December 15
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
[edit] Events
- 533 - The Battle of Ticameron begins
- 687 - St. Sergius I becomes Pope
- 1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.
- 1791 - The United States Bill of Rights is passed
- 1891 - James Naismith introduces basketball.
- 1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1914 - The Battle of Łódź ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
- 1916 - France defeats Germany in Battle of Verdun
- 1939 - Gone with the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia
- 1945 - General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan
- 1961 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust
- 1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A is launched
- 1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN
- 1994 - Netscape Navigator 1.0 is first released
- 1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.
- 1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling
- 1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85
- 2002 - BBC 7, digital radio station is launched in UK
[edit] Births
- 1859 - Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto
[edit] Deaths
- 1025 - Basil II, Byzantine Emperor (b. 958)
- 1072 - Alp Arslan, Turkish sultan in Persia (b. 1029)
- 1263 - King Haakon IV of Norway (b. 1204)
- 1598 - Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, Dutch writer and statesman (b. 1538)
- 1621 - Charles de Luynes, Constable of France (b. 1578)
- 1673 - Margaret Cavendish, English writer (b. 1623)
- 1675 - Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter (b. 1632)
- 1683 - Izaak Walton, English writer (b. 1593)
- 1715 - George Hickes, English minister and scholar (b. 1642)
- 1753 - Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect (b. 1694)
- 1792 - Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (b. 1756)
- 1890 - Sitting Bull, Sioux nation leader (b. c.1831)
- 1943 - Fats Waller, American musician (b. 1904)
- 1958 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
- 1966 - Walt Disney, American animator (b. 1901)
- 1968 - Jess Willard, American boxer (b. 1881)
- 1975 - Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-born writer (b. 1902)
- 1984 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
- 1989 - Arnold Moss, American character actor (b. 1910)
- 1991 - Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet World War II hero (b. 1915)
- 2001 - Rufus Thomas, American musician (b. 1917)
- 2001 - Russ Haas, Pro Wrestler (b. 1974)
- 2003 - George Fisher, American political cartoonist (b. 1923)
