What happened today December 15th?

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Events
1290 BC - Seti I, Pharaoh of Egypt dies. Ramesses II becomes Pharaoh of Egypt.
533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.
687 - St. Sergius I becomes Pope.
1167 - Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
1791 - The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature.
1818 - Irwin County, Georgia is created.
1891 - James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.
1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1939 - Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta, Georgia.
1941 - Annihilation of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine: in the proximity of the Rogan works, 8 km away from Kharkiv, in "Drobitsky Ravine" (Drobitsky Yar), over 15 000 Jews were shot, at -15 degrees C below zero.
1945 - Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as state religion of Japan.
1960 - King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón in Brussels.
1960 - Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier.
1961 - In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida.
1965 - The film The Sound of Music is released.
1970 - Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election.
1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN.
1992 - American rapper, Dr. Dre, releases his highly influential debut album, The Chronic. The Chronic is often labelled as the first ever G-Funk album.
1993 - History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
1994 - The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released.
1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.
1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice passes the "Bosman ruling", giving EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one UEFA Federation to another.
1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85.
2002 - The digital radio station BBC7 is launched by the comedian Paul Merton.
2005 - The 43rd known Mersenne prime is discovered by Dr. Curtis Cooper & Dr. Steven Boone of USA, participants of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search distributed computing project. The prime number is 2nd largest known prime and has more than nine million digits.
2005 - Latvia edits its constitution to ban equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians.
2005 - Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.

Births
37 - Nero, Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (d. 68)
1832 - Gustave Eiffel, French engineer and architect (Eiffel tower) (d. 1923)
1859 - L. L. Zamenhof, Russian initiator of Esperanto (d. 1917)
1860 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician and Nobel laureate (d. 1904)
1860 - Abner Powell, American baseball player (d. 1953)
1861 - Charles Duryea, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
1878 - Hans Carossa, German writer (d. 1956)
1888 - Maxwell Anderson, American writer (d. 1959)
1892 - J. Paul Getty, American oil tycoon (d. 1976)
1899 - Harold Abrahams, British sprinter and Olympic gold medalist (d. 1978)
1907 - Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect
1910 - John H. Hammond, American musician (d. 1987)
1911 - Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979)
1912 - Ray Eames, American designer (d. 1988)
1913 - Muriel Rukeyser, American poet (d. 1980)
1913 - Roger Gaudry, French Canadian chemist, businessman and corporate director (d. 2001)
1916 - Buddy Cole, American pianist (d. 1964)
1916 - Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 2004)
1917 - Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, Linguist and writer of Pakistan (d. 2005)
1918 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (d. 1961)
1922 - Alan Freed, American disc jockey (d. 1965)
1923 - Freeman Dyson, English-born American physicist
1923 - Valentin Varennikov, Russian general and statesman
1925 - Sam Pollock, National Hockey League general manager
1928 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (d. 2000)
1928 - Jerry Wallace, American country and popular music singer
1933 - Tim Conway, American actor and comedian
1938 - Billy Shaw, American football player
1939 - Cindy Birdsong, American singer (The Supremes)
1940 - Nick Buoniconti, American football player
1942 - Dave Clark, British musician (The Dave Clark Five)
1944 - Chico Mendes, Brazilian Campaigner (d. 1988
1946 - Art Howe, American baseball player
1949 - Don Johnson, American actor
1952 - Cassandra Harris, Australian actress (d. 1991)
1952 - Allan Simonsen, Danish footballer
1952 - Julie Taymor, American director
1953 - J. M. DeMatteis, American comic book writer
1955 - Paul Simonon, British musician (The Clash)
1961 - Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist
1963 - Andrew Luster, Max Factor heir
1967 - Mo Vaughn, American baseball player
1968 - Javid Hussain, Indian film producer
1968 - Garrett Wang, American actor
1969 - Chantal Petitclerc, Quebec wheelchair athlete
1970 - Frankie Dettori, Italian champion jockey
1970 - Michael Shanks, Canadian actor
1972 - Stuart Townsend, Irish actor
1972 - Rodney Harrison, American football player
1973 - Surya Bonaly, French-born American figure skater
1973 - Ryu Seung-wan, South Korean actor and director
1976 - Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer
1976 - Aaron Miles, American baseball player
1977 - Elix Skipper, American professional wrestler
1978 - Mark Jansen, Dutch guitarist (Epica)
1978 - Jerome McDougle, American football player
1979 - Adam Brody, American actor
1979 - Eric Young, Canadian wrestler
1981 - Najoua Belyzel, French singer
1981 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)
1981 - Creighton Lovelace, American Baptist minister
1982 - Borja Garcia, Spanish racing driver
1982 - George O. Gore II, American actor
1983 - René Goguen, Canadian wrestler
1986 - Snejana Onopka, Ukrainian supermodel

Deaths
1025 - Basil II, Byzantine Emperor (b. 958)
1072 - Alp Arslan, Turkish sultan in Persia (b. 1029)
1230 - King Otakar I of Bohemia
1263 - King Haakon IV of Norway (b. 1204)
1598 - Philips van Marnix, lord of Sint-Aldegonde, Dutch writer and statesman (b. 1538)
1621 - Charles de Luynes, Constable of France (b. 1578)
1673 - Margaret Cavendish, English writer (b. 1623)
1675 - Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter (b. 1632)
1683 - Izaak Walton, English writer (b. 1593)
1688 - Gaspar Fagel, Dutch statesman (b. 1634)
1715 - George Hickes, English minister and scholar (b. 1642)
1753 - Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect (b. 1694)
1792 - Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (b. 1756)
1855 - Jacques Charles François Sturm, French mathematician (b. 1803)
1890 - Sitting Bull, Sioux nation leader (b. circa 1831)
1943 - Fats Waller, American musician (b. 1904)
1944? - Glenn Miller, American musician (b. 1904)
1947 - Arthur Machen, British author (b. 1863)
1950 - Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian political leader, Iron Man of India (b.1875)
1958 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born American physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1900)
1962 - Charles Laughton, English actor (b. 1899)
1966 - Walt Disney, American animator (b. 1901)
1968 - Jess Willard, American boxer (b. 1881)
1968 - Antonio Barrette, politician, premier of Quebec (b. 1899]])
1971 - Paul Pierre Lévy, French mathematician (b. 1886)
1974 - Anatole Litvak, Russian-born filmmaker (b. 1902)
1977 - Wilfred Kitching, the 7th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1893)
1984 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (b. 1904)
1984 - Lennard Pearce, British actor (b. 1915)
1989 - Arnold Moss, American character actor (b. 1910)
1991 - Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, Russian-born Soviet sniper (b. 1915)
2001 - Russ Haas, American professional wrestler (b. 1974)
2001 - Rufus Thomas, American musician (b. 1917)
2003 - George Fisher, American political cartoonist (b. 1923)
2003 - Keith Magnuson, National Hockey League defenceman (b. 1947)
2004 - Pauline Gore, mother of American Vice President Al Gore (b. 1912)
2005 - William Proxmire, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (b. 1911)
2005 - Darrell Russell, American football player (b. 1976)
2005 - Heinrich Gross, Austrian physician (b. 1914)
2005 - Stan Leonard, Canadian professional golfer (b. 1915)

Holidays and observances
Roman festivals - Consualia in honor of Consus is held.
R.C. Saints - St. Valerian; Saint Wunibald of Heidenheim; Saint Nino; St. Drostan.
Zamenhof Day -celebrated in the Esperanto movement in honor of L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto.
Hanukkah begins (2006).

External links
BBC: On This Day
The New York Times: On This Day
On This Day in Canada