Born On This Day:

• Madame Tussaud, 1761
• Queen Alexandra, 1844
• Rex Stout, 1886
• Cyril Ritchard, 1898
• Dame Alicia Markova, 1910
• Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, 1912
• Mary Martin, 1913
• Woody Allen, 1935
• Lou Rawls, 1936
• Lee Trevino, 1939
• Richard Pryor, 1940
• Bette Midler, 1944
• Charlene Tilton, 1958
• Toni Collette, 1972

Died On This Day:

• King Henry I, 1135
• Pope Leo X, 1521
• Czar Alexander I Russia, 1825
• Aleister Crowley, 1947
• David Ben-Gurion, 1973
• Horace Heidt, 1986
• Alvin Ailey, Jr., 1989
• Stéphane Grappelli, 1997
• Charlie Byrd, 1999
• Clark Kerr, 2003

Today's Events:

• 1822 - Franz Liszt, age 11, makes piano debut in Vienna.
• 1825 - Nicholas I succeeds to Czar on death of Alexander I.
• 1870 - Brigham Young incorporates first 'department store' in Salt Lake City, UT.
• 1891 - First game of basketball played at YMCA gym in Springfield, MA lead by inventor James Naismith.
• 1900 - Large brown hawk species Caracara becomes extinct as last one killed on the island of Guadeloupe.
• 1913 - America's first gas station opens by Gulf Refining Co in Pittsburgh.
• 1917 - Boys Town founded in Nebraska.
• 1919 - Britain's first woman MP, Lady Astor, takes seat in House of Commons.
• 1927 - Henry Ford's new Model A goes on display at Waldorf Hotel, NY; 50,000 ordered.
• 1955 - Civil rights movement begins; Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give up bus seat in Montgomery.
• 1959 - Twelve countries, including the United States, sign treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.
• 1959 - First color photograph of the earth from outer space taken from nose cone of Thor missile.
• 1986 - Manet's 'La Rue Mosniers aux Paveurs' sells for $11.1 million at Christie's, London.
• 1986 - Georges Braque's 'Woman Reading' sells for $9.5 million at Sotheby's, London.
• 1988 - Kohnberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. emerges as winner to take over Nabisco - Barbarians at the Gate.
• 1998 - World's biggest merger as Exxon announces agreement with Mobil.
• 2005 - Manuscript piano score of Beethoven's 1826 "Grosse Fuge" sold at Sotheby's, London for £1.12 million.

Feast Day of Saint:

• Eligius
• Natalia

Holiday:

• Independence Day Yugoslavia (1918), Portugal (1640)
• AIDS Awareness Day

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