09 Dec History: This Date

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Events, deaths, births, of 09 DEC
[For Dec 09 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1582~1699: Dec 19 — 1700s: Dec 20 — 1800s: Dec 21 — 1900~2099: Dec 22]

ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 031209 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” DEC 09

On a December 09:
2002 At the Centre Henry Dunant pour le Dialogue humanitaire in Geneva, Wiryono Sastrohandoyo of the Indonesian government, Martin Griffiths, director of the Henry Dunant Center, and Zaini Abdullah, leader of the Gerakin Aceh Merdeka (GAM = “Free Aceh Movement”) [left to right >], sign an accord designed to change the struggle for Aceh independence from military to political. The accord provides Aceh with autonomy, 2004 elections, and control over revenues from its timber and natural gas resources. Aceh has 4.2 million of the 210 million inhabitants of Indonesia. Aceh has been fighting for independence since 1870, when Dutch colonialists occupied the sultanate. In participated in Indonesia's successful 1945-49 war against the Dutch, but started a decade-long uprising in the early 1950s — this time against Jakarta's rule. The current armed struggle began with the Aceh Declaration of Independence of 04 December 1976. [The War in Aceh, August 2001, Human Rights Watch]

2002 After footwear company Sketchers USA (SKX) announces that its 4th quarter loss per share will be about 30 cents, rather than the expected 5 cents, it stock is downgraded by Wedbush Morgan from Buy to Hold. On the New York Stock Exchange 4.8 million of the 38 million SKX shares are traded, dropping from their previous close of $12.05 to close at $7.02. They had traded as high as $23.20 as recently as 18 Jun 2002 and $39.70 on 21 May 2001. They had started trading on 07 June 1999 at $10.63.

2002 Snow job: US minority-president “Dubya” Bush nominates John Snow, 63, chairman of railroad CSX Corp. to be Secretary of the Treasury in replacement of Paul O'Neill who was made to resign on 06 December 2002. The stock markets react negatively. No wonder: since Snow became chairman of CSX in January 1991, his company's shares have CSX shares have risen about 7% while Standard & Poor's railroads index is up 60%.

2002 UAL files for bankruptcy [PDF].

2000 The US Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt in the partial Florida vote recount on which Al Gore pinned his best hopes of winning the White House. A painstaking independent study would find, almost one year later, that Gore would have lost anyhow, short of a recount of all the votes cast in Florida. There was no attempt to estimate how many votes he lost by voters being selectively prevented from voting by illegitimate means. What no one seems to have mentioned is how nonsensical is the winner-take-all rule which made the whole mess possible in the first place.

1999 Castro continues to stage mass demonstrations in Cuba, demanding the return from Miami of orphaned shipwreck survivor Elián González, 6, and criticizing (with, unfortunately, some justification) the immigration policies of the US.

1998 Inventor of computer mouse honored
Doug Englebart, inventor of the mouse, was honored at a daylong public symposium at Stanford University. In the early 1960s, while working at Stanford Research Institute on a grant from the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), Englebart had envisioned computers that could help augment human intelligence. He developed a computer system operated by a mouse, after experimenting with dozens of odd steering devices, including joysticks, light pens, and a steering wheel. In 1968, Englebart demonstrated the system in a legendary presentation at the Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. Englebart also predicted the development of personal computers, networks, and word processors.

1996 The United Nations gave Iraq the go-ahead to resume oil exports for the first time since 1990 to buy food and medicine.

1996 Exuberance returns to Wall Street
Wall Street seemingly stands tough in the face of adversity, shaking off cautionary comments by Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, to send the markets charging into bullish territory. Of course, appearances can be deceiving and Wall Street was hardly ready to dismiss the Fed. Indeed, on December 6, when Greenspan first warned investors who were being seduced by the markets' prolonged hot streak, stocks went into an instant tailspin, dropping 145 points. And, even though traders were back in the swing of things on 09 December, many in the investment community were now bracing themselves for an "inevitable" market correction. “We've had a wonderful two-year rally," noted David Katz, head investment officer for Matrix Asset Advisors. “Typically, after you have a two-year rally like that, the markets will slow. “

1995 The board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) unanimously elects Kweisi Mfume, Democratic congressman from Maryland, as its top executive officer.
1992 US Marines wade ashore in Somalia at 02:00 (on live evening network television in the US) in "Operation Restore Hope. “ The stated purpose is to ensure food and medicine reaches the deprived areas of that country. US forces would retreat in disarray and disgrace within the year.
1991 European Community leaders meeting in the Dutch city of Maastricht tentatively agreed to begin using a single currency by 1999.

1990 Anti-Communist leader elected President of Poland
      In Poland, Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity trade union, wins a landslide victory over transitional Premier Tadeusz Mazowiecki, becoming the first publicly elected Polish leader since World War II.
      Solidarity was founded under the leadership of Walesa in 1980, calling for improved working conditions for workers and greater liberty in Polish society. Under Walesa's charismatic leadership, the organization rapidly grew in size and political influence, soon becoming a threat to the authority of Poland's Communist government. On Dec. 13, 1981, martial law was declared in Poland, and Walesa and other Solidarity leaders were arrested.
      However, in 1982, overwhelming public outcry forced his release, but Solidarity remained illegal and public protests continued. In 1983, Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1989 became a leader in Poland's nonviolent transition from Communist to Democratic rule. After the fall of the Communist government, Walesa became increasingly critical of the coalition government of Premier Tadeusz Mazowiecki, and in 1990 successfully ran for the presidency. In 1991, Walesa declared the first truly free parliamentary elections in almost fifty years.

1987 Palestine uprising (Intifada) begin in Israeli-occupied West Bank
1985 OPEC oil ministers abandon the struggle to control production and prices, setting the stage for a global oil price war.
1985 Phoenix Arizona, gets 3"of snow
1983 Attorney General Edwin Meese says people go to soup kitchens "...because the food is free and that's easier than paying for it". Of the 26 million people served through Second Harvest, the national food banking network: 62% are women 37% are children under age 18 39% of households have at least one adult who is working Nearly 60% have no car More than 24% have no facilities for cooking, such as a stove or oven Over a third had to choose between food and rent
1980 61ºF in Boston at 01:00
1975 President Gerald Ford signs $2.3 B loan-authorization for NYC
1974 White House aide John Ehrlichman testifies at the Watergate trial that President Nixon was responsible for the cover-up.
1974 Johnson Grigsby freed after 66 years in jail.

1971 Lewis F Powell Jr appointed to the Supreme Court

1971 Vietnam peace talks collapse
For the first time since the Paris peace talks began in May 1968, both sides refuse to set another meeting date for continuation of the negotiations. The refusal to continue came during the 138th session of the peace talks. US delegate William Porter angered the communist negotiators by asking for a postponement of the next scheduled session of the conference until December 30, to give Hanoi and the Viet Cong an opportunity to develop a "more constructive approach" at the talks.
The US side was displeased with the North Vietnamese, who repeatedly demanded that South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resign as a prerequisite for any meaningful discussions. Although both sides returned to the official talks in January 1972, the real negotiations were being conducted between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the lead North Vietnamese negotiator, in a private villa outside Paris. These secret talks did not result in a peace agreement until January 1973, after the massive 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive had been blunted and Nixon had ordered the "Christmas bombing" of Hanoi and Haiphong to convince North Vietnam to rejoin the peace negotiations.

