text:
December 14

Pre-1600

 * 557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake, which cracks the dome of Hagia Sophia.
 * 835 – Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspires to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot is foiled.
 * 1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
 * 1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of one week on the death of her father, James V of Scotland.

1601–1900

 * 1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded in Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
 * 1780 – Founding Father Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York.
 * 1782 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2.5 km.
 * 1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
 * 1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
 * 1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
 * 1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends as the "Frostbitten Convention" votes to accept Congress' terms for admitting Michigan as a U.S. state.
 * 1863 – American Civil War: The Confederate victory under General James Longstreet at the Battle of Bean's Station in East Tennessee ends the Knoxville Campaign, but achieves very little as Longstreet returns to Virginia next spring.
 * 1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
 * 1900 – Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law (quantum theory) at the Physic Society in Berlin.

1901–present

 * 1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.
 * 1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
 * 1907 – The Thomas W. Lawson, the largest ever ship without a heat engine, runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
 * 1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signs the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
 * 1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
 * 1913 – JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Haruna, the fourth and last Kongō-class battlecruiser ship, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.
 * 1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 * 1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
 * 1918  – Portuguese President Sidónio Pais is assassinated.
 * 1918  – The 1918 United Kingdom general election occurs, the first where women were permitted to vote. In Ireland the Irish republican political party Sinn Féin wins a landslide victory with nearly 47% of the popular vote.
 * 1918  – Giacomo Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
 * 1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
 * 1940 – Plutonium (specifically Pu-238) is first isolated at Berkeley, California.
 * 1948 – Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann are granted a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game.
 * 1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.
 * 1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility.
 * 1960 – Convention against Discrimination in Education of UNESCO is adopted.
 * 1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
 * 1963 – The dam containing the Baldwin Hills Reservoir bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.
 * 1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.
 * 1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War: Over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals are executed by the Pakistan Army and their local allies. (The date is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.)
 * 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the most recent person to walk on the Moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
 * 1981 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset ratifies the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the Golan Heights.
 * 1985 – Wilma Mankiller takes office as the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
 * 1986 – Qasba Aligarh massacre: Over 400 Muhajirs killed in revenge killings in Qasba colony after a raid on Pashtun heroin processing and distribution center in Sohrab Goth by the security forces.
 * 1992 – War in Abkhazia: Siege of Tkvarcheli: A helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli is shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, including 25 children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.
 * 1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river.
 * 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by the leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 * 1998 – Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.
 * 1999 – Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.
 * 2003 – Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
 * 2004 – The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.
 * 2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
 * 2013 – A reported coup attempt in South Sudan leads to continued fighting and hundreds of casualties.
 * 2017 – The Walt Disney Company announces that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion.
 * 2020 – A total solar eclipse is visible from parts of the South Pacific Ocean, southern South America, and the South Atlantic Ocean.

Pre-1600

 * 1009 – Go-Suzaku, emperor of Japan (d. 1045)
 * 1332 – Frederick III, German nobleman (d. 1381)
 * 1546 – Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and chemist (d. 1601)
 * 1599 – Charles Berkeley, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge, English politician (d. 1668)

1601–1900

 * 1607 – János Kemény, Hungarian prince (d. 1662)
 * 1625 – Barthélemy d'Herbelot, French orientalist and academic (d. 1695)
 * 1631 – Anne Conway, English philosopher and author (d. 1679)
 * 1640 – Aphra Behn, English playwright and author (d. 1689)
 * 1678 – Daniel Neal, English historian and author (d. 1743)
 * 1720 – Justus Möser, German jurist and theorist (d. 1794)
 * 1730 – Capel Bond, English organist and composer (d. 1790)
 * 1738 – Jan Antonín Koželuh, Czech composer and educator (d. 1814)
 * 1775 – Philander Chase, American bishop and educator, founded Kenyon College (d. 1852)
 * 1775  – Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Scottish admiral and politician (d. 1860)
 * 1777 – Du Pre Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon, Irish politician, Lord Lieutenant of Tyrone (d. 1839)
 * 1784 – Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily (d. 1806)
 * 1789 – Maria Szymanowska, Polish composer and pianist (d. 1831)
 * 1791 – Charles Wolfe, Irish priest and poet (d. 1823)
 * 1794 – Erastus Corning, American businessman and politician (d. 1872)
 * 1816 – Abraham Hochmuth, Hungarian rabbi and educator (d. 1889)
 * 1824 – Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, French painter and illustrator (d. 1898)
 * 1832 – Daniel H. Reynolds, American general, lawyer, and politician (d. 1902)
 * 1851 – Mary Tappan Wright, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1916)
 * 1852 – Daniel De Leon, Curaçaoan-American journalist and politician (d. 1914)
 * 1856 – Louis Marshall, American lawyer and activist (d. 1929)
 * 1866 – Roger Fry, English painter and critic (d. 1934)
 * 1870 – Karl Renner, Austrian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Austria (d. 1950)
 * 1881 – Katherine MacDonald, American actress and producer (d. 1956)
 * 1883 – Manolis Kalomiris, Greek pianist and composer (d. 1962)
 * 1883  – Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist, developed aikido (d. 1969)
 * 1884 – Jane Cowl, American actress and playwright (d. 1950)
 * 1887 – Xul Solar, Argentinian painter and sculptor (d. 1963)
 * 1894 – Alexander Nelke, Estonian-American painter and carpenter (d. 1974)
 * 1895 – George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)
 * 1895  – Paul Éluard, French poet and author (d. 1952)
 * 1896 – Jimmy Doolittle, American general and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1993)
 * 1897 – Kurt Schuschnigg, Italian-Austrian lawyer and politician, 15th Federal Chancellor of Austria (d. 1977)
 * 1897  – Margaret Chase Smith, American educator and politician (d. 1995)
 * 1899 – DeFord Bailey, American Hall of Fame country and blues musician (d. 1982)

