On this Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on December 22:
1459 Djem Sultan son of Turks sultan Mehmed II
1515 Mary of Lorraine France, pro-French Regent of Scotland
1643 Rene-Robert Cavelier La Salle, France, French explorer (Louisiana)
1696 James Oglethorpe, England, General/author/colonizer (Georgia)
http://www.ourgeorgiahistory.com/people/oglethorpe.html
1727 William Ellery, US attorney/signer (Declaration of Independence)
1831 Robert Ogden Tyler Brevet Major General (Union Army), died in 1874
1856 Frank Kellogg, Sec of State (1925-29), tried to outlaw war (Nobel 1929)
1858 Giacomo Puccini, Lucca Italy, opera composer (La Boheme, Tosca)
1862 Connie Mack (McGillicudy) (baseball: record for managing most games [7,755])
1868 John Nance Garner, Texas, (VP-D-1933-41)
1890 Charles de Gaulle, Lille France, premier of France
(And legend in his own mind)
1891 Edward L Bernays, Vienna Austria, 1st public relations agent
1899 Wiley Post, Texas, aviation pioneer
1902 Jacques-Philippe Leclerc, France, WW II hero (liberator of Paris)
1912 Lady Bird (Claudia Alta) Johnson (1st Lady: wife of 36th U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson)
1917 Gene Rayburn (Rubessa) (radio/TV host: Match Game)
1922 James C Wright Jr (Representative-D-TX), Speaker of the House (1987-89)
1922 Barbara Billingsley (actress: Leave It to Beaver)
1934 David Pearson (auto racer: Daytona 500 winner [1976])
1943 Billie Jean King Long Beach CA, tennis pro
1944 Steve Carlton (Baseball Hall of Famer)
1945 Diane Sawyer, Glasgow Ky, newscaster/airhead (60 Minutes, ABC Prime Time)
1949 Maurice Gibb (musician, songwriter: group: Bee Gees)
1949 Robin Gibb (musician, songwriter: group: Bee Gees)
1961 Catherine Oxenberg NYC, actress (Amanda-Dynasty)
1961 Yuri Ivanovich Matinchenko Russian lt-colonel/cosmonaut
Deaths which occurred on December 22:
1440 Bluebeard pirate, executed
1603 Mehmed III sultan of Turkey (1595-1603), dies at 37
1668 Stephen Day 1st British colonial printer, dies
1721 Nathaniel Hawes tortured & executed in England for robbery
http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng157.htm 1815 José Maria Morelos Mexican revolutionary priest executed by Spaniards
1828 Rachel Jackson wife of 7th US President Andrew Jackson, dies
1863 Michael Corcoran Union Brigadier-General, dies at 36
1867 Jean-Victor Poncelet French mathematician (kinematics), dies at 79
1890 Harry Pollitt chairman British communist (1956-60), dies
1899 Dwight L Moody US evangelist (Student Volunteer Movement), dies
1908 Marie Jungius Dutch teacher/fairy tale writer, dies at 44
1913 Menelik II King of Ethiopia (1896-1913), dies at 69
1939 Ma Rainey "Mother of the Blues", US blues singer/composer, dies at 53
1945 Otto Neurath Austrian/British philosopher, dies at 63
1969 Josef von Sternberg Austrian director (Shanghai Express), dies at 75
1979 Darryl F Zanuck film producer (20th Century Fox), dies at 77
1989 Samuel Beckett Irish/French writer (Waiting for Godot, Molloy, Nobel 1969), dies at 83
1993 Don DeFore actor (George Baxter-Hazel), dies of cardiac arrest at 76
1995 Butterfly McQueen actress (Gone With the Wind), dies in a fire at 84
Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
22-Dec-2003 3 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 1
POL Corporal Gerard Wasilewski Karbala (Camp Babylon) Non-hostile - weapon discharge (accid.)
US Private 1st Class Stuart W. Moore Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US 1st Lieutenant Edward M. Saltz Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Afghanistan
A GOOD DAY
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
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Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php
On this day...
