TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – DEC 15
533 Byzantine General Belisarius defeats the Vandals, under King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron
1593 State of Holland grants patent on windmill with crankshaft
1612 German Astronomer Simon Marius is 1st to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope
1654 A meteorological office established in Tuscany began recording daily temperature readings.
1680 Tax revolt on Terschelling due to tax on cereal
1791 US Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gives its approval, becomes amendments 1-10 of the US constitution
1862 Nathan Bedford Forrest crosses the Tennessee River at Clifton with 2,500 men to raid the communications around Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1890 As U.S. Army soldiers attempt to arrest Sitting Bull at his cabin in Standing Rock, South Dakota, shooting breaks out and Lt. Bullhead shoots the great Sioux leader.
1916 The French defeated the Germans in the Battle of Verdun.
1938 Washington sends its fourth note to Berlin demanding amnesty for Jews
1944 Band leader Glenn Miller disappeared in a plane crash over the English Channel.
1952 Christine Jorgenson is 1st person to undergo a sex-change operation
1961 Adolf Eichmann, the former German Gestapo official accused of a major role in the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews, is sentenced by a Jerusalem court to be hanged.
1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the meat bill in the presence of Upton Sinclair, the author of the controversial book The Jungle.
1970 The Soviet probe Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land softly on the surface of Venus. The probe only survived the extreme heat and pressure for about 23 minutes and transmitted the first data received on Earth from the surface of another planet.
1973 The American Psychiatric Association votes to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders
1976 Argo Merchant tanker off Massachusetts’ SE coast, spills 7.6 million gallons of crude when the ship runs aground
1978 US President Jimmy Carter announces the United States will recognize the People’s Republic of China and will sever all relations with Taiwan.
1981 In what is often called the first modern suicide bombing, a suicide car bomb kills 61 people at the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon; Iraq’s ambassador to Lebanon is among the casualties.
1981 The U.S. Congress passed $200 billion spending bill. At the time it was the largest in U.S. history.
1994 Liberia militia kills 48 inhabitants of Monrovia
1995 Playboy goes back on sale after 36 year ban in Ireland
1999 Syria reopened peace talks with Israel in Washington, DC, with the mediation of U.S. President Clinton.
2001 It was announced that Siena Heights University would begin offering a class called “Animated Philosophy and Religion.” The two-credit class would cover how religion and philosophy are part of popular culture and is based on the television series “The Simpsons.”
2005 F-22 Raptor Stealth fighter enters active service with the US Air Force.
2010 The U.N. Security Council gave a vote of confidence to the government of Iraq when they lifted 19-year-old sanctions on weapons and civilian nuclear power.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
