On This Late Afternoon...Early Evening In History
Birthdates which occurred on December 23:
1174 Louis I Duke of Wittelsbach
1597 Martin Opitz Germany, poet "Father of Modern German Poetry"
1716 Johann Heinrich Rolle composer
1732 Sir Richard Arkwright inventor (spinning frame)
1734 Filinto Elísio [Francisco M do Nascimento] Portuguese poet
1777 Aleksandr I P Romanov Tsar of Russia (1801-25)
1790 Jean-François Champollion deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics
1805 Joseph Smith Jr Sharon VT, founder of Mormon church
1808 Thomas Turner Commander (Union Navy), died in 1883
1815 Henry Highland Garnet Maryland, minister/abolitionist/diplomat
http://www.africawithin.com/bios/henry_garnet.htm
1818 David Addison Weisiger Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), died in 1899
1827 Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff Austrian admiral (Helgoland/Lissa)
1834 Thomas R Malthus English vicar/economist (moral restraint)
1867 Madame C J Walker [Sarah Breedlove] Delta LA, cosmetics mogul
1887 John Cromwell Toledo OH, actor/director (Spitfire, Of Human Bondage)
1907 Don McNeill Galena IL, host (Don McNeill TV Club)
1908 Yousuf Karsh portrait photographer (Life Magazine)
1909 Barney Ross New York NY, Welterweight Boxing Champion (1934)
1911 James Gregory Bronx NY, actor (My Favorite Martian, Barney Miller)
1923 James Stockdale admiral (Vietnam)/Ross Perot's 1992 running mate
http://www.medalofhonor.com/JamesStockdale.htm
1923 Leonard Stern New York NY, producer/TV writer (Phil Silvers Show, Get Smart)
1923 Lucas M Mangope 1st President of Bophuthatswana (1977-94)
1929 Dick Weber pro bowler (16, 300 games)
1931 Ronnie Schell Richmond CA, comedian (Gomer Pyle, Good Morning World)
1932 Reverend James Cleveland Chicago IL, gospel musician (Old Time Religion, It's Me O Lord)
1935 Paul Hornung Green Bay Packer (the Golden Boy)
1937 Karol Joseph Bobko New York NY, Colonel USAF/astronaut (STS 6, STS 51D, STS 51J)
1940 Jorma Kaukonen Washington DC, rock guitarist (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
1943 Derek Small rocker (Spinal Tap)
1945 Ronald Bushy rocker (Iron Butterfly-In A Gadda Da Vida)
1947 Bill Rodgers marathon runner (Boston, New York)
1948 Jack Ham NFL linebacker (Steelers)
1949 Susan Lucci Scarsdale NY, actress (All My Children, Mafia Princess)
1965 Eddie Vedder heavy metal singer (Pearl Jam-Justine)
1970 Kimberly Ann Cooley Grand Forks ND, Miss America-North Dakota (1996)
Deaths which occurred on December 23:
0558 Childebert king of the Franks (511-58), dies at about 62
0679 Dagobert II king of Austrasia (676-679), murdered
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintd16.htm 0918 Conrad I East Frankish/German king (911-18), dies
1116 Ivo van Chartres French canonist/bishop of Chartres/saint, dies
1569 St Philip metropolitan of Moscow, martyred by Ivan the Terrible
1588 Hendrik de Guise French leader of Catholic League, murdered at 37
1789 Charles-Michel abbé de l'Epéé (school for the deaf), dies at 77
1909 King Leopold II of Belgium
http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/leopold.html 1939 Anthony H G Fokker Dutch airplane builder (Spider), dies at 49
1948 Hideki Tojo Japan PM & 6 other Japanese hanged for war crimes by US
1953 Lavrenti P Beria soviet minister of internal security, executed
1959 Edward Halifax English viscount/viceroy of India, dies at 78
1966 Robert Keith actor (Battle Circus, Men in War), dies at 68
1970 Charlie Ruggles actor (Ruggles, Aesop-Bullwinkle Show), dies at 84
1975 Richard S Welch CIA station chief in Athens, shot dead
1982 Jack Webb actor (Joe Friday-Dragnet), dies of a heart attack at 62
1985 James Vance (20) & Raymond Belknap (18) commit suicide, sparking their families to sue rock group Judas Priest for subliminal messages
1994 Charles Shirley jazz arranger, dies at 74
1997 Keith Bentley international racing cyclist, dies at 72
1997 Stanley Cortez cinematographer (Magnificent Ambersons), dies at 92
2000 Victor Borge, musical humorist, died at age 91
Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
23-Dec-2004 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Corporal Raleigh C. Smith Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal James R. Phillips Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Eric Hillenburg Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire
US 1st Lieutenant Christopher W. Barnett Baghdad (western part) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Afghanistan / other
12/23/03 Perreault, Theodore L. Sergeant 33 US U.S. Army National Guard 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry Regiment Non-hostile - weapon discharge Camp Bulkeley, Guantanamo Bay
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...
