today.nukz.net: Almanac December 18

Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 13 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirised Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward, and P. G. Wodehouse.

Beside his short stories (which were first published in newspapers, as was customary at the time, and then collected into several volumes), he wrote a full-length play, The Watched Pot, in collaboration with Charles Maude; two one-act plays; a historical study, The Rise of the Russian Empire, the only book published under his own name; a short novel, The Unbearable Bassington; the episodic The Westminster Alice (a Parliamentary parody of Alice in Wonderland), and When William Came, subtitled A Story of London Under the Hohenzollerns, a fantasy about a future German invasion of Britain.

Events

218 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.
1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (? yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China.
1642 – Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.
1655 – The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.
1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over British General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1793 – Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.
1878 – John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
1878 – The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar
1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.
1892 – Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car.
1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook, Victoria Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
1912 – The Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is announced by Charles Dawson.
1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000 casualties.
1917 – The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.
1932 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game is moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.
1935 – The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.
1939 – World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place.
1944 – World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.
1956 – Japan joins the United Nations.
1958 – Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.
1966 – Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
1969 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years.
1971 – Capitol Reef National Park is established in Utah.
1972 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.
1973 – Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
1973 – The Islamic Development Bank is founded.
1978 – Dominica joins the United Nations.
1987 – Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.
1989 – The European Economic Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
1997 – HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
2002 – 2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.
2005 – The civil war in Chad begins when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launch an attack in Adré.
2006 – The first of a series of floods strikes Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.
2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.
2010 – Anti-government protests begin in Tunisia, heralding the Arab Spring.

