December 18th is

Arabic Language Day *

Bake Cookies Day

I Love Honey Day

International Migrants Day *

Save the Brazilian Rainforests Day *

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MORE! Charles Wesley, Cicely Tyson and Keith Richards, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

India – Chhattisgarh:
Guru Ghasidas Jayanti

Myanmar – Kayin New Year

Niger – Republic Day

Qatar – Founder’s Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

218 BC – Second Punic War: At the Battle of the Trebia, Hannibal’s Carthaginian forces defeat the army of the Roman Republic under Tiberius Sempronius Longus

1655 – The Whitehall Conference, convened by Oliver Cromwell, ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290

1707 – Charles Wesley born, English missionary-hymn lyricist, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution

1847 – Augusta Holmès born, Irish-French composer, whose early works were published under the pseudonym Hermann Zenta

1849 – Henrietta Muir Edwards born, one of Canada’s “Famous Five” who fought and won the battle for legal recognition of women as ‘persons’; also co-founded a Working Girl’s Association in Montreal to provide reading rooms and study classes, which became one of the first YWCAs in Canada; she founded and published the periodical Working Women of Canada; author of Legal Status of Canadian Women (1908)

1856 – Sir J.J. Thomson born, English physicist whose discovery of the electron revolutionized the understanding of atomic structure; 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics

1862 – Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled, the first orthopedic hospital, is organized in New York City

1863 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is born

1865 – US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the U.S.

1870 – Saki (H.H. Munro) born, Burmese-English author and playwright

1879 – Paul Klee born, Swiss-German painter, noted for his single-line drawings

Katze Lauert, by Paul Klee – 1939

1888 – Robert Moses born, American public official, the “master builder” who was appointed to a dozen commissions, oversaw development of New York City and its surrounding area, from the Triborough Bridge to Lincoln Center

A motorcade led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt opens the Harlem River lift span of the Triborough in this 1936 photo – New Deal Network photo archive

1898 – A new automobile speed record is set at 39 mph (63 kph)

1903 – The Panama Canal Zone is acquired ‘in perpetuity’ by the U.S. for an annual rent

1913 – Willy Brandt born, Chancellor of West Germany (1969-1974); awarded the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize

1920 – Conductor Arturo Toscanini makes his first recording for Victor Records

1922 – Esther Lederberg born, American microbiologist; pioneer in bacterial genetics

1924 – Cicely Tyson born, American actress and civil rights activist; noted for Sounder (1972), The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), and The Help (2011); 2016 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

1927 – Ramsey Clark born, American lawyer; U.S Attorney General (1966-1969) opponent of the death penalty, strong supporter of civil liberties, civil rights, and anti-trust laws; supervised the drafting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Civil Rights Act of 1968

1931 – Alison Plowden born, English historian, biographer, BCC scriptwriter and non-fiction author of works on the Tudor, English Civil War and Victorian periods

1935 – Jacques Pépin born, French-American chef and author

1937 – Nancy A. Ryles born, American politician; Oregon State Senator (1983-1987)  first woman to serve on the Oregon Public Utilities Commission, from 1987 until her death from cancer at age 52; the Nancy Ryles Scholarship Fund was set up to honor her at Portland State University

1942 – Lenore Blum born, American mathematician; founding head of the Mills College Mathematics and Computer Science Department; awarded the first Letts-Villard Chair at Mills in 1979; currently at Carnegie Mellon; Blum Blum Shub Pseudorandom number generator

1943 – Keith Richards born, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, The Rolling Stones

1944 – The U.S. Supreme Court upholds wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but states undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained

1950 – Gillian Armstrong born, Australian director-producer-screenwriter, My Brilliant Career, Mrs. Soffel

1956 – To Tell the Truth debuts on CBS-TV

1957 – The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania is the first U.S. civilian nuclear facility to go online

1958 – Julia Wolfe born, American composer; won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Anthracite Fields

1958 – The world’s first communications satellite is launched by the U.S.

1961 – Leila Steinberg born, American music manager and marketer, writer, poet, and founder of AIM4TheHeART, a non-profit helping at-risk youth with literacy curriculum and writing workshops

1965 – ‘Taste of Honey’ by Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass is #1 on the charts

1966 – Saturn’s moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker

1968 – Alejandro Sanz, AKA Sánchez Pizarro born, Spanish singer-songwriter

1969 – The British Parliament abolishes the death penalty for murder

1970 – Divorce becomes legal in Italy

1972 – Vietnam War: U.S. begins its heaviest bombing of North Vietnam

1973 – The Islamic Development Bank is founded in Saudi Arabia

1980 – Christina Aguilera born, American singer-songwriter- producer

1981 – First flight of the Russian heavy strategic bomber Tu-160, the world’s largest combat aircraft

1984 – Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” was the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit

1987 – Ivan F. Boesky is sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street’s biggest insider-trading scandal

1991 – Save the Brazilian Rainforests Day * – The International Project to Save the Brazilian Rainforests is launched

2000 – International Migrants Day * is designated by the UN General Assembly

2002 – California Governor Gray Davis announces that the state faces a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier

2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections

2010 – UNESCO starts Arabic Language Day * to promote cultural understanding and highlight the importance of the Arabic language to world culture

2015 – The last deep coal mine in Britain, Kellingley Colliery, is closed

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