864:George Mifflin Dallas, 11th US vice president, died.

12/31/1879:First public demo of incandescent lamp (T. Edison, Menlo Park,

          :New Jersey).

12/31/1904:Ball first dropped from Times Tower.

12/31/1935:Monopoly patented.

12/31/1946:Harry Truman proclaimed the official end of WWII.

12/31/1948:Malcolm Campbell, British auto racer (first to travel five miles

          :per minute), died.

12/31/1955:First corporation to make $1,000,000,000 profit in a year

          :(General Motors).

12/31/1964:Canada got a new flag.

12/31/1972:Roberto Clemente, baseball player, died.

12/31/1975:The NBC peacock logo (old style?) used for the last time.

12/31/1980:(Herbert) Marshall McLuhan, university professor and author, died.

12/31/1980:Screening test for cystic fibrosis reported.

12/31/1983:AT&T breakup took effect at midnight.

12/31/1985:Eric Hilliard ("Ricky") Nelson died.

12/31/1993:Thomas J. Watson Jr., IBM chief executive, died.