December 22th

December 22 is the 356th (three hundred and fifty-sixth) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar and the 357th in leap years. There are 9 days left to end the year.

Events

• 401: In Rome, Inocencio I is elected Pope.
• 856: in Damgán (province of Semnán), at that time the capital of Iran, an earthquake leaves a balance of 200,000 dead.
• 1248: Fernando III enters the newly conquered Seville.
• 1491: The Catholic Kings sign the Chapters of Alphacar.
• 1522: the foundation of Coatzacoalcos
• 1622: In Colombia, Miguel Trujillo and Andrés Páez de Sotomayor founded the city of Bucaramanga.
• 1666: In Paris the Academy of Sciences was founded, the work of Jean-Baptiste Colbert.
• 1711: in Frankfurt, the Archduke Charles is crowned emperor with the name of Charles VI.
• 1790: In Turkey, the fortress of Izmail is captured by Suvorov and his Russian troops.
• 1808: Vienna premieres Symphonies No. 5 and No. 6, the Coral fantasy and Concert for piano n.o 4 from Ludwig van Beethoven.
• 1815: in San Cristóbal Ecatepec (Mexico) the leader of independence José María Morelos is shot.
• 1849: In Russia, the writer Fiodor Dostoievsky is pardoned by the platoon that was about to shoot him.
• 1857: military forces from England and France take the Chinese city of Canton, which will be governed until 1901 by an Anglo-French commission.
• 1864: During the Franco-Mexican war, in the state of Sinaloa Mexican General Antonio Rosales (with 264 men) defeats a French invading troop (700 men) in what is known as the battle of San Pedro.
• 1871: General Porfirio Díaz arrives in Tetela de Ocampo seeking military support from the three Juanes of the North Sierra in the framework of the "Rebellion of the Plan of La Noria".
• 1885: Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the prime minister of Japan.
• 1891: In Chile, the Autonomous Commune Act created 195 communes. (See also Chilean Municipalities Decree).
• 1894: In France the Dreyfus case begins, when Alfred Dreyfus is imprisoned for treason.
• 1895: The Puerto Rico Section of the Cuban Revolutionary Party assembled in the 'Chimney Hall' building in New York unanimously adopts the Puerto Rican flag, presented by Juan Matta Terreforte, so the Puerto Rico flag was officially born as a banner of struggle for Puerto Rico's independence.
• 1922: In Onteniente (Valencia) a train crash is charged 11 dead and 90 wounded.
• 1927: In the Province of Mendoza (Argentina) the Atlético Club San Martín is founded.
• 1928: the great powers recognize the customs autonomy of China.
• 1929: in Germany the plebiscite organized by the extreme right against the Young Plan fails.
• 1932: In the city of Malé, the majlis of the curses is inaugurated.
• 1936: In Cadiz—in the framework of the Spanish civil war—the first contingent of 3000 "black houses" (Italian fascist soldiers) is being disembarked to join the Spanish fascists.
• 1938: Otto Hahn, director of chemistry at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, and his team get the first nuclear fission of history.
• 1939: In Finland, during the Second World War, the Soviet offensive fails.
• 1939: In the city of Bogota, Colombia, the Gold Museum is inaugurated, which is the largest pre-Hispanic collection in the world.
• 1940: In England, and in the framework of the Second World War, the Germans carry out an aerial attack on the civilian population of the city of Manchester.
• 1942: In Germany, in the framework of the Second World War, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler orders to develop the V-2 rockets.
• 1944: In Bastogne, Belgium, in the framework of the Second World War, the Nazi army calls for the surrender of the U.S. army at the command of General Anthony McAuliffe in the Battle of the Ardennes.
• 1944: In Indochina, during the Second World War, Vo Nguyen Giap created the Vietnamese People's Army.
• 1945: U.S. Aircraft Company Beech Aircraft Corporation first blows the Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft.
• 1947: In the course of the Chinese Revolution, Communists arrive at the gates of the city of Beijing.
• 1956: Colo becomes the first gorilla born in captivity.
• 1961: In the city of Havana, in the face of an enormous general concentration gathered in the Plaza de la Revolución, Major Fidel Castro—after two years of the National Literacy Campaign, in which several liters were killed by terrorists paid by the U.S. CIA, declares Cuba Free Territory of Analphabetism in Latin America.