1967 Nicolea Ceausescu becomes president (dictator) of Romania

1965 Bombing North Vietnam found ineffective
An article in the New York Times asserts that the US bombing campaign has neither destabilized North Vietnam's economy nor appreciably reduced the flow of its forces into South Vietnam. These observations were strikingly similar to an earlier Defense Intelligence Agency analysis, which concluded that "the idea that destroying, or threatening to destroy, North Vietnam's industry would pressure Hanoi into calling it quits seems, in retrospect, a colossal misjudgement. “
The first air strikes against North Vietnam were flown in the fall of 1964, in retaliation for two attacks on American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin (although the second reported attack has never been verified). Additional strikes, carried out under the name Operation Flaming Dart, were ordered in February 1965 in response to Viet Cong attacks on a US Army barracks at Pleiku and a nearby helicopter base, which resulted in the deaths of nine Americans. When the Viet Cong attacked other US facilities in South Vietnam, President Johnson initiated Operation Rolling Thunder in March 1965, an intensified air campaign against North Vietnam. He hoped that this campaign would relieve some of the pressure on South Vietnam, where the situation was rapidly deteriorating. Unfortunately, the bombing campaign did not have the desired results and Johnson had to commit US ground troops to stabilize the situation.

1965 Nikolai Podgorny replaces Anastas Mikoyan as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

1963 Last Studebaker car made in US
The Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, started during the Civil War, was the world's largest manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages. When automobiles came along, Studebaker converted its business, becoming a well-known auto maker. But the brand couldn't keep up with its competitors, despite a 1954 merger with the Packard Motor Car Company. On this day in 1963, the last American-made Studebaker was produced, and the factory in South Bend, Indiana, closed forever. Three years later Studebaker's Canadian factories shut down, and the Studebaker passed into history.

1961 Tanganyika a gains independence from Britain.
It will become a member of the United Nations on 14 December 1961. Tanganyika became independent 9 December 1961 (from UN trusteeship under British administration); Zanzibar became independent 19 December 1963 (from UK); Tanganyika united with Zanzibar 26 April 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar; renamed United Republic of Tanzania 29 October 1964
The United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar would be formed on 26 April 26 1964, by the adoption of an Act of Union between Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar.
Some time in 1962 Tanganyika becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president

1961 SS Colonel Adolf Eichman, abducted to Israel and tried, is found guilty of war crimes
1960 The Laos government flees to Cambodia as the capital city of Vientiane is engulfed in war.

1958 The Intifada begins on the Gaza Strip
In Israel, the first riots of the Palestinian intifada erupt on the occupied Gaza Strip in protest of Israeli occupation of former Arab territory in the Middle East. Within weeks, the rioting and marches by the Gaza Palestinians lead to a general "uprising" throughout the occupied territories, in which Palestinian civilians engage in marches, strikes, and rock-throwing attacks on Israeli soldiers and citizens. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), a militant organization dedicated to the establishment of a Palestinian state, responds to the grassroots intifada movement by proclaiming an independent Palestinian state, while also escalating its guerilla and terrorist attacks against Israel. However, within a few years, to the surprise of Israeli authorities, PLO leader Yasser Arafat begins to seek diplomatic solutions in his quest for a Palestinian homeland. Arafat persuades the PLO to formally acknowledge the right of Israel to co-exist with the independent state of Palestine, and in 1993 signs the historic Israel-Palestinian Declaration of Principles with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. In 1994, Arafat and Rabin sign a major peace agreement granting Palestine limited self-government in former territories occupied by Israel, an achievement that wins them a joint Nobel Peace Prize in the same year.

1953 General Electric announces that all Communist employees will be fired
1951 Voters approve merger of 3 states to form Baden-Worttemberg, W Germany
1950 President Harry Truman bans US exports to Communist China
1949 The United Nations takes trusteeship over Jerusalem.
1949 J. Parnell Thomas, former chairman of the US House Un-American Activities Committee, is sentenced to 6 to 18 months in federal prison for padding Congressional payrolls and using the money himself.
1948 UN General Assembly unanimously approves Convention on Genocide
1948 The United States abandons a plan to de-concentrate industry in Japan.
1941 1st US WW II bombing mission in the Far East, Luzon, Philippines
1941 China declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy
1941 Citizen Register reports "Hostile planes reported nearing Westchester"
1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt tells Americans to plan for a long war.

1940 The British attack in North Africa
      During World War II, at Sidi Barrani in northeastern Egypt, the British launch their first major offensive against Italian-dominated North Africa. British Western Desert forces under Sir Richard O'Connor march around the flank of Italian forces massed at Sidi Barrani on the Mediterranean, and at dawn initiate a devastating tank attack from the rear. Italian troops commanded by Marshall Rodolfo Graziani are caught thoroughly unprepared, and within several days the Battle of Sidi Barrani ends with only 133 British soldiers killed to the nearly 40'000 Italians taken prisoner. Over the next two months, British and Australian forces devastate Italian divisions in Egypt and in Cyrenaica to the east, and after the astounding Allied victory at Beda Fomm in February of 1941, the tide seems to have turned against the Axis in North Africa. However, German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, later known as the "Desert Fox," has yet to make his appearance in North Africa as commander of his formidable Afrika Korps.
     Two British divisions, half of them composed of Indian troops, attack seven Italian divisions in Egypt. Overwhelmed, the Italian position in Egypt collapsed. Italy had declared war on Great Britain in June. At that time, Italian General Rodolfo Graziani had almost 10 times the number of men in Libya than the British forces in Egypt under General Archibald Wavell, which were commissioned to protect the North African approaches to the Suez Canal. A vast western desert stretched between the antagonists, who sat for months without confrontation. In the meantime, Italian forces had passed into Egypt-but Britain had also reinforced its own numbers. British cryptographers were also able to break the Italian military code, enabling British commanders to anticipate Italian troop movements, size, and points of vulnerability.
      British command decided to make a first strike. On 07 Decembe, armored car patrols surreptitiously set out to determine gaps in the minefield the Italians had laid. On 09 December, Major General Richard Nugent O'Connor from Mersa Matruh in Egypt launched a westward offensive. Thirty thousand Brits warred against 80,000 Italians-but the British brought with them 275 tanks against the Italians' 120. As O'Connor cut through a gap in the chain of forts the Italians had established, the British 7th Armored Division swept along the western coast to cut off any hope of an Italian retreat. Within three days, 40'000 Italian prisoners were taken. The end of the Italian occupation of North Africa had begun.

