Anniversaries 22 December

Birth

Jean Racine15

French dramatist 1639–1699

Guru Govind Singh4

The tenth and last human Guru of Sikhism 1666–1708

Hermann Samuel Reimarus12

German philosopher 1694–1768

Thomas Wentworth Higginson1

Union United States Army officer 1823–1911

Jean Henri Fabre6

French entomologist and author 1823–1915

Charles Stuart Calverley10

British poet 1831–1884

Sarada Devi77

Hindu religious figure, spiritual consort of Ramakrishna 1853–1920

Giacomo Puccini5

Italian composer 1858–1924

Edwin Arlington Robinson12

American poet 1869–1935

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti27

Italian poet and editor, founder of the Futurist movement 1876–1944

Edgard Varèse5

French composer 1883–1965

Srinivasa Ramanujan2

Indian mathematician 1887–1920

John C. Slater1

American physicist 1900–1976

Kenneth Rexroth65

American poet, writer, anarchist, academic and conscientiou… 1905–1982

Leah Bodine Drake1

American writer 1914–1964

Satchidananda Saraswati1

Yogiraj 1914–2002

Brownie Mary5

American medical cannabis activist 1922–1999

Peter Green4

British historian 1924

Tomás Rivera4

American academic 1935–1984

James Burke (science historian)39

British broadcaster, science historian, author, and televis… 1936

Paul Wolfowitz13

American politician, diplomat, and technocrat 1943

Gareth Morgan24

Organizational theorist 1943

Diane Sawyer3

American journalist 1945

Arthur G. Bedeian5

American business theorist 1946

Charles de Lint53

author 1951

Percival Everett1

American writer 1956

Patrick Fitzgerald8

American lawyer 1960

Kazuo Hirai5

Japanese businessman 1960

Jean-Michel Basquiat7

American artist 1960–1988

Richey James Edwards3

Welsh musician 1967–2008

Ted Cruz39

American politician 1970

Mariko Tamaki4

Canadian writer and artist 1975

Chris Carmack2

American actor and model 1980

Brooke Nevin1

Canadian actress 1982

Basshunter8

Swedish singer, record producer and DJ 1984

Jordin Sparks3

American singer, winner of 2007 American Idol 1989

Meghan Trainor1

American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer 1993

Death

István Küzmics3

Hungarian translator 1723–1779

William Cooper (judge)1

judge 1754-1809 1754–1809

Martin Joseph Routh4

Classical scholar and college head 1755–1854

James Francis Stephens1

British ornithologist and entomologist 1792–1852

Théodore Rousseau14

French painter (1812-1867) 1812–1867

George Eliot300

English novelist, journalist and translator 1819–1880

Paul de Lagarde3

German polymath, biblical scholar and orientalist 1827–1891

Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt7

American writer 1836–1919

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer1

Spanish poet 1836–1870

Dwight L. Moody27

American evangelist and publisher 1837–1899

Henry Burchard Fine3

American academic 1858–1928

Neil Munro (Hugh Foulis)2

Journalist, author, critic 1863–1930

Beatrix Potter18

English children's writer and illustrator 1866–1943

Otto Neurath23

austrian economist, philosopher and sociologist 1882–1945

Randolph Bourne20

American writer 1886–1918

Vittore Pisani1

Italian linguist 1899–1990

Ernesto Grassi12

Italian philosopher 1902–1991

Nathanael West5

American writer 1903–1940

Samuel Beckett122

Irish novelist, playwright, and poet 1906–1989

James Meade15

British economist 1907–1995

Julien Gracq1

French writer 1910–2007

Henry Summers3

British civil servant 1911–2005

D. D. Raphael6

Philosopher 1916–2015

Jane Langton1

Novelist, children's writer 1922–2018

Nanao Sakaki1

Japanese poet 1923–2008

Ram Dass100

American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of t… 1931–2019

Talal bin Abdul Aziz1

Member of House of Saud 1931–2018

Lim Keng Yaik1

Minister of Energy, Water and Member of ParliamentCommunica… 1939–2012

Paddy Ashdown5

British politician and diplomat 1941–2018

Joe Strummer39

British musician, singer, actor and songwriter 1952–2002