17th December

Tue, 20 December 2011

I was born on the 17th December.  What else made this day special?

Births:

  • 1944 – Bernard Hill, English actor
  • 1945 – Ernie Hudson, American actor
  • 1953 – Bill Pullman, American actor
  • 1972 – Laurie Holden, American actress
  • 1973 – Paula Radcliffe, English runner
  • 1974 – Giovanni Ribisi, American actor
  • 1975 – Milla Jovovich, Ukrainian-born actress
  • 1987 – Bradley Manning, American soldier, leaked information to WikiLeaks
Deaths:
  • 1830 – Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan military leader (b. 1783) (interestingly, he led a revolution on the same day 11 years before!)
  • 2009 – Dan O'Bannon, American screenwriter and actor (b. 1943)
  • 2010 – Captain Beefheart, American musician (b. 1941)
  • 2011 – Kim Jong-il, North Korean leader (b. 1941)
Events:
  • 1718 – Great Britain declares war on Spain.
  • 1777 – France formally recognizes the United States of America.
  • 1790 – Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone.
  • 1819 – Simón Bolívar declares the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).
  • 1837 – Fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg occurred.
  • 1865 – First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.
  • 1903 – The Wright Brothers make their first powered and heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
  • 1935 – First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.
  • 1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.
  • 1950 – The F-86 Sabre's first mission over Korea.
  • 1957 – The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
  • 1960 – 1960 Munich Convair 340 crash: 20 passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed.
  • 1969 – Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs, stating that sightings are generated as a result of "A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of various conventional objects."
  • 1973 – Terrorism: 30 passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport.
  • 1983 – The IRA bombs Harrods Department Store in London, killing six people.
  • 1989 – The first episode of television series The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", airs in the United States.
  • 2003 – The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
  • 2003 – SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first supersonic flight.
  • 2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire.This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution. The success of the Tunisian protests sparked protests in several other Arab countries.
I've always remembered the fact that the first powered flight was on my birthday (70 years before) but never thought to list other stuff.