Post by farmgal on Dec 23, 2012 12:47:11 GMT -5
December 22 is the 356th day of the year, in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 9 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days left until midterm elections on November 4, 2014 681
Countdown until Obama should have been leaving Office:
www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1216 Pope Honorius III officially approved the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), founded in 1216 by St. Dominic. During the Middle Ages, many leaders of European thought were Dominicans; and a good number followed Portuguese and Spanish explorers to the Americas as missionaries.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Order
1548 The Leipzig Interim was adopted at the Diet of Leipzig. The interim, written by Maurice of Saxony, compromised several of the Lutheran beliefs and positions, including those dealing with the doctrine of justification.
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=l&word=LEIPZIGINTERIM
1775 Continental navy organized with 7 ships. On December 3, the USS Alfred, USS Andrew USS Doria, USS Cabot, and USS Columbus. On December 22, 1775, Esek Hopkins was appointed the naval commander-in-chief, and officers of the navy were commissioned (including First Lieutenant John Paul Jones). With this small fleet, complemented by the USS Providence, and USS Wasp, Hopkins led the first major Naval action of the Continental Navy, in early March 1776.
1807 Congress passes Embargo Act, to force peace between Britain & France. This law was passed by Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807. It stopped all trade between America and any other country. The goal was to get Britain and France, who were fighting each other at the time, to stop restricting American trade. The plan didn't work and the act ended in 1809.
1837 Mercer University was chartered in Penfield, Georgia under Baptist support. In 1871 the college moved its campus to Macon, Georgia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_University
1839 The second of triple December storms hit the northeastern U.S. The storm produced 25 inches of snow at Gettysburg, PA, and gales in New England, but only produced light snow along the coast. (David Ludlum)
1864 General William T. Sherman sends a Christmas message to President Lincoln. In the course of the march the Union army had seized thousands of horses and mules and freed countless slaves. Sherman calculated damage done at about $100,000,000. His telegram to Lincoln was run in newspapers all over the North and it created a sensation. "I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred fifty heavy guns, also about 25,000 bales of cotton."
1870 Charles Augustus Young, an American astronomer, made the first observations of the flash spectrum of the Sun. He was a pioneer in the study of the spectrum of the sun and experimented in photographing solar prominences in full sunlight. On 22 Dec 1870, at the eclipse in Spain, he saw the lines of the solar spectrum all become bright for perhaps a second and a half (the "flash spectrum") and announced the "reversing layer." In his career, he also proved the gaseous nature of the sun's corona. By exploring from the high altitude of Sherman, Wy. (1872), he more than doubled the number of bright lines he had observed in the chromosphere. By a comparison of observations, he concluded that magnetic conditions on the earth respond to solar disturbances.
1877 "American Bicycling Journal" first published (Boston, MA)
1882 First string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison's associate, Edward H. Johnson. He decorated a Christmas tree at his home. Previously, trees were decorated with wax candles from the early days of the Christmas tree tradition. The first commercially produced Christmas tree lamps were manufactured in strings of nine sockets by the Edison General Electric Co. of Harrison, N.J. and advertised in the Dec 1901 issue of the Ladies' Home Journal. Each socket took a miniature 2 candlepower carbon-filament lamp operating on 32 volts.
1885 A U.S. patent for a gravity switchback railway (Roller coaster) was issued to La Marcus Adna Thompson of Coney Island, N.Y. (No. 332,762). In 1884, Thompson, the "Father of the Gravity Ride," opened a 600-ft roller-coaster at Coney Island at 6-mph maximum. Its popularity enabled him to recoup his $1,600 investment in only three weeks. In this patent he described a railway on trestles with two parallel tracks undulating vertically. At the end of the first track, a switch automatically allowed the car to return on the second track. His design in an earlier patent (20 Jan 1885, No. 310,966) needed passengers to temporarily get out of the car at the end of the first track while assistants prepared it to return on the second track.)
1894 United States Golf Association is formed (New York, NY) The Amateur Golf Association of the United States - soon to be called the United States Golf Association is formed on Dec. 22. Charter members are Newport Golf Club, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, The Country Club (Brookline, Mass.), St. Andrew's Golf Club (Yonkers, N.Y.), and Chicago Golf Club.
1910 The Chicago Union Stock Yards Fire started on December 22, 1910, destroying $400,000 of property and killing twenty-one firemen, including the Fire Marshal James J. Horan. Fifty engine companies and seven hook and ladder companies fought the fire until it was declared extinguished by Chief Seyferlich on December 23. In 2004, a memorial to all Chicago firefighters who have died in the line of duty was erected at the location of the 1910 Stock Yards fire. A larger fire occurred in 1934, which burned almost 90% of the stockyards, including the exchange building, stockyard inn, and the International Livestock Exposition building. This larger fire was seen as far away as Indiana, and caused approximately $6 million worth of damages. While only one watchman was killed, a few cattle also perished, but the yards were in business the following Sunday evening.
1915 Federal Baseball League is dissolved. After the 1915 season the owners of the American and National Leagues bought out half of the owners (Pittsburgh, Newark, Buffalo, and Brooklyn) of the Federal League teams. Two Federal League owners were allowed to buy struggling franchises in the established leagues: Phil Ball, owner of the St. Louis Terriers, was allowed to buy the St. Louis Browns of the AL, and Charlie Weeghman, owner of the Chicago Whales, bought the Chicago Cubs. Both owners merged their teams into the established ones.
1920 WEAF, in New York City, aired the first broadcast of a prize fight from ringside. WEAF, in New York City, aired the first broadcast of a prize fight from ringside. The fight was broadcast from Madison Square Garden where Joe Lynch defeated Peter Herman to retain the bantamweight title. Bantamweights top the scales at 118 pounds.
1921 The first U.S. commercial radio license assigned to a religious broadcaster was awarded to the National Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C. Within five years, there were over 60 other licensed religious broadcasters, including KJS_Biola (L.A.), KFUO_Concordia Seminary (St. Louis), and WMBI_Moody Bible Institute (Chicago).
nationalpres.org/david_renwick.php
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Presbyterian_Church
1924 Thomas A. Edison was issued a U.S. design patent for a "Design for a Phonograph Cabinet." (Design patent No. 69068). In addition to a front and side elevation, the patent showed an enlarged portion of the front elevation showing more clearly the details of one of the panels or grilles. The design patent covers the ornamental design for a phonograph cabinet as shown for a term of 14 years. A design patent protects only the appearance of the article and not structural or utilitarian features.
1929: A storm in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana brought 26 inches of snow to Hillsboro, Texas
1934 Miss Theo Trowbridge sets female bowling record 702 pins
1937 Lincoln Tunnel (New York, NY) opens to traffic. In 1937, the Lincoln Tunnel in New York opened to traffic, passing 1.5 miles under the Hudson River and connecting Weehawken, N.J., and Manhattan in New York City. It was designed by Othmar H. Ammann, designer of many of the 20th century's greatest bridges including a number in New York. A second tube of the Lincoln Tunnel to the north of the first was opened on 1 Feb 1945, and a third tube was added south of the first on 25 May 1957, making it the world's only three-tube underwater tunnel for vehicles.