1940 Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa are deported to Mauritius

1931 Spain becomes a republic
1920 Woodrow Wilson receives the Nobel Peace Prize.

1917 British take Jerusalem from Ottomans
     When the Jews later revolted from the Romans, the Roman army burned and destroyed the city in 70 A.D. After years of Roman rule, Jerusalem came under the control of the Moslems in the seventh century, the Crusading Christians in the twelfth century, and the Moslem Ottoman Turks in the thirteenth century.
      In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a growing number of Jews came from Eastern Europe and settled in the land around Jerusalem. They revived the deserts and began cultivating the land of their ancestors. One month after the outbreak of World War I, the Ottoman Turks joined Germany against the Allied Powers. Britain was among the Allied Powers and began fighting the Turks in Palestine.
      On 2 November 1917, the British foreign office issued the Balfour Declaration, which promised British help in establishing a Jewish nation in their ancestral homeland of Palestine. By that time the British had already routed the Turks in the southern portion of the land. British General Allenby took the port city of Jaffa and marched on Jerusalem. After Allenby took the Nablus highway north of Jerusalem, the Ottoman Turks surrendered Jerusalem to the British on this day, 09 December, 1917. Seven hundred years of rule by the Moslem Turks came to an end; for the first time since the Crusades the country was governed by a Christian nation. Palestine remained a protectorate of Great Britain until Israel became independent in 1948.

1917 The new Finnish Republic demands the withdrawal of Russian troops.
1908 A child labor bill passes in the German Reichstag, forbidding work for children under age 13.
1907 Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Del., post office; proceeds went to fight tuberculosis. [Why not Christmas Dolphins?, you ask. It's not that kind of seals!]

1905 Séparation de l'Église et de l'État en France
      Le député Aristide Briand fait voter la loi de séparation de l'Église et de l'État le 9 décembre 1905. Il met fin au Concordat napoléonien de 1801 qui régit les rapports entre le gouvernement français et l'Église catholique. La nouvelle loi apaise les esprits après la guerre anticléricale exacerbée par le précédent président du Conseil, Emile Combes. Inventant la laïcité à la française, la loi de séparation proclame la liberté de conscience et garantit le libre exercice des cultes. Aucun culte ne sera plus subventionné. Les biens détenus jusqu'alors par les églises deviennent la propriété de l'État. Celui-ci se réserve le droit de les transférer aux associations cultuelles qui peuvent en jouir gratuitement.
      Mais l'inventaire mesquin des biens ecclésiastiques réveille les rancoeurs. Il entraîne une nouvelle fois le pays au bord de la guerre civile, d'autant que le pape ne se prive pas de condamner la loi. L'anticléricalisme militant finit par décliner et les Églises retrouvent, avec leur liberté, une nouvelle vigueur. A noter que l'Alsace-Lorraine, au moment de la loi de séparation, faisait partie de l'Empire allemand. Après son retour à la France, en 1918, elle obtiendra de conserver le régime du Concordat de 1801. Entre autres dispositions, les religieux des trois départements de l'Est jouissent encore à ce jour d'un traitement et d'un statut de fonctionnaire.
     L'imbroglio de la question religieuse dure depuis 1880. Ce jour, la loi de séparation de l'Église et de l'État promulguée y met fin. Elle affirme la liberté de conscience, garantit le libre exercice des cultes. Aucun d'entre eux ne sera plus ni salarié ni subventionné. Les biens détenus par les églises seront transférés à des associations cultuelles qui pourront en jouir gratuitement et à perpétuité.
      La France de la Révolution reste d’abord théoriquement fidèle au principe de l’État confessionnel avec la Constitution civile du clergé de 1790, puis les cultes de la Raison et de l’Être suprême de 1793 et 1794 ; mais, lasse des guerres de religion que toutes ces dispositions ont entraînées, la Convention, régime d’ailleurs hostile aux cultes, tout particulièrement à l’Église catholique, abroge, le 18 septembre 1794, les cultes de la Raison et de l’Être suprême et établit, par la loi du 21 janvier 1795, la séparation complète des cultes et de l’État.
      Bonaparte, qui a besoin de la Religion "pour rétablir l’ordre moral et l’obéissance à l’autorité", veut rétablir la paix en France et donc la paix religieuse; il conclut un concordat, en 1801, avec le Saint-Siège, et adjoint unilatéralement à ce texte des articles organiques (1802), qui concernent tous les cultes.
      L’ensemble du régime est le suivant : il est constaté que la religion catholique est professée par la majorité des Français, mais trois cultes sont "reconnus", donc bénéficient d’une sorte d’investiture officielle, le culte catholique et deux cultes protestants ; par la suite, le culte israélite est également reconnu. On est donc en présence d’une œuvre de compromis, qui emprunte à la fois à l’Ancien Régime et à la Révolution.
      Au cours du XIXème siècle, l’État se "déconfessionnalise" progressivement ; en 1904, le gouvernement français dénonce le concordat de 1801, et le Parlement vote, le 9 décembre 1905, la loi "sur la séparation des Églises et de l’État" : désormais, la France est, dans toute la rigueur du terme, un État non confessionnel, "laïque" (hormis l’Alsace et la Moselle, qui, redevenues françaises après la Première Guerre mondiale, sont aujourd’hui encore régies par le concordat de 1801).
      Les Constitutions de 1945 et 1958 ont affirmé toutes deux cette laïcité, dont les tribunaux, à partir de 1905, avaient précisé le contenu institutionnel dans un sens libéral. Déjà, la Suisse, dans sa Constitution fédérale de 1874, était entrée dans la voie de la laïcité.
      Les États de l’Europe de l’Est ont suivi ces exemples. De même, nombre d’États nés de la décolonisation (Haute-Volta, Centrafrique, Côte-d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Gabon, Guinée, Mali, Niger, Sénégal).
      D’autres États nouveaux émettent des professions de foi très large (dans le préambule de sa Constitution de 1959, le peuple malgache affirme "sa croyance en Dieu"), d’autres ne se prononcent pas sur la question. La Belgique vit toujours sous un régime semblable à celui de la France du Concordat.
      Parmi les anciens États qui ont changé de régime politique, soit à la suite de révolutions, soit en conséquence des guerres de 1914-1918 ou 1939-1945, on trouve également une grande variété. L’Espagne franquiste a renoué avec la tradition confessionnelle interrompue par le Front populaire (mais la Constitution espagnole de 1978 déclare, en son article 16, qu’il n’y a pas de religion d’État, ajoutant que les pouvoirs publics tiendront compte des croyances religieuses de la société espagnole). Le Portugal de Salazar, dans la Constitution de 1933, déclare que la religion catholique est celle de la nation portugaise, mais décide aussitôt après que l’État maintient envers cette religion le régime de séparation. La loi fondamentale de la République fédérale d’Allemagne de 1949 affirme que "le peuple allemand est conscient de sa responsabilité devant Dieu". La Constitution italienne de 1947 se contente de dire que les rapports entre l’État et l’Église catholique sont réglés par les pactes du Latran (de 1929) et que l’État et l’Église catholique sont indépendants et souverains chacun dans son ordre.
     An Act for the Separation of Church and State becomes law in France, rescinding Napoleon's Concordat of 1801. The new law guaranteed freedom of conscience, but also severs all religious groups from any further economic support by the national government and expropriates church properties..

