today.nukz.net: Almanac December 31

Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse (31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

Events

406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul.
535 – Byzantine general Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Gothic garrison of Palermo (Panormos), and ending his consulship for the year.
1225 – The Lý Dynasty of Vietnam ends after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Tran Thai Tong, husband of the last Ly monarch, Ly Chieu Hoang, starting the Tr?n Dynasty.
1229 – James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian reconquest of the island of Majorca.
1501 – The First Battle of Cannanore commences.
1600 – The British East India Company is chartered.
1660 – James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.
1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
1695 – A window tax is imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.
1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery.
1790 – Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today is published for the first time.
1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to New York City.
1853 – A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England
1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.
1862 – American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River begins near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1878 – Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent for it in 1879.
1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
1906 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signs the Persian Constitution of 1906.
1907 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York.
1909 – Manhattan Bridge opens.
1923 – The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.
1944 – World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.
1944 – World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front begins.
1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
1951 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
1955 – The General Motors Corporation becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
1960 – The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.
1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
1965 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begins a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.
1967 – The Youth International Party, popularly known as the "Yippies", is founded.
1981 – A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
1983 – The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.
1983 – In Nigeria a coup d'état led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Nigerian Second Republic.
1986 – A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
1988 – Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux becomes the only National Hockey League player to score goals in five different ways: even strength, shorthanded, power play, penalty shot, and empty net, during a 8-6 win over the New Jersey Devils.
1988 – First Winter Ascent of Lhotse (8,516m) by Krzysztof Wielicki (solo).
1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
1992 – Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech and Slovak Republics.
1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC-10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively.
1994 – The First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year's storm of Grozny
1998– The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.
1999 – First President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.
1999 – Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
1999 – The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.
2004 – The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft).