1940 World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1941 Jimmie Lunceford & his orchestra recorded "Blues in the Night" After playing for several years in Cleveland and Buffalo, the band began an important engagement at the Cotton Club, Harlem, in 1934. Two "hot" recordings made in 1934, Jazzmocracy and White Heat, with arrangements by Will Hudson, immediately attracted attention, and by 1935 the group, then called Jimmie Lunceford's Orchestra, had achieved a national reputation as an outstanding black swing band. Blues in the Night was recorded for the movie of the same name.
1941 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C. for a series of meetings with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on a unified Anglo-American war strategy and a future peace.
Now that the United States was directly involved in both the Pacific and European wars, it was incumbent upon both Great Britain and America to create and project a unified front. Toward that end, Churchill and Roosevelt created a combined general staff to coordinate military strategy against both Germany and Japan and to draft a future joint invasion of the Continent. Roosevelt also agreed to a radical increase in the U.S. arms production program: the 12,750 operational aircraft to be ready for service by the end of 1943 became 45,000; the proposed 15,450 tanks also became 45,000; and the number of machine guns to be manufactured almost doubled, to 500,000.
Among the momentous results of these U.S.-Anglo meetings was a declaration issued by Churchill and Roosevelt that enjoined 26 signatory nations to use all resources at their disposal to defeat the Axis powers and not sue for a separate peace. This confederation called itself the "United Nations." Lead by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, all 26 nations declared a unified goal to "ensure life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve the rights of man and justice." The blueprint for the destruction of fascism and a future international peacekeeping organization was born.
1942 World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
1943 Manufacturers get permission to use synthetic rubber for baseball core.
1944 World War II: Battle of the Bulge --German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"
1944 World War II: The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
1953 Jack Dunn III, owner of Baltimore Orioles in International League, turns name over to newly relocated St Louis Browns
1956 Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.
1958 The Chipmunks were at the #1 position on the music charts. The Chipmunks (a.k.a. David Seville and the Chipmunks) were a novelty act created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. The Chipmunks made a splash on the charts in the late 1950s with "Witch Doctor" (1958), "The Chipmunk Song" (1958) and "Alvin's Harmonica" (1959), and the Alvin cartoon show premiered on TV in 1961.
1959 New York Ranger goalie Marcel Paille wears a customized mask
1959 Continental League awards its last franchise to Dallas-Fort Worth. The Continental League was a proposed 8-team baseball league which never got off the ground but still had significant impact on baseball. It is generally accepted that Major League Baseball's expansion in 1961-1962 was in direct response to pressure from the Continental League.
1961 Holiday travel was paralyzed over extreme northeastern Kansas, and adjacent parts of Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. The storm produced 5 to 15 inches of snow, with drifts up to ten feet high. (22nd-23rd) (The Weather Channel)
1962 1,000,000th NBA point scored in either Detroit-Chicago, New York-Boston, or Syracuse-San Francisco game.
1962 Harris County voters approve all-weather stadium for Houston Colt .45s. The Astrodome was masterminded by a colorful Houstonian named Judge Roy Hofheinz, who in the early 1960s paid $5 million for 495 acres of swampland 6 miles south of downtown Houston, spent $1.2 million to drain it, and then sold 180 acres to Harris County for $5 million, retaining the remaining 315 acres to develop into the privately-owned complex that today contains a hotel, a convention hall complex, and the Astroworld Amusement park.
1964 Lockheed SR-71 spy aircraft reaches 2194 mph (record for a jet). The SR-71, unofficially known as the "Blackbird," is a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft. The first flight of an SR-71 took place on December 22, 1964, and the first SR-71 to enter service was delivered to the 4200th (later, 9th) Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, California, in January 1966.
1965 Director David Lean's " Dr Zhivago" premieres. The movie portraited life of a Russian doctor/poet who, although married, falls for a political activist's wife and experiences hardships during the Bolshevik Revolution. The cast included Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, and Alec Guinness.
1968 Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower, both progeny of United States presidents, tie the knot in New York City.
Julie Nixon was the daughter of Richard M. Nixon, who was running for president at the time of the wedding. Her groom was the grandson of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as America's 34th president from 1953 to 1961. Julie and David met at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, California, in 1956 while his grandfather was campaigning for re-election. They were both eight at the time. At the convention, Julie's father was nominated as Eisenhower's running mate. The two were frequently thrown together during Eisenhower's second term and shared the unusual experience of growing up under the spotlight of national politics. They started dating in 1967, when they were both 19.
Author Tabitha Warters, who studied presidential offspring, noted that Julie and David offered Americans the ideal image of a "wholesome, all-American couple" at a time when the nation was undergoing a counter-cultural revolution and traditional family and relationship roles were being challenged. Warters quoted Nixon as describing his daughter and her fiance as "front-line troops in the battle to reestablish...traditional virtues," particularly during his 1968 presidential campaign.
Both Julie and David wrote books about their famous and influential relatives. They are still married, have three children and live in Pennsylvania.
1968 The first U.S. live telecast from a manned spacecraft in outer space was transmitted at 3:01 p.m. from Apollo VIII. The earth appeared as a blurred ball of light. The craft was 139,000 miles from earth, 31-hr 20-min after launch. the previous day. A total of six live television transmission sessions were done by the crew during the mission, including the famous Christmas Eve broadcast in which the astronauts read from the book of Genesis. The crew for the flight was Captain James Lovell, Colonel Frank Borman and Major William Anders. The primary purpose of this mission was to further progress toward the goal of landing men on the Moon by gaining operational experience and testing the Apollo system.
1969 Pete Maravich sets NCAA record of hitting 30 of 31 foul shots. When Peter Press Maravich stepped onto a basketball court, spectators and opponents had to have a carefully trained eye because "Pistol Pete" rarely duplicated the same move twice. Perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history, Maravich's offensive repertoire was endless: He could dazzle with Harlem Globetrotter-like dribbling, toss a no-look pass with pinpoint accuracy or sink a fall-away jumper with two defenders draped on him. The basketball court was "Pistol Pete's" personal playground; every night was a show and no one, not even Maravich, knew what scoring records he might shatter.
1973 "The Most Beautiful Girl" by Charlie Rich topped the charts. Following the success of "Behind Closed Doors," RCA re-released "Tomorrow Night," which reached the Top 30, but it was "The Most Beautiful Girl," the proper follow-up to his first number one single, that established him as a star. "The Most Beautiful Girl" spent three weeks at the top of the country charts and two weeks at the top of the pop charts.
1974 Phil Esposito, Boston, became 6th NHLer to score 500 goals. Esposito was also the league's top scorer in 1970/71, with an incredible 152 points on 76 goals and 76 assists; in 1971/72, with 133 points on 66 goals and 67 assists; in 1972/73, with 130 points on 55 goals and 75 assists; and in 1973/74, with 145 points on 68 goals and 77 assists. In 1,282 regular season games, he scored 1,590 points on 717 goals and 873 assists. He had 137 points, on 61 goals and 76 assists, in 130 playoff games.
