December 19th is

‘A Christmas Carol’ Day *

Evergreen Day

Hard Candy Day

Oatmeal Muffin Day
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MORE! Ben Franklin, Édith Piaf and Richard Leakey, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Anguilla – Heroes and Heroines Day

India – Goa:
Goa Liberation Day

Kazakhstan – National Holiday

Mali – Baptism of the Prophet

Serbia –Sveti Nikola

Ukraine – Saint Nicholas Day (Orthodox)

United States – New York NY:
Great Performances Latke Festival

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On This Day in HISTORY

211 – Publius Septimius Geta, co-emperor of Rome, is lured to come without his bodyguards to meet his brother Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla), to discuss a possible reconciliation. When he arrives, the Praetorian Guard murders him and he dies in the arms of his mother, Julia Domna

1606 – The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who found, at Jamestown, Virginia, first of the 13 colonies that became the U. S.

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes the first of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled “The American Crisis”

1828 –  U.S. V.P. John C. Calhoun pens The South Carolina Exposition and Protest, denouncing the Tariff Act of 1828, which increased tariffs on goods that competed with industries in the northern U.S. states while increasing costs on British goods imported by Southern states, and upsetting their balance of trade with Great Britain, one of the biggest customers for Southern cotton – Calhoun introduced his ‘Doctrine of Nullification’ – his claim that a state has the right to reject federal laws, and to secede from the union

1842 – Hawaii’s independence is recognized by the U.S. (In 1893, American sugar planters under Sanford Dole, using U.S. Marines sent to ‘protect’ Americans, overthrow Queen Liliuokalani, the Hawaiian monarch, and establish a new provincial government with Dole as president – the Queen’s protests to President Harrison are unavailing)

1843 – Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol * in England

1865 – Minnie Maddern Fiske born, ‘Mrs. Fiske’ leading American actress who spearheaded the fight against the Theatrical Syndicate which controlled booking of all U.S. top theatrical attractions and performers from 1896 to 1910, who introduced American audiences to Henrik Ibsen’s plays, beginning with Nora in A Doll’s House

1871 – Albert L. Jones patents corrugated paper

1903 – The Williamsburg Bridge opens in New York City,  the largest suspension bridge in the world (until 1924), also the first major suspension bridge using steel towers to support its main cable

1915 – Édith Piaf born, French singer-songwriter-actress

1916 – Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann born, German political scientist; The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion – Our Social Skin, an explanation of how perceived public opinion can influence individual opinions or actions

1918 – Robert Ripley begins his “Believe It or Not” column in the New York Globe

1924 – The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England

1932 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service

1940 – Phil Ochs born, American singer-songwriter – “Draft Dodger Rag” and “I Ain’t Marching Anymore”

1941 – Maurice ‘Moe’ White born, American singer-songwriter-producer-bandleader, Earth, Wind & Fire

1944 – Richard Leakey, Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and politician

1949 – ‘Sebastian’ (Knud Christensen) born, Danish singer-composer

1952 – Walter Murphy, American pianist and composer

1957 – The Music Man opens on Broadway

1960 – Neil Sedaka releases “Calendar Girl”

1961 – Judgment at Nuremberg premieres in New York

1969 – Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, Azerbaijani composer-performer

1974 – Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

1980 – The movie 9 to 5 starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, opens

1986 – Independent counsel Lawrence Walsh is appointed to investigate the Iran-Contra scandal

1989 – U.S. troops invade Panama to overthrow the regime of General Noriega

1995 – The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Native American tribe

1997 – Titanic opens in American movie theaters

2000 – The U.N. Security Council votes to impose sanctions on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers unless they close all terrorist training camps and surrender U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden

2008 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs a $17.4 billion package of loans to bail out ailing auto makers General Motors and Chrysler

2012 – Park Geun-hye is the first woman elected president of South Korea

2013 – Spacecraft Gaia is launched by European Space Agency

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Visuals

• A Christmas Carol from a title page
• International flags
• Route of 1606 voyage of the Susan Constant and sister ships
• Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis” opening page
• John C. Calhoun, no regrets quote
• A Christmas Carol, Stave One opening
• Minnie Maddern Fiske, photograph by Fred Holland Day
• The Williamsburg Bridge, circa 1903
• A 1924 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
• Richard Leakey culture quote
• Park Geun-hye, first woman elected president of South Korea

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