Births

695 – Muhammad bin Qasim, Syrian general (d. 715)
1378 – Pope Callixtus III (d. 1458)
1491 – Jacques Cartier, French explorer (d. 1557)
1514 – Andreas Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (d. 1564)
1552 – Simon Forman, English occultist and astrologer (d. 1611)
1572 – Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan, (d. 1617)
1585 – Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, (d. 1645)
1668 – Herman Boerhaave, Dutch humanist and physician (d. 1738)
1704 – Carl Gotthelf Gerlach, German organist (d. 1761)
1720 – Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the British throne (d. 1788)
1738 – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British general (d. 1805)
1741 – Isabella Maria of Parma, wife of future Holy Roman emperor (d. 1763)
1741 – Gottfried August Bürger, German poet d.(1794)
1763 – Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, French admiral (d. 1806)
1776 – Johann Spurzheim, German physician (d. 1832)
1805 – Marie d'Agoult, French author (d. 1876)
1815 – George Meade, American Civil War general (d. 1872)
1830 – Isma'il Pasha, Governor of Egypt (d. 1895)
1830 – Alexander Smith, Scottish poet (d. 1867)
1851 – Henry Carter Adams, American economist (d. 1921)
1855 – Giovanni Pascoli, Italian poet (d. 1912)
1857 – King Kelly, American baseball player (d. 1894)
1860 – Joseph S. Cullinan, American oil industrialist (d. 1937)
1864 – Robert Grant Aitken, American astronomer (d. 1951)
1869 – Henri Matisse, French painter (d. 1954)
1877 – Lawrence Beesley, English journalist and author (d. 1967)
1878 – Elizabeth Arden, Canadian businesswoman (d. 1966)
1878 – Horacio Quiroga, Uruguayan-Argentinian writer (d. 1937)
1880 – Fred Beebe, American baseball player (d. 1957)
1880 – George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, Nobel Laureate (d. 1959)
1881 – Max Pechstein, German painter (d. 1955)
1882 – Martin O'Meara, Australian soldier (d. 1935)
1884 – Bobby Byrne, American baseball player (d. 1964)
1885 – Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1970)
1899 – Silvestre Revueltas, Mexican composer (d. 1940)
1901 – Julia Bathory, Hungarian glass designer(d. 2000)
1901 – Nikos Ploumpidis, Greek resistance fighter (d. 1954)
1902 – Lionel Daunais, French-Canadian singer and composer (d. 1982)
1903 – Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian violinist (d. 1992)
1904 – Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer and actress (d. 1975)
1905 – Jule Styne, English-born composer (d. 1994)
1908 – Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor (d. 2005)
1909 – Jonah Jones, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2000)
1910 – Carl Dudley, American film director (d. 1973)
1911 – Dal Stivens, Australian novelist (d. 1997)
1912 – Maj-Gen John Frost, British para commander (d. 1993)
1915 – Sam Ragan, American author, journalist and poet (d. 1996)
1917 – Wilfrid Noyce, English mountaineer (d. 1962)
1918 – Virginia Davis, American former child actress (d. 2009)
1919 – Tommy Byrne, American baseball player (d. 2007)
1920 – Rex Allen, American actor, singer, and songwriter (d. 1999)
1924 – Taylor Mead, American actor
1926 – Billy Snedden, Australian politician (d. 1987)
1928 – Siné, French cartoonist
1929 – Mies Bouwman, Dutch television personality
1930 – Odetta, American singer (d. 2008)
1930 – Jaime Escalante, American teacher (d. 2010)
1931 – Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)
1933 – Edward Bunker, American author and actor (d. 2005)
1934 – Akram Awan, Islamic scholar
1934 – Noel Tyl, American astrologer
1937 – Avram Hershko, Israeli biologist, Nobel laureate
1937 – Sir Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor
1937 – Barry Hughes, Welsh professional football player and manager and entertainer
1938 – Rosalind Cash, American actress (d. 1995)
1940 – Mani Neumeier, German musician (Guru Guru)
1941 – Sean S. Cunningham, American film director
1941 – Alex Ferguson, Scottish football manager
1941 – Sarah Miles, English actress
1942 – Andy Summers, British guitarist (The Police)
1943 – John Denver, American singer and songwriter (d. 1997)
1943 – Sir Ben Kingsley, English actor
1943 – Pete Quaife, English bassist (The Kinks) (d. 2010)
1944 – Taylor Hackford, American producer and director
1944 – Neil Ross, British-American voice actor
1945 – Diane von Fürstenberg, Belgian-born fashion designer
1945 – Barbara Carrera, Nicaraguan actress and model
1945 – Connie Willis, American writer