Births

1507 – Ouchi Yoshitaka, Japanese warlord (d. 1551)
1602 – Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian and politician (d. 1650)
1610 – Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, French philologist (d. 1688)
1620 – Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (d. 1668)
1661 – Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (d. 1751)
1662 – James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Scottish politician (d. 1711)
1707 – Charles Wesley, English Methodist hymnist (d. 1788)
1725 – Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and Bible commentator (d. 1791)
1734 – Jean-Baptiste Rey, French conductor and composer (d. 1810)
1756 – Ghasidas, Indian Saint(d.1850)
1778 – Joseph Grimaldi, English clown (d. 1837)
1825 – Charles Griffin, American general (d. 1876)
1825 – John S. Harris, American politician (d. 1906)
1835 – Lyman Abbott, American author (d. 1922)
1847 – Augusta Holmès, French composer (d. 1903)
1849 – Henrietta Edwards, Canadian women’s rights activist (d. 1931)
1851 – Graciano López Jaena, Filipino orator and satirist (d. 1896)
1856 – Sir J. J. Thomson, English physicist and Nobel laureate (d. 1940)
1860 – Edward MacDowell, American composer and pianist (d. 1908)
1861 – Lionel Monckton, English composer for the musical theatre (d. 1924)
1863 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (d. 1914)
1867 – Foxhall P. Keene, American race horse owner and polo player (d. 1941)
1870 – Saki, English writer (d. 1916)
1873 – Francis Burton Harrison, American political figure (d. 1957)
1878 – Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
1879 – Paul Klee, Swiss-born painter (d. 1940)
1882 – Paulin Lemaire, French gymnast (death date unknown)
1882 – Richard Maury, American naturalized Argentine engineer (d. 1950)
1886 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player (d. 1961)
1886 – Martin Dooling, American soccer player (d. 1966)
1887 – Bhikhari Thakur, Indian Bhojpuri writer(d.1971)
1888 – Dame Gladys Cooper, English actress (d. 1971)
1888 – Robert Moses, American public works official (d. 1981)
1890 – Edwin Armstrong, American inventor (d. 1954)
1897 – Fletcher Henderson, American arranger and composer (d. 1952)
1899 – Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author and philosopher (d. 1990)
1904 – George Stevens, American film director (d. 1975)
1907 – Bill Holland, American auto racer (d. 1984)
1907 – Lawrence Lucie, American jazz guitarist (d. 2009)
1908 – Paul Siple, American Antarctic explorer (d. 1969)
1908 – Celia Johnson, English actress (d. 1982)
1910 – Abe Burrows, American playwright (d. 1985)
1910 – Eric Tindill, New Zealand rugby and cricket international player and referee/umpire (d. 2010)
1911 – Jules Dassin, American film director (d. 2008)
1912 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American General (d. 2002)
1913 – Alfred Bester, American author (d. 1987)
1913 – Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)
1913 – Ray Meyer, American basketball coach (d. 2006)
1916 – Douglas Fraser, Scottish-born American trade unionist (d. 2008)
1916 – Betty Grable, American actress (d. 1973)
1917 – Ossie Davis, American actor and activist (d. 2005)
1920 – Robert Leckie, American marine and author (d. 2001)
1922 – Jack Brooks, American politician (d. 2012)
1927 – Ramsey Clark, 66th U.S. Attorney General
1927 – Roméo LeBlanc, 25th Governor General of Canada (d. 2009)
1928 – Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (d. 2003)
1929 – Gino Cimoli, American baseball player
1929 – Józef Glemp, Cardinal-Archbishop Emeritus of Warsaw
1930 – Moose Skowron, American baseball player (d. 2012)
1931 – Allen Klein, American rock and roll business manager (d. 2009)
1931 – Alison Plowden, English historian (d. 2007)
1932 – Roger Smith, American actor
1933 – Lonnie Brooks, American musician
1934 – Boris Volynov, Soviet cosmonaut
1935 – Jacques Pépin, French chef
1936 – Malcolm Kirk, English professional wrestler (d. 1987)
1938 – Chas Chandler, English musician (The Animals) (d. 1996)
1938 – Joel Hirschhorn, American songwriter and composer (d. 2005)
1938 – Roger E. Mosley, American actor
1939 – Michael Moorcock, English author
1939 – Harold E. Varmus, American scientist and Nobel laureate
1941 – Wadada Leo Smith, American trumpeter and composer
1942 – Harvey Atkin, Canadian actor
1943 – Keith Richards, English guitarist (The Rolling Stones)
1943 – Alan Rudolph, American film director and screenwriter
1945 – Jean Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player
1946 – Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 1977)
1946 – Alex Ligertwood, Scottish rock singer
1946 – Steven Spielberg, American film director
1947 – Leonid Yuzefovich, Russian crime fiction writer
1948 – Edmund Kemper, American serial killer
1948 – Bill Nelson, English musician (Be-Bop Deluxe)
1948 – Laurent Voulzy, French singer and composer
1949 – David A. Johnston, American volcanologist (d. 1980)
1949 – Terry Hertzler, American poet
1950 – Gillian Armstrong, Australian film director
1950 – Randy Castillo, American drummer (Ozzy Osbourne) (d. 2002)