1900 The Russian czar rejects Boer Paul Kruger's pleas for aid in South Africa against the British.

1893 Une bombe à la Chambre des Députés en France
      Une bombe explose dans l'hémicycle de la Chambre des députés. Panique, cris. Nombreux députés blessés. En dépit du brouhaha, le président, Charles Dupuy, lance : "Messieurs, la séance continue!" Un instant plus tard, il ajoute avec l'emphase coutumière de l'époque: "Il est de la dignité de la Chambre et de la République que de pareils attentats, d'où qu'ils viennent et dont, d'ailleurs, nous ne connaissons pas la cause, ne troublent pas les législateurs. “ L'anarchiste Auguste Vaillant, qui a lancé la bombe, est arrêté. Avant d'être guillotiné le 5 février 1894, il explique son geste par sa volonté de venger l'anarchiste Ravachol, lui-même guillotiné le 11 juillet 1892 à la suite de quatre attentats à la dynamite et qui, lors de son procès, avait lancé à la Cour: "La société est pourrie. “ Le 24 juin 1894, un autre anarchiste, Casério, assassinera le président Sadi Carnot à Lyon en réplique aux mesures d'exception contre la flambée d'anarchisme. Cette flambée d'anarchisme prétend s'inspirer des enseignements de Proudhon et de Bakounine, penseurs en rupture avec le socialisme. Elle reflète surtout le malaise d'une époque marquée par le scandale de Panama, l'affaire Dreyfus, les menées chauvinistes et revanchardes, les rivalités coloniales avec l'Angleterre, la volonté d'en découdre avec l'Allemagne,...
     Dans l'hémicycle de la Chambre des députés, une bombe éclate. C'est la panique, des cris retentissent. De nombreuxles député sont blessés. En dépit du brouhaha, le président lance clamement: "Messieurs, la séance continue!" Un instant plus tard, il ajoute : "Il est de la dignité de la Chambre et de la République que de pareils attentats, d'où qu'ils viennent et dont, d'ailleurs, nous ne connaissons pas la cause, ne troublent pas les législateurs. “ L'anarchiste Auguste Vaillant, qui a lancé la bombe, est arrêté. Il explique son geste par sa volonté de venger l'anarchiste Ravachol guillotiné le 11 juillet 1892 et qui, lors de son procès, a lancé à la Cour : "La société est pourrie. “
     Auguste Vaillant, né en 1861, dans les Ardennes, connaît une enfance misérable. À l’âge de douze ans, il vit seul à Paris où il est condamné pour mendicité et vol. Successivement apprenti pâtissier, frappeur, cordonnier, laboureur, il est attiré par les doctrines socialistes et milite aux Indépendants de Montmartre. En 1890, il émigre en Argentine, mais il y échoue et rentre en France. La misère dans laquelle il se trouve avec sa famille le pousse alors à préparer l’attentat contre la Chambre des députés. Le 9 décembre 1893, il jette en pleine Assemblée une bombe qui blesse un grand nombre de personnes et lui-même. Son procès est expédié en une seule audience : il est condamné à mort. C’est la première fois depuis le début du siècle qu’on condamne à la peine capitale un homme qui n’a pas tué. Bien qu’une pétition demandant l’indulgence ait recueilli à la Chambre soixante signatures, Vaillant est exécuté le 5 février 1894. Avant de mourir, il s’écrie : "Mort à la société bourgeoise et vive l’anarchie. “ Contrairement aux actes de Ravachol, qui furent très controversés, le geste de Vaillant ne recueillit que des approbations dans les milieux anarchistes. Il est vrai que la Chambre des députés venait d’être éclaboussée par le scandale de Panama. Les socialistes, quant à eux, condamnèrent vigoureusement l’"acte d’un fou".
     La question d’une provocation reste posée : c’est, en effet, à la suite de l’attentat qu’est votée la série de lois dites "scélérates", destinées à réprimer toute propagande révolutionnaire, anarchiste ou non.

1891 US President on subjection of Ameridians in the wake of the Wounded Knee massacre.
     In his 3rd Annual Message, President Benjamin Harrison report that the “warlike” Sioux have been brought “into subjection”, and that “our beneficent laws” have taken land away from them:
      “The outbreak among the Sioux which occurred in December last is as to its causes and incidents fully reported upon by the War Department and the Department of the Interior. That these Indians had some just complaints, especially in the matter of the reduction of the appropriation for rations and in the delays attending the enactment of laws to enable the Department to perform the engagements entered into with them, is probably true; but the Sioux tribes are naturally warlike and turbulent, and their warriors were excited by their medicine men and chiefs, who preached the coming of an Indian messiah who was to give them power to destroy their enemies. In view of the alarm that prevailed among the white settlers near the reservation and of the fatal consequences that would have resulted from an Indian incursion, I placed at the disposal of General Miles, commanding the Division of the Missouri, all such forces as we thought by him to be required. He is entitled to the credit of having given thorough protection to the settlers and of bringing the hostiles into subjection with the least possible loss of life. . . .
      Since 04 March 1889, about 23'000'000 acres have been separated from Indian reservations and added to the public domain for the use of those who desired to secure free homes under our beneficent laws. It is difficult to estimate the increase of wealth which will result from the conversion of these waste lands into farms, but it is more difficult to estimate the betterment which will result to the families that have found renewed hope and courage in the ownership of a home and the assurance of a comfortable subsistence under free and healthful conditions. It is also gratifying to be able to feel, as we may, that this work has proceeded upon lines of justice toward the Indian, and that he may now, if he will, secure to himself the good influences of a settled habitation, the fruits of industry, and the security of citizenship.”

1888 Hollerith installs his tabulator at War Department
Herman Hollerith, 28, installed his punch calculator machine at the War Department in Washington, D.C. Hollerith had developed his tabulating machine, which read and sorted punched cards, in the hopes that it would be used in the 1890 census. Census officials thought Hollerith's machine seemed promising but needed practical experience, so Hollerith volunteered to use the machine to organize health statistics from city health departments in New York and Baltimore. It was so successful that news of the machine soon spread, and the War Department invited Hollerith to install a tabulating machine there to track statistics. Ultimately, the Census Department did use Hollerith's machine in the 1890 census.

1883 New Brunswick adopts Eastern Standard Time (until 1902)
1878 Good Day for Greenbacks Greenbacks, paper money issued during the Civil War to support the Union, enjoyed a banner day on this day in 1878, pulling even with gold for the first time since 1862. Along with matching the precious metal, greenbacks also hit "face value" on the currency market. Alas, the victory was short lived, as the next months saw a good chunk of the greenback supporters shift their allegiance to the burgeoning silver movement.
1868 Le chef du parti libéral (whig), William Gladstone, devient Premier ministre du Royaume-Uni. Cet Ecossais est animé par des convictions religieuses très rigides qui le portent à émanciper les catholiques, à développer l'éducation et à moderniser les règles démocratiques. Il s'oppose aux idées de conquêtes et aux ambitions impérialistes de son rival, le conservateur (tory) Disraëli, ainsi que de la reine Victoria.
1867 The capital of Colorado Territory is moved from Golden to Denver.
1863 Major General John G. Foster replaces Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside as Commander of the Department of Ohio.
1861 Engagement at Chusto-Talasah (Bird Creek), Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)
1861 The US Senate approves establishment of a committee that would become the Joint Committee on the Conduct of War.
1854 Lord Tennyson's poem, "Charge of the Light Brigade," published
1840 Scottish missionary explorer David Livingstone, 27, set sail on his first journey to Africa. (He had been accepted to serve under the London Missionary Society two years earlier.)