1946 – Pius Ncube, Zimbabwean human rights advocate
1947 – Burton Cummings, Canadian keyboardist (The Guess Who)
1947 – Rita Lee, Brazilian rock singer
1947 – Tim Matheson, American actor
1948 – Joe Dallesandro American actor
1948 – René Robert, National Hockey League player
1948 – Donna Summer, American singer (d. 2012)
1949 – Ellen Datlow, American editor
1949 – Seub Nakhasathien, Thai conservationist (d. 1990)
1949 – Susan Shwartz, American writer
1951 – Tom Hamilton, American bassist (Aerosmith)
1952 – Vaughan F. R. Jones, New Zealand mathematician
1953 – James Remar, American actor
1953 – Jane Badler, American actress
1953 – Michael Hedges, American composer, singer-songwriter, guitarist (d. 1997)
1954 – Alex Salmond, Scottish politician
1954 – Hermann Tilke, German racing circuit architect
1956 – Steve Rude, American comics artist
1958 – Bebe Neuwirth, American actress
1959 – Liveris Andritsos, Greek basketball player
1959 – Alfie Anido, Filipino actor (d. 1981)
1959 – Val Kilmer, American actor
1959 – Phill Kline, American politician
1959 – Baron Waqa, Nauruan politician and musician
1959 – Paul Westerberg, American musician (The Replacements)
1960 – John Allen Muhammad, American spree killer (d. 2009)
1960 – Steve Bruce, English footballer
1961 – Rick Aguilera, American baseball player
1961 – Nina Li Chi, Chinese actress
1962 – Tyrone Corbin, American basketball player
1962 – Don Diamont, American actor
1962 – Heather McCartney, British potter
1963 – Scott Ian, American guitarist (Anthrax)
1963 – Konishiki, American sumo wrestler
1964 – Michael McDonald, American actor-comedian
1965 – Tony Dorigo, English footballer
1965 – Julie Doucet, Canadian underground cartoonist
1965 – Gong Li, Chinese actress
1965 – Nicholas Sparks, American author
1966 – Lisa Joyner, American entertainment reporter
1968 – Gerry Dee, Canadian comedian and actor
1968 – Luciano Szafir, Brazilian actor
1969 – Dominik Diamond, Scottish presenter and newspaper columnist
1969 – Are Kalvø, Norwegian writer and satirist
1969 – Lance Reddick, American actor
1970 – Jorjão, Brazilian footballer
1970 – Sven Kretschmer, German footballer
1970 – Danny McNamara, Lead singer of English band Embrace
1970 – Carlos Morales Quintana, husband of Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark
1970 – Bryon Russell, American basketball player
1971 – Brent Barry, American basketball player
1971 – Esteban Loaiza, Mexican Major League Baseball player
1972 – Joey McIntyre, American singer (New Kids on the Block)
1973 – Shandon Anderson, American basketball player
1973 – Crystal Knight, American pornographic actress and model
1973 – Malcolm Middleton, Scottish musician (Arab Strap)
1974 – Mario Aerts, Belgian cyclist
1974 – Tony Kanaan, Brazilian racing driver
1974 – Ryan Sakoda, Japanese American professional wrestler
1975 – Rami Alanko, Finnish ice hockey player
1975 – Toni Kuivasto, Finnish footballer
1975 – Rob Penders, Dutch footballer
1975 – Sander Schutgens, Dutch runner
1976 – Luis Carreira, Portuguese motorcycle racer (d. 2012)
1976 – Craig Reucassel, Australian comedian, member of The Chaser
1977 – Psy, South Korean singer and rapper
1977 – Wardy Alfaro, Costa Rican footballer
1977 – Donald Trump Jr., son of Donald Trump and Ivana Trump
1978 – Papoose, American rapper
1979 – Elaine Cassidy, Irish actress
1979 – Paul O'Neill, British racing driver
1980 – Matthew Capiccioni, American professional wrestler
1980 – Jesse Carlson, American baseball player
1980 – Richie McCaw, New Zealand rugby player
1980 – Carsten Schlangen, German athlete
1981 – Jason Campbell, American football player
1981 – Matthew Pavlich, Australian AFL player
1982 – Bryce Avary, The Rocket Summer, American musician
1982 – Julio DePaula, Dominican baseball player
1982 – Craig Gordon, Scottish footballer
1982 – Luke Schenscher, Australian basketball player
1983 – Mariana Renata, French-Indonesian actress
1984 – Brittany Beede, American wrestler and model
1984 – Édgar Lugo, Mexican footballer
1984 – Paul Rodriguez Jr., American skateboarder
1985 – Jan Smit, Dutch singer
1986 – Bronson Pelletier, Canadian actor
1987 – Javaris Crittenton, American basketball player
1987 – Danny Holla, Dutch footballer
1987 – Émilie Le Pennec, French gymnast
1990 – Patrick Chan, Canadian figure skater
1991 – Camila Giorgi, Italian tennis player
1991 – Bojana Jovanovski, Serbian tennis player
1995 – Gabby Douglas, American gymnast
2005 – Lakshmi Tatma, Indian deformed girl