1950 – Sarath Fonseka, former commander of the Sri Lanka Army and a former Chief of Defence of Sri Lanka.
1950 – Heinz-Josef Kehr, German footballer
1950 – Leonard Maltin, American film critic
1952 – John Leventhal, musician, producer, songwriter, and recording engineer, married to Rosanne Cash
1953 – Elliot Easton, American guitarist (The Cars)
1953 – Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen singer-songwriter
1954 – John Booth, British racing driver
1954 – Ray Liotta, American actor
1955 – Vijay Mallya, Indian Business man
1956 – Ron White, American comedian
1957 – Jonathan Cainer, English astrologer
1958 – Geordie Walker, English rock musician and lead guitarist for post-punk band Killing Joke
1958 – Julia Wolfe, American composer
1960 – Kazuhide Uekusa, Japanese economist
1961 – Brian Orser, Canadian figure skater
1961 – Leila Steinberg, American poet, artist manager
1962 – Renaldo Lapuz, Filipino-born American singer
1963 – Norman Brown, American musician
1963 – Karl Dorrell, American football coach
1963 – Greg D'Angelo, American musician (White Lion)
1963 – Pauline Ester, French singer
1963 – Allan Kayser, American actor
1963 – Charles Oakley, American basketball player
1963 – Brad Pitt, American actor
1963 – Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundian politician
1964 – Stone Cold Steve Austin, American professional wrestler
1964 – Don Beebe, American football player
1964 – Robson Green, English actor and singer
1965 – Shawn Christian, American actor
1965 – Mick Collins, American musician (The Gories, The Dirtbombs)
1965 – Manuel Peña Escontrela, Spanish footballer (d. 2012)
1965 – Fawna MacLaren, American model and actress
1966 – Makiko Esumi, Japanese actress
1966 – Mille Petrozza, German singer (Kreator)
1966 – Gianluca Pagliuca, Italian footballer
1967 – Toine van Peperstraten, Dutch sports journalist
1968 – Mario Basler, German footballer
1968 – Mark Cooper, English footballer
1968 – Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress
1968 – Alejandro Sanz, Spanish singer
1968 – Casper Van Dien, American actor
1968 – Nina Wadia, British actress and comedian
1969 – Santiago Cañizares, Spanish footballer
1969 – Justin Edinburgh, English footballer
1969 – Akira Iida, Japanese racing driver
1970 – Anthony Catanzaro, American fitness model
1970 – DMX, American rapper and actor
1970 – Lucious Harris, American basketball player
1970 – Miles Marshall Lewis, American author
1970 – Giannis Ploutarhos, Greek singer
1970 – Victoria Pratt, Canadian actress and fitness model
1970 – Fernando Solabarrieta, Chilean journalist
1970 – Cowboy Troy, American rapper
1970 – Rob Van Dam, American professional wrestler
1970 – Jonathan Yeo, English artist
1971 – Barkha Dutt, Indian journalist
1971 – Noriko Matsueda, Japanese composer
1971 – Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Spanish tennis player
1972 – Trevor Chowning, American painter
1972 – Rah Digga, American rapper
1972 – Raymond Herrera, American drummer (Fear Factory) and businessman
1972 – DJ Lethal, Latvian-born American DJ (House of Pain, Limp Bizkit)
1973 – Leila Arcieri, American actress and model
1974 – Peter Boulware, American football player
1974 – Bill Duggan, American television actor and host
1974 – Euroboy, Norwegian musician (Turbonegro)
1974 – Mutassim Gaddafi, Libyan army officer (d. 2011)
1975 – Sia Furler. Australian singer
1975 – David O'Doherty, Irish comedian
1975 – Trish Stratus, Canadian professional wrestler
1975 – Masaki Sumitani, Japanese comedian
1975 – Vincent van der Voort, Dutch darts player
1976 – Koyuki, Japanese actress and model
1977 – Axwell, Swedish DJ
1977 – José Acevedo, Dominican baseball player
1977 – Claudia Gesell, German athlete
1977 – Ryan Scott Ottney, American journalist and comic book writer
1978 – Daniel Cleary, Canadian ice hockey player
1978 – Ali Curtis, American soccer player
1978 – Katie Holmes, American actress
1979 – Mamady Sidibé, Malian footballer
1979 – Eric Pérez, Puerto Rican professional wrestler
1979 – Carlos, Portuguese footballer
1980 – Christina Aguilera, American singer
1980 – Heinz Inniger, Swiss snowboarder
1980 – Benjamin Watson, American football player
1981 – Joshua Dallas, American actor
1981 – Jens Schmidt, German rugby player
1983 – Darren Carter, English footballer
1983 – Andy Fantuz, Canadian football player
1984 – Derrick Tribbett, American singer and bass player (Twisted Method and Dope)
1985 – Tara Conner, American beauty contestant (Miss USA)
1985 – Natalie Gal, Russian fashion model
1985 – Hana Soukupová, Czech supermodel
1986 – François Hamelin, Canadian short track speed skater
1986 – Usman Khawaja, Australian cricketer
1987 – Miki Ando, Japanese figure skater
1987 – Ayaka, Japanese singer
1987 – Fernando Jara, Panamanian jockey
1987 – Sneha Ullal, Indian actress
1988 – Lizzie Armitstead, English cyclist
1989 – Ashley Benson, American actress
1989 – Ashley Slanina-Davies, English actress
1989 – Emily Atack, English actress
1990 – Sierra Kusterbeck, American singer-songwriter and model (VersaEmerge)
1990 – James Lawrie, Irish footballer
1992 – Bridgit Mendler, American actress and singer