0619 Boniface V begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1569 St Philip of Moscow martyred by Ivan the Terrible
1620 French huguenots declare war on King Louis XIII
1672 Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, a satellite of Saturn
1688 English king Jacob II flees to France
1690 John Flamsteed observes Uranus without realizing it's undiscovered
(hey hey hey! I know what your thinking and you should be ashamed of yourself!)
1724 Emperor Charles VI names Maria Elisabeth land guardian of Australia Netherlands
1728 Prussian Emperor Karel VI sign Treaty of Berlin
1751 France sets plan to tax clergymen
1776 Continental Congress negotiates a war loan of $181,500 from France
1776 Thomas Paine writes "These are the times that try men's souls"
1779 Benedict Arnold court-martialed for improper conduct
1788 Maryland votes to cede a 10 square mile area for District of Columbia
1823 "Visit from St Nicholas" by C Moore published in Troy (New York) Sentinel
1834 Joseph Hansom of London receives patent for Hansom cabs
1852 1st Chinese theater in US, Celestial John, opens in San Francisco
1862 Union General Ben "Beast" Butler is proclaimed a "felon, outlaw & common enemy of mankind" by Jefferson Davis
1876 Turkey's 1st constitution proclaimed
1888 Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear
1894 Debussy's ballet "L'aprés-midi d'un faune" premieres in Paris
1899 Fieldmarshal Lord Roberts departs Southampton to South Africa
1899 Tentative Turkish & German treaty on construction of Baghdad railway
1907 1st all-steel passenger railroad coach completed, Altoona PA
1909 Albert becomes king of Belgium
1912 1st "Keystone Kops" film, titled "Hoffmeyer's Legacy"
http://keystone-kops.biography.ms/ 1912 Aswan Dam in Nile begins operation
1913 President Woodrow Wilson signs Federal Reserve Act into law
1919 Alice H Parker patents gas heating furnace
1920 Ireland divided into 2 parts, each with its own parliament
1920 King George V signs Home Rule Act
1922 BBC Radio began daily newscasts
1922 Pope Pius XI pleas for peace: encyclical Ubi arcano
1925 Sultan Ibn Saud of Nedzjed conquers Djeddah
1928 NBC sets up a permanent, coast-to-coast radio network
1930 Police Bureau of Criminal Alien Investigation started in New York NY
1930 Bette Davis arrives in Hollywood under contract to Universal Studios
1938 Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West costume catches fire in filming of "Wizard of Oz"; she is severely burned and off the film for over one month
1939 Finnish counter offensive at Summa
1941 American forces on Wake Island surrender to Japanese
1941 British troops overrun Benghazi Libya
1941 Japan begins assault on Rangoon Burma
1943 1st telecast of a complete opera (Hansel & Gretel), Schenectady NY
1946 University of Tennessee refuses to play Duquesne University, because they may use a black player in their basketball game
1946 Highest ridership in NYC subway history (8.8 million passengers)
1947 Transistor invented by Bardeen, Brattain & Shockley in Bell Labs
1951 1st coast-to-coast televised football game (Dumont paid $75,000); Los Angeles Rams beat Cleveland Browns 24-17 in NFL championship game
1951 Last Belgian communities get electricity
1953 Dodgers 2nd baseman Jim "Junior" Gilliam wins National League Rookie of Year
1958 Abdallah Ibrahim forms government of Morocco
1960 De Quay's Dutch government falls
1960 King Saudi of Saudi-Arabia takes power
1961 Fidel Castro announces Cuba will release 1,113 prisoners from failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion for $62 million worth of food & medical supplies
1963 Beach Boys 1st appearance on "Shindig"
1963 Fire on Greek ship Laconia, 128 die
1964 India & Ceylon hit by cyclone, about 4,850 killed
1967 Lyndon B Johnson meets Pope Paul VI at the Vatican
1967 Brussels: NATO-Council accept "Flexible Response" - strategy
1968 1st documented US case of space motion sickness
1968 82 members of US intelligence ship 'Pueblo' released by North Korea (after being held 11 months)