1835 Texan Army conquers San Antonio
      Inspired by the spirited leadership of Benjamin Rush Milam, the newly created Texan Army takes possession of the city of San Antonio, an important victory for the Republic of Texas in its war for independence from Mexico.
      Milam was born in 1788 in Frankfort, Kentucky. He became a citizen and soldier of Mexico in 1824, when newly independent Mexico was still under a republican constitution. Like many Americans who immigrated to the Mexican state of Texas, Milam found that the government both welcomed and feared the growing numbers of Americans, and treated them with uneven fairness. When Milam heard in 1835 that Santa Ana had overthrown the Mexican republic and established himself as dictator, Milam renounced his Mexican citizenship and joined the rag-tag army of the newly proclaimed independent Republic of Texas.
      After helping the Texas Army capture the city of Goliad, Milam went on a reconnaissance mission to the southwest but returned to join the army for its planned attack on San Antonio-only to learn that the generals were postponing the attack on San Antonio for the winter. Aware that Santa Ana's forces were racing toward Texas to suppress the rebellion, Milam worried that any hesitation would spell the end of the revolution. Milam made an impassioned call for volunteers, asking: "Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?"
      Inspired by Milam's bold challenge, three hundred men did volunteer, and the Texas Army began its attack on San Antonio at dawn on December 5. By 09 December, the defending forces of the Mexican army were badly beaten, and the commanding general surrendered the city. Milam, however, was not there to witness the results of his leadership--he was killed instantly by a sniper bullet on December 7. If Milam had survived, he might well have been among the doomed defenders of the Alamo that were wiped out by Santa Ana's troops the following March.

1824 Battle of Ayacucho (Candorcangui), Peru defeats Spain
1793 Noah Webster establishes New York's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva
1813 President Madison calls for an embargo on all trade with the British.
1738 Jews are expelled from Breslau Silesia
1640 Settler Hugh Bewitt banished from Massachusetts colony when he declares himself to be free of original sin
1631 Poet Milton's 23rd birthday. He writes: "How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, / Stoltn on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!"
1531 Virgin of Guadalupe appears to Indian boy Juan Diego, Mexico.
1484 Bull of Innocent VIII, decreeing Inquisitors Sprenger and Kramer, authors of Malleus Maleficarum, rights to "be empowered to proceed to the just correction, imprisonment, and punishment of any persons, without let or hindrance, in every way as if the provinces, townships, dioceses, districts, territories, yea, even the persons and their crimes in this kind were named and particularly designated in Our letters."

1442 Le peintre Barthélemy d'Eyck fait son testament
     Barthélemy d’Eyck, peintre du roi René d’Anjou, laisse un testament daté et lègue un triptyque. Originaire du Limbourg, il s’est probablement formé dans cette contrée avant de devenir en France le peintre du roi René d’Anjou. Très proche de son maître, il l’accompagne en Provence et y travaille comme peintre et enlumineur. Il exécute assez jeune une partie de l’illustration d’un livre d’heures. Ses œuvres majeures sont le " triptyque de l’Annonciation " d’Aix commandé par un des fournisseurs du roi René, puis l’illustration de trois manuscrits dont un, " Le Cœur d’Amour épris " fut rédigé par René d’Anjou lui-même. Ses qualités de paysagiste, de narrateur plein de fantaisie, son attention à la lumière provençale font de lui un des peintres les plus originaux et les plus attachants de son époque.
      De longues recherches ont rendu presque certaine l’identification du maître du roi René avec Barthélemy d’Eyck. Originaire de Maeseyck, sa mère Ydria Exters a été mariée en premières noces avec un homme nommé d’Eyck, père de Barthélemy. Nous n’en savons pas plus. Mais nous la retrouvons en Provence avec son second mari Peter van Bijland, peintre et brodeur dont le nom francisé en Pierre du Billant ou Dubillant apparaît souvent dans les documents. Barthélemy est-il né à Maeseyck ? Son œuvre révèle en effet une connaissance approfondie de l’art de son homonyme Jan van Eyck, du maître de Flémalle et des enlumineurs des Pays-Bas du Sud. A-t-il travaillé d’abord pour la cour de Bourgogne ? Quoi qu’il en soit, René d’Anjou [1409-1480] le découvre de bonne heure.
      L’on constate des traces de son influence sur les enlumineurs napolitains et l’on pense qu’il aurait pu avoir accompagné le roi à Naples où il séjourna de 1438 à 1442. Barthélemy est aussi appelé "le frère jumeau de Konrad Witz" et l’on relève "leur modelé puissant basé sur des schémas stéréométriques, leur perspective audacieuse, leur style de drapé rigide, leurs ombres triangulaires et dures".
      Certains détails de ses architectures font penser à celles des Heures de Louis de Savoie. En tout état de cause, Barthélemy se trouvait à Aix en 1443-1444 encore jeune, mais peintre de grande notoriété, car le drapier de René d’Anjou, Pierre Corpici, lui commande un retable connu aujourd’hui sous le nom de retable de l’Annonciation d’Aix.
      Selon un testament du 9 décembre 1442, ce triptyque devait être placé sur un autel érigé à l’endroit de la sépulture de la famille Corpici, dans l’église Saint-Sauveur d’Aix. Il fut démembré et dispersé au cours des siècles et seul le panneau central se trouve encore à Aix dans l’église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine. Les volets latéraux furent identifiés par Hulin de Loo dans différents musées et dans des collections privées, ce qui permet donc de reconstituer l’ensemble.
      De nombreux détails trahissent la formation septentrionale du peintre. Le pupitre devant la Vierge est presque identique à celui qu’ont dessiné les frères Limbourg, d’autres détails iconographiques sont dans la tradition des grands maîtres de son pays d’origine ; certains chercheurs ont évoqué une parenté éventuelle avec Hubert et Jan van Eyck.

0536 Le général Bélisaire s'empare de Rome pour le compte de l'empereur romain d'Orient, Justinien. -- Having captured Naples earlier in the year, Belisarius takes Rome.

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Deaths which occurred on a December 09:
2003 “Holly” Cow {arbitrary name assigned here}, 5, from the Sunny Dene Ranch of Sid Wavrin in Mabton. Washington state, slaughtered at Vern's Moses Lake Meat, Inc., in Moses Lake WA, because she had become paralyzed after calving. On 23 December 2003 the US Agriculture Secretary would announce that preliminary tests show that the cow had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), the first such reported in the US. Immediately foreign countries ban, at least temporarily, the importation of US beef.
2003 Six persons, including a woman suicide bomber, at 10:50 outside the National Hotel in Moscow, Russia. 13 persons are injured.
2002 Some 40 persons by landslides in the beach resort and site of the only nuclear power plant of Brazil, Angra dos Reis, after 20 cm of rain fall overnight (two months' worth of normal rainfall).
2002 Palestinian woman, 25, shot by Israeli troops firing at the taxi in which she was going home after nightfall in violation of a military curfew in Askar refugee camp in Nablus in the northern West Bank.
2002 Palestinian man, 28, mentally handicapped, shot by Israeli troops near enclave settlement Einav, West Bank, when he failed to stop as ordered.
2002 Ian Hornak, of an abdominal aneurysm. Born on 09 January 1944, he was a US representational still-life painter known for elaborate, extremely detailed paintings of flowers, food and tableware that recall the 17th-century Dutch vanitas tradition. His pictures have a sharply focused hyper-real look that verges on Surrealism and Photorealism. His frames, often bearing painted imagery or decoration, add layers of meaning to his postmodernism.
2001 Nimr Abu Sayfien, 20, by suicide bomb he sets off prematurely when spotted by Israeli police, at a bus stop on a busy intersection in Haifa. Eleven persons are lightly injured. Sayfien, from Yamoun in the northern West Bank, had planned to set off two explosions: first a small blast, drawing rescue workers to the scene, and then a larger bomb strapped to his body. The second bomb was defused.
2001 Marwan Subhi Jamil Abu Munis, 36, from Arraba near Jenin, West Bank, shot by Israeli troops.
1996 Mary Leakey, 83, in Kenya, archaeologist and anthropologist.
1982 Leon Jaworski, 77, Watergate special prosecutor, in Texas.

