Author: gil7

Today in History for 8th December 2025

Historical Events

1925 – George S. Kaufman and Irving Berlin’s musical “The Cocoanuts” starring the Marx Brothers opens at the Lyric Theatre, NYC; runs for 276 performances
1973 – 39th Heisman Trophy Award: John Cappelletti, Penn State (RB)
1974 – Soyuz 16 returns to Earth
2007 – 73rd Heisman Trophy Award: Tim Tebow, Florida (QB)
2022 – Canadian pop singer Celine Dion reveals via Instagram that she has been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), a rare neurological disorder

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Famous Birthdays

1741 – Maximilien Gardel, French ballet dancer and choreographer (Menuet Reine), born in Mannheim, Electorate of the Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1787)
1822 – Luther Prentice Bradley, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in New Haven, Connecticut (d. 1910)
1965 – Carina Lau, Hong Kong actress and singer (Days of Being Wild), born in Suzhou, China
1967 – Ron George, American linebacker (Minnesota Vikings), born in Heidelberg, Germany
1989 – Drew Doughty, Canadian hockey defenseman (Stanley Cup 2012, 14 LA Kings; Olympic gold 2010, 14; Norris Trophy 2016), born in London, Canada

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Famous Deaths

1625 – Christina of Holstein-Gottorp, Queen consort of Sweden as the wife of King Charles IX, dies at 52
1680 – Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, English politician (b. 1606)
1989 – Hans Hartung, German-French painter, dies at 85
2008 – Oliver Postgate, English animator, puppeteer and writer, dies at 83
2021 – Lars Høgh, Danish soccer goalkeeper (8 caps; OB 603 games) and GK coach (Denmark, Brøndby IF), dies from pancreatic cancer at 62

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Famous Deaths for 7th December 2025

1254 – Innocent IV [Sinibaldo Fieschi], Italian pope (1243-54), dies at 58 or 59
1383 – Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg (1354-83), Duke of Brabant and Limburg (1355-83), dies at 46
1867 – Rudolf Viole, German pianist and composer, dies at 42
1877 – Benjamin Huger, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 72
1909 – Whitcomb Judson, American inventor (zipper), dies at 63
1938 – Harry Moses, cricketer (6 Tests for Australia 1887-95), dies
1995 – Larry Bartlett, British photographic printer (Larry Bartlett’s Black and White Photographic Printing Workshop), dies at 42
2011 – Harry Morgan, American actor (December Bride; M*A*S*H, 1975-83 – “Col. Sherman Potter”; AfterMASH; Dragnet – “Bill Gannon”), dies in his sleep at 96
2012 – Saul Steinberg, American businessman, founder of Leasco and CEO of Reliance Insurance Company, dies at 73
2014 – John Bartholomew Tucker, American TV host (Candid Camera, Treasure Island), dies at 84

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Historical Events for 7th December 2025

1937 – Russian chess player Alexander Alekhine recaptures his final world title from Dutch grand master Max Euwe by a large margin (+10−4=11)
1941 – Japanese Emperor Hirohito signs a declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire
1966 – A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.
1973 – Orioles sell pitcher Eddie Watt to the Phillies
1988 – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake in Spitak, Armenia, kills 25,000 to 50,000 people and leaves up to 500,000 homeless
2006 – A Tornado strikes Kensal Green in northwest London, seriously damaging around 150 properties
2018 – Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is elected the new leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party, replacing Angela Merkel
2024 – Restored Notre Dame Cathedral re-opens after the 2019 fire with a VIP ceremony attended by world leaders in Paris, France

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Today in History for 7th December 2025

Historical Events

1703 – Great storm of 1703 hits Southern England – thousands killed, Royal Navy losses 13 ships and around 1,500 seamen
1924 – German election (Social Democrats win, Nazis and Communists lose)
1941 – The Imperial Japanese Navy, with 353 planes, attacks the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people
1964 – George Harrison changes his music publishing company’s name from Mornyork to Harrisongs
2020 – Australian states celebrate “Freedom Day” easing COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria and New South Wales

