29 Azar 1384 | Tuesday 20 December 2005

This day in four calendars

69 (1957 years ago) Antonius Primus enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor for Nero's former general Vespasian.
1924 (102 years ago) Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison.
1946 (80 years ago) It's a Wonderful Life premieres at the Globe Theatre in New York to mixed reviews.
1970 (56 years ago) Koza riot: After a series of hit-and-runs and other vehicular incidents involving American service personnel, roughly 5,000 Okinawans take to the streets, clashing with American law enforcement in protest against the U.S. occupation of Okinawa.
1977 (49 years ago) With the approval of the State Council, China's two largest newspapers, the People's Daily and the Guangming Daily, publish in full for the first time the Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme.
1987 (39 years ago) In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker MT Vector in the Tablas Strait of the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
1988 (38 years ago) War on drugs: The United Nations agrees upon and promulgates the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, one of three major drug control treaties currently in force.
1999 (27 years ago) Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.

1890 (136 years ago) Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1967)
1927 (99 years ago) Kim Young-sam, South Korean soldier and politician, 7th President of South Korea (died 2015)
1955 (71 years ago) Binali Yıldırım, Turkish lawyer and politician, Turkish Minister of Transport
1955 (71 years ago) Martin Schulz, German politician
1956 (70 years ago) Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritanian general and politician, President of Mauritania
1960 (66 years ago) Kim Ki-duk, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2020)
1980 (46 years ago) Ashley Cole, English footballer
1998 (28 years ago) Kylian Mbappé, French footballer

217 (1809 years ago) Zephyrinus, pope of the Catholic Church
1722 (304 years ago) Kangxi, emperor of the Qing Dynasty (born 1654)
1937 (89 years ago) Erich Ludendorff, German general (born 1865)
1968 (58 years ago) John Steinbeck, American novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)
1982 (44 years ago) Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-American pianist and composer (born 1887)
1996 (30 years ago) Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, and cosmologist (born 1934)
2001 (25 years ago) Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegalese poet and politician, 1st President of Senegal (born 1906)
2009 (17 years ago) Brittany Murphy, American actress and singer (born 1977)