Born On This Day:

• Pope Sixtus V, 1520
• Heinrich Heine, 1797
• Mary Todd Lincoln, 1818
• John Henry Patterson, 1844
• Marc Connelly, 1890
• Drew Pearson, 1897
• Carlos Montoya, 1903
• Lillian Roth, 1910
• Van Heflin, 1910
• Archie Moore, 1913
• Johannes Vorster, 1915
• Ross Macdonald, 1915
• George Shultz, 1920
• Dick Van Dyke, 1925
• Christopher Plummer, 1929
• John Davidson, 1941
• Ted Nugent, 1949
• Steve Buscemi, 1958

Died On This Day:

• Moses Maimonides, 1204
• Donatello, 1466
• King Manuel I Portugal, 1521
• Samuel Johnson, 1784
• Friedrich Hebbel, 1863
• Samuel Gompers, 1924
• Wassily Kandinsky, 1944
• Grandma Moses, 1961
• L. P. Hartley, 1972
• Alice Marble, 1990
• Lord Lew Grade, 1998

Today's Events:

• 1577 - Sir Francis Drake sets sail voyage around the world from Plymouth on ship later called Golden Hind.
• 1642 - Abel Tasman first sights New Zealand.
• 1789 - Austrian Netherlands declares independence as Belgium.
• 1862 - Bloody Union Army defeat at Battle of Fredericksburg (Civil War);12,500 dead or captured.
• 1878 - First electric street lighting in London switched on by Paris company. Holborn viaduct first to get lit.
• 1913 - 'Mona Lisa' found unharmed in Florence after being stolen from Louvre August 21, 1911.
• 1937 - Nanking falls to Japanese in undeclared Sino-Japanese War leading to so-called rape of Nanking.
• 1981 - Poland's military rulers impose martial law and arrest all Solidarity trade union leaders except Lech Walesa.
• 2000 - Rembrandt's Portrait of a Lady sold for world record £19.8 million at Christie's in London.
• 2000 - 5 weeks after vote, Al Gore concedes presidential victory to George W. Bush in US election fiasco.

Feast Day of Saint:

• Lucy (Lucia)
• Odilia

Holiday:

• Festival of Santa Lucia celebrated in Sicily
• Saint Lucia's Day celebrated in Sweden
• Republic Day (1974) in Malta

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