1901–present

 * 1901 – Henri Cochet, French tennis player (d. 1987)
 * 1901  – Paul of Greece (d. 1964)
 * 1902 – Frances Bavier, American actress (d. 1989)
 * 1902  – Herbert Feigl, Austrian philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1988)
 * 1903 – Walter Rangeley, English sprinter (d. 1982)
 * 1904 – Virginia Coffey, American civil rights activist (d. 2003)
 * 1908 – Morey Amsterdam, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1996)
 * 1908  – Claude Davey, Welsh rugby player (d. 2001)
 * 1908  – Mária Szepes, Hungarian journalist, author, and screenwriter (d. 2007)
 * 1909 – Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
 * 1911 – Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz, Greek-Polish swimmer and water polo player (d. 1943)
 * 1911  – Spike Jones, American singer and bandleader (d. 1965)
 * 1911  – Hans von Ohain, German-American physicist and engineer (d. 1998)
 * 1914 – Karl Carstens, German lieutenant and politician, 5th President of the Federal Republic of Germany (d. 1992)
 * 1914  – Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichord player (d. 2003)
 * 1915 – Dan Dailey, American dancer and actor (d. 1978)
 * 1916 – Shirley Jackson, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1965)
 * 1917 – C.-H. Hermansson, Swedish author and politician (d. 2016)
 * 1917  – Elyse Knox, American actress and fashion designer (d. 2012)
 * 1917  – June Taylor, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2004)
 * 1918 – James T. Aubrey, American broadcaster (d. 1994)
 * 1918  – Radu Beligan, Romanian actor and director (d. 2016)
 * 1918  – B. K. S. Iyengar, Indian yoga instructor and author, founded Iyengar Yoga (d. 2014)
 * 1920 – Clark Terry, American trumpet player, composer, and educator (d. 2015)
 * 1922 – Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
 * 1922  – Don Hewitt, American journalist and producer, created 60 Minutes (d. 2009)
 * 1922  – Junior J. Spurrier, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1984)
 * 1923 – Gerard Reve, Dutch-Belgian author and poet (d. 2006)
 * 1924 – Raj Kapoor, Indian actor, director, and producer (d. 1988)
 * 1927 – Richard Cassilly, American tenor and actor (d. 1998)
 * 1927  – Koos Rietkerk, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of the Interior (d. 1986)
 * 1929 – Ron Jarden, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1977)
 * 1930 – Margaret Bakkes, South African author (d. 2016)
 * 1930  – David R. Harris, English geographer, anthropologist, and archaeologist (d. 2013)
 * 1931 – Jon Elia, Pakistani philosopher, poet, and scholar (d. 2002)
 * 1931  – Vladimir-Georg Karassev-Orgusaar, Estonian director and politician (d. 2015)
 * 1932 – George Furth, American actor and playwright (d. 2008)
 * 1932  – Abbe Lane, American actress, singer, and dancer
 * 1932  – Charlie Rich, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1995)
 * 1934 – Shyam Benegal, Indian director and screenwriter
 * 1934  – Charlie Hodge, American guitarist and singer (d. 2006)
 * 1935 – Lewis Arquette, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2001)
 * 1935  – Lee Remick, American actress (d. 1991)
 * 1938 – Leonardo Boff, Brazilian theologian and author
 * 1938  – Charlie Griffith, Barbadian cricketer
 * 1939 – Ann Cryer, English academic and politician
 * 1939  – Ernie Davis, American football player (d. 1963)
 * 1940 – Lex Gold, Scottish footballer and civil servant
 * 1941 – Karan Armstrong, American soprano and actress (d. 2021)
 * 1941  – Ellen Willis, American journalist, critic, and academic (d. 2006)
 * 1942 – Chris Harris, English actor and director (d. 2014)
 * 1942  – Dick Wagner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2014)
 * 1943 – Tommy McAvoy, Scottish politician (d. 2024)
 * 1943  – Emmett Tyrrell, American journalist, author, and publisher, founded The American Spectator
 * 1944 – Graham Kirkham, Baron Kirkham, English businessman, founded DFS
 * 1944  – Denis Thwaites, English professional footballer murdered in the 2015 Sousse attacks (d. 2015)
 * 1946 – Antony Beevor, English historian and author
 * 1946  – Jane Birkin, English-French actress and singer (d. 2023)
 * 1946  – John Du Prez, English conductor and composer
 * 1946  – Patty Duke, American actress (d. 2016)
 * 1946  – Ruth Fuchs, German javelin thrower and politician (d. 2023)
 * 1946  – Peter Lorimer, Scottish footballer (d. 2021)
 * 1946  – Michael Ovitz, American talent agent, co-founded Creative Artists Agency
 * 1946  – Stan Smith, American tennis player and coach
 * 1946  – Joyce Vincent Wilson, American singer
 * 1947 – Christopher Parkening, American guitarist and educator
 * 1947  – Dilma Rousseff, Brazilian economist and politician, 36th President of Brazil
 * 1948 – Lester Bangs, American journalist and author (d. 1982)
 * 1948  – Kim Beazley, Australian politician and diplomat, 9th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
 * 1948  – Boudewijn Büch, Dutch author, poet, and television host (d. 2002)
 * 1948  – Peeter Kreitzberg, Estonian lawyer and politician (d. 2011)
 * 1948  – Dee Wallace, American actress
 * 1949 – Bill Buckner, American baseball player and manager (d. 2019)
 * 1949  – David A. Cherry, American artist and illustrator
 * 1949  – Cliff Williams, Australian bass player
 * 1951 – John Brown, American basketball player
 * 1951  – Jan Timman, Dutch chess player and author
 * 1952 – John Lurie, American actor, saxophonist, painter, director, and producer
 * 1953 – Vijay Amritraj, Indian tennis player and sportscaster
 * 1953  – Wade Davis, Canadian anthropologist, author, and photographer
 * 1953  – René Eespere, Estonian composer
 * 1953  – Vangelis Meimarakis, Greek lawyer and politician, 4th Greek Minister for National Defence
 * 1953  – Mikael Odenberg, Swedish soldier and politician, 29th Swedish Minister for Defence