• 1961: in a well 248 meters underground, in the U12b.08 area of the Nevada atomic testing site, about 100 km northwest of the city of Las Vegas, at 8:30 (local time) United States detonates its Feather atomic bomb, of 0.15 kilotons. It is the 208 bomb of 1132 that the United States detonated between 1945 and 1992.
• 1963: 180 miles north of Madeira, the Lakonia cruise sinks, causing the death of 128 people.
• 1964: in the United States, comic Lenny Bruce is arrested for obscenity.
• 1964: first flight of the plane SR-71 Blackbird.
• 1965: In Vietnam, the commander of the U.S. troops, General William Westmoreland, announced a ceasefire for Christmas.
• 1966: South Rodesia leaves the Commonwealth.
• 1969: Bernadette Devlin, a member of the House of Commons, is sentenced in Londonderry (North Ireland) to six months in prison, charged with participating in the disorders of last August.
• 1970: The Peruvian Government grants a total amnesty for political prisoners.
• 1971: Austrian Kurt Waldheim is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.
• 1972: the 16 survivors of flight 571 are rescued in the Andes mountain range with 36 people on board (to survive they had to eat human flesh).
• 1972: in Managua (Nicaragua) three tremors in the night are senses that are premonitive earthquakes that will destroy the city the morning of the next day.
• 1972: in Managua (Nicaragua) Father Fernando Cardenal leads the hunger strike "Christmas without political prisoners" in the court of today Antigua Cathedral, which will be interrupted by the earthquake.
• 1973: OPEC doubles its prices for the oil crisis.
• 1976: Boca Juniors wins River Plate for 1-0 the end of the 1976 National Tournament and won Argentine football champion for 14th chance.
• 1978: The third plenary of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Beijing, allows Deng Xiaoping to begin its policies for economic reform.
• 1978: in Buenos Aires, the dictatorship of Videla (1976-1983) plans a large-scale invasion against Chile, planned for the loss in the litigation of the Picton, Lennox and New Islands.
• 1981: in Buenos Aires—in the framework of the Argentine civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983)— lieutenant General Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, who would start the Falklands War on 2 April 1982.
• 1983: in Buenos Aires, the Independent Atletic Club is dedicated champion of the Metropolitan Tournament, winning in the last day its classic rival Racing Club; it goes down on that day.
• 1986: in Peru the television channel RBC Televisión is inaugurated, after being taken by the dictatorial government of Juan Velasco Alvarado.
• 1989: After a week of tragic massacres, Ion Iliescu became the president of Romania, ending with the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceauşescu.
• 1989: Berlin opens the door of Brandenburg, ending with 30 years of division of the two Germanys.
• 1990: in Poland, Lech Wałęsa is appointed president of that country.
• 1990: In New York, United States, the United Nations, in accordance with international legality, officially recognized the independence of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, which had been invaded by the United States since 1944.
• 1992: In Paraguay there are the Terror Archives of Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship, and of the so-called CIA Condor Operation, which contain all written communications between police and military authorities especially in Paraguay, and also from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay between the 1970s and 1980s.
• 1995: in Ecuador, the Barcelona Sporting Club is the champion of Ecuadorian football for 12th occasion.
• 1997: 45 indigenous tsotsiles were killed while praying in a church of the community of Acteal, in the Mexican state of Chiapas.
• 1999: Tandja Mamadou becomes president of Nigeria.
• 2001: on board American Airlines flight 63, an American citizen (Richard Reid) tries to destroy the plane with explosives in his shoes.
• 2002: After 45 years Independent Medellin was consecrated for the third time Colombian football champion when he empathed with Pasto 1-1
• 2005: in Bogotá, Colombia, the first edition of the political and humor newspaper departs A Pasquín, founded and directed by the cartoonist Vladdo (Vladimir Flórez).
• 2009: In Bucaramanga, Colombia, the Integrated Mass Transport System (Metroline) is inaugurated.
• 2014: In Nicaragua, the government of President Daniel Ortega and the HKND company opened works to start the Nicaraguan Grand Canal.
• 2018: In Indonesia, the Anak Krakatoa volcano erupted, causing a tsunami that left over 200 people dead.