Deaths

192 – Commodus, Roman Emperor (b. 161)
335 – St. Silvester, Pope
1164 – Margrave Ottokar III of Styria (b. 1124)
1194 – Duke Leopold V of Austria (killed at a tournament) (b. 1157)
1297 – Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1249)
1302 – Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1238)
1384 – John Wycliffe, English theologian and Bible translator (b. circa 1328)
1424 – Thomas Beaufort, 1st Duke of Exeter, English military leader
1460 – Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, English politician (b. 1400)
1510 – Bianca Maria Sforza, wife of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1472)
1535 – William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland (b. 1465)
1568 – Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese warlord (b. 1493)
1575 – Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (b. 1502)
1583 – Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (b. 1524)
1610 – Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (b. 1540)
1650 – Dorgon, Chinese emperor (b. 1612)
1655 – Janusz Radziwill, Polish–Lithuanian noble and magnate (b. 1612)
1673 – Oliver St John, English statesman and judge
1679 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (b. 1608)
1691 – Dudley North, English economist (b. 1641)
1705 – Catherine of Braganza (b. 1638)
1719 – John Flamsteed, English astronomer (b. 1646)
1742 – Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1661)
1799 – Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (b. 1723)
1872 – Aleksis Kivi, Finnish author (b. 1834)
1876 – Catherine Labouré, French visionary and saint (b. 1806)
1877 – Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)
1888 – Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi (b. 1808)
1889 – Ion Creanga, Romanian writer (b.1837/39)
1890 – Pancha Carrasco, Costa Rican war heroine (b. 1826)
1891 – Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Nigerian bishop. (b. 1809)
1894 – Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, Dutch mathematician (b. 1856)
1905 – Alexander Popov, Russian physicist (b. 1859)
1909 – Spencer Trask, American financier (b. 1844)
1910 – John Moisant, American aviator (b. 1868)
1910 – Arch Hoxsey, American aviator (b. 1884)
1921 – Boies Penrose, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (b. 1860)
1936 – Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish writer and philosopher (b. 1864)
1948 – Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (b. 1885)
1953 – Albert Plesman, Dutch aviation pioneer (b. 1889)
1964 – Ólafur Thors, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1892)
1964 – Bobby Byrne, baseball player (b. 1884)
1964 – Henry Maitland Wilson, British field marshal (b. 1881)
1969 – George Lewis, American clarinetist (b. 1900)
1971 – Pete Duel American actor (b. 1940)
1971 – Marin Sais, American actress (b. 1890)
1971 – Vikram Sarabhai, Indian physicist (b. 1919)
1972 – Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican baseball player (b. 1934)
1972 – Henry Gerber, German-American gay rights pioneer (b. 1892)
1977 – Sabah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, ruler of Kuwait (b. 1924)
1980 – Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer (b. 1911)
1980 – Raoul Walsh, American film director (b. 1887)
1985 – Ricky Nelson, American singer (b. 1940)
1986 – Raj Narain, Indian Politician (b. 1917)
1987 – Jerry Turner, American television anchorman (b. 1929)
1988 – Nicolas Calas, Greek-American poet and art critic (b. 1907)
1990 – George Allen, American football coach (b. 1918)
1990 – Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1928)
1990 – Giovanni Michelucci, Italian architect, urban planner and engraver (b. 1891)
1993 – Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (b. 1939)
1993 – Brandon Teena, American murder victim (b. 1972)
1994 – Leigh Bowery, Australian-born English fashion performance artist (b. 1961)
1994 – Woody Strode, American actor and decathlete (b. 1914)
1997 – Floyd Cramer, American musician (b. 1933)
1997 – Billie Dove, American actress (b. 1903)
1997 – Michael Kennedy, American politician (b. 1958)
1999 – Elliot Richardson, American politician (b. 1920)
2000 – Alan Cranston, American politician (b. 1914)
2000 – José Greco, Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer (b. 1918)
2000 – Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, Israeli leader of Kahane Chai party and son of Rabbi Meir Kahane (b. 1966)
2001 – Eileen Heckart, American actress (b. 1919)
2002 – Kevin Scott MacMichael, American guitarist (Cutting Crew) (b. 1951)
2003 – Arthur R. von Hippel German-born physicist (b. 1898)
2004 – Gérard Debreu, French economist, Bank of Sweden Prize laureate (b. 1921)
2005 – Phillip Whitehead, British politician (b. 1937)
2005 – Enrico di Giuseppe, American tenor (b. 1932)
2006 – Seymour Martin Lipset, American sociologist (b. 1922)
2006 – George Sisler, Jr., American baseball executive (b. 1917)
2007 – Tommy Dickson, British footballer (b. 1929)
2007 – Tony Elliott, American football player (b. 1959)
2007 – Michael Goldberg, American painter (b. 1924)
2007 – Bill Idelson, American actor (b. 1919)
2007 – Kathryn Ish, American actress (b. 1936)
2007 – Milton L. Klein, Canadian politician (b. 1910)
2007 – Markku Peltola, Finnish actor and musician (b. 1956)
2007 – Ettore Sottsass, Italian architect and designer (b. 1917)
2008 – Donald E. Westlake, American author (b. 1933)