Today's 15 December Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 15 December Major Events

530 Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian appoints a commission to codify the works of classical jurists (the Digest published 533)
533 Byzantine General Belisarius defeats the Vandals, under King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron
687 St Sergius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope succeeding Conon

1124 Chancellor Haimeric selects pope (Lamberto becomes Honorius II)
1167 Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256 Hulagu Khan captures and destroys Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut, in present-day Iran, part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia
1448 Bishop Jonah of Moscow chosen as the new Metropolitan of Kiev, for the first time by the bishops of Moscow not the Patriarch of Constantinople
1467 Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia

Dias Returns Home

1488 Bartolomeu Dias returns to Portugal after becoming 1st known European to sail round the Cape of Good Hope

Rebellion Leader Flees

1569 Hunted by Queen Elizabeth I for treason in "The Rising of the North", Charles Neville, Earl of Westmorland, escapes to Scotland.

1582 Leidse university names Rembert Dodoens professor of botany and medicine

1582 Spanish Netherlands, Denmark and Norway adopt the Gregorian calendar

1586 Laevinus Torrentius, becomes bishop of Antwerp
1593 State of Holland grants a patent for a windmill with a crankshaft
1612 German astronomer Simon Marius is the first to observe the Andromeda Galaxy through a telescope
1640 Duke of Braganca crowned King Johan IV of Portugal
1660 Philippines: Andres Malongs rebels plunders Bagnotan
1667 Brandenburg declares himself neutral in Devolutie War
1675 King Philip's War: After peace talk fail, Narraganset warriors attack the Jireh Bull Blockhouse, in South Kingston, Rhode Island, killing at least 15 colonists
1680 Tax revolt on Terschelling due to tax on cereal
1745 Battle at Kesseldorf: Prussian force beats Saksen & Austria near Dresden
1791 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania

1791 US Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gives its approval, becomes amendments 1-10 of the US constitution

1792 First life insurance policy issued in US (Philadelphia)
1794 Revolutionary Tribunal abolished in France
1810 1st Irish magazine in US, "Shamrock" published

Barber of Seville Commissioned

1815 Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (24) gets commission from Teatro Argentina to write his opera "Almaviva", later known as "Il barbiere di Siviglia" (The Barber of Seville)

1820 1st General pharmacopoeia in US published, Boston
1836 Patent Office burns in Washington, D.C.

Bonaparte's Belated State Funeral

1840 Napoleon Bonaparte receives a French state funeral in Paris 19 years after his death

1854 First street-cleaning machine in the US used in Philadelphia
1859 GR Kirchoff describes chemical composition of the Sun
1863 Romania's mountain railway, from Anina to Oravita, opens
1863 Skirmish at Bean's Station, Tennessee (Knoxville Campaign)
1864 Battle of Nashville, Tennessee: Union forces under General George Thomas shatters General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee
1864 Raid on Stoneman: Abingdon & Glade Springs, Virginia
1868 Shogunate rebels found Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō
1874 1st reigning king to visit US is the King of Hawaii, received by President Grant
1874 Henry Bergh, Eldgridge Gerry, and philanthropist John D. Wright found the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in NYC, the world's first anti-child abuse agency. Later known as The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC).
1893 Preview performance of Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 - "New World Symphony" draws a crowd to Carnegie Hall, New York City [1]
1894 Day 2 of first cricket test between Australia and England, Australia 586 runs (Gregory 201) England 3-130
1899 Battle at Colenso, South Africa: British army defeated by Boer force
1902 German agricultural tariffs are increased
1903 New York Wall Street vendor Italo Marchiony is granted a patent for a mound apparatus for making ice cream cones
1905 The Pushkin House is established in St. Petersburg to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin
1907 In Persia, the Shah leads a coup de'etat against the liberal Prime Minister Nasir ul-Mulk and imprisons him, but a popular uprising forces the Shah to restore Nasir ul-Mulk soon after
1909 Thomas J. Lynch becomes president of baseball's National League
1913 Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty
1914 Battle of Lodz ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
1914 British fleet forfeits chance to destroy German fleet in North Sea
1914 Serbian troops retake Belgrade in Austria-Hungary

1915 ANZAC forces begin their withdrawal from the Gallipoli Peninsula after Ottoman forces successfully defend access to Constantinople