0401 St Innocent I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0795 Leo III succeeds pope Adrianus I
1135 Norman nobles recognize Stefanus van Blois as English king
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon25.html 1216 Pope Honorius III delegates degree "Religiosam vitam eligentibus"
1465 Peace of St Truiden: Louis van Bourbon becomes bishop of Luik
1536 English scholar Reginald Pole appointed cardinal
1596 Ferryboat Meuniers crashes in Paris, 150 die
1642 Pope Urbanus VIII publishes degree In eminente
1731 Dutch people revolt against meat tax
1772 Moravian missionary constructs 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny
1775 Continental navy organized with 7 ships
1783 Washington resigns his military commission as US Army's commander-in-chief
1790 Russian troops occupy Ismail on Turks
1807 Congress passes Embargo Act, to force peace between Britain & France
1810 British frigate Minotaur sinks killing 480
1815 Spaniards execute Mexican revolutionary priest José Maria Morelos
1862 Morgan's Raid: Bardstown to Elizabethtown KY
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/7705/MorgansRaid.htm 1870 Jules Janssen flies in a balloon in order to study a solar eclipse
1877 "American Bicycling Journal" first published (Boston MA)
(The world is not round, the world is not flat, the world is uphill)
1882 1st string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison
1885 Pope Leo XIII proclaims extraordinary jubilee
1886 1st national accountants' society in US formed (New York NY)
1894 French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated)
1894 United States Golf Association is formed (New York NY)
1910 US postal savings stamps 1st issued
1919 Government of Ireland Act of Power (Home Rule for Ireland)
1936 1st common carrier license issued by ICC, Scranton PA
1937 Lincoln Tunnel (New York NY) opens to traffic
1939 125 die in train wreck at Magdeburg Germany; 99 die in 2nd wreck at Friedrichshafen Germany
1939 Finnish counter offensive at Petsamo
1941 Japan's invasion leader lands on Luzon, Philippines
1941 Tito establishes 1st Proletarian Brigade in Yugoslavia
1943 Manufacturers get permission to use synthetic rubber for baseball core
1944 Germans demand surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium
(NUTS!)
1944 Sub Swordfish departs Pearl Harbor for Japan
http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/2929.html 1947 Italian constituent assembly adopts new constitution
1952 French government of Pinay, resigns
1956 Last British/French troops leave Egypt
1958 "Chipmunk Song" reaches #1
1959 New York Ranger goalie Marcel Paille wears a customized mask
1962 1,000,000th NBA point scored
1963 Official 30-day mourning period for President John F Kennedy ends
1964 Lockheed SR-71 spy aircraft reaches 3,530 kph (record for a jet)
1965 Director David Lean's "Dr Zhivago" premieres
1965 Great-Britain sets maximum speed at 70 MPH
1968 Julie Nixon weds Dwight David Eisenhower
1969 Pete Marovich sets NCAA record of hitting 30 of 31 foul shots
1970 SS Commander Franz Stangl of Treblinka, sentenced to life imprisonment
1971 UN General Assembly ratifies Kurt Waldheim as Secretary-General
1972 6.25 earthquake strikes Managua Nicaragua, 12,000+ killed
1974 Phil Esposito, Boston, became 6th NHLer to score 500 goals
1974 2nd cease-fire between IRA & British; lasts until approximately April 1975
1980 President-elect Reagan appoints Jean Kirkpatrick (UN delegate) & James Watt (Interior)
1980 Cardinals release outfielder Bobby Bonds
1981 Argentine General Leopoldo Galtieri sworn in as president
1983 Egyptian President Mubarak meets with PLO leader Yasser Arafat
1984 Bernhard Goetz shoots 4 black youths (muggers) on a NYC subway train
1987 Mötley Crue's Nikki Sixx overdoses from Heroin
1988 2 robbers wearing police uniforms rob armored truck of $3 million in New Jersey
1988 South Africa signs accord granting independence to South-West Africa
1989 After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Nicolae Ceausescu
1989 Cold wave: -4ºF in Oklahoma City OK, -6ºF in Tulsa OK, -12ºF in Pittsburgh PA, -18ºF in Denver CO, -23ºF in Kansas City MO, -42ºF in Scottsbluff NE, -47ºF in Hardin MT & -60ºF in Black Hills SD
1989 Chad adopts its Constitution
1990 Iraq announces it will never give up Kuwait
(Wanna Bet!)