 * 1954 – Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (d. 1993)
 * 1954  – Steve MacLean, Canadian physicist and astronaut
 * 1955 – Jane Crafter, Australian golfer
 * 1955  – Jill Pipher, American mathematician and academic
 * 1956 – T. K. Carter, American actor
 * 1956  – Linda Fabiani, Scottish politician
 * 1956  – Hanni Wenzel, German skier
 * 1958 – Mike Scott, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1958  – Spider Stacy, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1959 – Bob Paris, American-Canadian bodybuilder and actor
 * 1959  – Jorge Vaca, Mexican boxer
 * 1960 – James Comey, American lawyer, 7th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
 * 1960  – Don Franklin, American actor
 * 1960  – Chris Waddle, English footballer, manager, and sportscaster
 * 1960  – Diane Williams, American sprinter
 * 1961 – Patrik Sundström, Swedish ice hockey player
 * 1963 – Greg Abbott, English footballer and manager
 * 1963  – William Bedford, American basketball player
 * 1963  – Diana Gansky, German discus thrower
 * 1963  – Cynthia Gibb, American actress and model
 * 1965 – Craig Biggio, American baseball player and coach
 * 1965  – Ken Hill, American baseball player
 * 1965  – Ted Raimi, American actor, director, and screenwriter
 * 1966 – Fabrizio Giovanardi, Italian race car driver
 * 1966  – Carl Herrera, Trinidadian-Venezuelan basketball player
 * 1966  – Anthony Mason, American basketball player (d. 2015)
 * 1966  – Bill Ranford, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
 * 1966  – Tim Sköld, Swedish bass player and producer
 * 1966  – Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Danish academic and politician, 41st Prime Minister of Denmark
 * 1967 – Ewa Białołęcka, Polish author
 * 1967  – Hanne Haugland, Norwegian high jumper and coach
 * 1968 – Kelley Armstrong, Canadian author
 * 1968  – Mohamed Saad, Egyptian actor
 * 1969 – Scott Hatteberg, American baseball player and sportscaster
 * 1969  – Archie Kao, American actor and producer
 * 1969  – Natascha McElhone, English-Irish actress
 * 1969  – Dave Nilsson, Australian baseball player and manager
 * 1969  – Arthur Numan, Dutch footballer and manager
 * 1970 – Anna Maria Jopek, Polish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
 * 1970  – Beth Orton, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1971 – Michaela Watkins, American actor and comedian
 * 1972 – Miranda Hart, English actress
 * 1972  – Marcus Jensen, American baseball player and coach
 * 1973 – Falk Balzer, German hurdler
 * 1973  – Pat Burke, Irish basketball player
 * 1973  – Tomasz Radzinski, Canadian soccer player
 * 1973  – Saulius Štombergas, Lithuanian basketball player and coach
 * 1974 – Billy Koch, American baseball player
 * 1975 – Justin Furstenfeld, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
 * 1975  – Ben Kay, English rugby player
 * 1975  – KaDee Strickland, American actress
 * 1976 – Tammy Blanchard, American actress and singer
 * 1976  – Leland Chapman, American bounty hunter
 * 1976  – Sebastien Chaule, French-German rugby player
 * 1976  – André Couto, Portuguese race car driver
 * 1976  – Santiago Ezquerro, Spanish footballer
 * 1977 – Brendan Nash, Australian-Jamaican cricketer
 * 1977  – Jamie Peacock, English rugby player and manager
 * 1978 – Dean Brogan, Australian footballer and coach
 * 1978  – Shedrack Kibet Korir, Kenyan runner
 * 1978  – Zdeněk Pospěch, Czech footballer
 * 1978  – Patty Schnyder, Swiss tennis player
 * 1978  – Kim St-Pierre, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1979 – Jean-Alain Boumsong, French footballer
 * 1979  – Andrei Makrov, Estonian ice hockey player
 * 1979  – Kyle Shanahan, American football coach
 * 1979  – Sophie Monk, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actress
 * 1979  – Michael Owen, English footballer and sportscaster
 * 1979  – Rocc, Slovenian opera stage director and designer
 * 1980 – Thed Björk, Swedish race car driver
 * 1980  – Gordon Greer, Scottish footballer
 * 1980  – Didier Zokora, Ivorian footballer
 * 1981 – Amber Chia, Malaysian model
 * 1981  – Johnny Jeter, American wrestler
 * 1981  – Liam Lawrence, Irish footballer
 * 1981  – Shaun Marcum, American baseball player
 * 1982 – Josh Fields, American baseball player
 * 1982  – Steve Sidwell, English footballer
 * 1982  – Anthony Way, English singer and actor
 * 1983 – Leanne Mitchell, English singer-songwriter
 * 1984 – Chris Brunt, Northern Irish footballer
 * 1984  – Rana Daggubati, Indian actor and producer
 * 1984  – Ed Rainsford, Zimbabwean cricketer
 * 1984  – Jackson Rathbone, American actor, singer, and musician
 * 1985 – Jakub Błaszczykowski, Polish footballer
 * 1985  – Alex Pennie, Welsh keyboard player
 * 1985  – Tom Smith, English-Welsh rugby player
 * 1985  – Nonami Takizawa, Japanese actress and singer
 * 1987 – Kenneth Medwood, Belizean-American hurdler
 * 1988 – Nicolas Batum, French basketball player
 * 1988  – Nate Ebner, American football player
 * 1988  – Vanessa Hudgens, American actress and singer
 * 1988  – Hayato Sakamoto, Japanese baseball player
 * 1989 – Pedro Botelho, Brazilian footballer
 * 1989  – Sam Burgess, English rugby league player
 * 1989  – Onew, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
 * 1990 – Robert Covington, American basketball player
 * 1991 – Ben Henry, New Zealand rugby league player
 * 1991  – Offset, American rapper
 * 1992 – Tori Kelly, American singer-songwriter
 * 1992  – Ryo Miyaichi, Japanese footballer
 * 1993 – Antonio Giovinazzi, Italian race car driver
 * 1995 – Ivan Barbashev, Russian ice hockey player
 * 1995  – Calvyn Justus, South African swimmer
 * 1996 – Li Zijun, Chinese figure skater
 * 1997 – DK Metcalf, American football player
 * 1998 – Lonnie Walker IV, American basketball player
 * 2001 – Joshua Rush, American actor and activist

