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December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 9 days remaining.
Events
- 1603 - Mehmed III Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.
- 1807 - The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. 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 U.S. Congress
- 1849 - The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is canceled at the last second
- 1864 - Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman
- 1885 - Ito Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
- 1894 - The Dreyfus affair begins in France when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.
- 1910 - Chicago Union Stock Yards Fire, 21 firemen were killed
- 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
- 1944 - Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Vietnam
- 1964 - Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity
- 1974 - Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
- 1988 - Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, was assassinated.
- 1989 - After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu takes over as president of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.
- 1989 - Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
- 1990 - Lech Wałęsa sworn in as President of Poland
- 1997 - Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas were massacred by paramilitary forces.
- 1999 - The Spanish Civil Guard finds near Calatayud (Zaragoza) another van loaded by ETA with 750 kg of explosives (see related event on December 21, 1999).
- 1999 - Tandja Mamadou became President of Niger.
- 2001 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Northern Alliance, handed over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by Hamid Karzai.
- 2001 - Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
- 2001 - Cc the cat, the first cloned pet, was born.
Births
- 1639 - Jean Racine, dramatist (other sources report December 21st as his birth date) (d. 1699)
- 1666 - Guru Gobind Singh, (d. 1708)
- 1694 - Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (b. 1768)
- 1723 - Karl Friedrich Abel, German baroque composer (d. 1787)
- 1805 - John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist
- 1858 - Giacomo Puccini, composer (d. 1924)
- 1860 - Austin Norman Palmer, populiser of handwriting style
- 1862 - Connie Mack, baseball executive, manager (d. 1956)
- 1866 - Käthe Paulus, Germany's first female parachutist (d. 1935)
- 1869 - Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (d. 1935)
- 1874 - Franz Schmidt, composer (d. 1939)
- 1876 - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, poet and editor (d. 1944)
- 1883 - Edgar Varèse composer (d. 1965)
- 1887 - Srinivasa Aaiyangar Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (d. 1920)
- 1888 - J. Arthur Rank, producer (d. 1972)
- 1899 - Gustav Gründgens, actor and film director (d. 1963)
- 1905 - Pierre Brasseur, actor (d. 1972)
- 1905 - Kenneth Rexroth, American poet (d. 1982)
- 1907 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft, actress (d. 1991)
- 1907 - Doris Miles Disney, writer
- 1912 - Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the United States
- 1917 - Gene Rayburn, game show host (d. 1999).
- 1922 - Barbara Billingsley, actress
- 1922 - Jack Brooks, American politician
- 1922 - Ruth Roman, actress (d. 1999)
- 1944 - Steve Carlton, Baseball Hall of Famer
- 1945 - Diane Sawyer, journalist
- 1946 - Rick Nielsen, musician (Cheap Trick)
- 1948 - Lynne Thigpen, actress (d. 2003)
- 1949 - Robin Gibb, musician (The Bee Gees)
- 1949 - Maurice Gibb, musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003)
- 1951 - Charles DeLint, writer
- 1951 - Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster
- 1962 - Ralph Fiennes, actor
- 1967 - Dan Petrescu, English Premiership club Chelsea and Romanian football (soccer) player.
- 1969 - Myriam Bédard, biathlon athlete
Deaths
- 1603 - Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (b. 1566)
- 1738 - Constantia Jones, British prostitute (executed)
- 1828 - William Hyde Wollaston, noted English chemist (b. 1766)
- 1880 - George Eliot, writer (b. 1819)
- 1884 - John Chisum, cattle baron
- 1899 - Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (b. 1837)
- 1902 - Richard von Krafft-Ebing, sexologist (b. 1840)
- 1936 - Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger, Croat paleontologist (b. 1856)
- 1939 - Ma Rainey, blues singer (b. 1886)
- 1940 - Nathanael West, writer (b. 1903)
- 1942 - Franz Boas, German cultural anthropologist (b. 1858)
- 1943 - Beatrix Potter, writer (b. 1866)
- 1965 - Richard Dimbleby, journalist and broadcaster (b. 1913)
- 1969 - Joseph von Sternberg, director
- 1979 - Darryl F. Zanuck, producer (b. 1902)
- 1980 - Karl Dönitz, politician and U-boat commander in Nazi Germany (b. 1891)
- 1988 - Chico Mendes, assassinated Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist (b. 1944)
- 1989 - Samuel Beckett, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1969 (b. 1906)
- 1995 - Butterfly McQueen, actress
- 2002 - Desmond Hoyte, President of Guyana 1985-1992
- 2002 - Joe Strummer, musician (b. 1952)
- 2003 - Dave Dudley, singer (b. 1928)
- 2004 - Doug Ault, Major League Baseball player (b. 1950)
Holidays and observances
December 21 - December 23 - November 22 - January 22 -- listing of all days
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