Deaths

821 – Theodulf of Orléans, Bishop of Orléans
1133 – Hildebert, French writer (b. 1055)
1290 – King Magnus I of Sweden (b. 1240)
1442 – Pierre Cauchon, French Catholic bishop (b. 1371)
1495 – King Alfonso II of Naples (b. 1448)
1591 – Marigje Arriens, Dutch suspected witch (b. ca. 1520)
1692 – Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (b. 1626)
1737 – Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker (b. 1644)
1787 – Francis William Drake, British Admiral and territorial governor (b. 1724)
1787 – Soame Jenyns, English writer (b. 1704)
1799 – Jean-Étienne Montucla, French mathematician (b. 1725)
1803 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (b. 1744)
1829 – Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, French scientist (b. 1744)
1843 – Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, British statesman (b. 1748)
1848 – Bernard Bolzano, Bohemian mathematician and priest (b. 1781)
1869 – Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist (b. 1829)
1880 – Michel Chasles, French mathematician (b. 1793)
1892 – Richard Owen, English biologist (b. 1804)
1922 – Sir Carl Meyer, 1st Baronet, British banker and mining magnate (b. 1851)
1927 – Ram Prasad Bismil, Indian Revolutionary (b. 1897)
1936 – Andrija Mohorovicic, Austro-Hungarian-born Croatian seismologist (b. 1857)
1944 – Alexander Cudmore, American soccer player (b. 1888)
1950 – Johnny Hyde, Russian-born American talent agent (b. 1895)
1968 – Joan Tabor, American film and television actress (b. 1932)
1969 – Charles Dvorak, American track and field athlete (b. 1878)
1971 – Bobby Jones, American golfer (b. 1902)
1971 – Diana Lynn, American actress (b. 1926)
1973 – Allamah Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani orator and philosopher (b. 1908)
1974 – Harry Hooper, American baseball player (b. 1887)
1975 – Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian geneticist (b. 1900)
1977 – Michio Nishizawa, Japanese baseball player (b. 1921)
1980 – Alexei Kosygin, Soviet politician and Premier (b. 1904)
1980 – Gabrielle Robinne, French actress (b. 1886)
1982 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German pilot (b. 1916)
1984 – Aris Maliagros, Greek actor (b. 1895)
1985 – Xuan Dieu, Vietnamese poet (b. 1916)
1987 – Konrad "Conny" Plank, German record producer and musician (b. 1940)
1990 – Anne Revere, American actress (b. 1903)
1990 – Paul Tortelier, French cellist and composer (b. 1914)
1991 – George Abecassis, English Formula 1 driver (b. 1913)
1992 – Mark Goodson, American game show producer (b. 1915)
1993 – Sam Wanamaker, American actor (b. 1919)
1994 – Roger Apéry, Greek-French mathematician (b. 1916)
1995 – Brian Brockless, English organist (b. 1926)
1995 – Konrad Zuse, German engineer and computing pioneer (b. 1910)
1996 – Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Russian physicist (b. 1904)
1997 – Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (b. 1964)
1998 – Lev Dyomin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1926)
1999 – Robert Bresson, French film director (b. 1907)
2000 – Stan Fox, American race car driver (b. 1952)
2000 – Randolph Apperson Hearst, son of William Randolph Hearst; father of Patty Hearst (b. 1915)
2000 – Kirsty MacColl, English singer and songwriter (b. 1959)
2001 – Gilbert Bécaud, French singer (b. 1927)
2001 – Marcel Mule, French saxophonist (b. 1901)
2001 – Dimitris Dragatakis, Greek composer (b. 1914)
2002 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Canadian politician (b. 1934)
2002 – Wayne Owens, American politician (b. 1937)
2004 – Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (b. 1926)
2005 – Alan Voorhees, American engineer and urban planner (b. 1922)
2006 – Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist (b. 1911)
2006 – Ruth Bernhard, American photographer (b. 1905)
2006 – Mike Dickin, British radio broadcaster (b. 1943)
2006 – Shaukat Siddiqui, Pakistani author and political activist (b. 1923)
2007 – Gerald Le Dain, Canadian Supreme Court Justice (b. 1924)
2007 – Jack Linkletter, American television host; son of Art Linkletter (b. 1937)
2007 – William Strauss, American writer (b. 1947)
2007 – Alan Wagner, American opera critic (b. 1931)
2008 – Majel Barrett, American actress; widow of Gene Roddenberry (b. 1932)
2008 – Mark Felt, American Watergate figure (b. 1913)
2010 – Phil Cavarretta, American baseball player (b. 1916)
2010 – Tasso Kavadia, Greek actress (b. 1921)
2010 – Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian banker and economist (b. 1940)
2010 – James Pickles, English jurist and columnist (b. 1925)
2010 – Jacqueline de Romilly, French philologist and classical scholar (b. 1913)
2011 – Václav Havel, playwright, philosopher and dissident, last president of Czechoslovakia, and the first president of the Czech Republic (b. 1936)