On This Day

[Altobelli]

15 DECEMBER

533 Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, under King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron

1256 Hulagu Khan captures and destroys Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut, in present-day Iran, part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia

1488 Bartolomeu Dias returns to Portugal after becoming 1st known European to sail round the Cape of Good Hope

1612 German Astronomer Simon Marius is 1st to observe Andromeda galaxy through a telescope

1791 US Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gives its approval, becomes amendments 1-10 of the US constitution

1840 Napoleon Bonaparte receives a French state funeral in Paris 19 years after his death

1906 The opening of the Piccadilly tube line on London's Underground. It was the longest underground line at the time, running from Finsbury Park to Hammersmith.

1913 Suffragettes caused a dynamite explosion at Holloway Prison where Emmeline Pankhurst and Lady Constance Lytton were detained.

1942 The birth, in Tottenham, of Dave Clark, English musician with 'The Dave Clark Five'. Their single 'Glad All Over' knocked The Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' off the top of the UK singles charts in January 1964. They had 12 Top 40 UK hits between 1964 and 1967 and disbanded in late 1970. In 2008, marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the band, The Dave Clark Five was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, located on the shore of Lake Erie in the United States.

1958 The last steam locomotive was made at Crewe. Engine number 92250 was the 7,331st locomotive built since the works opened.

1961 In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including war crimes, charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.

1973 American Psychiatric Association declares homo***uality is not a mental illness

1974 New speed limits were introduced. Speed limits on motorways would remain at 70mph , but on dual carriageways they would become 60mph and on all other roads 50mph as the government tried to curb fuel use.

1979 Chris Haney and Scott Abbott develop the board game Trivial Pursuit

1982 Reputed to be Robin Hood's tree, the 'Major Oak' in Sherwood Forest, was fitted with a fire alarm.

1982 There were scenes of jubilation as the gates isolating the people of Gibraltar from Spain were opened for the first time in 13 years. There were tight restrictions, which included a ban on any British or foreign tourists crossing.

1984 'Do They Know It's Christmas' by Band Aid entered the chart at No.1 and stayed at the top for 5 weeks. At the time it was the biggest selling single ever in the UK, with sales of over three and a half million.

1987 A company in Bedford became the first to be fined (£500) for failing to register personal computer records under the Data Protection Act.

1988 Lori Davis of Long Island sues Mike Tyson for grabbing her buttocks

1993 The British and Irish prime ministers John Major and Albert Reynolds signed the historic Joint Declaration for Peace which they hoped would end 25 years of bombing and murder in Northern Ireland.

1994 Former 800m Commonwealth gold-medallist Diane Modahl was found guilty of taking a banned drug, but was cleared a year later on appeal.

1995 Playboy goes back on sale after 36 year ban in Ireland

2004 The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, resigned after an email implicated him in using his Government position to grant favours to his ex-lover.

2013 Andy Murray was awarded the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year. Earlier in the year Murray had become the first Briton in three quarters of a century to win the men’s singles competition at Wimbledon.

2014 Jonathan Paul Burrows, a London hedge fund manager who regularly avoided buying a train ticket on his commute to the City, was banned for life from working in any regulated financial industries. In total, Mr Burrows was believed to have dodged £42,550 in fares.

2015 Forty three year old astronaut Major Tim Peake became the first Briton to serve a mission on the International Space Station. He took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan at 11:03am GMT, alongside Nasa astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko.

Famous Birthday's

Nero
(37 - 68)



Gustave Eiffel
(1832 - 1923)

J. Paul Getty
(1892 - 1976)

Chico Mendes
(1944 - 1988)

Dave Clark, rock drummer (Dave Clark 5-Glad All Over), born in London, England
78th Birthday

Don Johnson
68th Birthday

Joe Jordan
66th Birthday

Frankie Dettori
47th Birthday

Famous Deaths

Afonso de Albuquerque
( - 1515)



Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa-Sioux chief who helped led his people to victory in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, killed by US Police aged 58 or 59
( - 1890)

1943 Thomas W "Fats" Waller, jazz pianist (Hot Chocolate), dies at 39 in KC Missouri



1944 Glenn Miller, American bandleader and jazz composer (Glenn Miller Orchestra-In the Mood), dies in a suspected plane crash at 40

Walt Disney
(1901 - 1966)



1962 Charles Laughton, English actor (Hunchback of Notre Dame), dies at 63

2013 Joan Fontaine, British-American actress, dies of natural causes at 96

Famous Weddings

1875 Sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (41) weds Jeanne-Emilie Baheux Puysieux in Newport, Rhode Island

1933 Actor Gary Cooper (32) weds actress Veronica Balfe (20) in Park Avenue, New York City

1944 Country music star Hank Williams (21) weds Audrey Sheppard. It was her second marriage and his first.

1960 King Boudouin of Belgium marries dona Fabiola de Mora y Aragon

1983 Author Roald Dahl (67) weds Liccy Crosland (45) at Brixton Town Hall in South London

Famous Divorces

1942 Actress Mary Astor (36) divorces film editor Manuel del Campo (29) after more than 4 years of marriage

2008 Pop singer Madonna (50) divorces film director Guy Ritchie (40) due to unreasonable behavior after almost 8 years of marriage

2010 Nip/Tuck actor Dylan Walsh (47) divorces actress Joana Going (47) due to irreconcilable differences after 6 years of marriage