Pre-1600

 * 618 – Xue Rengao, emperor of Qin
 * 648 – John III of the Sedre, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch
 * 704 – Aldfrith, king of Northumbria (or 705)
 * 872 – Pope Adrian II (b. 792)
 * 1077 – Agnes of Poitou, Holy Roman Empress and regent (b. c. 1025)
 * 1293 – Al-Ashraf Khalil, Mamluk sultan of Egypt
 * 1311 – Margaret of Brabant, German queen consort (b. 1276)
 * 1332 – Rinchinbal Khan, Mongolian emperor (b. 1326)
 * 1359 – Cangrande II della Scala, Lord of Verona (b. 1332)
 * 1417 – John Oldcastle, English Lollard leader
 * 1460 – Guarino da Verona, Italian scholar and translator (b. 1370)
 * 1480 – Niccolò Perotti, humanist scholar (b. 1429)
 * 1503 – Sten Sture the Elder, regent of Sweden (b. 1440)
 * 1510 – Friedrich of Saxony (b. 1473)
 * 1542 – James V of Scotland (b. 1512)
 * 1591 – John of the Cross, Spanish priest and saint (b. 1542)
 * 1595 – Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1535)

1601–1900

 * 1624 – Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English politician, Lord High Admiral (b. 1536)
 * 1651 – Pierre Dupuy, French historian and scholar (b. 1582)
 * 1715 – Thomas Tenison, English archbishop (b. 1636)
 * 1735 – Thomas Tanner, English bishop and historian (b. 1674)
 * 1741 – Charles Rollin, French historian and educator (b. 1661)
 * 1785 – Giovanni Battista Cipriani, Italian painter and engraver (b. 1727)
 * 1788 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (b. 1714)
 * 1788  – Charles III of Spain (b. 1716)
 * 1799 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (b. 1732)
 * 1831 – Martin Baum, American businessman and politician, 5th Mayor of Cincinnati (b. 1765)
 * 1838 – Jean-Olivier Chénier, Canadian physician (b. 1806)
 * 1842 – Ben Crack-O, king of several tribes around Cape Palmas
 * 1860 – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Scottish-English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1784)
 * 1861 – Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (b. 1819)
 * 1865 – Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist and mineralogist (b. 1794)
 * 1873 – Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist (b. 1807)
 * 1878 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (b. 1843)