1976 "Your Arm's Too Short to Box with God" opens at Lyceum NYC for 429 performances. Conceived and directed by Vinnette Carroll, this is gospel musical about the passion of Jesus Christ. Having premiered on Broadway in 1976, the play is based on the gospel of St. Matthew and is presented through song, sermon and dance.
1980 Cardinals release outfielder Bobby Bonds. Bonds played sparingly in 1980 and 1981 without much success. He retired in 1981 with 332 career homers, 461 steals, and 1,757 whiffs. His 189 strikeouts in 1970 and 187 K's in 1969 were the top two single-season totals in baseball history when he retired. At the time he left the game, only Willie Stargell and Reggie Jackson had struck out more.
1981 London was the scene of a rock ’n’ roll auction where buyers paid $2,000 for a letter of introduction from Buddy Holly to Decca Records.
1983 On the first day of winter 75 cities reported record low temperatures for the date, with twelve of those cities reporting record low temperatures for the month as a whole. The mercury plunged to 51 degrees below zero at Wisdom MT, and Waco TX set an all-time record low a reading of 12 above zero. (The National Weather Summary)
1984 Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four would-be African-American muggers on an express train in Manhattan, New York City.
1987 The first day of winter was a relatively tranquil one for much of the nation, but heralded a winter storm in the Central Rockies. The storm produced 40 inches of snow at the top of the Pomerelle Ski Resort, south of Burley ID, the heaviest snow of record for that location. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1987 U.S. scientists say a single gene may decide the sex of a baby.
1988 Strong winds prevailed in the foothills of Wyoming and Colorado. Winds gusted to 123 mph southwest of Fort Collins CO, and reached 141 mph at the summit of Mount Evans. An ice storm paralyzed parts of Upper Michigan during the day. The freezing rain left roads around Marquette MI blocked by cars and semi- trucks. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
1989 A total of 137 cities across the central and eastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date. Thirty-five of those cities established record lows for the month of December. Morning lows of 23 degrees below zero at Kansas City MO, 26 degrees below zero at Concordia KS, and 27 degrees below zero at Goodland KS established all-time records for those three locations. Unofficial morning lows included 50 degrees below zero at Recluse WY and 60 degrees below zero at Rochford SD. Broadus MT and Hardin MT tied for honors as the official cold spot in the nation with morning lows of 47 degrees below zero. Chinook winds at Cutbank MT helped warm the temperature 74 degrees, from a morning low of 34 degrees below zero to an afternoon high of 40 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1990 Lech Walesa sworn in as Poland's first popularly elected president of Poland since World War II. In September 1980, Mr. Walesa was chosen to be first national chairman of the Solidarity party. This party was outlawed a year later, but Mr. Walesa continued his leadership of the movement until its relegalization in 1989.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Walesa
1992 The Archives of Terror are discovered.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archives_of_Terror
1996 Steelers' Kordell Stewart runs quarterback record 80 yds for TD.
1997 Merck baldness pill for men approved by FDA
1999 Two astronauts repair the crippled Hubble Space Telescope. The most crucial task for the astronauts is replacing Hubble's six gyroscopes, four of which have failed due to corroded wires, shutting down the NASA observatory since November 13. Besides replacing the gyroscopes, used to aim the telescope and keep it steady, the crew will install a new data recorder, radio transmitter, fine guidance sensor and battery-voltage regulators.
2001 Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
2008 An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion gallons (4.2 million m³) of coal fly ash slurry.
Births
1696 James Edward Oglethorpe (d 1785) British general, member of parliament, philanthropist, and founder of the colony of Georgia in the United States where he arranged to have slavery banned. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain's poor, especially those in debtors' prisons, in the New World. The banning of slavery also reduced the work force, and this was felt to be a constraint on Georgia's early economic growth. Many settlers thus began to oppose Oglethorpe, regarding him as a misguided and "perpetual dictator". Many new settlers soon set their eyes on South Carolina as a less restrictive and, they hoped, a more profitable place to settle. In 1750, after Oglethorpe had left the colony, the ban on slavery was lifted, and large numbers of slaves were soon imported.
1727 William Ellery (d 1820) signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Rhode Island. In 1764, Ellery joined Stephen Hopkins, Samuel Ward, the Reverend James Manning and several others as an original fellow or trustee for the chartering of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the original name for Brown University).
1770 Demetrius Gallitzin Netherlands. He became a priest. Arriving in America in 1792, he spent his remaining years as a frontier missionary, building up the Catholic church in parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. He became known as the "Apostle to the Alleghenies." (d 1840)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_Augustine_Gallitzin
1789 Ann Hasseltine Bradford, Massachusetts. Converted at 15, she married Adonirum Judson in 1812, and they shortly afterward sailed for India. Knowing they would work with Baptists, they spent the time during their voyage studying baptism from the Bible, and upon arriving in India withdrew from their supporting mission board and were baptized by immersion. In India they found no welcome and sailed to Burma. While her husband diligently studied the national languages, he was arrested in the war between the British and the Indians, and the latter, not recognizing any difference between the English and Americans, the government of India imprisoned him for 17 months amid terrible conditions. Ann visited him daily, bringing him food and consolation. Their children all died in infancy; her health was broken, and when finally released from prison, Judson found her in a semi-coma. In July 1926, she saw her husband for the last time as he left to face trial. (d 1826)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Hasseltine_Judson
1803 Joseph King Fenno Mansfield (d 1862) career United States Army officer, civil engineer, and a Union general in the American Civil War, mortally wounded at the Battle of Antietam.
1803 Deodatus Dutton, at Monson, Massachusetts, religious composer, (d. 16 December 1832, New York, New York).
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/d/u/dutton_d.htm
1832 Edward Hatch (d 1889) career American soldier who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war he became the first commander of the 9th Cavalry Regiment, a Buffalo soldier regiment with African-American troops commanded by white officers.
1839 Hezekiah Butterworth, hymnist, was born in Warren, Rhode Island (d. 1905).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezekiah_Butterworth
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/b/u/t/butterworth_h.htm
1856 Frank Billings Kellogg (d 1937) American lawyer, politician and statesman who served in the U.S. Senate and as the 45th Secretary of State. He co-authored the Kellogg-Briand Pact, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1929.
1860 Austin Norman Palmer (d 1927) innovated the field of penmanship with the development of the Palmer method of script.
1862 Cornelius McGillicuddy, Sr. (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball player, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds records for wins (3,731), losses (3,948), and games managed (7,755), with his victory total being almost 1,000 more than any other manager. He managed the Philadelphia Athletics for the club's first 50 seasons of play before retiring at age 87 following the 1950 season, and was at least part-owner from 1901 to 1954. He was the first manager to win the World Series three times, and is the only manager to win consecutive Series on separate occasions (1910–11, 1929–30); his five Series titles remain the third most by any manager, and his nine American League pennants rank second in league history. However, constant financial struggles forced repeated rebuilding of the roster, and Mack's teams also finished in last place 17 times. Mack was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.
