12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for December 20, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1192 – King Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) is captured near Vienna and imprisoned by Duke Leopold V of Austria while returning from the Third Crusade.
- 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase transfer is formally completed in New Orleans, marking the U.S. takeover of the colonial capital from France.
- 1860 – South Carolina becomes the first U.S. state to secede from the Union, accelerating the national slide toward civil war.
- 1917 – The Cheka (the Bolshevik regime’s first secret police / security agency) is established in Soviet Russia.
- 1946 – It’s a Wonderful Life premieres in New York City, beginning its long path to becoming a defining American holiday classic.
- 1951 – Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I) produces the first usable electricity generated by atomic energy, a milestone in the nuclear age.
- 1960 – North Vietnam forms the National Liberation Front (NLF) in South Vietnam, a key political-military development in the Vietnam conflict.
- 1987 – The Philippine ferry MV Doña Paz collides with the oil tanker Vector and sinks, one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters on record.
- 1989 – The United States launches Operation Just Cause, invading Panama to remove Manuel Noriega’s regime.
- 1995 – NATO assumes peacekeeping duties in Bosnia, implementing the Dayton Peace Accords through a large multinational force.
- 1999 – Macau is officially handed over from Portugal to China, ending centuries of Portuguese administration.
- 2019 – The U.S. Space Force is established as a new armed service under the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1945 – Peter Criss – American drummer and co-founder of KISS, known as the band’s original “Catman” persona. (80)
- 1946 – Dick Wolf – American television producer and creator of the Law & Order franchise. (79)
- 1948 – Alan Parsons – English audio engineer and musician, famed for work on Abbey Road and The Dark Side of the Moon and for The Alan Parsons Project. (77)
- 1954 – Sandra Cisneros – American writer and major voice in Chicano literature, best known for The House on Mango Street. (71)
- 1966 – Chris Robinson – American singer and founding frontman of The Black Crowes. (59)
- 1983 – Jonah Hill – American actor, writer, and filmmaker known for both comedy and dramatic roles. (42)
- 1998 – Kylian Mbappé – French football superstar and captain of France, widely regarded as one of the defining players of his generation. (27)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1968 – John Steinbeck – American novelist and Nobel Prize laureate, author of The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. (66)
- 1973 – Bobby Darin – American singer and actor whose hits ranged from pop standards to rock and folk. (37)
- 1976 – Richard J. Daley – Longtime Mayor of Chicago and one of the most influential urban political figures of 20th-century America. (74)
- 1993 – W. Edwards Deming – American statistician and management thinker who shaped modern quality control and industrial improvement. (93)
- 1994 – Dean Rusk – U.S. Secretary of State during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, central to Cold War-era foreign policy. (85)
- 1996 – Carl Sagan – American astronomer and science communicator who brought cosmology to mass audiences. (62)
- 2009 – Brittany Murphy – American actor known for distinctive roles in film and voice acting. (32)
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