1901–present

 * 1912 – Belgrave Edward Sutton Ninnis, English lieutenant and explorer (b. 1887)
 * 1917 – Phil Waller, Welsh rugby player (b. 1889)
 * 1920 – George Gipp, American football player (b. 1895)
 * 1927 – Julian Sochocki, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1842)
 * 1929 – Henry B. Jackson, British admiral (b. 1855)
 * 1935 – Stanley G. Weinbaum, American author (b. 1902)
 * 1937 – Fabián de la Rosa, Filipino painter and educator (b. 1869)
 * 1940 – Anton Korošec, Slovenian priest and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1872)
 * 1943 – John Harvey Kellogg, American physician and businessman, co-invented corn flakes (b. 1852)
 * 1944 – Lupe Vélez, Mexican actress (b. 1908)
 * 1947 – Stanley Baldwin, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
 * 1947  – Edward Higgins, English-American 3rd General of The Salvation Army (b. 1864)
 * 1953 – Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American author and academic (b. 1896)
 * 1956 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi, Finnish lawyer and politician, 7th President of Finland (b. 1870)
 * 1963 – Dinah Washington, American singer and pianist (b. 1924)
 * 1964 – William Bendix, American actor (b. 1906)
 * 1970 – Franz Schlegelberger, German judge and politician, German Reich Minister of Justice (b. 1876)
 * 1971 – Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury, Bangladeshi linguist and scholar (b. 1926)
 * 1971  – Munier Choudhury, Bangladeshi author, playwright, and critic (b. 1925)
 * 1971  – Shahidullah Kaiser, Bangladeshi journalist and author (b. 1927)
 * 1974 – Walter Lippmann, American journalist and author (b. 1889)
 * 1975 – Arthur Treacher, English-American entertainer (b. 1894)
 * 1978 – Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish historian and diplomat, co-founded the College of Europe (b. 1886)
 * 1980 – Elston Howard, American baseball player and coach (b. 1929)
 * 1984 – Vicente Aleixandre, Spanish poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1898)
 * 1985 – Catherine Doherty, Russian-Canadian activist, founded the Madonna House Apostolate (b. 1896)
 * 1985  – Roger Maris, American baseball player and coach (b. 1934)
 * 1989 – Jock Mahoney, American actor and stuntman (b. 1919)
 * 1989  – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)
 * 1990 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss author and playwright (b. 1921)
 * 1990  – Paula Nenette Pepin, French composer, pianist and lyricist (b. 1908)
 * 1991 – Robert Eddison, Japanese-English actor (b. 1908)
 * 1993 – Jeff Alm, American football player (b. 1968)
 * 1993  – Myrna Loy, American actress (b. 1905)
 * 1994 – Orval Faubus, American soldier and politician, 36th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1910)
 * 1995 – G. C. Edmondson, American soldier and author (b. 1922)
 * 1996 – Gaston Miron, Canadian poet and author (b. 1928)
 * 1997 – Stubby Kaye, American actor and comedian (b. 1918)
 * 1997  – Emily Cheney Neville, American author (b. 1919)
 * 1997  – Kurt Winter, Canadian guitarist and songwriter (b. 1946)
 * 1998 – Norman Fell, American actor and comedian (b. 1924)
 * 1998  – A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., American lawyer, judge, and activist (b. 1928)
 * 1998  – Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and politician, Mayor of Dallas (b. 1924)
 * 2001 – W. G. Sebald, German novelist, essayist, and poet (b. 1944)
 * 2003 – Jeanne Crain, American actress (b. 1925)
 * 2003  – Blas Ople, Filipino journalist and politician, 21st President of the Senate of the Philippines (b. 1927)
 * 2003  – Frank Sheeran, American union leader and mobster (b. 1920)
 * 2004 – Rod Kanehl, American baseball player (b. 1934)
 * 2004  – Fernando Poe Jr., Filipino actor, director, producer, and politician (b. 1939)
 * 2006 – Anton Balasingham, Sri Lankan-English strategist and negotiator (b. 1938)
 * 2006  – Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American composer and producer, co-founded Atlantic Records (b. 1923)
 * 2006  – Mike Evans, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1949)
 * 2009 – Alan A'Court, English footballer and manager (b. 1934)
 * 2010 – Timothy Davlin, American politician, Mayor of Springfield (b. 1957)
 * 2010  – Neva Patterson, American actress (b. 1920)
 * 2010  – Dale Roberts, English footballer (b. 1986)
 * 2011 – Joe Simon, American author and illustrator (b. 1913)
 * 2011  – Billie Jo Spears, American singer-songwriter (b. 1937)
 * 2012 – John Graham, English general (b. 1923)
 * 2012  – Edward Jones, American police officer and politician (b. 1950)
 * 2012  – Victoria Leigh Soto, American educator (b. 1985)
 * 2013 – Janet Dailey, American author (b. 1944)
 * 2013  – C. N. Karunakaran, Indian painter and illustrator (b. 1940)
 * 2013  – Dennis Lindley, English statistician and academic (b. 1923)
 * 2013  – Peter O'Toole, British-Irish actor (b. 1932)
 * 2013  – George Rodrigue, American painter (b. 1944)
 * 2014 – Theo Colborn, American zoologist and academic (b. 1927)
 * 2014  – Irene Dalis, American soprano and pianist (b. 1925)
 * 2014  – Louis Alphonse Koyagialo, Congolese politician, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1947)
 * 2014  – Bess Myerson, American model, activist, game show panelist and television personality; Miss America 1945 (b. 1924)
 * 2014  – Fred Thurston, American football player (b. 1933)
 * 2015 – Terry Backer, American soldier and politician (b. 1954)
 * 2015  – Glen Sonmor, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1929)
 * 2015  – Vadym Tyshchenko, Ukrainian footballer and manager (b. 1963)
 * 2015  – Lillian Vernon, German-American businesswoman and philanthropist, founded the Lillian Vernon Company (b. 1927)
 * 2016 – Paulo Evaristo Arns, Brazilian cardinal (b. 1921)
 * 2016  – Bernard Fox, Welsh actor (b. 1927)
 * 2017 – Yu Kwang-chung, Chinese writer (b. 1928)
 * 2019 – Chuy Bravo, Mexican-American comedian and actor (b. 1956)
 * 2020 – Gérard Houllier, French Football manager (b. 1947)
 * 2022 – Jean Franco, American academic and literary critic (b. 1924)
 * 2023 – Tomáš Janovic, Slovak writer (b. 1937)

Holidays and observances

 * Christian feast day:
 * Folcwin
 * John of the Cross
 * John III of the Sedre (Syriac Orthodox Church)
 * Matronian
 * Nicasius of Rheims
 * Nimatullah Kassab (Maronite Church)
 * Spyridon (Western Church)
 * Venantius Fortunatus
 * December 14 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 * Alabama Day (Alabama)
 * Forty-seven Ronin Remembrance Day (Sengaku-ji, Tokyo)
 * Martyred Intellectuals Day (Bangladesh)
 * Monkey Day

title: December 14


text:
December 13

Pre-1600

 * 1294 – Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
 * 1545 – The Council of Trent begins as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation.
 * 1577 – Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.