1990 Lech Walesa sworn in as Poland's 1st popularly elected president
1992 Libyan MIG-23UB attacks Boeing 727 at Souk al-Sabt, 158 die
1992 The UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/47/193 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993.
1994 Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi resigns
1996 Steelers' Kordell Stewart runs quarterback record 80 yds for TD
1997 Merck baldness pill for men approved by FDA
1997 Nancy Kerring & Tonya Harding pre-record a show to air on FOX on Feb 5
2000 Pres. Clinton granted Christmastime clemency 59 (62) people including Dan Rostenkowski, former Illinois congressman and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee
2003 Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher (68) was attacked by Islamic extremists at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Arab : Ashura
México : Day of National Mourning (José Maria Morelos) (1815)
World : International Arbor Day
US : Flashlight Safety Day.
National Date Nut Bread Day
International Calendar Awareness Month
Religious Observances
Wicca : Yule sabbat
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Frances Xavier Cabrini, virgin
Religious History
1216 Pope Honorius III officially approved the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), founded in 1216 by St. Dominic. During the Middle Ages, many leaders of European thought were Dominicans; and a good number followed Portuguese and Spanish explorers to the Americas as missionaries.
1770 Birth of Father Demetrius Gallitzin, a Dutch Catholic priest. Arriving in America in 1792, he spent his remaining years as a frontier missionary, building up the Catholic church in parts of PA, MD, VA and WV. Gallitzin became known as the "Apostle to the Alleghenies."
1804 Anglican missionary to Persia Henry Martyn wrote in his journal: 'I look forward to a day of prayer; for my soul hath great need of quickening and restoration, that it may act more in the view of eternity.'
1837 Mercer University was chartered in Penfield, Georgia under Baptist support. In 1871 the college moved its campus to Macon, Georgia.
1921 The first U.S. commercial radio license assigned to a religious broadcaster was awarded to the National Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C. Within five years, there were over 60 other licensed religious broadcasters, including KJS_Biola (L.A.), KFUO_Concordia Seminary (St. Louis), and WMBI_Moody Bible Institute (Chicago).
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Castle That Inspired 'Hamlet' Said Haunted
Dec 21, 12:27 PM (ET)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - There is something spooky going on around the Danish castle that inspired William Shakespeare as the scene for his play Hamlet.
Employees insist that the grounds inside the bastion of the 431-year-old Kronborg Castle are haunted.
It all started in June, when a new restaurant, called Kronvaerket, opened at the castle, Jeannett Pedersen, of the restaurant staff, said Wednesday.
"Windows and doors fly open, stacks of paper disappear and reappear elsewhere, and tables set themselves," she said.
Most of the employees have reported strange happenings at the restaurant, such as two seeing inexplicable gray shadows waft by and another claiming to have seen the ghost of an old man in the kitchen, Pedersen said.
Whatever they are, they seemed to be good-natured and don't frighten the guests.
She had no idea why anyone would want to haunt the castle that is on UNESCO's World Heritage list, but said they even tried using a spiritualist to clear them out.
Birgitte Graae, the spiritualist, claimed in the local Frederiksborg Amts Avis that she drove off dozens of ghosts from the castle. Graae could not immediately be reached for comment.
Shakespeare never saw the castle in Helsingoer, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Copenhagen, but used it as the setting for Hamlet after it was described to him in detail.
Thought for the day :
"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese."
Charles de Gaulle
In Romans 12:1, the apostle Paul applied the truths of what he had already written to the followers of Jesus in Rome. He said, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice." He also urged us to keep our bodies from sinning and to avoid the world's corruption by renewing our minds (v.2). 
