December 22, 2023
QUOTE
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.
--George Eliot
BIRTHDAYS
1912 – Lady Bird Johnson, 38th First Lady of the United States
1915 – Barbara Billingsley, Actress
1934 – David Pearson, Race car driver
1948 – Rick Nielsen, Singer-songwriter and guitarist
1949 – Ray Guy, Football player
IN MEMORY
1767 – John Newbery, English publisher
1880 – George Eliot, English novelist and poet
1989 – Samuel Beckett, Irish author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate
1993 – Don DeFore, Actor
2014 – Joe Cocker, English singer-songwriter
IN ON THIS DAY
856 – An earthquake near the Persian city of Damghan kills an estimated 200,000 people, the sixth deadliest earthquake in recorded history.
1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony,
1891 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.
1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City.
1964 – The first test flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird) takes place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, United States.
1971 – The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.