1916 Battle of Verdun: French launch major offensive against German lines after a six-day artillery bombardment
1917 Moldavian Republic declares independence from Russia
1917 World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Russian Bolshevik government and the Central Powers
1918 American Jewish Congress holds its 1st meeting
1919 Edna St Vincent Millay's play "Aria da Capo" premieres in NYC
1919 Fiume (Rijeka, modern Croatia) declares its Independence
1922 IVVV (association) peace congress on war forms in Hague
1925 1st road with a depressed trough (Texas) opens to traffic
1925 First hockey game at Madison Square Garden, New York City, with the Montreal Canadiens defeating the New York Americans 3-1
1926 Fascist national symbol elevated in Italy
1927 William Edward Hickman kidnaps 12 year-old Marion Parker in Los Angeles, whom he later kills

1933 Baseball owners agree to ban Sunday doubleheaders until after June 15

The 'Snip' Departs

1934 Dutch airplane the 'Snip' (Fokker F.XVIII) departs the Netherlands for the 1st flight to Paramaribo and Curacao, takes 55 hours 58 minutes

1935 In major upset, Dutch grand master Max Euwe becomes World Chess Champion beating Russian Alexander Alekhine (9 wins, 13 draws, 8 losses) in Zandvoort, Netherlands
1936 KVL-AM in Seattle Washington changes call letters to KEEN (now KING)
1938 Groundbreaking begins for Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Gone With The Wind

1939 "Gone With The Wind", drama film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, premieres in Atlanta (Best Picture 1940, inflation not adjusted highest-grossing film of all time)

1941 Gas/electrical use restricted in Holland
1941 German submarine U-127 sinks
1941 North Africa: allied assault up Italians Gazala-posing
1941 The American Federation of Labor adopts a no-strike policy in war industries.
1941 USS Swordfish becomes 1st US sub to sink a Japanese ship
1942 Massachusetts issues 1st US vehicular license plate tabs

Glenn Miller MIA

1944 American bandleader Major Glenn Miller, lost over the English Channel

1944 Hizbu'allah (Arm forces for Allah) forms

Eisenhower's 5th Star

1944 US Congress gives General Eisenhower his 5th star

1944 US troops land on Mindoro (Philippines)
1945 John J "Cardinal" O'Connor, ordained as a priest
1946 Giants Filchock & Hapes suspended by NFL, didn't report bribe attempt
1948 Former state department official Alger Hiss indicted in NYC for perjury

The Just Assassins

1949 Albert Camus' play "The Just Assassins (Les Justes)" premieres in Paris

1950 NYC's Port Authority opens
1952 Christine Jorgenson is the first known American to undergo a sex-change operation
1952 KHON TV channel 2 in Honolulu, HI (NBC) begins broadcasting

Orientales Ecclesias

1952 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Orientales Ecclesias

1953 WJHG TV channel 7 in Panama City, FL (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 Fordham University scraps football team for financial reasons
1954 Netherlands Antilles becomes co-equal part of Kingdom of Netherlands
1954 US Scientists involved in secret Project Superpressure at GE Research Labs realize they have synthesized diamonds for the first time [1]

Folsom Prison Blues

1955 "Folsom Prison Blues" single released by Johnny Cash (Billboard Song of the Year 1968)

1955 The Tappan Zee Bridge in New York opens to traffic
1956 Emergency crisis in North Ireland proclaimed after IRA strikes
1956 KGW TV channel 8 in Portland, OR (NBC) begins broadcasting
1956 WRAL TV channel 5 in Raleigh-Durham, NC (CBS) begins broadcasting

1959 Ballon d'Or: Real Madrid forward Alfredo Di Stéfano wins his second award for best football player in Europe ahead of teammate Raymond Kopa and Juventus' Welsh utility John Charles

Let It Be Me

1959 Everly Brothers record "Let It Be Me", an English translation of Gilbert Bécaud's French song "Je t'appartiens"; reaches No. 7 on the charts

1961 Court in Israel sentences Nazi party official Adolf Eichmann to death for war crimes for his participation in organizing the Holocaust

1961 Equal access rule, US political parties get TV broadcasting time
1961 L. J. Suenens appointed archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium

King Joins Jailed Albany Protesters

1961 Martin Luther King Jr. joins over 500 civil rights demonstrators in jail, arrested for protesting in Albany, Georgia [1] [2]

1st Family

1962 Comedian-impressionist Vaughn Meader's "1st Family" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 12 weeks

1964 Canada's House of Commons votes 163 to 78 to approve the red Maple Leaf Flag
1965 3rd cyclone of year kills 15,000 at the mouths of the Ganges River in Bangladesh

