December 15

Events

533 – Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.
1167 – Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
1467 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia.
1791 – The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
1864 – In the Battle of Nashville, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John B. Hood.
1868 – Shogunate rebels found Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō.
1905 – The Pushkin House is established in St. Petersburg to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin
1906 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
1913 – Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires Convention.
1914 – World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
1914 – A gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine, Kyūshū, Japan, kills 687.
1917 – World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Bolshevik government and the Central Powers.
1933 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution officially becomes effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.
1939 – Gone with the Wind receives its première at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
1941 – Holocaust: German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobitsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine.
1942 – The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal campaign.
1945 – Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
1946 – US-backed Iranian troops evict the leadership of the breakaway Republic of Mahabad, putting an end to the Iran crisis of 1946.
1954 – The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands is signed.
1960 – Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the U.S. President-Elect, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier.
1960 – King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.
1961 – In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
1965 – Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
1967 – The Silver Bridge collapses, killing 46 people.
1970 – Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully land on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet
1970 – South Korean ferry Namyong Ho capsizes off Korean Strait killing 308.
1973 – John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10, 1973.
1973 – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the DSM-II.
1976 – Samoa becomes a member of the United Nations.
1976 – The oil tanker MV Argo Merchant runs aground near Nantucket, Massachusetts, causing one of the worst marine oil spills in history.
1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and cut off all relations with Taiwan
1993 – History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
1994 – Palau becomes a member of the United Nations.
1997 – A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85.
1997 – The Treaty of Bangkok is signed allowing the transformation of Southeast Asia into a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.
2000 – Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel opens at the Disneyland Resort.
2000 – The 3rd reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.
2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.
2005 – Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of same-sex couples being entitled to marry.
2005 – Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
2006 – First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
2009 – Boeing's new Boeing 787 Dreamliner makes its maiden flight from Seattle, Washington.
2010 – A boat carrying 90 asylum seekers crashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing at least 30 passengers.
2011 – American forces withdraw from Iraq after a 9-year long campaign.

Holidays and observances

Bill of Rights Day (United States)
Christian Feast Day:
Drostan (Aberdeen Breviary)
Maria Crocifissa di Rosa
Mesmin
Valerian of Abbenza
Virginia Centurione Bracelli
Consualia, in honor of Consus. (Roman Empire)
Homecoming Day (Alderney)
Kingdom Day (Netherlands)
Zamenhof Day (International Esperanto Community)

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