Saturday, December 23, 2017

THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― DECEMBER 23

December 23 is the 357th day of the year (358th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are eight days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Monday or Tuesday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Thursday or Saturday (56).

NATIONAL PFEFFERNUSSE DAY


558 – Chlothar I is crowned King of the Franks.

562 – Hagia Sophia in Constantinople reopened with a rebuilt dome after a series of earthquakes caused the original to collapse.

1572 – Theologian Johann Sylvan is executed in Heidelberg for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.

1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.

1913 – The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System. Worst year in American history to go along with Income Tax and U.S. Senators elected by the people (17th Amendment).

1941 – World War II: After 15 days of fighting, the Imperial Japanese Army occupies Wake Island.

1947 – The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

1948 – Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.

1954 – First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.

1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world at the time.

1972 – The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having reportedly survived by cannibalism.



2002 – A U.S. MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft.

2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.

2010 – A monsoonal trough crosses the northeastern coast of Australia from the Coral Sea, bringing mass flooding across Queensland.


TODAY'S BIRTHS

1805 – Joseph Smith, American religious leader, 1st President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1844)


1878 Stepan Prokopovych Timoshenko, Ukrainian-American engineer and academic, Timoshenko Beam Theory (d. 1972)

1912 Anna J. Harrison, American organic chemist and academic (d. 1998)

1918 – Helmut Schmidt, German soldier, economist, and politician, 5th Chancellor of Germany (d. 2015)

1923 James Stockdale, American admiral and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2005)

1938 Bob Kahn, American computer scientist and engineer, co-developed the Transmission Control Protocol

From Wikipedia and Google, ex as noted.

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