1965 Gemini 6 launched; makes 1st rendezvous in space (with Gemini 7)

Commissioner William Eckert

1965 William Eckert replaces Ford Frick as 4th Commissioner of Baseball

1966 Audouin Dollfus discovers 10th satellite of Saturn, Janus
1966 John W. Mecom Jr becomes 1st owner of New Orlean Saints
1967 The Beatles release fan-club single "Christmas Time is Here Again"
1967 The Silver Bridge collapses over the Ohio River in the US, killing 46 people

1969 San Francisco Fire Department replaces leather helmets with plastic ones
1970 Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election
1970 Robert Wilson and Alan Lloyd's musical theatre work "Deafman Glance" first performance at Center for New Performing Arts in Iowa City, Iowa
1970 South Korean ferry Namyong-Ho sinks in Strait of Korea, 308 killed
1970 Soviet Venera 7 is the first spacecraft to land on another planet (Venus)
1970 Striking shipyard workers in Gdańsk, Poland set ablaze the ruling Provincial Committee's building; responding soldiers kill 8
1971 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1973 American kidnap victim John Paul Getty III freed after ransom paid by oil tycoon grandfather John Paul Getty
1973 American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not a mental illness
1973 Pirates of Caribbean ride opens at Disneyland
1973 Sandy Hawley becomes 1st jockey to win 500 races in 1 year
1973 Tennessee beats Temple 11-6 in low scoring NCAA basketball game
1976 Jamaica premier Manley wins elections
1976 Oil tanker Argo Merchant runs aground on the Nantucket Shoals, spilling 7.6 m million gallons of fuel oil - one of the largest oil spills at sea
1976 Samoa becomes a member of the UN

Rosanne Cash

1978 German label Ariola Records releases eponymous debut album "Rosanne Cash", produced by future husband Rodney Crowell

1978 Saint Maarten Patriotic Movement (SPM) forms under W. James
1978 Test Cricket debut of Malcolm Marshall, v India at Bangalore

Bowie on SNL

1979 British rocker David Bowie performs three songs on American television program Saturday Night Live - "The Man Who Sold the World", "TVC-15" and "Boys Keep Swinging"

Trivial Pursuit Developed

1979 Chris Haney and Scott Abbott develop the board game Trivial Pursuit

1979 World Court in Hague rules Iran should release all US hostages

Winfield Highest Paid

1980 NY Yankee Dave Winfield becomes highest-paid player, 10 years $15M

1980 Premier Queddei troops conquers Chad capital N'djamena
1980 ZBZ Sangha registered after 5 yrs of administrative hassles in Warsaw
1981 NASA launches Intelsat V satellite, no. 503

1982 Sao Tome & Principe constitution approved
1982 Spain reopens border with Gibraltar
1982 Teamsters president Roy Williams and 4 others convicted of bribery
1983 Last 80 US combat soldiers in Grenada withdrawn
1983 MLB suspends 3 Kansas City Royals players - Willie Wilson, Willie Aikens, and Jerry Martin - due to cocaine usage
1983 Space shuttle Columbia flies to Kennedy Space Center via El Paso, Kelly AFB

1984 USSR launches Vega 1 for rendezvous with Halley's Comet
1986 150 killed during race riot in Karachi
1986 Carnegie Hall reopens after a $50 million facelift

1987 First National US tour of musical "Les Misérables" opens at Shubert Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts

Tyson Sued for Buttock Grab

1988 Lori Davis of Long Island sues Mike Tyson for grabbing her buttocks

1988 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 43/177, acknowledging the proclamation of the State of Palestine, passes with 104 in favor, 2 against, and 36 abstentions

Ashe Sportsperson of the Year

1992 Arthur Ashe is named Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year

1992 WNew AM (1130) NYC resigns air, replaced by WBBR

Downing Street Declaration

1993 British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds sign Downing Street Declaration concerning Northern Ireland self determination

1993 C-130 flies into a Philippines hill & explodes, 16 killed
1993 Haitian premier Robert Malval resigns
1993 John Williams makes his final appearance as conductor of Boston Pops
1993 Lee Aspen resigns as secretary of defense
1993 Y-12 crashes at Phonesavanh, Laos: 18 killed
1994 John Bruton becomes Ireland's premier
1994 Liberia militia kills 48 inhabitants of Monrovia
1994 South Pacific island nation of Palau becomes a member of the UN

1995 Playboy goes back on sale after 36 year ban in Ireland
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.

Spice World

1997 "Spice World" movie directed by Bob Spiers and starring girl pop group the Spice Girls premieres in the UK

2001 The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it without fixing its famous lean
2002 68th Heisman Trophy Award: Carson Palmer, USC (QB)

2005 Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.
2005 Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
2005 Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of same-sex couples being entitled to marry.
2005 The 2005 Atlantic Power Outage began.

