Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
On 31, Thursday December 1868, Cyrus Kingsbury died, American missionary and Choctaw linguist (b.1786)
On 31, Tuesday December 1918, A British-brokered ceasefire ends the two weeks of fighting in the Georgian–Armenian War.
On 31, Tuesday December 1918, Al Lakeman born, American Major League Baseball catcher (d. 1976)
On 31, Tuesday December 1918, Kyra Petrovskaya Wayne born, Russian-American author (d. 2018)
On 31, Friday December 1943, John Denver born, American musician (d. 1997)
On 31, Friday December 1943, Sir Ben Kingsley born, British actor
On 31, Wednesday December 1958, Geoff Marsh born, cricketer
On 31, Wednesday December 1958, Tallies reveal that, for the first time, the total of passengers carried by air this year exceeds the total carried by sea in transatlantic service.
On 31, Wednesday December 1958, Bebe Neuwirth born, American actress
On 31, Tuesday December 1968, MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes south of Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board.
On 31, Tuesday December 1968, Gerry Dee born, Canadian actor and stand-up comedian
On 31, Tuesday December 1968, George Lewis died, American musician (b. 1900)
On 31, Sunday December 1978, Yulia Barsukova born, Russian rhythmic gymnast
On 31, Sunday December 1978, Craig Wayne Boyd born, American country music singer
On 31, Friday December 1993, Ryan Blaney born, American race car driver
On 31, Friday December 1993, İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil died, Turkish diplomat and politician (b. 1908)
On 31, Friday December 1993, Zviad Gamsakhurdia died, Georgian politician, 1st President of Georgia (b. 1939)
On 31, Thursday December 1998, The first leap second since June 30, 1997, occurs.
On 31, Thursday December 1998, In the Eurozone, the currency rates of this day are fixed permanently.
On 31, Thursday December 1998, Gianina Ernst born, German ski jumper
On 31, Wednesday December 2008, An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end the year. The last time this occurred was in 2005.
On 31, Tuesday December 2013, James Avery, American actor (b. 1945) died
Other On This Day days in history
Neville Buch
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