1862 William Dallmann, at Neu Damerow, Pomerania, president of the English Synod of Missouri, vice-president of the Missouri Synod and editor of The Lutheran Witness, (d 2 Feb 1952).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=D&word=DALLMANN.CHARLESFREDERICKWILLIAM
1869 Edwin Arlington Robinson (d 1935) American poet who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.
1876 Gustav Waldemar Elmen (d 1957) Swedish-American electrical engineer and metallurgist who created Permalloy (1916) and related alloys with high magnetic permeability used in communications equipment. An alloy with this property can be easily magnetized and demagnetized, especially useful for applications in electrical equipment, telephones and other communications systems. He developed the nickel-iron Permalloy in 1916, for Western Electric Company (later Bell Telephone Laboratories). Later, in 1923, Elmen found that magnetic permeability could be dramatically enhanced if Permalloy was heat treated. Its magnetic permeability exceeded that of silicon steel. His discovery made possible deep-sea telegraph cables of large message- carrying capacity.«
1885 Deems Taylor American conductor and music critic (d. 1966)
1885 Abraham L. "Abe" Manley (d 1952) American sports executive and husband of the first woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Effa Manley. He co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro Leagues with his wife from 1935 to 1946.
1901 André Kostelanetz (d 1980) popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.
1903 Haldan Keffer Hartline (d 1983) American physiologist who shared (with George Wald and Ragnar Granit) the 1967 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his analysis of how the sensory cells of the retina of the eye evaluate the light stimulus. In his early career, he studied the metabolism of nerve cells and in time came to research individual cells in the retina of the eye. He used tiny electrodes to isolate individual fibres in the eyes of horseshoe crabs and frogs. He learned how impulse generation in the sensory cells transmits a code in response to illumination of different intensity and duration. He spent almost half a century advancing the understanding of the neurophysiology of vision.«
1905 Kenneth Rexroth (d 1982) American poet, translator and critical essayist. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic forms such as haiku. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance.
1911 Grote Reber (d 2002) U.S. amateur astronomer and radio engineer who self-financed and built the first radio telescope. He pioneered the new field of radio astronomy, and was the first to systematically study the sky by observing non-visible radiation. After reading about Jansky's discovery (1932) of natural radio emissions from space, Reber constructed a 9-meter dish antenna in his back yard and built three different detectors before finding 160 MHz signals (1939). In 1940 and 1944 he published articles titled Cosmic Static in the Astrophysical Journal. He was the first to express received radio signals in terms of flux density and brightness, first to find evidence that galactic radiation is non-thermal, and first to produce radio maps of the sky (1941).
1912 Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (d 2007) First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that her major initiative as First Lady. After leaving the White House in 1969 and her husband's death in 1973, Lady Bird became an entrepreneur, creating the $150 million LBJ Holdings Company, and was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honors.
1917 Lewis Hastings Sarett (d 1999) American organic chemist who prepared a synthetic version of the hormone cortisone (1944) using a complicated 36-step process. He was a research scientist (1942-48) at Merck & Co., Inc. Four years later the Mayo Clinic demonstrated the efficacy of the product against rheumatoid arthritis. Cortisone also has wide-ranging applications in the treatment of allergies as well as inflammatory and neoplastic diseases. In 1949, Sarett and several collaborators initiated an alternative synthesis commencing with raw materials derivable from coal, air, lime, and water. This led to the first route independent of naturally occurring starting materials. Sarett was the 1975 recipient of the National Medal of Science.
1919 E. Theodore Delaney in Santa Maria, California (d. 20 January 1987). He served as a missionary at large in Barstow, California, and as a missionary with the deaf in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, California. In 1967 he became the executive secretary for the LCMS Commission on Worship and was a representative to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship that developed the Lutheran Book of Worship. He later was pastor in Red Bluff and Corning, California. Delaney also compiled Sing Unto the Lord: A Hymnal for the Deaf.
1921 Harold Franklin Hawkins (d 1963), better known as Hawkshaw Hawkins, American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 60s known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honky tonk. At 6 ft 5 inches tall, he had an imposing stage presence, and his tasteful Western suits set him apart from the rhinestone gaudiness of other male country singers. Hawkins died in the 1963 plane crash that also killed country stars Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and was married to country star Jean Shepard.
1922 ]James Claude Wright, Jr. usually known as Jim Wright, is a former Democratic U.S. Congressman from Texas who served 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the Speaker of the House from 1987 to 1989. Forced to resign.
1922 Jack Bascom Brooks retired Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Texas, who served for more than 40 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was defeated for reelection in the 1994 election. He is the most senior Representative ever to have lost a general election.
1925 Lewis L. Glucksman (d 2006) former Lehman Brothers trader and former chief executive officer and chairman of Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc.
1935 John "Jack" Lawrence Finley (d 2006) United States Navy aviator and was selected as an astronaut.
1936 Hector Elizondo, American actor
1938 Matty Alou, Dominican baseball player
1943 Paul Wolfowitz, American politician
1944 Steve Carlton, American baseball player
1945 Diane Sawyer, American journalist
1948 Steve Garvey, American baseball player
Deaths
1668 Stephen Day (b c 1594) English locksmith who established the first printing press in England's North American colonies. In 1638, Rev. Jose Glover pursuaded Day to sail with him from England to British North America with a printing press to produce religious texts. Day's son Matthew was a printer's apprentice. Although Glover died en-route, the press was set up at Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass. The Days printed a broadside and an almanac in their first year. In 1639, it is believed that Stephen Day produced his first work, The Freeman's Oath. The next year, the first book to be printed in North America was 1,700 copies of the Bay Psalm Book. In 1649, Matthew died, and officials of Harvard College appointed Samuel Green to operate the Cambridge Press
1757 Olaf Parlin, Swedish American Lutheran pastor (b 1716).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=P&word=PARLIN.OLAUS
1806 William Vernon (d 1719), of Newport, Rhode Island, New England trader who played a leading role in the Continental Congress' maritime activities during the American Revolution. As president of the Eastern Navy Board during the Revolution, he was responsible for building and outfitting the ships of the Continental Navy.
1828 Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson, born Rachel Donelson, (b 1767) wife of the 7th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson.
1863 Michael Corcoran (b 1827) Irish American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a close confidant of President Abraham Lincoln. As its colonel, he led the 69th New York regiment to Washington, D.C. and was one of the first to serve in the defense of Washington by building Fort Corcoran. He then led the 69th into action at the First Battle of Bull Run. After promotion to brigadier general, he left the 69th and formed the Corcoran Legion, consisting of at least five other New York regiments.