1601–1900

 * 1623 – The Plymouth Colony establishes the system of trial by 12-men jury in the American colonies.
 * 1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians, a date now considered the founding of the National Guard of the United States.
 * 1642 – Abel Tasman is the first recorded European to sight New Zealand.
 * 1643 – English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
 * 1758 – The English transport ship Duke William sinks in the North Atlantic, killing over 360 people.
 * 1769 – Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth.
 * 1818 – Cyril VI of Constantinople resigns from his position as Ecumenical Patriarch under pressure from the Ottoman Empire.
 * 1862 – American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats Union Major General Ambrose Burnside.
 * 1867 – A Fenian bomb explodes in Clerkenwell, London, killing 12 people and injuring 50.

1901–present

 * 1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking: The city of Nanjing, defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to the Japanese. This is followed by the Nanking Massacre, in which Japanese troops rape and slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians.
 * 1938 – The Holocaust: The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, Germany.
 * 1939 – The Battle of the River Plate is fought off the coast of Uruguay; the first naval battle of World War II. The Kriegsmarine's Deutschland-class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with three Royal Navy cruisers: HMS Ajax (22), HMNZS Achilles and HMS Exeter (68).
 * 1943 – World War II: The Massacre of Kalavryta by German occupying forces in Greece.
 * 1949 – The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
 * 1957 – The 6.5 Farsinaj earthquake strikes Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII, causing at least 1,119 deaths and damaging over 5,000 homes.
 * 1959 – Archbishop Makarios III becomes the first President of Cyprus.
 * 1960 – While Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his Imperial Bodyguard seizes the capital and proclaims him deposed and his son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, Emperor.
 * 1962 – NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
 * 1967 – Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels.
 * 1968 – Brazilian President Artur da Costa e Silva issues AI-5 (Institutional Act No. 5), enabling government by decree and suspending habeas corpus.
 * 1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.
 * 1974 – Malta becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.
 * 1974  – In the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese forces launch their 1975 Spring Offensive (to 30 April 1975), which results in the final capitulation of South Vietnam.
 * 1977 – Air Indiana Flight 216 crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff, and boosters of the team.
 * 1981 – General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland, largely due to the actions by Solidarity.
 * 1982 – The 6.0 North Yemen earthquake shakes southwestern Yemen with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 2,800, and injuring 1,500.
 * 1988 – PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after United States authorities refused to grant him a visa to visit UN headquarters in New York.
 * 1989 – The Troubles: Attack on Derryard checkpoint: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launches an attack on a British Army temporary vehicle checkpoint near Rosslea, Northern Ireland. Two British soldiers are killed and two others are wounded.
 * 1994 – Flagship Airlines Flight 3379 crashes in Morrisville, North Carolina, near Raleigh–Durham International Airport, killing 15.
 * 1995 – Banat Air Flight 166 crashes in Sommacampagna near Verona Villafranca Airport in Verona, Italy, killing 49.
 * 2001 – Sansad Bhavan, the building housing the Indian Parliament, is attacked by terrorists. Twelve people are killed, including the terrorists.
 * 2002 – European Union enlargement: The EU announces that Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members on May 1, 2004.
 * 2003 – Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.
 * 2007 – The Treaty of Lisbon is signed by the EU member states to amend both the Treaty of Rome and the Maastricht Treaty which together form the constitutional basis of the EU. The Treaty of Lisbon is effective from 1 December 2009.

Pre-1600

 * 1272 – King Frederick III of Sicily (d. 1337)
 * 1363 – Jean Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris (d. 1429)
 * 1476 – Lucy Brocadelli, Dominican tertiary and stigmatic (d. 1544)
 * 1484 – Paul Speratus, German Lutheran (d. 1551)
 * 1491 – Martín de Azpilcueta, Spanish theologian and economist (d. 1586)
 * 1499 – Justus Menius, German Lutheran pastor (d. 1558)
 * 1521 – Pope Sixtus V (d. 1590)
 * 1533 – Eric XIV of Sweden (d. 1577)
 * 1553 – Henry IV of France (d. 1610)
 * 1560 – Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, 2nd Prime Minister of France (d. 1641)
 * 1585 – William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet (d. 1649)

1601–1900

 * 1640 – Robert Plot, English chemist and academic (d. 1696)
 * 1662 – Francesco Bianchini, Italian astronomer and philosopher (d. 1729)
 * 1678 – Yongzheng Emperor of China (d. 1735)
 * 1720 – Carlo Gozzi, Italian playwright (d. 1804)
 * 1724 – Franz Aepinus, German astronomer and philosopher (d. 1802)
 * 1769 – James Scarlett Abinger, English judge (d. 1844)
 * 1780 – Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, German chemist, invented the Döbereiner's lamp (d. 1849)
 * 1784 – Archduke Louis of Austria (d. 1864)
 * 1797 – Heinrich Heine, German journalist, poet, and critic (d. 1856)
 * 1804 – Joseph Howe, Canadian journalist and politician, 5th Premier of Nova Scotia (d. 1873)
 * 1814 – Ana Néri, Brazilian nurse and philanthropist (d. 1880)
 * 1816 – Werner von Siemens, German engineer and businessman, founded Siemens (d. 1892)
 * 1818 – Mary Todd Lincoln, 16th First Lady of the United States (d. 1882)
 * 1830 – Mathilde Fibiger, Danish feminist, novelist and telegraphist (d. 1892)
 * 1836 – Franz von Lenbach, German painter and academic (d. 1904)
 * 1854 – Herman Bavinck, Dutch philosopher, theologian, and academic (d. 1921)
 * 1856 – Svetozar Boroević, Croatian-Austrian field marshal (d. 1920)
 * 1860 – Lucien Guitry, French actor (d. 1925)
 * 1864 – Emil Seidel, American woodcarver and politician, 36th Mayor of Milwaukee (d. 1947)
 * 1867 – Kristian Birkeland, Norwegian physicist and author (d. 1917)
 * 1870 – Edward LeSaint, American actor and director (d. 1940)
 * 1871 – Emily Carr, Canadian painter and author (d. 1945)
 * 1874 – Josef Lhévinne, Russian pianist and educator (d. 1944)
 * 1882 – Jane Edna Hunter, African-American social worker (d. 1971)
 * 1883 – Belle da Costa Greene, American librarian and bibliographer (d. 1950)
 * 1884 – Aimilios Veakis, Greek actor, director, and playwright (d. 1951)
 * 1885 – Annie Dale Biddle Andrews, American mathematician (d. 1940)
 * 1887 – George Pólya, Hungarian-American mathematician and academic (d. 1985)
 * 1887  – Alvin C. York, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1964)
 * 1895 – Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Spanish anarchist feminist (d. 1970)
 * 1897 – Albert Aalbers, Dutch architect, designed the Savoy Homann Bidakara Hotel (d. 1961)
 * 1897  – Drew Pearson, American journalist and author (d. 1969)
 * 1900 – Jonel Perlea, Romanian-American conductor and educator (d. 1970)