1981 Daniel J. Faulkner, murdered, for which Abu-Jamal would be sentenced (unjustly?) to death
      Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner (badge #4699), 25, is found dead on the street with Mumia Abu-Jamal, a well-known activist and occasional journalist, lying severely wounded nearby. In 1982, Abu-Jamal was tried for and convicted of Faulkner's murder, but because of the murky circumstances surrounding the incident and a trial that many believe was unfair, activists have protested that Abu-Jamal has been wrongly imprisoned for years.
      Reportedly, Abu-Jamal, a journalist who had been fired by National Public Radio for his outspokenness, was driving a cab at 04:00, when he saw his brother engaged in an altercation with Faulkner on the street. Evidence used in the trial suggested that Abu-Jamal intervened with a gun and then exchanged shots with Faulkner.
      From the beginning, many felt Abu-Jamal's trial was unfair. Despite the fact that he was critically wounded, the trial began just six months after the shooting; Abu-Jamal was so weak that he couldn't attend much of his seven-day trial. Not only did the prosecution use nearly all of its peremptory challenges to ensure an all-white jury, many observers felt that Judge Albert Sabo was biased against the defendant. And though he wanted to represent himself, the court denied him that right, claiming that his questions to the jurors during voir dire were intimidating.
      At the end of the trial, Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death on 3 July 1982 for first-degree murder. Many believed that although there was a possibility that Abu-Jamal was involved in Faulkner's death, the sentence was overly harsh given the evidence. While in prison, Abu-Jamal has written several books and made many radio appearances advocating an end to racism. He has also lobbied for a new trial.
      Pressure to release Abu-Jamal from his impending execution has become stronger over time, despite the fact that some people firmly maintain that he is guilty. At a "Free Mumia" benefit concert featuring Rage Against the Machine in New Jersey in 1998, a controversy erupted when the New Jersey governor, several police organizations, and Faulkner's widow protested.

1979 Fulton J Sheen, 84, archbishop / religious broadcaster, in New York City.
1971 Ralph J Bunche, 67, Black US diplomat, 1950 Nobel Peace Prize winner, in NYC
1968 Karl Barth, influential German theologian best known for his commentary on Paul¹s letter to the Romans.
1952 Some 900 persons in London, choked by the Great Killer Fog which settled on 05 December and fed by intensified millions of home coal fires, as the temperature drops, has become worse. At last wind comes and blows it away later in the day, but lethally affected people still die in the coming days, until the total number of victims reaches perhaps 12'000. Urban air pollution will never again be underestimated.

1952 Some 900 more choked by the Great Killer Smog in London.        ^top^
                  With weather colder than usual a fog had formed on 05 October over London under a stagnant inversion, and loaded by coal smoke and other pollutants had thickened by evening reducing the visibility to a few meters. On 06 October some 500 persons died from the smog, on 07 October another 500, and on 08 December some 900, choked by the coal smoke and industrial pollutants in the thick smog. Before winds come at last to dissipate the smog, 900 more die on 09 December. In the coming days, thousands more would die of the lingering effects of the smog, and the total killed by it is estimated to be 12'000.
      Huge quantities of impurities were released into the atmosphere during the Great Killer Smog. On each day the following amounts of pollutants were emitted: 1000 tons of smoke particles, 2000 tons of carbon dioxide, 140 tons of hydrochloric acid and 14 tons of fluorine compounds. In addition, and perhaps most dangerously, 370 tons of sulphur dioxide were converted into 800 tons of sulphuric acid. At London's County Hall, the concentration of smoke in the air increased from 0.49 milligrams per cubic meter on 04 December to 4.46 on the 07 and 08 December.
     Legislation followed the Great Killer Smog of 1952 in the form of the City of London (Various Powers) Act of 1954 and the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968. These Acts banned emissions of black smoke and decreed that residents of urban areas and operators of factories must convert to smokeless fuels. As these residents and operators were necessarily given time to convert, however, fogs continued to be smoky for some time after the Act of 1956 was passed. In 1962, for example, 750 Londoners died as a result of a fog, but nothing on the scale of the 1952 Great Killer Smog has ever occurred again.
      Pea-soupers have become a thing of the past in the UK, thanks partly to pollution legislation but also to slum clearance, urban renewal and the widespread use of central heating in the houses and offices of British towns and cities. As recently as the early 1960s, winter sunshine totals were 30% lower in the smokier districts of London than in the rural areas around the capital. At the beginning of the 21st century, there is little difference.
       We should not, however, be complacent. The air now contains other types of pollutants, many of them from vehicle exhausts. Among these pollutants are carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, benzines and aldehydes. They are less visible than the pollutants of yesteryear but are equally toxic, causing eye irritation, asthma and bronchial complaints. To some extent, we have simply replaced one form of air pollution with another. We may question whether or not the major cities of the British Isles are any less polluted now than they have been for hundreds of years. And there are other areas of the world were the situation is worse.

1939 Day 10 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland. [Talvisodan 10. päivä]
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.
First Finnish-American volunteers are on their way.

Karelian Isthmus: troops from the covering force reorganized to form the 1st Division under the command of Major-General Laatikainen are to assume responsibility for the eastern section of the front in the 5th Division's defence sector on the Karelian Isthmus.

Ladoga Karelia: the 13th Division takes up defensive positions between Lake Ladoga and Varpajärvi.

Northern Finland: Colonel Siilasvuo's first transport arrives at Hyrynsalmi a day late. Further north, Soviet troops finally take the parish village at Salla.

All Soviet troops on the Finnish front are placed under the direct command of the General Staff of the Red Army.

New York: the first detachment of Finnish American volunteers -- about one hundred officers, pilots and mechanics -- board ship bound for Finland.

1909 Red Cloud, great Sioux leader, Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
1292 Sa'di great Persian poet (Orchard, Rose Garden)
1909 Hermann Kaulbach, German artist born on 26 July 1846.
1895 (some time between 09 and 11Dec) Charles Meer Webb, British artist born on 16 July 1830.
1879 (or 10 Dec) Jacob Albrecht Michael Jacobs, Belgian artist born on 19 May 1812.
1870 Louise Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont, French artist born on 14 February 1790.
1715 Benedetto Gennari II, Italian painter born on 19 October 1633. — MORE ON GENNARI AT ART “4” DECEMBER with links to images.
1678 Jürgen Ovens, German painter born in 1623. — more
1678 Robert Nanteuil, French engraver born in 1623. — Born in Rheims; Studied under the engraver Regneson; moved to Paris in 1647; became highly esteemed in Paris and made many portraits of Louis XIV and other notables; he was named the King's engraver and received an annual pension in 1959; died in Paris. — MORE ON MORETTO AT ART “4” DECEMBER with links to images.
1641 Anton van Dyck, Flemish painter specialized in portraits, born on 22 March 1599. — MORE ON VAN DYCK AT ART “4” DECEMBER — with links to many images.
1554 (some day between 09 and 22 Dec) Alessandro Bonvicino Moretto da Brescia, Italian artist born in 1498. — MORE ON MORETTO AT ART “4” DECEMBER with links to images.

