December 15

[edit] Events

533 - The Battle of Ticameron begins
687 - St. Sergius I becomes Pope
1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.
1791 - The United States Bill of Rights is passed
1891 - James Naismith introduces basketball.
1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1914 - The Battle of Łódź ends; Russians retreat toward Moscow
1916 - France defeats Germany in Battle of Verdun
1939 - Gone with the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia
1945 - General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as state religion of Japan
1961 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust
1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A is launched
1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN
1994 - Netscape Navigator 1.0 is first released
1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.
1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice passes the Bosman ruling
1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85
2002 - BBC 7, digital radio station is launched in UK

1025 - Basil II, Byzantine Emperor (b. 958)
1072 - Alp Arslan, Turkish sultan in Persia (b. 1029)
1263 - King Haakon IV of Norway (b. 1204)
1598 - Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, Dutch writer and statesman (b. 1538)
1621 - Charles de Luynes, Constable of France (b. 1578)
1673 - Margaret Cavendish, English writer (b. 1623)
1675 - Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter (b. 1632)
1683 - Izaak Walton, English writer (b. 1593)
1715 - George Hickes, English minister and scholar (b. 1642)
1753 - Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect (b. 1694)
1792 - Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (b. 1756)
1890 - Sitting Bull, Sioux nation leader (b. c.1831)
1943 - Fats Waller, American musician (b. 1904)
1958 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
1966 - Walt Disney, American animator (b. 1901)
1968 - Jess Willard, American boxer (b. 1881)
1975 - Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-born writer (b. 1902)
1984 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
1989 - Arnold Moss, American character actor (b. 1910)
1991 - Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet World War II hero (b. 1915)
2001 - Rufus Thomas, American musician (b. 1917)
2001 - Russ Haas, Pro Wrestler (b. 1974)
2003 - George Fisher, American political cartoonist (b. 1923)