On This Day:
Saturday December 22, 2012
This is the 357th day of the year, with 9 days
remaining in 2012.
Fact of the Day: winter solstice
The word winter comes from an old Germanic word
that means "time of water" and refers to the rain
and snow - as well as low temperatures - of the
season in middle and high latitudes. In the
Northern Hemisphere, it is commonly regarded as
extending from the winter solstice (the year's
shortest day), December 21 or 22, to the vernal
equinox, the start of Spring. The word winter came
into English circa 888. The solstice is one of the
two times of year when the Sun's apparent path is
farthest north or south from the Earth's equator.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is
on December 21 or 22. The situation is exactly the
opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where the
winter solstice is on June 21 or 22. The word
solstice is from Latin solstitium, from sol "sun"
and sistere "to stand still," as it is regarded as
a point at which the Sun seems to stand still. The
word was first used in English around 1250.
Holidays
Feast day of St. Flavian of Tuscany, St. Zeno, St.
Chaeremon and Others, and St. Ischyrion.
Japan:
Toji or Winter Solstice.
Events
1775
- The Continental
Navy was organized in the American colonies
under the command of Ezek
Hopkins.
1807
- Congress
passed the Embargo
Act, designed to force peace between Britain
and France
and keep the United
States out of their war by cutting off all
trade with Europe.
1894
- French army officer Alfred
Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a
court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of
anti-Semitism.
He was sent to Devil's Island but was later
vindicated.
1894
- The United
States Golf Association (USGA) was founded.
1895
- German physicist Wilhelm
Röntgen made the first X-ray.
1938
- The first coelacanth
to be identified was caught in the Bay
of Chalumna off South
Africa. The fish, thought extinct for 50
million years, was later named
Latimeria-Chalumnae.
1944
- During the Battle
of the Bulge, General Anthony
McAuliffe responded to a German surrender
request with a one word answer: "Nuts!"
1956
- The first gorilla was born in captivity, "Colo"
in Columbus
Ohio.
1961
- James Davis became the first U.S. soldier to die
in Vietnam.
1989
- Romanian dictator Nicolae
Ceausçescu was overthrown in a revolutionary
coup.
2001
- Richard
C. Reid, a passenger on a flight from Paris
to Miami,
tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was
subdued by flight attendants and fellow
passengers.
Births
1858
- Giacomo
Puccini, Italian musician, opera composer.
1862
- Connie
Mack (McGillicuddy), American baseball star.
1945
- Diane
Sawyer, American television journalist.
1949
- Maurice
Gibb, English musician and a member of the Bee
Gees.
Deaths
1880
- George
Eliot (Mary
Ann Evans), English Victorian novelist.
1943
- Beatrix
Potter, English author and artist who
created the character Peter
Rabbit.
1989
- Samuel
Beckett, Irish author and playwright,
recipient of the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1969.
2002
- Joe
Strummer, lead singer of the British punk
band The
Clash.
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