Births

• 1178: Antoku, Japanese emperor (f. 1185).
• 1546: Kuroda Yoshitaka, daimyō Japanese (f. 1604).
• 1550: Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher (f. 1631).
• 1585: Christoph Müller, "the boy with the gold tooth", German scammer.

Jean Baptiste Racine

• 1639: Jean Racine, French playwright (f. 1699).
• 1666: Gurú Gobind Singh, gurú sij indio (f. 1708).
• 1694: Hermann Samuel Reimarus, a German philosopher and writer (f. 1768).
• 1696: James Oglethorpe, British military (f. 1785).
• 1723: Karl Friedrich Abel, German composer (f. 1787).
• 1755: Georges Couthon, a French revolutionary (f. 1794).
• 1772: Luis Quintanar, Mexican military and political (f. 1837).
• 1792: Manuel Pando Fernández de Pinedo, a Spanish politician and academic (f. 1872).
• 1805: John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist (f. 1893).
• 1819: Franz Wilhelm Abt, German composer (f. 1870).
• 1853: Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist (f. 1917).
• 1856: Frank Billings Kellogg, American politician, Nobel Peace Prize in 1929 (f. 1937).
• 1858: Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (f. 1924).
• 1859: Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Mexican poet (f. 1895).
• 1862: Kaulak, a Spanish photographer (f. 1933).
• 1864: Federico Gamboa, journalist, narrator and Mexican dramatic author (f. 1939).
• 1869: Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (f. 1935).
• 1869: Dmitri Egorov, Russian mathematician (f. 1931).
• 1872: Camille Guérin, French veterinarian (f. 1961).
• 1874: Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (f. 1939).
• 1876: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian poet (f. 1944).
• 1878: Stephen Timoshenko, Russian-American engineer (f. 1972).

