Anniversaries 15 December

Birth

Nero2

Emperor of Ancient Rome, 5th and last of the Julio-Claudian… 37–68

Henry Fothergill Chorley3

English literary, art and music critic and editor 1808–1872

Ludoviko Lazaro Zamenhof4

Polish ophthalmologist and inventor of Esperanto 1859–1917

John Woodroffe1

English orientalist 1865–1936

Josef Hoffmann1

Austrian architect and product designer 1870–1956

J. Paul Getty4

American industrialist 1892–1977

Betty Smith1

writer from the USA 1896–1972

Kurt Schuschnigg9

Chancellor of Austria 1897–1977

David McCord1

American writer 1897–1997

Oscar Niemeyer14

Brazilian architect 1907–2012

Richard Crossman6

British Member of Parliament 1907–1974

Muriel Rukeyser42

poet and political activist 1913–1980

Albert Memmi6

French writer 1920

Maurice Davis13

American rabbi 1921–1993

Philip Rieff16

American sociologist 1922–2006

Valentin Varennikov2

Soviet general and russian politician 1923–2009

Freeman Dyson90

theoretical physicist and mathematician 1923

Emmanuel Wamala1

Catholic cardinal 1926

Friedensreich Hundertwasser10

Austrian artist 1928–2000

Edna O'Brien13

Novelist, memoirist, biographer, playwright, poet and short… 1930

John Allen Fraser16

Canadian politician 1931

John Taylor Gatto40

American teacher, book author 1935–2018

Geoffrey West12

British physicist 1940

Chris Quigg4

American physicist 1944

Don Johnson1

American actor and singer 1949

Andrés Stanovnik1

Catholic archbishop 1949

Brian T. Carroll1

American educator and politician 1949

Marie Brenner1

About someone's LIFE and Hers 1949

Julie Taymor38

American film and theatre director 1952

Eusebio Ramos Morales1

Puerto Rican bishop 1952

J.M. DeMatteis14

comics illustrator 1953

Robert Charles Wilson134

author 1953

Mark Warner3

United States Senator from Virginia 1954

Paul Simonon2

English musician (Bass guitarist, vocalist, songwriter) and… 1955

Salman al-Ouda9

journalist 1956

Donna Brazile4

American author, educator, and political activist and strat… 1959

Jeev Milkha Singh1

professional golfer 1971

Surya Bonaly2

French figure skater 1973

Ronnie Radke3

American singer 1983

Brooke Fraser1

New Zealand singer and songwriter 1983

Niniola2

Nigerian singer-songwriter 1986

Lauren Boebert1

American politician 1986

Ayuel Monykuch9

South Sudanese Entrepreneur 1997

Death

Izaak Walton28

English author and biographer 1593–1683

Margaret Cavendish2

English aristocrat, a prolific writer, and a scientist 1623–1673

John Dyer4

Welsh cleric, poet and painter 1699–1757

Anthony Wayne6

Continental Army general 1745–1796

Joseph Martin Kraus9

German composer 1756–1792

Helen Maria Williams3

British writer 1759–1827

Eliza Farnham4

American novelist, feminist, abolitionist, and activist for… 1815–1864

Donald Grant Mitchell4

American writer 1822–1908

Sitting Bull14

Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and holy man 1831–1890

Arthur Machen10

Welsh author and mystic 1863–1947

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven10

German poet 1874–1927

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel4

Indian freedom fighter who forged united India 1875–1950

Andrew Paterson4

Scottish photographer 1877–1948

Alice A. Bailey109

esoteric, theosophist, writer 1880–1949

Carlos P. Romulo2

Filipino politician and diplomat 1899–1985

Wolfgang Pauli35

Austrian physicist, Nobel prize winner 1900–1958

Walt Disney102

American film producer and businessman 1901–1966

Claud Cockburn9

Irish journalist 1904–1981

Ellsworth Wareham1

1914–2018

Vasily Zaytsev3

Soviet sniper 1915–1991

Penaia Ganilau1

President of Fiji 1918–1993

Licio Gelli4

Italian financier, liaison with Nazi Germany, P2 grandmaste… 1919–2015

John Gall13

American physician 1925–2014

Dick Stuart8

American baseball player 1932–2002

Diane Wood Middlebrook1

biographer 1939–2007

Christopher Hitchens305

British American author and journalist 1949–2011