See what makes December 15 special at Famous Daily.
History, birthdays, holiday, and a quote!
What happened on December 15
- December 15, 0533 "Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron."
- December 15, 0687 St Sergius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- December 15, 1167 Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
- December 15, 1256 Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
- December 15, 1467 "Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia."
- December 15, 1612 "Simon Marius, is first to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope"
- December 15, 1785 "King George IV of England marries his mistress, Maria Fitzherbert."
- December 15, 1791 "The Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution) becomes law, following ratification by the state of Virginia."
- December 15, 1791 The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature.
- December 15, 1792 The first US life insurance policy is issued in Philadelphia
- December 15, 1794 Revolutionary Tribunal abolished in France
- December 15, 1810 "Irish magazine in US, the Shamrock, is firstpublished"
- December 15, 1816 "Charles Stanhope, a British earl, invented two early mechanical calculators, as well as a printing press, a microscope lens, and various other scientific devices."
- December 15, 1836 Patent Office burns in Washington DC
- December 15, 1854 First street-cleaning machine in US first used in Philadelphia
- December 15, 1854 Philadelphia residents were amazed as the first street cleaning machine was put into operation.
- December 15, 1859 GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of Sun
- December 15, 1864 "In the Battle of Nashville, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John B. Hood."
- December 15, 1868 Shogunate rebels found Ezo Republic in Hokkaid.
- December 15, 1874 "David Kalakaua, king of the Sandwich Islands chain in the South Pacific and first regining king to visit the US, is received at the White House by US president Ulysses S. Grant."
- December 15, 1886 "Turbulence reigned over Wall Street on this day in 1886, as a record 1.2 million shares changed hands in a day of frantic trading."
- December 15, 1890 "North American Indian, Sitting Bull, died on 15 December 1890. His bones were laid to rest in North Dakota, but a business group wanted him moved to a 'more natural' site in South Dakota. Their campaign was rejected so they stole the bones, and they now reside in Sitting Bull Park, South Dakota."
- December 15, 1890 "Sitting Bull, a leader of the Sioux Indian nation, is killed in South Dakota by Indian police for resisting arrest."
- December 15, 1891 James Naismith a Canadian invents basketball
- December 15, 1891 "James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players."
- December 15, 1896 "Herman Hollerith, inventor of the tabulating machine used in the 1890 U.S. census, was saved from financial ruin when the Russian government contracted his tabulating machine for their census"
- December 15, 1913 Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- December 15, 1914 "After being closed for over four months, the NYSE got back into the swing of things on this day in 1914, albeit with a tight set of trading restrictions designed to prevent fiscal disaster"
- December 15, 1914 Battle of Lodz ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
- December 15, 1914 "Gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine, Kysh, Japan, 687 killed. This accident is the worst coal mine disaster in Japanese history."
- December 15, 1914 World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
- December 15, 1915 "World War I: Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig replaces John French, 1st Earl of Ypres as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force."
- December 15, 1916 French defeat Germans in WW I Battle of Verdun
- December 15, 1917 Moldavian Republic declares independence from Russia
- December 15, 1917 World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Bolshevik government and the Central Powers.
- December 15, 1925 First road with a depressed trough (Texas) opened to traffic
- December 15, 1927 Ed Hickman kidnaps child he later beheads
- December 15, 1938 Groundbreaking begins for Jefferson Memorial in Wash DC
- December 15, 1939 "Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta, Georgia."
- December 15, 1939 "The commercial manufacture of nylon yarn, Seaford, Delaware"
- December 15, 1939 "The world premiere of the movie Gone With the Wind is held in Atlanta, GA."
- December 15, 1939 "World premiere of ""Gone With The Wind"" in Atlanta GA"
- December 15, 1941 A musical standard was recorded this day on Victor Records. Lena Horne sang the torch classic that became her signature: Stormy Weather.
- December 15, 1941 "Annihilation of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine: at temperatures of -15 degrees C below zero near the Rogan works, 8 km away from Kharkiv in ""Drobitsky Ravine"" (Drobitsky Yar), over 15 000 Jews are shot."
- December 15, 1941 USS Swordfish becomes first US sub to sink a Japanese ship
- December 15, 1942 Massachusetts issues first US vehicular license plate tabs
- December 15, 1942 The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued the first plastic license-plate tabs.
- December 15, 1944 A single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller vanishes over the English Channel while en route to Paris.
- December 15, 1944 Glenn Miller presumed dead after his plane disappeared over the English Channel
- December 15, 1945 "John J ""Cardinal"" O'Connor, ordained as a priest"
- December 15, 1945 Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as state religion of Japan.
- December 15, 1948 A New York grand jury indicted former State Department employee Alger Hiss for perjury. The charge stemmed from a congressional investigation of Communist subversion and espionage in the government.
- December 15, 1950 NYC's Port Authority opens
- December 15, 1954 "Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter was featured on Walt Disney?s TV series for the first time. Crockett was played by Fess Parker."
- December 15, 1954 Netherlands Antilles becomes co-equal part of Kingdom of Netherlands
- December 15, 1959 "Everly Brothers record ""Let It Be Me"""
- December 15, 1960 King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda Mara de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragn in Brussels.
- December 15, 1960 "Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the U.S. President-Elect, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier."
- December 15, 1961 Adolf Eichmann convicted of crimes against humanity in Israel
- December 15, 1961 "In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization."