1887 Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden (b 1829) American geologist and explorer of the U.S. West. After finishing a medical school training (1853), his early career began in paleontology for James Hall, collecting fossils in the Badlands and the Upper Missouri Valley. It is believed he made the first North American discovery of dinosaur remains (1854) during this expedition. During the Civil War, he served as a surgeon in the Civil War, after which he resumed his western explorations. His work in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains helped lay the foundation of the U.S. Geological Survey. Hayden is credited with having the Yellowstone geyser area declared the first national park (1872). He hosted the Western botanical journey of Gray and Hooker in 1877.«
1899 Dwight Lyman Moody (b 1837), also known as D.L. Moody, American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts (now Northfield Mount Hermon School), the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_L._Moody
1908 Philip Andreas von Rohr, president of Wisconsin Synod, (b 13 Feb 1843, Buffalo, New York).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=R&word=ROHR.PHILIPANDREASVON
1913 Heinrich Wunder, pastor of Saint Paul Lutheran Church (Chicago, Illinois) for sixty years and the first president of the Illinois District, (b 12 Mar 1830).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=W&word=WUNDER.HEINRICH
1913 John T. McFarland, hymnist, (b 2 Jan 1851).
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/m/c/mcfarland_jt.htm
1917 Saint Francesa Saverio Cabrini (b 1850, Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardy), also called Mother Cabrini, first American citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_S._Cabrini
1939 Ma Rainey (b 1886) one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues.
1940 Nathanael West (born Nathan von Wallenstein Weinstein)(b 1903) was a US author, screenwriter and satirist. Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) A Cool Million (1934) The Day of the Locust (1939)
1942 Franz Boas (b 1858) German-born American anthropologist who is best known for his work with the Kwakiutl Indians from Northern Vancouver, B.C., Canada. While studying the Kwakiutl, he established a culture-centred school of thought in anthropology that came to the forefront in the 20th century. He maintained that cultural traits - behaviors, beliefs, and symbols - were to be examined in their local context with historical, social and geographic conditions. The approach he established was continued by his students, which included Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, linguist Edward Sapir and Alfred L. Kroeber, who in turn influenced Claude Lévi-Strauss
1959 Gilda Gray (b 1901) (Marianna Michalska) Polish born American actress and dancer who became famous in the US for popularizing a dance called the "shimmy" which became fashionable in 1920s films and theater productions.
1974 Thomas Sterling North (b 1906) American author of books for children and adults, including 1963's bestselling Rascal. North, who professionally went by "Sterling North", was born on the second floor of a farmhouse on the shores of Lake Koshkonong, a few miles from Edgerton, Wisconsin, in 1906, and died in Morristown, New Jersey in 1974. Surviving a near-paralyzing struggle with polio in his teens, he grew to young adulthood in the quiet southern Wisconsin village of Edgerton, which North transformed into the "Brailsford Junction" setting of several of his books.
1979 Darryl Francis Zanuck (b 1902) American producer, writer, actor, director, and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors (the length of his career being rivalled only by that of Adolph Zukor).
1995 Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen (b 1911) American actress. Originally a dancer, the 28-year—old McQueen appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.
1999 Lewis W. Spitz Jr., a world-renowned expert on Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, (b 1922, Bertrand, Nebraska).
2003 Dave Dudley (b 1928) American country music singer,who was best-known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s, and his semi-slurred baritone. His signature song was "Six Days on the Road," and he is also remembered for "Vietnam Blues," "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun," and "Me and ol' C.B.". Other recordings included Dudley's duet with Tom T. Hall, "Day Drinking," and his own Top 10 hit, "Fireball Rolled A Seven," supposedly based on the career and death of Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts.
2003 John Holter (b 1916) American inventor of a pioneering valve used in the treatment of hydrocephalus ("water on the brain"). Shortly after birth (1955), his son suffered from hydrocephalus. Holter learned from surgeons Eugene Spitz and Frank Nulsen that a suitable valve to drain fluid from the brain could maintain normal cranial pressure. To save his son, Holter invented a pressure-sealing valve made from silicone to avoid clogging problems. He subsequently refined and patented the device. Spitz and Holter set up a company to manufacture the shunts using Silastic silicone. The Spitz-Holter valve has helped millions around the world since the late 1950s. Holter later created other medical devices, including dialysis pumps, artificial heart valves and finger tendons.
Christian Feast Day:
Anastasia of Sirmium (Orthodox church)
Frances Xavier Cabrini
O Rex
December 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Feasts
Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ
Saints
Great Martyr Anastasia the Roman (Anastasia of Sirmium), Deliverer from Bonds, and her teacher Martyr Chrysogonus, and with them the Martyrs Theodota, Evodius, Eutychianus, and others, who suffered under Diocletian (304)
Hieromartyr Zoilus, Priest, under Diocletian (304)
Pre-Schism Western Saints
Martyrs Demetrius, Honoratus and Florus, in Ostia in Italy.
Thirty Holy Martyrs of Rome (ca.303)
Saint Flavian, an ex-prefect of Rome (362)
Saint Hunger of Utrecht (Hungerus Frisus), Bishop of Utrecht in Holland from 856; during the Norman invasion he fled to Prüm in Germany where he died (866)
Saint Amaswinthus of Málaga, monk and Abbot for forty-two years at a monastery in Silva de Málaga in Spain (982)
Post-Schism Orthodox Saints
New Martyrs and Confessors
New Hieromartyrs Demetrius and Theodore, Priests (1938)
Other Commemorations
Commemoration of the Thyranoixia (consecration) of the "Great Church of Christ", the Hagia Sophia.
Repose of Monk Dositheus, hermit of the Roslavl Forests and Optina Monastery (1828)
Icon of the Mother of God, Igumenia of Manjava Skete
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.christianhistorytimeline.com/lives_events/birthday/index.php
www.amug.org/~jpaul/dec22.html
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-gorilla-born-in-captivity
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_22
www.todayinsci.com/12/12_22.htm
www.almanac.com/weather/history/today
www.lcms.org/
www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm#lk
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1222.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_22_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)
There are 9 days remaining until the end of the year.
Days left until midterm elections on November 4, 2014 681
Countdown until Obama should have been leaving Office:
www.obamaclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock: www.usdebtclock.org/
1216 Pope Honorius III officially approved the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), founded in 1216 by St. Dominic. During the Middle Ages, many leaders of European thought were Dominicans; and a good number followed Portuguese and Spanish explorers to the Americas as missionaries.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Order
1548 The Leipzig Interim was adopted at the Diet of Leipzig. The interim, written by Maurice of Saxony, compromised several of the Lutheran beliefs and positions, including those dealing with the doctrine of justification.
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=l&word=LEIPZIGINTERIM
1807 Congress passes Embargo Act, to force peace between Britain & France. This law was passed by Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807. It stopped all trade between America and any other country. The goal was to get Britain and France, who were fighting each other at the time, to stop restricting American trade. The plan didn't work and the act ended in 1809.