http://www.usspueblo.org/ 1968 Borman, Lovell & Anders become 1st men to orbit Moon
1970 New York World Trade Center reaches highest point (411 m)
1972 "Immaculate Reception" Steelers turns around a 7-6 defeat with a last second touchdown reception against the Raiders to win 13-7
1972 6.25 Earthquake destroys central Managua Nicaragua, 10,000 die
1973 6 Persian Gulf nations double their oil prices
1975 Congress passes Metric Conversion Act
1979 New York Islanders greatest shutout lose (8-0) vs Chicago Black Hawks
1983 Journal Science publishes 1st report on nuclear winter
1986 Rutan & Yeager make 1st around-the-world flight without refueling
1987 Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for attempted assassination of President Gerald R Ford escapes from Alderson Prison
1990 Slovenians vote to secede from Yugoslavia
1996 4 women ordained priests in Jamaica, 1st in 330-year Anglican history
1997 Terry Nichols found guilty of manslaughter in Oklahoma bombing
1997 “Carlos the Jackal,” aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, was convicted in the murder of 2 French agents and a Lebanese informant on Jun 27, 1975 and sentenced to life in prison.
2003 South Korean Cabinet approved a plan to send 3,000 troops to the northern oil town of Kirkuk
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Egypt : Victory Day
Montego Bay Jamaica : John Canoe Day
Mexico : Night of the Radishes
Bingo's Birthday Month
Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Thorlac, bishop, patron of Iceland
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St John of Kanty, Polish priest, theologian (optional)
Religious History
1648 Birth of Robert Barclay, Scottish Quaker theologian. He published his most famous work, "An Apology for the True Christian Divinity," in 1676, making him the most prominent theologian in the early Quaker Church.
1790 Birth of Jean Francois Champollion, French Egyptologist. In 1822 he successfully decoded the hieroglyphics of the Rosetta Stone (uncovered in 1799), and is recognized today as the founder of modern Egyptology.
1841 Birth of Handley C.G. Moule, Anglican theologian. He succeeded B.F. Westcott in 1901 as Bishop of Durham. A profound scholar, he could nevertheless speak and write for ordinary people, and published commentaries on nearly all of Paul's letters in the New Testament.
1862 Birth of Amos R. Wells, American Christian educator. He was first editorial secretary of the newly organized Christian Endeavor Society (forerunner of modern church "youth fellowships") from 1891 until his death in 1933.
1950 Pope Pius XII declared that the tomb of St. Peter had been discovered beneath St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Minn. Woman Designs, Sells Guinea Pig Gear
Dec 22, 9:33 PM (ET)
WINONA, Minn. (AP) - Looking for the perfect outfit for your guinea pig? Well, a Winona woman may have what you're after. Carly Austin-Kukowski designs and sells guinea pig gear ranging from leopard-print dresses to elf costumes with reindeer hats.
It started as a joke two years ago, when Austin-Kukowski, 25, made a sweater for her own guinea pig to wear outside. After that, she tried other designs.
A friend sarcastically suggested that she try to sell the costumes on eBay.
Austin-Kukowski took her friend seriously, and four months later, she said she has sold about 100 costumes to people as far away as Australia and England. About a third of her orders come from New York City, she said.
Austin-Kukowski, who works as a nurse's aide, has filled custom orders. She made a Minnesota Vikings helmet - braids included. She also made a white lace dress for a guinea pig "wedding."
The original sweater-wearing guinea pig has passed away, but she now has four others.
This week Austin-Kukowski took out a classified ad in a local paper: "Christmas costumes for guinea pigs. $7. Santa, elf, many more. Must see to believe."
Thought for the day :
"A liberally educated person meets new ideas with curiosity and fascination. An illiberally educated person meets new ideas with fear"
James Stockdale