Births which occurred on a December 09:
2002 The Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park is created on paper, merging of three existing parks: South Africa's Kruger, Mozambique's Limpopo and Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou, by the document which three Presidents sign: South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. It's area is 40'000 square kilometers. It is the second of 22 “peace parks” planned in the region. The first is a Kalahari Desert park in South Africa and Botswana. But the Greater Limpopo Park is not a reality: The Gonarzhou is only planned. Less than 2 km of the Kruger's border fence has been torn down and elephants released on the Mozambique side came right back to their familiar territory in South Africa.
1968 Computer mouse, first demonstrated, by Doug Engelbart at Stanford

1958 John Birch Society, extremist right-wing anti-Communist organization, is founded.
      In Indianapolis, Indiana, Massachusetts businessman Robert H. Welch, Jr. [1899-1985], establishes the John Birch Society, an extremist right-wing organization dedicated to fighting what it perceives to be the extensive infiltration of Communism into American society.
      Welsh names the society in honor of John Morrison Birch, considered by many to be the first US casualty in the struggle against Communism. In 1945, Birch, a Baptist missionary and US army intelligence specialist, was killed by Chinese Communists in the northern province of Anhwei.
      The John Birch Society, initially founded with only eleven members, has by the early 1960s grown to a membership of nearly 100'000, and enjoys annual private contributions of several million dollars.
      The society revives the spirit of McCarthyism, claiming in unsubstantiated accusations that a vast Communist conspiracy exists within the US government. Among others, the organization even implicates President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. However, after the public debacle of Senator Joseph McCarthy's public hearings in the early 1950s, the US is wary of radical anti-Communism, and few of the sensational charges are taken seriously by mainstream US society.

1947 Tom Daschle, US Senate Majority Leader (D-SD).
1942 Joe McGinniss Rye NY, author (Selling of the President 1968)
1932 Anne-Marie Canu, in Bryn Mawr PA, the second child of Jean Marie Félix and Helen Marion Canu. She would be brought up in France from age 2, study medicine, be a Benedictine cloistered nun at Faremoutiers for some ten years, and then complete her medical studies and become a pediatric psychoanalist in Paris. She is unwilling or unable to explain her own psychology, for example her hostility to computers and anything having to do with them. When told about the preceding notice about her, she demanded its removal, without giving any reason and while refusing to read it (it would require the use of a computer!). When she quotes it verbatim to the webmaster, it will be removed or modified as she may wish. — Co-author (with Maurice Bellet) of article Sur une guérison catastrophique in revue Psychanalyse à l'université (1976 #5)
1929 Robert J L Hawke (L), PM Australia (1983-)
1926 Henry Way Kendall, who would share the 1990 Nobel Physics Prize with Jerome I. Friedman [28 Mar 1930~] and Richard E. Taylor “for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics.” Kendall died on 15 February 1999, while scuba diving taking photographs at the Wakulla Springs State Park in Florida on an expedition with a friend from the National Geographic Society.
1926 Luis Miguel Dominguin Spain, matador
1919 William Nunn Lipscomb, Jr., who would be awarded the 1976 Nobel Chemistry Prize “for his studies on the structure of boranes illuminating problems of chemical bonding.”
1917 James Rainwater, US physicist who would share with Aage Bohr [19 Jun 1922~] and Ben Mottelson [09 Jul 1926~] the 1975 Nobel Physics Prize “for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection.” Rainwater died on 31 May 1986.
1917 Sergei Fomin, mathematician.
1912 Thomas P. "Tip"O'Neill Jr. (Rep-D-Mass) / Speaker of the US House of Representatives (1977-1987). He died on 05 January 1994. Author of Man of the House.

1906 Grace Murray Hopper, mathematician, computer pioneer
Hopper invented the first program compiler, which translated programming code into machine language. Hopper's compiler paved the way for increasingly sophisticated computer languages. A mathematics professor, Hopper joined the Naval Reserves during World War II. The Navy assigned her to work on Mark I, the first large-scale automatic calculator. Later, Hopper worked on UNIVAC, the world's first fully electronic commercial computer, and she also developed the Flow-Matic compiler. Although Hopper first retired in 1966, the Navy called her back almost immediately. For the next nineteen years, she helped the Navy standardize its computer languages. When she finally retired at age seventy-nine, she was the oldest officer on active US Naval duty. She died in 1992. Hopper's work won numerous honors, including the prestigious National Medal of Technology in 1991. She was the first woman to win the award.

1905 Dalton Trumbo, writer, film director. Published Johnny Got His Gun two days after the start of WWII. Won an American Booksellers Award for 1939. The most talented member of the Hollywood Ten, who refused to testify before the 1947 US House Committee on Un-American Activities about alleged communist involvement. He was blacklisted and in 1950 spent 11 months in prison. After his blacklisting, he wrote 30 scripts under pseudonyms.
1899 Jean de Brunhoff French children's book author-illustrator (Babar the elephant)
1898 Emmett Kelly circus clown (hobo, Weary Willie)
1896 Josef Scharl, US artist who died in 1954.
1886 Clarence Birdseye frozen vegatable king (Birdseye)
1884 Antonin Zapotocky Czechoslovak President (Ceskoslovensky Spisouatel)
1884 The ball-bearing skate is patented by Levant Richardson of Chicago, Illinois, intended as an aid for maintaining healthy feet and legs.
1883 Luzin, mathematician.
1883 Nekrasov, mathematician.
1882 Joaquin Turina Seville Spain, composer (Rima)
1869 Noble Order of Knights of Labor founded, Philadelphia
1868 Fritz Haber, German chemist who would be awarded the 1918 Nobel Chemistry Prize “for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements.” He died on 29 January 1934.
1863 G. Campbell Morgan, English congregational clergyman and Bible expositor. Morgan authored more than 60 Bible commentaries and books of sermons, many still be in print.

1854 The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson is published, six weeks after the Battle of Balaclava. This poem was written to memorialize a suicidal charge by light cavalry over open terrain by British forces in the 25 Oct 1854 Battle of Balaclava (Ukraine) in the Crimean War (1854-1856). 247 men of the 637 in the charge were killed or wounded.Britain entered the war, which was fought by Russia against Turkey, Britain and France, because Russia sought to control the Dardanelles. Russian control of the Dardanelles threatened British sea routes. Many in the west best know of this war today because of Florence Nightingale, who trained and led nurses aiding the wounded during the war in a manner innovative for those times. The War was also noteworthy as an early example of work of modern war correspondents. Author's note: "This poem (published in The Examiner, Dec. 9, 1854) was written after reading the first report of the Times correspondent, where only 607 sabres are mentioned as having taken part in this charge (Oct. 25, 1854). Drayton's Agincourt was not in my mind; my poem is dactylic, and founded on the phrase, "Some one had blundered." At the request of Lady Franklin I distributed copies among our soldiers in the Crimea and the hospital at Scutari. The charge lasted only twenty-five minutes. I have heard that one of the men, with the blood streaming from his leg, as he was riding by his officer, said, `Those d--d heavies will never chaff us again,' and fell down dead."
Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. 'Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!' he said: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred. 'Forward, the Light Brigade!' Was there a man dismay'd ? Not tho' the soldier knew Some one had blunder'd: Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.	Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred. Flash'd all their sabres bare, Flash'd as they turn'd in air Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army, while All the world wonder'd: Plunged in the battery-smoke Right thro' the line they broke; Cossack and Russian Reel'd from the sabre-stroke Shatter'd and sunder'd. Then they rode back, but not Not the six hundred.	Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon behind them Volley'd and thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, While horse and hero fell, They that had fought so well Came thro' the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred. When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wonder'd. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!