- December 15, 1962 "Vaughn Meader's ""The first Family,"" album goes #1 and stays #1 for 12 wks"
- December 15, 1964 Canada adopts maple leaf flag
- December 15, 1965 "3rd cyclone of year kills another 10,000 at mouths of Ganges River, Bangladesh"
- December 15, 1965 Gemini 6 launched; makes first rendezvous in space (with Gemini 7)
- December 15, 1965 "Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7."
- December 15, 1965 "In the first raid on a major North Vietnamese industrial target, U.S. Air Force planes destroy a thermal power plant at Uong Bi, l4 miles north of Haiphong. The plant reportedly supplied about 15 percent of North Vietnam's total electric power production."
- December 15, 1966 "Audouin Dollfus discovers 10th satellite of Saturn, Janus"
- December 15, 1966 "One of the greatest names in children?s television and movie production died on this day. Walt (Walter Elias) Disney died in Burbank, California. Mr. Disney was 65 years old."
- December 15, 1967 "Beatles release ""Christmas Time is Here Again"""
- December 15, 1967 "The Silver Bridge across the Ohio River collapsed during rush hour. Dozens of cars fell into the icy water. Forty-six people lost their lives in the accident, and many others were injured."
- December 15, 1969 City status given by Prince Charles to the town of Swansea - United Kingdom
- December 15, 1969 San Francisco Fire Department replaces leather helmets with plastic ones
- December 15, 1970 Ferryboat capsized in Korean Strait drowning 261
- December 15, 1970 Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election.
- December 15, 1970 Soviet Venera 7 is first spacecraft to land on another planet (Venus)
- December 15, 1973 "John Paul Getty III, grandson of J. Paul Getty, American billionaire is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10, 1973"
- December 15, 1973 Number one hit on UK music charts - Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
- December 15, 1973 Pirates of Caribbean opens at Disneyland
- December 15, 1975 Pink Floyd releases the album Wish You Were Here in the US and UK.
- December 15, 1976 "Argo Merchant tanker off Massachusetts' SE coast, spills 7.6 m gallons of crude when the ship runs aground"
- December 15, 1976 Samoa becomes a member of the UN.
- December 15, 1978 President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and cutoff all relations with Taiwan
- December 15, 1979 Deposed Shah of Iran leaves US for Panama
- December 15, 1979 Number one hit on UK music charts - Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall
- December 15, 1979 World Court in Hague rules Iran should release all US hostages
- December 15, 1982 "Roy Williams, Teamsters pres, and 4 others convicted of bribery"
- December 15, 1982 Spain reopens border with Gibraltar
- December 15, 1983 "Columbia flies to Kennedy Space Center via El Paso, Kelly AFB"
- December 15, 1984 Number one hit on UK music charts - Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas
- December 15, 1984 USSR launches Vega 1 for rendezvous with Halley's Comet
- December 15, 1985 Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielson wed
- December 15, 1986 Carnegie Hall reopens after a $50 million facelift
- December 15, 1986 CIA director William Casey suffers a cerebral seizure
- December 15, 1988 James Brown becomes inmate #155413 at the State Park Correctional Institute in South Carolina after several committed crimes.
- December 15, 1988 Lori Davis of Long Island sues Mike Tyson for grabbing her buttocks
- December 15, 1990 Rocker Rod Stewart marries super model Rachel Hunter
- December 15, 1993 Downing Street Declaration on Northern Ireland issued
- December 15, 1993 GATT Uruguay Round completed
- December 15, 1993 History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
- December 15, 1994 "Diane Modahl banned from Athletics for Drug Use, in the UK"
- December 15, 1994 Palau becomes a member of the UN.
- December 15, 1994 The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released.
- December 15, 1995 "The European Communities Court of Justice hands down the ""Bosman ruling"", giving EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one UEFA Federation to another."
- December 15, 1995 "The New York Stock Exchange charged into the record books on this day. The Big Board posted a new mark for trading volume, as 652.8 million shares changed hands, topping the old mark of 608.2 million shares"
- December 15, 1997 "A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85."
- December 15, 2001 "The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean."
- December 15, 2005 Argentina's president Nstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.
- December 15, 2005 Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
- December 15, 2005 Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of gays and lesbians being entitled to marry.
- December 15, 2005 The 2005 Atlantic Power Outage began.
- December 15, 2005 "The 43rd known Mersenne prime is discovered by Dr. Curtis Cooper & Dr. Steven Boone of USA, participants of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search distributed computing project. The prime number is 2nd largest known prime and has more than nine million digits."
- December 15, 2006 First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
- December 15, 2009 "Canadian sports medicine specialist Anthony Galea, who helped Tiger Woods recover from knee surgery, is accused of providing top athletes with performance-enhancing drugs."
- December 15, 2009 Chile receives an official invitation to become a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
- December 15, 2009 "Evacuations begin in the Albay province of the Philippines as the Mayon Volcano oozes lava, with an eruption possible."
- December 15, 2009 Israel condemns the issuing of a war crimes arrest warrant in the United Kingdom for former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
- December 15, 2009 Nauru recognizes the independence of Abkhazia and establishes formal diplomatic relations in exchange for aid from Russia.
- December 15, 2009 "The Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' widebody passenger airliner takes its maiden flight, travelling from Paine Field to Boeing Field, in Washington State, U.S.A."
- December 15, 2009 Two protesters are killed and several injured at a demonstration in opposition to the banning of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party in Turkey.
- December 15, 2009 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish hosts urge countries on to compromise to salvage agreement on a new U.N. pact aimed at averting dangerous climate change and global warming. P:GW
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