December 22

is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 9 days remaining.

Events

1603 - Mehmed III Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.
1790 - Storm and capture Russian armies And. Century of Suvorov of a Turkish fortress Izmail.
1807 - The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.
1809 - The Non-Intercourse Act, lifting the Embargo Act except for the United Kingdom and France, passes the U.S. Congress.
1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is canceled at the last second.
1851 - The first freight train is operated in Roorkee in India.
1864 - Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".
1885 - Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
1894 - The Dreyfus affair begins, in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason, on antisemitic grounds.
1920 - Opening of 8-th All-Russia congress of Advice in Moscow (on December, 29th). The statement of the GOELRO plan.
1937 - The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.
1944 - German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium. See Battle of the Bulge.
1944 - Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Vietnam.
1947 - The Constituent Assembly of Italy approves its constitution.
1963 - Cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles north of Madeira with the loss of 128 lives.
1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.
1964 - First SR-71 (Blackbird) flight
1965 - In the United Kingdom, a 70mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
1974 - Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
1984 - Subway vigilante Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four African-American men on an express train in The Bronx borough of New York City.
1988 - Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.
1989 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.
1989 - Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
1989 - Two tourist coaches collide on the Pacific Highway north of Kempsey NSW (Kempsey Bus Crash).
1990 - Lech Wałęsa is sworn in as President of Poland.
1997 - Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces.
1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (Zaragoza) another van loaded by ETA with 750 kg of explosives (see related event on December 21 1999).
1999 - Tandja Mamadou becomes President of Niger.
2001 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
2001 - Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
2001 - Cc the cat, the first cloned pet, is born.

Births

1178 - Emperor Antoku of Japan (d. 1185)
1639 - Jean Racine, French dramatist (d. 1699)
1666 - Guru Gobind Singh, (d. 1708)
1694 - Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (b. 1768)
1696 - James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (d. 1785)
1723 - Karl Friedrich Abel, German composer (d. 1787)
1805 - John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist (d. 1893)
1807 - Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (d. 1873)
1819 - Franz Wilhelm Abt, German composer (d. 1870)
1853 - Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist (d. 1917)
1856 - Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)
1858 - Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (d. 1924)
1860 - Austin Norman Palmer, American penmanship innovator (d. 1927)
1862 - Connie Mack, baseball executive and manager (d. 1956)
1869 - Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (d. 1935)
1872 - Camille Guérin, French veterinarian and bacteriologist (d. 1961)
1874 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (d. 1939)
1876 - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian poet and editor (d. 1944)
1883 - Edgard Varèse French-born composer (d. 1965)
1887 - Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (d. 1920)
1888 - J. Arthur Rank, American producer (d. 1972)
1898 - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock, Russian physicist (d. 1974)
1899 - Gustav Gründgens, German actor and director (d. 1963)
1903 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)
1905 - Kenneth Rexroth, American poet (d. 1982)
1907 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft, English actress (d. 1991)
1909 - Patricia Hayes, actress on 'Carry On' series, Mama The Turk in "Superbitch"(1973) (d. 1998)
1912 - Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the United States
1915 - Barbara Billingsley, American actress
1917 - Gene Rayburn, American game show host (d. 1999)
1922 - Jack Brooks, American politician
1922 - Ruth Roman, American actress (d. 1999)
1925 - Lewis Glucksman, American financier and philantrophist (d. 2006)
1934 - David Pearson, NASCAR Driver 1960-1986
1937 - Eduard Uspensky, Russian writer
1939 - James Gurley, American musician
1943 - Paul Wolfowitz, American politician
1944 - Steve Carlton, baseball player
1945 - Diane Sawyer, American journalist
1946 - Rick Nielsen, American musician (Cheap Trick)
1948 - Lynne Thigpen, American actress (d. 2003)
1948 - Noel Edmonds, UK game show host
1948 - Patricia Hewitt, Senior British Labour Politician
1949 - Maurice Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003)
1949 - Robin Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees)
1951 - Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster
1953 - Ian Turnbull, Canadian ice hockey player
1957 - Carole James, Canadian politician
1958 - Frank Gambale, Australian guitarist
1958 - Mikael Nordfors, Swedish physician and author
1959 - Bernd Schuster, German footballer
1960 - Patrick Fitzgerald, US Attorney
1961 - Andrew Fastow, Enron CFO, convicted of fraud
1962 - Ralph Fiennes, English actor
1966 - Dmitry Bilozerchev, Soviet gymnast
1967 - Dan Petrescu, Romanian footballer
1967 - Richey James Edwards, Manic Street Preachers songwriter/guitarist, (missing since 1995)
1969 - Myriam Bédard, Canadian athlete
1974 - Heather Donahue, American actress, famous for her role in The Blair Witch Project
1975 - Crissy Moran, American erotic actress
1975 - Stanislav Neckář, Czech ice hockey player
1977 - Steve Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 - Devin Anderson, American composer
1983 - Jennifer Hawkins, Miss Universe 2004

Deaths

1100 - Duke Bretislaus II of Bohemia
1603 - Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (b. 1566)
1646 - Peter Mogila, Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia (b. 1596)
1660 - André Tacquet, Belgian mathematician (b. 1612)
1681 - Richard Alleine, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1611)
1708 - Hedwig Sophia, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish writer (b. 1681)
1738 - Constantia Jones, British prostitute (executed)
1767 - John Newbery, English publisher (b. 1713)
1788 - Percivall Pott, English physician and surgeon (b. 1714)
1806 - William Vernon, American merchant (b. 1719)
1870 - Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet and writer (b. 1836)
1828 - William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (b. 1766)
1880 - George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)
1899 - Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)
1902 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychiatrist (b. 1840)
1936 - Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croatian paleontologist (b. 1856)
1939 - Ma Rainey, American singer (b. 1886)
1940 - Nathanael West, American writer (b. 1903)
1942 - Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b. 1858)
1943 - Beatrix Potter, English writer (b. 1866)
1947 - Hans Aumeier, German Nazi official and concentration camp commandant (b. 1906)
1959 - Gilda Gray, Polish-born American dancer and actress (b. 1901)
1965 - Richard Dimbleby, English journalist and broadcaster (b. 1913)
1971 - Godfried Bomans, Dutch author and television personality (b. 1913)
1979 - Darryl F. Zanuck, American producer (b. 1902)
1980 - Karl Dönitz, German politician and U-boat commander (b. 1891)
1985 - D. Boon, American singer and guitarist (The Minutemen) (b. 1958)
1988 - Chico Mendes, Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist, and environmental activist (assassinated) (b. 1944)
1989 - Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
1995 - Butterfly McQueen, American actress (b. 1911)
1995 - James Meade, English economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (b. 1907)
2002 - Desmond Hoyte, President of Guyana (b. 1929)
2002 - Joe Strummer, British musician (The Clash) (b. 1952)
2003 - Dave Dudley, American singer (b. 1928)
2004 - Doug Ault, baseball player (b. 1950)
2005 - James Dungy, eldest son of Tony Dungy (b.1987)

Holidays and observances

R.C. Saints - commemoration of Frances Xavier Cabrini
Also see December 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Japan - Tōji (winter solstice)
In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice occurs on or very close to this date. In the Southern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs around this time.
Astrology: First day of sun sign Capricorn
Spain: the main draw of Spanish National Lottery, where it is a Christmas tradition.

External links

December 21 - December 23 - November 22 - January 22 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: December 22

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links