1901–present

 * 1901 – Olev Roomet, Estonian singer, violinist, and bagpipe player (d. 1987)
 * 1902 – Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, Greek philosopher and politician, 138th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1986)
 * 1902  – Talcott Parsons, American sociologist and academic (d. 1979)
 * 1903 – Ella Baker, American activist (d. 1986)
 * 1903  – Carlos Montoya, Spanish guitarist and composer (d. 1993)
 * 1905 – Ann Barzel, American writer and dance critic (d. 2007)
 * 1906 – Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (d. 1968)
 * 1906  – Laurens van der Post, South African-English soldier and author (d. 1996)
 * 1908 – Elizabeth Alexander, English geologist, academic, and physicist (d. 1958)
 * 1908  – Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Brazilian historian and activist (d. 1995)
 * 1908  – Van Heflin, American film actor (d. 1971)
 * 1911 – Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
 * 1911  – Kenneth Patchen, American poet and painter (d. 1972)
 * 1912 – Luiz Gonzaga, Brazilian singer-songwriter and accordion player (d. 1989)
 * 1913 – Archie Moore, American boxer and actor (d. 1998)
 * 1914 – Alan Bullock, English historian and author (d. 2004)
 * 1914  – Larry Noble, English comedian and actor (d. 1993)
 * 1915 – B. J. Vorster, South African lawyer and politician, 4th State President of South Africa (d. 1983)
 * 1916 – Leonard Weisgard, American author and illustrator (d. 2000)
 * 1919 – Hans-Joachim Marseille, German captain and pilot (d. 1942)
 * 1920 – George P. Shultz, American economist and politician, 60th United States Secretary of State (d. 2021)
 * 1921 – Turgut Demirağ, Turkish film producer, director and screenwriter (d. 1987)
 * 1923 – Philip Warren Anderson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2020)
 * 1923  – Larry Doby, American baseball player (d. 2003)
 * 1925 – Dick Van Dyke, American actor, singer, and dancer
 * 1927 – James Wright, American poet and academic (d. 1980)
 * 1928  – Solomon Feferman, American philosopher and mathematician (d. 2016)
 * 1929 – Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor and producer (d. 2021)
 * 1933 – Paul Bracq, French automotive designer
 * 1934 – Richard D. Zanuck, American film producer (d. 2012)
 * 1935 – Türkan Saylan, Turkish physician and academic (d. 2009)
 * 1936 – Prince Karim al-Husayn Shāh, Aga Khan IV, Swiss humanitarian and religious leader
 * 1938 – Gus Johnson, American basketball player (d. 1987)
 * 1940 – Sanjaya Lall, Indian economist and academic (d. 2005)
 * 1942 – Howard Brenton, English playwright and screenwriter
 * 1942  – Ferguson Jenkins, Canadian baseball player
 * 1945 – Herman Cain, American businessman, politician, and activist (d. 2020)
 * 1948 – Jeff Baxter, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
 * 1948  – Lillian Board, British athlete (d. 1970)
 * 1948  – Ted Nugent, American musician
 * 1950 – Wendie Malick, American actress
 * 1952 – Muhsin Kenon, American basketball player
 * 1953 – Ben Bernanke, American economist
 * 1953  – Bob Gainey, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1956 – Phil Hubbard, American basketball player and coach
 * 1957 – Steve Buscemi, American actor and director
 * 1957  – Morris Day, American musician and actor
 * 1959 – Johnny Whitaker, American actor
 * 1960 – Richard Dent, American football player
 * 1961 – Gary Zimmerman, American football player
 * 1962 – Rex Ryan, American football coach and analyst
 * 1964 – Krišjānis Kariņš, American-Latvian politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Latvia
 * 1967 – Jamie Foxx, American actor, singer, songwriter, producer, and comedian
 * 1969 – Sergei Fedorov, Russian ice hockey player and coach
 * 1971 – Scott Sattler, Australian rugby league player
 * 1972 – Matti Kärki, Swedish heavy metal singer
 * 1975 – Tom DeLonge, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, author, and filmmaker
 * 1975 – James Kyson, American actor
 * 1975 – Matthew LeCroy, American baseball player and manager
 * 1978 – Cameron Douglas, American actor
 * 1981 – Amy Lee, American singer, songwriter and pianist
 * 1982 – Dan Hamhuis, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1982 – Ricky Nolasco, American baseball player
 * 1983 – Laura Hodges, Australian basketball player
 * 1984 – Santi Cazorla, Spanish footballer
 * 1984 – Hanna-Maria Seppälä, Finnish freestyle swimmer
 * 1988 – Rickie Fowler, American golfer
 * 1989 – Hellen Obiri, Kenyan runner
 * 1989 – Katherine Schwarzenegger, American author
 * 1989 – Taylor Swift, American singer-songwriter
 * 1990 – Fletcher Cox, American football player
 * 1990 – Joseph Garrett, English YouTuber, actor, and author
 * 1990 – Arantxa Rus, Dutch tennis player
 * 1991 – Dave Leduc, Canadian martial artist
 * 1991 – Vladimir Tarasenko, Russian ice hockey player
 * 1993 – Danielle Collins, American tennis player
 * 1993 – Jamal Fogarty, Australian rugby league player
 * 1995 – Emma Corrin, English actor
 * 1996 – Gleyber Torres, Venezuelan baseball player
 * 1999 – Marina Bassols Ribera, Spanish tennis player
 * 2000 – Simona Waltert, Swiss tennis player
 * 2001 – Jayden Goodwin, Australian cricketer