1837 Mercer University was chartered in Penfield, Georgia under Baptist support. In 1871 the college moved its campus to Macon, Georgia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_University
1839 The second of triple December storms hit the northeastern U.S. The storm produced 25 inches of snow at Gettysburg, PA, and gales in New England, but only produced light snow along the coast. (David Ludlum)
1877 "American Bicycling Journal" first published (Boston, MA)
1882 First string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison's associate, Edward H. Johnson. He decorated a Christmas tree at his home. Previously, trees were decorated with wax candles from the early days of the Christmas tree tradition. The first commercially produced Christmas tree lamps were manufactured in strings of nine sockets by the Edison General Electric Co. of Harrison, N.J. and advertised in the Dec 1901 issue of the Ladies' Home Journal. Each socket took a miniature 2 candlepower carbon-filament lamp operating on 32 volts.
1894 United States Golf Association is formed (New York, NY) The Amateur Golf Association of the United States - soon to be called the United States Golf Association is formed on Dec. 22. Charter members are Newport Golf Club, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, The Country Club (Brookline, Mass.), St. Andrew's Golf Club (Yonkers, N.Y.), and Chicago Golf Club.
1910 The Chicago Union Stock Yards Fire started on December 22, 1910, destroying $400,000 of property and killing twenty-one firemen, including the Fire Marshal James J. Horan. Fifty engine companies and seven hook and ladder companies fought the fire until it was declared extinguished by Chief Seyferlich on December 23. In 2004, a memorial to all Chicago firefighters who have died in the line of duty was erected at the location of the 1910 Stock Yards fire. A larger fire occurred in 1934, which burned almost 90% of the stockyards, including the exchange building, stockyard inn, and the International Livestock Exposition building. This larger fire was seen as far away as Indiana, and caused approximately $6 million worth of damages. While only one watchman was killed, a few cattle also perished, but the yards were in business the following Sunday evening.
1915 Federal Baseball League is dissolved. After the 1915 season the owners of the American and National Leagues bought out half of the owners (Pittsburgh, Newark, Buffalo, and Brooklyn) of the Federal League teams. Two Federal League owners were allowed to buy struggling franchises in the established leagues: Phil Ball, owner of the St. Louis Terriers, was allowed to buy the St. Louis Browns of the AL, and Charlie Weeghman, owner of the Chicago Whales, bought the Chicago Cubs. Both owners merged their teams into the established ones.
1920 WEAF, in New York City, aired the first broadcast of a prize fight from ringside. WEAF, in New York City, aired the first broadcast of a prize fight from ringside. The fight was broadcast from Madison Square Garden where Joe Lynch defeated Peter Herman to retain the bantamweight title. Bantamweights top the scales at 118 pounds.
1921 The first U.S. commercial radio license assigned to a religious broadcaster was awarded to the National Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C. Within five years, there were over 60 other licensed religious broadcasters, including KJS_Biola (L.A.), KFUO_Concordia Seminary (St. Louis), and WMBI_Moody Bible Institute (Chicago).
nationalpres.org/david_renwick.php
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Presbyterian_Church
1924 Thomas A. Edison was issued a U.S. design patent for a "Design for a Phonograph Cabinet." (Design patent No. 69068). In addition to a front and side elevation, the patent showed an enlarged portion of the front elevation showing more clearly the details of one of the panels or grilles. The design patent covers the ornamental design for a phonograph cabinet as shown for a term of 14 years. A design patent protects only the appearance of the article and not structural or utilitarian features.
1929: A storm in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana brought 26 inches of snow to Hillsboro, Texas
1934 Miss Theo Trowbridge sets female bowling record 702 pins
1940 World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1941 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington, D.C. for a series of meetings with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on a unified Anglo-American war strategy and a future peace.
Now that the United States was directly involved in both the Pacific and European wars, it was incumbent upon both Great Britain and America to create and project a unified front. Toward that end, Churchill and Roosevelt created a combined general staff to coordinate military strategy against both Germany and Japan and to draft a future joint invasion of the Continent. Roosevelt also agreed to a radical increase in the U.S. arms production program: the 12,750 operational aircraft to be ready for service by the end of 1943 became 45,000; the proposed 15,450 tanks also became 45,000; and the number of machine guns to be manufactured almost doubled, to 500,000.
Among the momentous results of these U.S.-Anglo meetings was a declaration issued by Churchill and Roosevelt that enjoined 26 signatory nations to use all resources at their disposal to defeat the Axis powers and not sue for a separate peace. This confederation called itself the "United Nations." Lead by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, all 26 nations declared a unified goal to "ensure life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve the rights of man and justice." The blueprint for the destruction of fascism and a future international peacekeeping organization was born.
1942 World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
1943 Manufacturers get permission to use synthetic rubber for baseball core.
1944 World War II: Battle of the Bulge --German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"
1944 World War II: The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
1953 Jack Dunn III, owner of Baltimore Orioles in International League, turns name over to newly relocated St Louis Browns
1956 Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity.
1958 The Chipmunks were at the #1 position on the music charts. The Chipmunks (a.k.a. David Seville and the Chipmunks) were a novelty act created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. The Chipmunks made a splash on the charts in the late 1950s with "Witch Doctor" (1958), "The Chipmunk Song" (1958) and "Alvin's Harmonica" (1959), and the Alvin cartoon show premiered on TV in 1961.
1959 New York Ranger goalie Marcel Paille wears a customized mask
1959 Continental League awards its last franchise to Dallas-Fort Worth. The Continental League was a proposed 8-team baseball league which never got off the ground but still had significant impact on baseball. It is generally accepted that Major League Baseball's expansion in 1961-1962 was in direct response to pressure from the Continental League.
1961 Holiday travel was paralyzed over extreme northeastern Kansas, and adjacent parts of Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. The storm produced 5 to 15 inches of snow, with drifts up to ten feet high. (22nd-23rd) (The Weather Channel)
1962 1,000,000th NBA point scored in either Detroit-Chicago, New York-Boston, or Syracuse-San Francisco game.
1962 Harris County voters approve all-weather stadium for Houston Colt .45s. The Astrodome was masterminded by a colorful Houstonian named Judge Roy Hofheinz, who in the early 1960s paid $5 million for 495 acres of swampland 6 miles south of downtown Houston, spent $1.2 million to drain it, and then sold 180 acres to Harris County for $5 million, retaining the remaining 315 acres to develop into the privately-owned complex that today contains a hotel, a convention hall complex, and the Astroworld Amusement park.
1968 Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower, both progeny of United States presidents, tie the knot in New York City.
Julie Nixon was the daughter of Richard M. Nixon, who was running for president at the time of the wedding. Her groom was the grandson of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as America's 34th president from 1953 to 1961. Julie and David met at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, California, in 1956 while his grandfather was campaigning for re-election. They were both eight at the time. At the convention, Julie's father was nominated as Eisenhower's running mate. The two were frequently thrown together during Eisenhower's second term and shared the unusual experience of growing up under the spotlight of national politics. They started dating in 1967, when they were both 19.
Author Tabitha Warters, who studied presidential offspring, noted that Julie and David offered Americans the ideal image of a "wholesome, all-American couple" at a time when the nation was undergoing a counter-cultural revolution and traditional family and relationship roles were being challenged. Warters quoted Nixon as describing his daughter and her fiance as "front-line troops in the battle to reestablish...traditional virtues," particularly during his 1968 presidential campaign.
