December 22

December 22 is the 356nd day of the year (357nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 9 days remaining.

Events:

• 1775 - The United States Navy is formed
• 1807 - The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the United States 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 United States Congress
• 1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is canceled at the last second
• 1864 - Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman
• 1877 - Wilhem Röntgen[?] made the first X-ray.
• 1895 - The Dreyfus affair begins in France
• 1937 - The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic
• 1944 - German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium. See Battle of the Bulge
• 1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity
• 1974 - Grande Comore[?], Anjouan and Moheli[?] vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
• 1989 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.
• 1990 - Lech Walesa sworn in as President of Poland[?]

Births:

• 1639 - Jean Racine, dramatist (other sources report december 21st as his birth date) (+ 1699)
• 1723 - Karl Friedrich Abel, German baroque composer.
• 1858 - Giacomo Puccini, composer (+ 1924).
• 1862 - Connie Mack[?], baseball executive (+ 1956)
• 1866 - Käthe Paulus[?], Germany's first femal parachutist (+ 1935).
• 1874 - Franz Schmidt, composer
• 1876 - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, poet and editor (+ 1944).
• 1887 - Srinivasa Aaiyangar Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (+ 1920).
• 1888 - J. Arthur Rank[?], producer (+ 1972)
• 1899 - Gustav Gründgens[?], actor and film director (+ 1963).
• 1905 - Pierre Brasseur[?], actor (+ 1972).
• 1907 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft[?], actress (+ 1991)
• 1907 - Doris Miles Disney[?], writer
• 1912 - Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady
• 1917 - Gene Rayburn, game show host (+ 1999).
• 1922 - Barbara Billingsley[?], actress
• 1922 - Ruth Roman[?], actress (+ 1999)
• 1945 - Diane Sawyer[?], journalist
• 1946 - Rick Nielsen, musician (Cheap Trick)
• 1948 - Lynne Thigpen, actress
• 1949 - Robin Gibb, musician (The Bee Gees)
• 1949 - Maurice Gibb, musician (The Bee Gees) (+ 2003)
• 1951 - Charles DeLint[?], writer
• 1951 - Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor[?], Duke of Westminster
• 1962 - Ralph Fiennes, actor
• 1969 - Myriam Bédard, biathlon athlete

Deaths:

• 1828 - William Hyde Wollaston, noted English chemist
• 1880 - George Eliot, writer
• 1884 - John Chisum[?], cattle baron[?]
• 1902 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing[?], sexologist
• 1940 - Nathanael West[?], writer
• 1943 - Beatrix Potter, writer
• 1969 - Joseph von Sternberg[?], director (+ 1969)
• 1979 - Darryl F. Zanuck, producer
• 1980 - Karl Dönitz, Nazi politician
• 1989 - Samuel Beckett, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1969
• 1995 - Butterfly McQueen[?], actress
• 2002 - Joe Strummer, musician

Holidays and Observances:

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

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December