December 20th is

Games Day *

Go Caroling Day

Sangria Day

Louisiana Purchase Day *

World Day of Prayer and Action
for Children *

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MORE! Peter the Great, Susanne Langer and Frank Capra, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Macau – SARE Day

Panama – Day of Mourning

Réunion – Abolition Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

69 – Vespasian, former general under Nero, enters Rome to become Emperor, founding Flavian dynasty, later, builds Flavian Amphitheatre, aka the Colosseum

1699 – Peter the Great orders Russian New Year changed from September 1 to January 1

1786 – Pietro Raimondi born, Italian composer

1803 – The U.S. Senate ratifies a treaty to purchase Louisiana Territories from France for $15 million, and the Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans

1820 – The state of Missouri enacts legislation to tax bachelors aged 21 to 50 one dollar per year for being unmarried

1860 – After refusing to collect federal import tariffs, South Carolina is the first state to declare it is seceding from the United States – six other states declare they were seceding before the shots fired on Fort Sumter at Charleston SC on April 12, 1861, actually start the U.S. Civil War

1864 – Confederate forces evacuate Savannah GA as Union General William T. Sherman continues his “March to the Sea”

1873 – Kan’ichi Asakawa born, Japanese historian, author, and peace advocate, The Origin of Feudal Land-Tenure in Japan (1914)

1873 – Mehmet Akif Ersoy, Turkish poet and politician, wrote the lyrics for the Turkish National Anthem

1880 – New York’s Broadway becomes known as the “Great White Way” after it is lighted by electricity

1895 – Susanne Langer, American philosopher, author of  Philosophy in a New Key, which expounded the theory that is a basic and pervasive human need to symbolize, to invent meanings, using examples from the Arts, especially music

1898 – Irene Dunne born, actor-singer, nominated five times for Academy Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, Lifetime Achievement (1985)

1902 – Sidney Hook born, American philosopher

1915 – The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli, after 19,441 Australians were wounded, and 8,709 died under heavy artillery fire and harsh winter conditions

1917 – Cheka, the first of a succession of Soviet ‘state security’ agencies (secret police), is instituted by a decree from Vladimir Lenin – thousands of dissidents, deserters, or other people are arrested, tortured and executed by Cheka groups during the ‘Red Terror’

1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison, where he was serving a sentence for a failed coup attempt in Munich the year before – he dictated the first volume of Mein Kampf during his imprisonment

1932 – Al Jolson records “April Showers”

1933 – The film Flying Down to Rio debuts in New York, featuring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together for the first time on the silver screen

1941 – First battle of the American Volunteer Group, dubbed the “Flying Tigers” in Kunming, China

1945 – Peter Criss born, musician, co-founder and original drummer of Kiss

1946 – The film It’s a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra and starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, premieres in New York City

1948 – Alan Parsons born, English songwriter-engineer-record producer, The Alan Parsons Project

1950 – Arturo Márquez born, Mexican-American composer

1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho is the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity, which powers four light bulbs

1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom

1957 – The initial production version of the Boeing 707 makes its first flight

1965 – The Beach Boys release their single “Barbara Ann”

1967 – The band Jethro Tull is formed

1971 – The international aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is founded by Dr. Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France

1975 – Games Day * is started by the Games Workshop

1981 – The musical Dreamgirls premieres on Broadway

1989 – The United States invasion of Panama, Operation Just Cause, deposes General Manuel Noriega

1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia

1999 – Macau is handed over to China by Portugal

2001 – The U.S. Congress passes a $20 billion package to finance “the war against terrorism” in Afghanistan

2002 – Trent Lott resigns as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks

2007 – Queen Elizabeth II becomes oldest ever monarch of the UK, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days

2008 – ARIGATOU International launches the first World Day of Prayer and Action for Children *

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Visuals

• Caroling from It’s Christmas, Charlie Brown
• International flags
• The Colosseum in Rome cutout details
• Susanne Langer with quote on new discoveries
• Pilots in the American Volunteer Group, the “Flying Tigers”
•  Boeing 707 makes its first take-off
• Coronation portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton

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