Both Julie and David wrote books about their famous and influential relatives. They are still married, have three children and live in Pennsylvania.
1976 "Your Arm's Too Short to Box with God" opens at Lyceum NYC for 429 performances. Conceived and directed by Vinnette Carroll, this is gospel musical about the passion of Jesus Christ. Having premiered on Broadway in 1976, the play is based on the gospel of St. Matthew and is presented through song, sermon and dance.
1981 London was the scene of a rock ’n’ roll auction where buyers paid $2,000 for a letter of introduction from Buddy Holly to Decca Records.
1983 On the first day of winter 75 cities reported record low temperatures for the date, with twelve of those cities reporting record low temperatures for the month as a whole. The mercury plunged to 51 degrees below zero at Wisdom MT, and Waco TX set an all-time record low a reading of 12 above zero. (The National Weather Summary)
1984 Bernhard Hugo Goetz shoots four would-be African-American muggers on an express train in Manhattan, New York City.
1987 The first day of winter was a relatively tranquil one for much of the nation, but heralded a winter storm in the Central Rockies. The storm produced 40 inches of snow at the top of the Pomerelle Ski Resort, south of Burley ID, the heaviest snow of record for that location. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1987 U.S. scientists say a single gene may decide the sex of a baby.
1988 Strong winds prevailed in the foothills of Wyoming and Colorado. Winds gusted to 123 mph southwest of Fort Collins CO, and reached 141 mph at the summit of Mount Evans. An ice storm paralyzed parts of Upper Michigan during the day. The freezing rain left roads around Marquette MI blocked by cars and semi- trucks. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
1989 Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
1989 A total of 137 cities across the central and eastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date. Thirty-five of those cities established record lows for the month of December. Morning lows of 23 degrees below zero at Kansas City MO, 26 degrees below zero at Concordia KS, and 27 degrees below zero at Goodland KS established all-time records for those three locations. Unofficial morning lows included 50 degrees below zero at Recluse WY and 60 degrees below zero at Rochford SD. Broadus MT and Hardin MT tied for honors as the official cold spot in the nation with morning lows of 47 degrees below zero. Chinook winds at Cutbank MT helped warm the temperature 74 degrees, from a morning low of 34 degrees below zero to an afternoon high of 40 degrees. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Walesa
1992 The Archives of Terror are discovered.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archives_of_Terror
1996 Steelers' Kordell Stewart runs quarterback record 80 yds for TD.
1997 Merck baldness pill for men approved by FDA
2001 Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
2008 An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion gallons (4.2 million m³) of coal fly ash slurry.
Births
1696 James Edward Oglethorpe (d 1785) British general, member of parliament, philanthropist, and founder of the colony of Georgia in the United States where he arranged to have slavery banned. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain's poor, especially those in debtors' prisons, in the New World. The banning of slavery also reduced the work force, and this was felt to be a constraint on Georgia's early economic growth. Many settlers thus began to oppose Oglethorpe, regarding him as a misguided and "perpetual dictator". Many new settlers soon set their eyes on South Carolina as a less restrictive and, they hoped, a more profitable place to settle. In 1750, after Oglethorpe had left the colony, the ban on slavery was lifted, and large numbers of slaves were soon imported.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_Augustine_Gallitzin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Hasseltine_Judson
1803 Deodatus Dutton, at Monson, Massachusetts, religious composer, (d. 16 December 1832, New York, New York).
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/d/u/dutton_d.htm
1832 Edward Hatch (d 1889) career American soldier who served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war he became the first commander of the 9th Cavalry Regiment, a Buffalo soldier regiment with African-American troops commanded by white officers.
1839 Hezekiah Butterworth, hymnist, was born in Warren, Rhode Island (d. 1905).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezekiah_Butterworth
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/b/u/t/butterworth_h.htm
1860 Austin Norman Palmer (d 1927) innovated the field of penmanship with the development of the Palmer method of script.
1862 William Dallmann, at Neu Damerow, Pomerania, president of the English Synod of Missouri, vice-president of the Missouri Synod and editor of The Lutheran Witness, (d 2 Feb 1952).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=D&word=DALLMANN.CHARLESFREDERICKWILLIAM
1869 Edwin Arlington Robinson (d 1935) American poet who won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.
1876 Gustav Waldemar Elmen (d 1957) Swedish-American electrical engineer and metallurgist who created Permalloy (1916) and related alloys with high magnetic permeability used in communications equipment. An alloy with this property can be easily magnetized and demagnetized, especially useful for applications in electrical equipment, telephones and other communications systems. He developed the nickel-iron Permalloy in 1916, for Western Electric Company (later Bell Telephone Laboratories). Later, in 1923, Elmen found that magnetic permeability could be dramatically enhanced if Permalloy was heat treated. Its magnetic permeability exceeded that of silicon steel. His discovery made possible deep-sea telegraph cables of large message- carrying capacity.«
1885 Deems Taylor American conductor and music critic (d. 1966)
1885 Abraham L. "Abe" Manley (d 1952) American sports executive and husband of the first woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Effa Manley. He co-owned the Newark Eagles baseball franchise in the Negro Leagues with his wife from 1935 to 1946.
1901 André Kostelanetz (d 1980) popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.
1912 Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (d 2007) First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that her major initiative as First Lady. After leaving the White House in 1969 and her husband's death in 1973, Lady Bird became an entrepreneur, creating the $150 million LBJ Holdings Company, and was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honors.
1917 Lewis Hastings Sarett (d 1999) American organic chemist who prepared a synthetic version of the hormone cortisone (1944) using a complicated 36-step process. He was a research scientist (1942-48) at Merck & Co., Inc. Four years later the Mayo Clinic demonstrated the efficacy of the product against rheumatoid arthritis. Cortisone also has wide-ranging applications in the treatment of allergies as well as inflammatory and neoplastic diseases. In 1949, Sarett and several collaborators initiated an alternative synthesis commencing with raw materials derivable from coal, air, lime, and water. This led to the first route independent of naturally occurring starting materials. Sarett was the 1975 recipient of the National Medal of Science.
1919 E. Theodore Delaney in Santa Maria, California (d. 20 January 1987). He served as a missionary at large in Barstow, California, and as a missionary with the deaf in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, California. In 1967 he became the executive secretary for the LCMS Commission on Worship and was a representative to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship that developed the Lutheran Book of Worship. He later was pastor in Red Bluff and Corning, California. Delaney also compiled Sing Unto the Lord: A Hymnal for the Deaf.
1922 ]James Claude Wright, Jr. usually known as Jim Wright, is a former Democratic U.S. Congressman from Texas who served 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the Speaker of the House from 1987 to 1989. Forced to resign.
1922 Jack Bascom Brooks retired Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Texas, who served for more than 40 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was defeated for reelection in the 1994 election. He is the most senior Representative ever to have lost a general election.
1925 Lewis L. Glucksman (d 2006) former Lehman Brothers trader and former chief executive officer and chairman of Lehman Brothers, Kuhn, Loeb Inc.