2006 First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
2008 74th Heisman Trophy Award: Sam Bradford, Oklahoma (QB)
2009 Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner makes its maiden flight from Paine Field in Everett, Washington, to Boeing Field in Seattle

Barry Bonds Sentenced

2011 Barry Bonds is sentenced to 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service, for an obstruction of justice conviction stemming from a grand jury appearance in 2003

2011 ESPN and the NCAA extend their TV rights deal through 2023-24, giving the network worldwide multi-media rights to 24 NCAA championships for various sports; deal worth $500m

Jacques Chirac Convicted

2011 Former French President Jacques Chirac is convicted of diverting public funds, receives a two-year suspended prison sentence

2012 18 Asylum seekers drown in the Aegean Sea on the way to Greece from Turkey
2013 China successfully lands its moon rover on the moon

2015 1,000 schools closed in Los Angeles after a email threat, supposedly from jihadists
2015 Fifth Republican presidential candidates debate in Las Vegas, Nevada
2015 Mayor of Flint, Michigan declares state of emergency over contaminated water supplies amid calls for a criminal investigation
2016 Ceasefire declared in Aleppo to allow hundreds to be evacutated from last rebel held area
2016 White supremacist Dylann Roof is found guilty of the Charleston Church Massacre which killed 9

Hollywood Sexual Harassment Commission

2017 Anita Hill is appointed to lead a Hollywood commission on sexual harassment, spearheaded by Kathleen Kennedy

2017 Pakistani teenager Ahed Tamimi filmed slapping Israeli officers during protest, arrested 4 days later
2018 Affordable Care Act ('Obamacare') ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas; later reversed by US Supreme Court
2018 Diplomats from 200 countries agree to a set of rules to implement the UN Paris Climate Agreement in Katowice, Poland
2018 Egyptian archaeologists announce the discovery of a 4,400-year-old tomb of the Fifth Dynasty priest Wahtye in the Saqqara pyramid near Cairo

Ukrainian Orthodox Church

2018 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announces establishment of independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church, splitting from Russian Orthodox

2019 Longest ever UN climate talks end in Madrid with compromise deal on curbing carbon only, other targets deferred for a year
2019 Protests against India's new citizenship bill that excludes Muslims, erupt across major cities, killing at least five
2019 Raiders play their final NFL game in Oakland conceding 17 unanswered 2nd half points to go down 20-16 to the Jacksonville Jaguars; team to play out of Las Vegas in 2020

Condé Nast's First Chief Content Officer

2020 Anna Wintour, American Vogue editor-in-chief, is named as Condé Nast's first-ever global Chief Content Officer [1]

MacKenzie Scott Gives $4 Billion

2020 MacKenzie Scott announces she has given away more than $4 billion to 384 nonprofit organizations across the US

2020 UK newspaper "The Sun" publishes recording of Tom Cruise berating his film crew for breaking COVID-19 protocols

Springsteen Sells Back Catalogue

2021 Bruce Springsteen sells his music back catalogue to Sony Music Entertainment for an estimated $500 million in possibly the biggest deal ever for a single artist [1]

2021 COVID-19 Omicron variant called "probably the most significant threat" of the pandemic by head of UK Health Security Agency, warning of "staggering" growth in next few days [1]

Harry Reid Airport

2021 Las Vegas' McCarran Airport officially changes name to Harry Reid International Airport

2022 Tens of thousands of nurses go on strike in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in largest strike in NHS history [1]
2023 American jazz vocal quartet "The Manhattan Transfer" marks their 50th anniversary with a farewell concert at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, California [1]

Tren Maya

2023 Mexico's Maya Train is inaugurated by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the first part of a $20 billion, 950-mile tourist train route around the Yucatan Peninsula [1]

2023 New report reveals homelessness in the US increased by 12%, with more than 650,000 people experiencing homeless one night in January 2023 [1]
2023 State memorial held for Australian entertainer Barry Humphries (behind Dame Edna Everage character) at Sydney Opera House [1]

Giuliani Ordered to Pay $148m

2023 US jury orders American attorney Rudy Giuliani to pay $148 million to two former Georgia election workers in civil defamation suit for spreading lies about them following 2020 presidential election [1]

2024 Five members of the "Bali Nine", arresting for smuggling drugs out of Indonesia in 2005, return to Australia after serving nearly 20 years in prison [1]
2024 More than 50 people are killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes as the death toll for Palestinians killed in the Israel-Gaza War surpasses 45,000 [1]