Famous birthdays, deaths and events of December 23
Birthdays 245 - Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra 1582 - Severo Bonini, Italian composer (d. 1663) 1597 - Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (d. 1639) 1621 - Edmund Berry Godfrey, English magistrate (d. 1678) 1689 - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, French composer (d. 1755) 1743 - Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (d. 1803) 1758 - Nathan Wilson U.S. Representative from New York, 1777 - Tsar Alexander I of Russia, (d. 1825) 1790 - Jean François Champollion, French Egyptologist (d. 1832) 1804 - Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, French literary critic (d. 1869) 1805 - Joseph Smith, Jr. 1854 - Henry B. Guppy, British botanist (d. 1926) 1902 - Norman Maclean, American author (d. 1990) 1907 - Manuel Lopes, Cape Verdean writer and poet (d. 2005) 1908 - Yousuf Karsh, Turkish-born 1911 - Niels Kaj Jerne, English-born immunologist 1911 - James Gregory, American actor (d. 2002) 1916 - Dino Risi, Italian film director and screenwriter 1918 - Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of Germany 1918 - José Greco, Italian-born flamenco dancer (d. 2001) 1918 - Kumar Pallana, Indian-born American actor 1919 - Kenneth M. Taylor, American pilot (d. 2006) 1921 - Guy Beaulne, French Canadian actor and theatre director (d. 2001) 1922 - Micheline Ostermeyer, French athlete and musician (d. 2001) 1923 - Onofre Marimón, Argentine racing driver (d. 1954) 1926 - Robert Bly, American poet 1928 - Chronis Aidonidis, Greek singer 1929 - Chet Baker, American jazz trumpet player (d. 1988) 1929 - Dick Weber, American professional tenpin bowler (d. 2005) 1931 - Ronnie Schell, American actor 1935 - Paul Hornung, American football player 1935 - Esther Phillips, American singer (d. 1984) 1936 - Frederic Forrest, American actor 1937 - Edward Irving Wortis, American author 1937 - Barney Rosenzweig, American television producer 1940 - Jorma Kaukonen, American musician (Jefferson Airplane 1940 - Eugene Record, American singer (The Chi-Lites) (d. 2005) 1941 - Ron Bushy, American musician 1941 - Tim Hardin, American musician (d. 1980) 1941 - Serge Reding, Belgian weightlifter (d. 1975) 1943 - Harry Shearer, American actor 1943 - Ron Allen, American baseball player 1943 - Elizabeth Hartman, American actress (d. 1987) 1943 - Silvia Sommerlath, Queen of Sweden 1945 - Ron Bushy, American drummer (Iron Butterfly) 1946 - Edita Gruberova, Slovak operatic soprano 1946 - Susan Lucci , American actress 1948 - Jack Ham, American football player 1949 - Adrian Belew, American musician 1951 - Anthony Phillips, British musician (Genesis) 1953 - Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, 1956 - Michele Alboreto, Italian Formula one driver (d. 2001) 1957 - Dan Bigras, Canadian singer 1957 - Trisha Goddard , English television presenter 1958 - Victoria Williams, American singer 1958 - Joan Severance , American actress 1958 - Dave Murray, English musician (Iron Maiden) 1961 - Carol Smillie , British television personality 1962 - Bertrand Gachot, Belgian racing driver 1962 - Kang Je-gyu, South Korean film director 1962 - Keiji Muto, Japanese professional wrestler 1963 - Jim Harbaugh, American football player 1963 - Donna Tartt, American author 1964 - Eddie Vedder, American musician (Pearl Jam) 1967 - Carla Bruni , Italian-French model and singer 1967 - Tim Fountain, British playwright 1968 - Quincy Jones III, Swedish-American musician 1969 - Greg Biffle, American racecar driver 1969 - Martha Byrne, American actress 1969 - Rob Pelinka, American sports agent 1970 - Catriona LeMay Doan, Canadian speed skater 1970 - Raymont Harris, American football player 1971 - Corey Haim , Canadian actor 1971 - Masayoshi Yamazaki, Japanese singer-songwriter 1971 - Michalis Klokidis, Greek footballer 1971 - Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, British socialite 1971 - Wim Vansevenant, Belgian cyclist 1974 - Agustín Delgado, Ecuadorian footballer 1975 - Sky Lopez , American actress 1975 - Vadim Sharifijanov, Russian ice hockey player 1976 - Brad Lidge, American baseball player 1976 - Dimitris Mavrogenidis, Greek footballer 1976 - Jamie Noble, American professional wrestler 1977 - Alge Crumpler, American football player 1977 - Jari Mäenpää, Finnish guitarist and singer 1977 - Paul Shirley, American basketball player 1978 - Andra Davis, American football player 1978 - Esthero, Canadian musician and singer 1978 - Jodie Marsh , British glamour model 1978 - Víctor Martínez, Venezuelan baseball player 1978 - Estella Warren , Canadian model and actress 1979 - Summer Altice , American model and actress 1979 - Scott Gomez, American ice hockey player 1979 - Holly Madison , American model 1979 - Kenny Miller, Scottish football player 1980 - Cody Ross, American baseball player 1981 - Beth, Spanish singer 1981 - Yuriorkis Gamboa, Cuban boxer 1983 - Michael Chopra, English footballer 1983 - Hanley Ramírez, Dominican baseball player 1985 - Harry Judd, British drummer (McFly) 1985 - Luke O'Loughlin, Australian actor 1988 - Eri Kamei , Japanese singer 1990 - Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, American actress