Edgard Varèse

• 1883: Edgard Varèse, French composer (f. 1965).
• 1885: Deems Taylor, American composer (f. 1966).
• 1887: Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan, mathematician Hindu (f. 1920).
• 1894: Demetrio Carceller Segura, Spanish politician (f. 1968).
• 1895: Francisco Pierrá Gómez, a Spanish actor (f. 1975).
• 1898: Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock, Russian physicist (f. 1974).
• 1899: Gustaf Gründgens, German actor (f. 1963).
• 1900: Ofelia Uribe, Colombian politics (f. 1988).
• 1903: Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist (f. 1983).
• 1903: Odhise Paskali, Albanian sculptor (f. 1985).
• 1905: Pierre Brasseur, French actor (f. 1972).
• 1905: Kenneth Rexroth, American poet (f. 1982).
• 1907: Peggy Ashcroft, British actress (f. 1991).
• 1907: Fred M. Wilcox, American filmmaker.
• 1907: Yevdokía Rachkévich, Political Commissioner of 588.o Nocturno Bombing Regime (f. 1975)
• 1909: Patricia Hayes, American actress (f. 1998).
• 1910: Silvio Accame, Italian historian (f. 1997).
• 1910: Emma de Sigaldi, a German sculptor and dancer residing in Monaco (f. 2010).
• 1910: Dora Alonso, Cuban writer (f. 2001).
• 1911: Alvaro Cunqueiro, a Spanish writer and journalist (f. 1981).
• 1912: Lady Bird Johnson, first American lady (f. 2007).
• 1914: Emil Sitka, an American actor (f. 1998).
• 1915: José Antonio Nieves Conde, Spanish filmmaker (f. 2006).
• 1915: Barbara Billingsley, American actress (f. 2010).
• 1916: Juan de Dios Carmona, Chilean politician (f. 2009).
• 1921: Hawkshaw Hawkins, American musician (f. 1963).
• 1921: Robert Kurka, American composer (f. 1957).
• 1922: Ruth Roman, American actress (f. 1999).
• 1922: Iakovos Kambanelis, Greek poet and writer (f. 2011).
• 1922: Elisabeth of Hohenberg, Luxembourg princess (f. 2011).
• 1925: Yekaterina Mijailova-Demina, a Soviet military physician, Heroin of the Soviet Union (f. 2019).
• 1926: Alcides Ghiggia, Uruguayan footballer (f. 2015).
• 1926: José Luis Moro, Spanish artist (f. 2015)
• 1930: Arturo Rojas de la Cámara, Spanish hysterist.
• 1933: Abel Pacheco, Costa Rican president.
• 1933: Emili Teixidor, Spanish writer in Catalan (f. 2012).
• 1934: David Pearson, American automotive stock pilot.
• 1936: Héctor Elizondo, an American actor.
• 1936: José Luis Martín Rodríguez, Spanish historian (f. 2004).
• 1936: James Burke, British writer.
• 1938: Matty Alou, Dominican baseball player (f. 2011).
• 1938: Lucien Bouchard, Canadian politician.
• 1939: Rufino Foz, Spanish politician (f. 2011).
• 1942: Dick Parry, British musician, of the Pink Floyd band.
• 1943: Paul Wolfowitz, American politician.
• 1946: Hortensio Fernández Extravís, Spanish footballer (f. 2011).
• 1948: Rick Nielsen, American musician, from the Cheap Trick band.
• 1949: Maurice (f. 2003) and Robin Gibb (f. 2012), British musicians, Bee Gees band.
• 1950: María Antonieta de las Nieves, Mexican actress,
• 1951: Gerald Grosvenor, a British businessman and aristocrat (f. 2016).
• 1954: Anna Galiena, Italian actress.
• 1955: Miguel Amed, actor, psychologist and director of Argentine radio and television programmes (f. 2010).
• 1955: Thomas Südhof, German biologist.
• 1957: Tony Lestingi, Argentine actor.
• 1958: Frank Gambale, Australian musician.
• 1959: Bernd Schuster, footballer and German coach.
• 1959: Alfredo Urdaci, Spanish journalist.
• 1960: Jean-Michel Basquiat, American graffiti painter.
• 1962: Ralph Fiennes, British actor.
• 1962: Marcelo Gálvez, Ecuadorian actor.
• 1963: Giusseppe Bergomi, Italian footballer.
• 1963: Vladdo (Vladimir Flórez), Colombian cartoonist.
• 1964: Juan M. Velázquez, Spanish writer.
• 1965: Viviana Gibelli, Venezuelan actress and presenter.
• 1965: Luis Islas, Argentine footballer.
• 1965: Sergi López, Spanish actor.
• 1966: Favio Posca, Argentine actor and humorist.
• 1966: María Pujalte, Spanish actress.
• 1967: Juan Manuel Bernal, Mexican actor.
• 1967: Richey James Edwards, Welsh musician, from the Manic Street Preachers band.
• 1967: Dan Petrescu, Romanian footballer.
• 1968: Luis Hernández, Mexican footballer.
• 1968: Dina Meyer, American actress.
• 1972: Vanessa Paradis, French singer and actress.
• 1972: Big Tigger, American radio and TV personality.
• 1974: Flavio Mendoza, dancer, choreographer and Argentine art director.
• 1974: Walter Queijeiro, Argentine sports journalist and politician.
• 1975: Dmitri Khokhlov, Russian footballer.
• 1978: Emmanuel Olisadebe, Polish nationalized Nigerian footballer.
• 1978: Julio Jung Duvauchelle, Venezuelan actor
• 1980: Chris Carmack, American actor.
• 1983: Jennifer Hawkins, Australian model and miss Universe.
• 1983: Drew Hankinson, American fighter.
• 1983: José Fonte, Portuguese footballer.
• 1983: Tatsunori Arai, Japanese footballer.
• 1984: Jonas Altberg, Swedish musician and DJ.
• 1985: Edurne, Spanish singer and actress.
• 1985: Mystical (lighter), Mexican fighter.
• 1987: Zach Britton, American baseball player.
• 1988: Ramiro Torres, Mexican actor.
• 1989: Jordin Sparks, American singer.
• 1990: Tasie Lawrence, British actress and songwriter.
• 1990: Jean-Baptiste Maunier, French actor and singer.
• 1991: DaBaby, American rapper.
• 1992: Moonbyul, rapper, singer, lyricist, model, actress, dancer and South Korean choreographer.
• 1993: Meghan Trainor, American singer-songwriter.
• 1993: Ali Lohan, American actress and singer.
• 1993: Sergi Darder, Spanish footballer
• 1996: Chiara Barchiesi, Chilean politics.
• 1998: G. Hannelius, American actress.
• 1998: Latto, American rapper.
• 2000: Joshua Bassett, American actor and singer.
• 2001: María Camila Osorio Serrano, Colombian tennis player.
• 2003: Neel Sethi, American actor.

