Born On This Day:

• Horace, 65 BC
• Mary Queen of Scots, 1542
• Queen Christina Sweden, 1626
• Eli Whitney, 1765
• Joel Chandler Harris, 1848
• William Crapo 'Billy' Durant, 1861
• Georges Feydeau, 1862
• Jean Sibelius, 1865
• George Norman Douglas, 1868
• Diego Rivera, 1886
• James Thurber, 1894
• George Stevens, 1904
• Lucian Freud, 1922
• Sammy Davis Jr., 1925
• Maximilian Schell, 1930
• Flip Wilson, 1933
• David Carradine, 1936
• James MacArthur, 1937
• James Galway, 1939
• Jim Morrison, 1943
• John Rubenstein, 1946
• Gregg Allman, 1947
• Kim Basinger, 1953
• Teri Hatcher, 1964
• Sinead O'Connor, 1967

Died On This Day:

• Thomas de Quincey, 1859
• Herbert Spencer, 1903
• King Oscar II Sweden, 1907
• Golda Meir, 1978
• John Lennon assassinated, 1980
• Marty Robbins, 1982
• Slim Pickens, 1983
• Luther Adler, 1984
• Martin Ritt, 1990
• William Shawn, 1992
• Dr. Ernest Boyer, 1995
• John Glenn, 2016

Today's Events:

• 1660 - First time woman allowed to play Shakespeare: Mrs. Norris debuts as Desdemona in 'Othello.'
• 1792 - Henry Laurens of Charleston, S.C. dies and becomes first person in U.S. to be cremated.
• 1862 - First postage stamp issued in Hong Kong.
• 1863 - Abraham Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction after Civil War ends.
• 1886 - AFof L, the American Federation of Labor, adopts name at Columbus, Ohio.
• 1907 - On death of Oscar II, Gustavus V ascends throne of Sweden.
• 1914 - Irving Berlin's first musical, 'Watch Your Step,' opened on Broadway.
• 1914 - Naval Battle of the Falkland Islands; British fleet destroy several German ships.
• 1931 - Coaxial cable patented by inventors Lloyd Espenschied and Herman Affel of NY and NJ.
• 1941 - The day after Pearl Harbor with 2,400 dead Americans, U.S. declares war on Japan.
• 1943 - John Van Druten's 'Voice of the Turtle' starts 1,557 performance run in N.Y.
• 1980 - Autograph hunter Mark David Chapman shoots John Lennon outside Dakota apartment, New York City.
• 1991 - Death of the Soviet Union; Russia, Ukraine & Byelorussia announce Commonwealth (CIS) at Brest.
• 1992 - NASA takes first photo of four mile long speeding asteroid 'Toutatis' only 2.2 million miles from Earth.

Feast Day of Saint:

• Budoc

Holiday:

• Festival of the Immaculate Conception in Italy

Non-Specific Holiday:

• ADVENT SUNDAY, Sunday nearest to feast of Saint Andrew (Nov. 30) whether before or after.
• CHANUKKA (Jewish Feast of Lights), eight day holiday beginning on 25th day of lunar month Kislev.
• TSAO CHÜN, Festival of the Kitchen God in China (23rd day of the twelfth moon (or 24th in Kwantung)
• CH'U HSI, Night of the Thirtieth (29th day of the twelfth moon)
• KWANZAA - African American Heritage celebrated December 26 - January 1