1853 Lauritz Regner Tuxen, Danish artist who died on 21 November 1927.
1851 1st Young Men's Christian Association in North America (Montreal)
1848 Joel Chandler Harris US journalist (created Uncle Remus stories). HARRIS ONLINE: Free Joe, and Other Georgian Sketches — Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings
1842 Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin, important geographer and anarchist, in Moscow, wrote the "anarchy" article for Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition. Although Kropotkin achieved renown in a number of different fields, ranging from geography and zoology to sociology and history, he shunned material success for the life of a revolutionist. “ -- Pierre Alexeiévitch Kropotkine, aristocrate russe, officier en Sibérie, explorateur puis scientifique (il démontrera la théorie des glaciations).
1829 Théodore Gérard, Belgian artist who died on 03 July 1895.
1809 William Barret Travis, commander of the Texas troops at the battle of the Alamo.
1715 Niccolo Guardi, Italian artist who died on 26 May 1785.
1667 William Whiston, mathematician.

1608 John Milton, who would become one of the greatest poets of the English language. He also would be a noted historian, scholar, pamphleteer, and civil servant for the Parliamentarians and the Puritan Commonwealth. Milton ranks second only to Shakespeare among English poets; his writings and his influence are an important part of the history of English literature, culture, and libertarian thought. He is best known for Paradise Lost, which is generally regarded as the greatest epic poem in the English language. Milton's prose works, however, are also important as a valuable interpretation of the Puritan revolution, and they have their place in modern histories of political and religious thought. The indulged son of a prosperous London businessman, Milton excelled at languages in grammar school and at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took a bachelor's degree and then a master's. He decided to continue his education on his own, spending six years reading every major work of literature in several languages. He published Comus in 1637, several years after its first performance. The same year, he published an elegy for a college classmate, Lycidas. In 1638, he went abroad to continue his studies. In 1642, Milton married 17-year-old Mary Powell, but she left him a few weeks later. Milton wrote a series of pamphlets arguing for the legalization of divorce based on incompatibility. The idea, however mild it seems today, was scandalous at the time, and Milton experienced a vehement backlash. Milton's wife returned to him in 1645, and the pair had three daughters. However, he continued to spout controversial views. He supported the execution of Charles I, he railed against the control of the church by bishops, and he upheld the institution of Cromwell's Commonwealth, of which he became secretary of foreign languages. In 1651, Milton lost his sight but fulfilled his government duties with the help of assistants, including poet Andrew Marvell. His wife died the following year. He remarried in 1656, but his second wife died in childbirth. Four years later, the Commonwealth was overthrown, and Milton went to jail. The blind man lost his position and property, but was saved from a lifetime in prison by the intervention of loyal friends. Milton remarried in 1663. Blind, impoverished, and jobless, he began to dictate his poem Paradise Lost to his family. When the poem was ready for publication, he sold it for 10 pounds. Once printed, the poem was immediately hailed as a masterpiece of the English language. In 1671, he wrote Paradise Regained, followed by Samson Agonistes. Milton died on 8 November 1674. MILTON ONLINE:
*Milton Reading Room* Areopagitica Areopagitica Areopagitica Colasterion Colasterion Comus, A Mask The History of Britain Il Penseroso L'Allegro	The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce Lycidas Of Education Of Education Paradise Lost (multiple editions) Paradise Lost Paradise Lost Paradise Lost (1667) Paradise Lost: A Poem in Twelve Books (1674)	Paradise Regained Paradise Regained Paradise Regained Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, Compos'd at Several Times (1645) The Poetical Works of John Milton Samson Agonistes Samson Agonistes Tetrachordon contributor to John Milton: Poet, Priest and Prophet translator of The Judgment of Martin Bucer Concerning Divorce

1594 Gustavus II Adolphus, king who made Sweden a major power (1611-32)
Gustave II Adolphe naquit à Stockholm le 9 décembre 1594 de l'union de Charles IX, roi de Suède de 1604 à 1611, et de Christine, fille d'Adolphe, duc de Holstein-Gottorp. Il accéda au trône de Suède à la mort de son père survenue en 1611. Il créa une véritable armée suédoise, cessant ainsi de recourir à des mercenaires étrangers, ce qui lui permit d'assurer une véritable politique expansionniste au détriment de la Russie et du roi de Pologne Sigismond III Vasa (ancien roi de Suède catholique) qui perdit la Livonie. Il défendit la Réforme en Europe. Il fut tué le 16 novembre 1632 lors de la bataille de Lützen, cependant remportée par les Suédois. Sa fille, Christine, alors âgée de seulement six ans lui succéda.
Gustave Adolphe le Grand, monté sur le trône de Suède, en 1611, à la mort de son père, a été l'un des plus grands rois de son pays. Fin politicien, il obtient de la France d'importants subsides. Il fut également un très grand soldat. D'ailleurs, c'est en combattant qu'il décède, à Lutzen, en 1632.

Holidays Tanzania : Independence Day / Republic Day (1961, 1962)

Religious Observances Christian : the Conception of Anne, mother of Mary / RC : St Peter Fourier, French priest / Saint Pierre Fourier naquit en 1565 à Mirécourt. Devenu prêtre, il se rendit très populaire en Lorraine. Il prêcha contre le protestantisme mais il créa aussi un organisme de prêt sans intérêt et fonda la congrégation des soeurs de Notre-Dame pour l'éducation des filles pauvres. / Jewish : Hanukkah-Festival of Lights

DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN: personne: papa a oublié sa clé.

Thoughts for the day: “All politics is local.” — Tip O'Neill
“Let him who takes the plunge remember to return it by Tuesday.”
“Let him who takes pains keep them.”
“Let him who takes umbrage not complain of the darkness.”
“Let him who takes care wrap it up in a package and mail it to a hungry child in a needy country.”
“Let him who takes a break mend it.”
“Let him who takes a brake pay for the car crash.”
“Let him who takes his time leave mine alone.”
“Let him who takes liberties not expect to be re-elected President.”
“Going along the road, when you come to a fork, pick it up lest it puncture a tire.”
“All sins are attempts to fill voids.” — Simone Weil, French philosopher [1909-1943].
“All attempts to fill voids create more voids.”
“Avoid a void, don't be a noid!”
“C'est une erreur d'appeler les partisans de la guerre des ‘faucons’. C'en est des vrais.”

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updated Thursday 25-Dec-2003 16:08 UT

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