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Famous Birthdays

1557 – Girolamo Trombetti [Cavallari], Italian singer, trombonist, composer (Sustinuimus pacem), and maestro di cappella (San Giovanni de Monti, 1591-1628), baptized in Bologna, Papal States (d. 1628)
1830 – Luigi Cremona, Italian mathematician (grafostatica), born in Pavia, Italy (d. 1903)
1935 – Jean-Claude Casadesus, French conductor (Orchestre national de Lille, 1976-2016), born in Paris, France
1954 – Bertín Osborne, Italian entertainer, born in Madrid, Spain
1988 – Emily Browning, Australian actress (Ghost Ship), born in Melbourne, Australia

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Famous Deaths

1498 – Alexander Hegius, German humanist and pioneering teacher of Erasmus and Pope Adrian VI, dies at about 65
1775 – Charles Saunders, British admiral, First Lord of the Admiralty, dies at about 60
1956 – Huntley Gordon, Canadian actor, dies at 77
1996 – Jose Donoso, Chilean writer (The Place Without Limits), dies at 72
2019 – Denis Lalanne, French sports journalist (‘Le grand combat du XV de France’; ‘Rugbymania: French flair attitude’), dies at 93

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Famous Deaths for 6th December 2025

1951 – J Edward Bromberg, Hungarian actor (The Mark of Zorro, Under 2 Flags), dies from a heart attack at 47
1970 – Thomas S Power, American USAF-gen (Raid on Tokyo-March 1945), dies at 65
1996 – Trevor Key, British photographer and graphic designer, known for his album cover art (Mike Oldfield; Phil Collins; New Order; OMD), dies of a brain tumor at 48
1997 – Eddie Myers, British WWII soldier and engineer, dies at 91
2001 – Robert Camac, American horse trainer, murdered by a family member at 61
2005 – Charly Gaul, Luxembourg cyclist (b. 1932)
2007 – Katy French, Irish Supermodel and Socialite, dies at 24
2010 – Hugues Cuénod, Swiss tenor and musical educator, dies at 108
2018 – Pete Shelley [Peter McNeish], English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Buzzcocks “Going Steady”), dies at 63
2023 – Tore Aleksandersen, Norwegian women’s volleyball coach (Allianz MTV Stuttgart; Norway, Finland women’s national teams), dies from prostate cancer at 55

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Historical Events for 6th December 2025

1723 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI’s Pragmatic Sanction with the Diet of Hungary recognizes the King’s daughters as successors
1862 – US President Abraham Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux Indians
1903 – Sumatra Atjehs guerilla leader Panglima Polim surrenders
1914 – German troops over run Lodz
1922 – 1st electric power line commercial carrier in US, Utica, NY
1973 – Bahrain’s constitution goes into effect
1984 – Helena Suková snaps Martina Navratilova’s 74-match winning streak 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the semi finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne; ends Navratilova’s hopes of completing the Grand Slam
2022 – Donald Trump’s real estate company Trump Organization convicted of tax fraud in New York

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Today in History for 6th December 2025

Historical Events

1060 – Béla I is crowned King of Hungary in Székesfehérvár
1969 – Oscar Brown, Jr’s musical “Buck White”, starring Muhammad Ali, closes at George Abbott Theatre, NYC, after 7 performances
1990 – Baseball player “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s signature sells for $23,100 at auction
2008 – 4th ACC Championship Game: Virginia Tech beats #18 Boston College, 30-12
2017 – Skirball wildfire near Los Angeles closes the Interstate 405 as thousands forced to evacuate

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Famous Birthdays

1822 – John Eberhard Faber, German-American pencil manufacturer and built 1st large-scale pencil factory in US, born in Stein Bavaria, Germany (d. 1879)
1919 – Willis Whitfield, American physicist and inventor of the clean room, born in Rosedale, Oklahoma (d. 2012)
1949 – Peter Willey, English cricketer (England batsman late 70’s early 80’s), born in Sedgefield, County Durham, England
1955 – Steven Wright, American stand-up comedian (Steven Wright Live), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts
1971 – Naozumi Takahashi, Japanese singer and voice actor, born in Ōshū, Iwate Prefecture, Japan