1936 Hector Elizondo, American actor
1938 Matty Alou, Dominican baseball player
1943 Paul Wolfowitz, American politician
1944 Steve Carlton, American baseball player
1945 Diane Sawyer, American journalist
1948 Steve Garvey, American baseball player
Deaths
1757 Olaf Parlin, Swedish American Lutheran pastor (b 1716).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=P&word=PARLIN.OLAUS
1806 William Vernon (d 1719), of Newport, Rhode Island, New England trader who played a leading role in the Continental Congress' maritime activities during the American Revolution. As president of the Eastern Navy Board during the Revolution, he was responsible for building and outfitting the ships of the Continental Navy.
1863 Michael Corcoran (b 1827) Irish American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a close confidant of President Abraham Lincoln. As its colonel, he led the 69th New York regiment to Washington, D.C. and was one of the first to serve in the defense of Washington by building Fort Corcoran. He then led the 69th into action at the First Battle of Bull Run. After promotion to brigadier general, he left the 69th and formed the Corcoran Legion, consisting of at least five other New York regiments.
1887 Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden (b 1829) American geologist and explorer of the U.S. West. After finishing a medical school training (1853), his early career began in paleontology for James Hall, collecting fossils in the Badlands and the Upper Missouri Valley. It is believed he made the first North American discovery of dinosaur remains (1854) during this expedition. During the Civil War, he served as a surgeon in the Civil War, after which he resumed his western explorations. His work in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains helped lay the foundation of the U.S. Geological Survey. Hayden is credited with having the Yellowstone geyser area declared the first national park (1872). He hosted the Western botanical journey of Gray and Hooker in 1877.«
1899 Dwight Lyman Moody (b 1837), also known as D.L. Moody, American evangelist and publisher who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts (now Northfield Mount Hermon School), the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_L._Moody
1908 Philip Andreas von Rohr, president of Wisconsin Synod, (b 13 Feb 1843, Buffalo, New York).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=R&word=ROHR.PHILIPANDREASVON
1913 Heinrich Wunder, pastor of Saint Paul Lutheran Church (Chicago, Illinois) for sixty years and the first president of the Illinois District, (b 12 Mar 1830).
cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=W&word=WUNDER.HEINRICH
1913 John T. McFarland, hymnist, (b 2 Jan 1851).
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/m/c/mcfarland_jt.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_S._Cabrini
1939 Ma Rainey (b 1886) one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues.
1940 Nathanael West (born Nathan von Wallenstein Weinstein)(b 1903) was a US author, screenwriter and satirist. Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) A Cool Million (1934) The Day of the Locust (1939)
1942 Franz Boas (b 1858) German-born American anthropologist who is best known for his work with the Kwakiutl Indians from Northern Vancouver, B.C., Canada. While studying the Kwakiutl, he established a culture-centred school of thought in anthropology that came to the forefront in the 20th century. He maintained that cultural traits - behaviors, beliefs, and symbols - were to be examined in their local context with historical, social and geographic conditions. The approach he established was continued by his students, which included Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, linguist Edward Sapir and Alfred L. Kroeber, who in turn influenced Claude Lévi-Strauss
1974 Thomas Sterling North (b 1906) American author of books for children and adults, including 1963's bestselling Rascal. North, who professionally went by "Sterling North", was born on the second floor of a farmhouse on the shores of Lake Koshkonong, a few miles from Edgerton, Wisconsin, in 1906, and died in Morristown, New Jersey in 1974. Surviving a near-paralyzing struggle with polio in his teens, he grew to young adulthood in the quiet southern Wisconsin village of Edgerton, which North transformed into the "Brailsford Junction" setting of several of his books.
1979 Darryl Francis Zanuck (b 1902) American producer, writer, actor, director, and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors (the length of his career being rivalled only by that of Adolph Zukor).
1995 Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen (b 1911) American actress. Originally a dancer, the 28-year—old McQueen appeared as Prissy, Scarlett O'Hara's maid in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.
1999 Lewis W. Spitz Jr., a world-renowned expert on Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, (b 1922, Bertrand, Nebraska).
2003 Dave Dudley (b 1928) American country music singer,who was best-known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s, and his semi-slurred baritone. His signature song was "Six Days on the Road," and he is also remembered for "Vietnam Blues," "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun," and "Me and ol' C.B.". Other recordings included Dudley's duet with Tom T. Hall, "Day Drinking," and his own Top 10 hit, "Fireball Rolled A Seven," supposedly based on the career and death of Edward Glenn "Fireball" Roberts.
2003 John Holter (b 1916) American inventor of a pioneering valve used in the treatment of hydrocephalus ("water on the brain"). Shortly after birth (1955), his son suffered from hydrocephalus. Holter learned from surgeons Eugene Spitz and Frank Nulsen that a suitable valve to drain fluid from the brain could maintain normal cranial pressure. To save his son, Holter invented a pressure-sealing valve made from silicone to avoid clogging problems. He subsequently refined and patented the device. Spitz and Holter set up a company to manufacture the shunts using Silastic silicone. The Spitz-Holter valve has helped millions around the world since the late 1950s. Holter later created other medical devices, including dialysis pumps, artificial heart valves and finger tendons.
Christian Feast Day:
Anastasia of Sirmium (Orthodox church)
Frances Xavier Cabrini
O Rex
December 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Feasts
Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ
Saints
Great Martyr Anastasia the Roman (Anastasia of Sirmium), Deliverer from Bonds, and her teacher Martyr Chrysogonus, and with them the Martyrs Theodota, Evodius, Eutychianus, and others, who suffered under Diocletian (304)
Hieromartyr Zoilus, Priest, under Diocletian (304)
Pre-Schism Western Saints
Martyrs Demetrius, Honoratus and Florus, in Ostia in Italy.
Thirty Holy Martyrs of Rome (ca.303)
Saint Flavian, an ex-prefect of Rome (362)
Saint Hunger of Utrecht (Hungerus Frisus), Bishop of Utrecht in Holland from 856; during the Norman invasion he fled to Prüm in Germany where he died (866)
Saint Amaswinthus of Málaga, monk and Abbot for forty-two years at a monastery in Silva de Málaga in Spain (982)
Post-Schism Orthodox Saints
New Martyrs and Confessors
New Hieromartyrs Demetrius and Theodore, Priests (1938)
Other Commemorations
Commemoration of the Thyranoixia (consecration) of the "Great Church of Christ", the Hagia Sophia.
Repose of Monk Dositheus, hermit of the Roslavl Forests and Optina Monastery (1828)
Icon of the Mother of God, Igumenia of Manjava Skete
daysuntil.com/Election-Day/index.html
www.christianhistorytimeline.com/lives_events/birthday/index.php
www.amug.org/~jpaul/dec22.html
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-gorilla-born-in-captivity
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_22
www.todayinsci.com/12/12_22.htm
www.almanac.com/weather/history/today
www.lcms.org/
www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm#lk
www.lutheranhistory.org/history/tih1222.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_22_(Eastern_Orthodox_liturgics)