Deaths

• 69: Vitelio, Roman emperor (n. 15).
• 1419: John XXIII, Roman antipape (n. 1370).
• 1554: Francisco Dávila, conqueror and Spanish explorer (n. 1488).
• 1603: Mehmed III, Ottoman sultan (n. 1566).
• 1681: Richard Alleine, British clergyman (n. 1611).
• 1704: Paolo Silvio Boccone, Italian botanist (n. 1633).
• 1745: Jan Dismas Zelenka, Czech composer (n. 1679).
• 1767: John Newbery, British editor (n. 1713).
• 1788: Percivall Pott, British physicist (n. 1714).
• 1806: William Vernon, American merchant (n. 1719).
• 1815: José María Morelos, leader in the Mexican war of independence (n. 1765).
• 1828: William Hyde Wollaston, British physical and chemical (n. 1766).
• 1853: Manuel María Lombardini, Mexican military and political (n. 1802).
• 1867: Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician (n. 1788).
• 1870: Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet (n. 1836).
• 1874: Agustín Arrieta, Mexican painter (n. 1803).
• 1880: George Eliot, British writer (n. 1819).
• 1896: Antonio Susillo, Spanish sculptor (n. 1857).
• 1899: Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (n. 1837).
• 1902: Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychiatrist (n. 1840).
• 1905: José Riquelme, Spanish actor (n. 1865).
• 1917: Francisca Javiera Cabrini, American religious (n. 1850).
• 1921: Facón Grande, anarcho-indicalista argentina (n. 1883).
• 1935: Victorino Abente and Lago, Uruguayan poet (n. 1846).
• 1939: Ma Rainey, American singer (n. 1886).
• 1940: Nathanael West, American writer (n. 1903).
• 1941: Santos Jorge, a Panamanian musician (n. 1870).
• 1942: Franz Boas, an American anthropologist (n. 1858).
• 1942: Gerhard Wartenberg, German anarcho-syndicalist (n. 1904).
• 1943: Beatrix Potter, British writer (n. 1866).
• 1944: Harry Langdon, American actor (n. 1884).
• 1947: Hans Aumeier, Nazi officer (n. 1906).
• 1948: Francisco Cossio Robelo, Mexican military and political (n. 1880).
• 1954: Wenceslao Benítez Inglott, Admiral, Scientific and Spanish Engineer (n.1879).
• 1955: Enrique García-Rendueles, a Spanish writer (n. 1880).
• 1969: Josef von Sternberg, Austrian filmmaker (n. 1894).
• 1974: Juan Zaragüeta, Spanish philosopher (n. 1883).
• 1974: Carlos Alberto Sacheri, an Argentine scholar and philosopher (n. 1933).
• 1976: Martín Luis Guzmán, Mexican writer (n. 1887).
• 1979: Darryl F. Zanuck, American Film Producer (n. 1902).
• 1982: Felix Likiniano, Spanish anarchist (n. 1909).
• 1987: Luca Prodan, Italian-Spanish musician based in Argentina (Sumo) (n. 1953).
• 1988: Chico Mendes, Brazilian activist (n. 1944).
• 1989: Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1969 (n. 1906).
• 1989: Andrés do Barro, Spanish singer (n. 1947).
• 1991: Ernst Krenek, Austrian composer (n. 1900).
• 1993: Alexander Mackendrick, American filmmaker (n. 1912).
• 1993: Don DeFore, American actor (n. 1913).
• 1995: James Meade, British economist, nobel economic award in 1977 (n. 1905).
• 1995: Butterfly McQueen, American actress (n. 1911).
• 1999: Faustino Cordón, Spanish scientist (n. 1909).
• 2002: Joe Strummer, British musician, from the band The Clash (n. 1952).
• 2002: Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese President (n. 1929).
• 2003: Nelly Fontán, an Argentine actress (n. 1936).
• 2006: Galina Ustvólskaya, a Soviet composer (n. 1919).
• 2006: Tom Wesselmann, American painter (n. 1931).
• 2007: Julien Gracq, French writer (n. 1910).
• 2008: Lansana Conté, politician and military Guinean, president between 1984 and 2008 (n. 1934).
• 2012: Angel Mifsud Ciscar, Spanish writer (n. 1954).
• 2013: Diomedes Díaz, Colombian singer (n. 1957).
• 2014: Joe Cocker, British musician (n. 1944).
• 2016: Alberto Laiseca, Argentine writer (n. 1941).
• 2017: Gonzalo Morales Sáurez, a Costa Rican hyperrealist painter (n. 1945).
• 2018: Roberto Suazo Cordova, former president of Honduras between 1982 and 1986 (n. 1927).

Celebrations

• Argentina:
  • Pharmacy Employee Day.
• CubaCuba: Education Day.
• SpainSpain: Extraordinary Christmas Drawing.
• India: Math Day.
• IndonesiaIndonesia: Mother's Day.
• Mexico Mexico: Transit Agent Day.
• VietnamVietnam: Armed Forces Day.
• ZimbabweZimbabwe: Unity Day.

Catholic saints list

• Saint Cheremon of Nilopolis, bishop, and martyrs in Egypt (250).
• Saint Isquirion of Egypt, martyr (c. 250).
• Saints thirty martyrs of Rome.
• Saints forty-three martyr monks of Rhaiti (c. s. IV).
• San Hungero de Utrech, bishop (866).
• Blessed Thomas Holland, priest and martyr (1642).
• Saint Francisca Javiera Cabrini, virgin (1917).