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Famous Deaths

1959 – Len Doyle, American actor (Harrington-Mr District Attorney), dies at 66
1983 – Lucienne Boyer, French singer (Parlez-moi d’amour), dies at 82
1989 – Frances Bavier, American Emmy Award-winning stage and screen actress (The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry, RFD – “Aunt Bee”), dies of congestive heart failure at 86
1995 – James Reston, American journalist (New York Times), dies at 86
1997 – Eliot Daniel, American composer (I Love Lucy theme), dies at 89

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Famous Deaths for 5th December 2025

1675 – John Lightfoot, English theologist and scholar (Horae Hebraicae), dies at 73
1745 – Christoph Förster, German composer, dies at 52
1916 – Hans Richter, Austrian-Hungarian orchestral and opera conductor who led first complete performance of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus (1876), dies at 73
1931 – Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)
1968 – Fred Clark, American actor (Zotz, Auntie Mame), dies of liver ailment at 54
1977 – Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Soviet military commander (b. 1895)
1996 – Wilf Carter, Canadian country and western singer-songwriter, yodeler, and guitarist, also known as “Montana Slim”, dies at 91
2007 – Andrew Imbrie, American contemporary classical composer, and pianist, dies at 86
2013 – Colin Wilson, English writer (Afterlife, Book of Great Mysteries), dies at 82
2023 – Norman Lear, American Peabody and Emmy Award-winning TV writer and producer (All in The Family; One Day at a Time; The Jeffersons; Maude), and film director (Cold Turkey), dies at 101

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Historical Events for 5th December 2025

1832 – Andrew Jackson re-elected US President after defeating Henry Clay
1859 – Dion Boucicault’s stage melodrama “The Octaroon” opens at The Winter Garden Theatre, NYC
1892 – Anti-semite Hermann Ahlwardt elected to Germany’s Reichstag
1928 – England defeats Australia by record 675 runs at Brisbane
1945 – Dutch Special Council of Annulment affirms death sentence of radio presenter Max Blokzijl for broadcasting Nazi propaganda
1960 – Ghana drops diplomatic relations with Belgium
1983 – LA Dodger pitcher Steve Howe is suspended for 1 year for cocaine use
2019 – Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announces articles of impeachment against US President Donald Trump will be drawn up for abuse of power

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Today in History for 5th December 2025

Historical Events

1914 – CFL Grey Cup, Varsity Stadium, Toronto: Toronto Argonauts win first Championship; beat U of Toronto Blues, 14-2
1941 – Soviet anti-offensive in Moscow drives out Nazi army
1982 – Dutch judoka Ingrid Berghmans retains judo’s world championship
1991 – “Catskills on Broadway” opens at Lunt-Fontanne NYC for 452 performances
2006 – Audrey Hepburn’s Givenchy little black dress from film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is auctioned for charity for a record £467,200 ($923,187) at Christie’s, London

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Famous Birthdays

1855 – Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist and ornithologist, born in New York City (d. 1942)
1901 – Hanns Jelinek, Austrian composer, born in Vienna (d. 1969)
1936 – James Lee Burke, American writer (Dave Robicheaux series), born in Houston, Texas
1960 – Brian Bromberg, American jazz bass player (You Know That Feeling), born in Tucson, Arizona
1969 – Morgan J. Freeman, American film director (Hurricane Streets), born in Long Beach, California

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Famous Deaths

1955 – Paul Harvey, American actor (Spellbound, Calamity Jane, Heldorado, Jamboree), dies at 73
1958 – Ferdinand Bruckner [Theodor Tagger], Austrian-German playwright (Races), dies at 67
1979 – Sonia Delaunay, Russian-born French artist (Orphism), dies at 94
1991 – Jill Browne, dies at 54
2024 – Bill Melton, American baseball third baseman. 1968-77 (MLB All-Star and AL home run leader, 1971; Chicago White Sox, and 2 other teams) and broadcaster,1998-2020 (NBC, Comcast, Chicago White Sox), dies at 79

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