Deaths 913 - Conrad of Franconia, 918 - Conrad I of Germany, 1230 - Berengaria of Navarre, queen of Richard I of England 1556 - Nicholas Udall, English playwright (b. 1504) 1568 - Roger Ascham, tutor of Elizabeth I of England 1575 - Akiyama Nobutomo, Japanese warrior (hanged) (b. 1531) 1631 - Michael Drayton, English poet (b. 1563) 1646 - François Maynard, French poet (b. 1582) 1675 - Caesar, duc de Choiseul 1761 - Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell, Scottish Jacobite spy 1793 - Johann Adolph Hasse, German composer (b. 1699) 1793 - Antoine François Prévost, French author and novelist (b. 1697) 1846 - Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, French naturalist (b. 1780) 1939 - Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer (b. 1890) 1946 - John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (b. 1873) 1970 - Charles Ruggles, American actor (b. 1886) 1973 - Charles Atlas, Italian-born bodybuilder (b. 1892) 1973 - Irna Phillips, American television writer 1982 - Jack Webb, American actor 1984 - Joan Lindsay, Australian author (b. 1896) 1992 - Eddie Hazel, American guitarist (Funkadelic) (b. 1950) 1994 - Sebastian Shaw, English actor (b. 1905) 1997 - Stanley Cortez, American cinematographer (b. 1908) 1998 - Michelle Thomas, American actress (b. 1968) 2000 - Billy Barty, American actor (b. 1924) 2000 - Victor Borge, Danish-born comedian and pianist (b. 1909) 2000 - Noor Jehan, Indian singer and actress (b. 1926) 2006 - Charlie Drake, English comedian (b. 1925) 2006 - Timothy J. Tobias, American composer and musician (b. 1952) 2006 - Marilyn Waltz, American actress and Playboy Playmate (b. 1931) 2006 - Johnny Vincent, English footballer for Birmingham City and Middlesbrough (b. 1947) 2007 - William Francis Ganong, American physiologist (b. 1924) 2007 - Michael Kidd, American film and stage choreographer (b. 1915) 2007 - Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist and composer (b. 1925)
Events 1493 - Georg Alt's German translation of Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle is published. 1793 - The Battle of Savenay, decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in Revolt in the Vendée during the French Revolution. 1893 - The opera Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck was first performed. 1913 - The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve. 1914 - World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt. 1916 - World War I: Battle of Magdhaba 1921 - Visva-Bharati University is inaugurated. 1936 - Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. 1937 - First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber. 1938 - Discovery of the first modern coelacanth in South Africa. 1940 - World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis (Υ-2) sinks the Italian motor ship Antonietta. 1941 - World War II: Japanese Imperial Army occupies Wake Island. 1947 - The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories. 1948 - Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo. 1954 - The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. 1958 - Dedication of Tokyo Tower, world's highest self-supporting iron tower. 1968 - The United States won the release of 82 sailors by issuing a written apology to North Korea for spying on the Communist country. 1972 - The Nicaraguan capital of Managua is struck by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake, killing more than 10,000. 1972 - The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism. 1979 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital. 1982 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces it has identified dangerous levels of dioxin in the soil of Times Beach, Missouri. 1986 - Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world. 1990 - History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88% of Slovenia's population vote for independence from Yugoslavia. 2002 - A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat. 2003 - PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234. 2004 - Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean is hit by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake. 2005 - Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Aktau, Kazakhstan crashes shortly after takeoff killing 23 people. 2005 - Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead. 2008 - A military coup d'état is announced in Guinea shortly after the death of long-time President Lansana Conté.