Pre-1600

 * 558 – Childebert I, Frankish king (b. 496)
 * 769 – Du Hongjian, Chinese politician (b. 709)
 * 838 – Pepin I of Aquitaine (b. 797)
 * 859 – Angilbert II, archbishop of Milan
 * 1124 – Pope Callixtus II (b. 1065)
 * 1126 – Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1075)
 * 1204 – Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher (b. 1135)
 * 1250 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1194)
 * 1272 – Bertold of Regensburg, German preacher
 * 1404 – Albert I, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1336)
 * 1466 – Donatello, Italian painter and sculptor (b. 1386)
 * 1516 – Johannes Trithemius, German cryptographer and historian (b. 1462)
 * 1521 – Manuel I of Portugal (b. 1469)
 * 1557 – Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia, Italian mathematician and engineer (b. 1499)
 * 1565 – Conrad Gessner, Swiss botanist and physician (b. 1516)

1601–1900

 * 1621 – Katarina Stenbock, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1535)
 * 1671 – Antonio Grassi, Italian Roman Catholic priest(b. 1592)
 * 1716 – Charles de La Fosse, French painter (b. 1640)
 * 1721 – Alexander Selkirk, Scottish sailor (b. 1676)
 * 1729 – Anthony Collins, English philosopher and author (b. 1676)
 * 1754 – Mahmud I, Ottoman sultan (b. 1696)
 * 1758 – Noël Doiron, Canadian Acadia leader (b. 1684)
 * 1769 – Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German poet and hymn-writer (b. 1715)
 * 1783 – Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer and demographer (b. 1717)
 * 1784 – Samuel Johnson, English poet and lexicographer (b. 1709)
 * 1814 – Charles-Joseph, 7th Prince of Ligne, Belgian-Austrian field marshal (b. 1735)
 * 1849 – Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg, German botanist and entomologist (b. 1766)
 * 1862 – Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, American general, lawyer, and politician (b. 1823)
 * 1863 – Christian Friedrich Hebbel, German poet and playwright (b. 1813)
 * 1868 – Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist and explorer (b. 1794)
 * 1881 – August Šenoa, Croatian author and poet (b. 1838)
 * 1883 – Victor de Laprade, French poet and critic (b. 1812)
 * 1893 – Georg August Rudolph, German lawyer and politician, 3rd Mayor of Marburg (b. 1816)
 * 1895 – Ányos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist and engineer (b. 1800)

1901–present

 * 1908 – Augustus Le Plongeon, French photographer and historian (b. 1825)
 * 1911 – Reggie Duff, Australian cricketer (b. 1878)
 * 1919 – Woldemar Voigt, German physicist and academic (b. 1850)
 * 1922 – Arthur Wesley Dow, American painter and photographer (b. 1857)
 * 1922  – Hannes Hafstein, Icelandic poet and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1861)
 * 1924 – Samuel Gompers, English-born American labor leader, founded the American Federation of Labor (b. 1850)
 * 1927 – Mehmet Nadir, Turkish mathematician and academic (b. 1856)
 * 1929 – Rosina Heikel, Finnish physician (b. 1842)
 * 1930 – Fritz Pregl, Slovenian-Austrian chemist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
 * 1931 – Gustave Le Bon, French psychologist, sociologist, and anthropologist (b. 1840)
 * 1932 – Georgios Jakobides, Greek painter and sculptor (b. 1853)
 * 1935 – Victor Grignard, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
 * 1942 – Wlodimir Ledóchowski, Austrian-Polish religious leader, 26th Superior-General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1866)
 * 1942  – Robert Robinson Taylor, American architect (b. 1868)
 * 1944 – Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-French painter and theorist (b. 1866)
 * 1945 – Irma Grese, German concentration camp guard (b. 1923)
 * 1945  – Josef Kramer, German concentration camp commandant (b. 1906)
 * 1945  – Elisabeth Volkenrath, Polish-German concentration camp supervisor (b. 1919)
 * 1947 – Henry James, American lawyer and author (b. 1879)
 * 1947  – Nicholas Roerich, Russian archaeologist, painter, and philosopher (b. 1874)
 * 1950 – Abraham Wald, Hungarian mathematician and academic (b. 1902)
 * 1954 – John Raymond Hubbell, American director and composer (b. 1879)
 * 1955 – Egas Moniz, Portuguese psychiatrist and neurosurgeon, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
 * 1960 – Dora Marsden, English author and activist (b. 1882)
 * 1961 – Grandma Moses, American painter (b. 1860)
 * 1962 – Harry Barris, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1905)
 * 1969 – Raymond A. Spruance, American admiral and diplomat, United States Ambassador to the Philippines (b. 1886)
 * 1973 – Henry Green, English author (b. 1905)
 * 1974 – Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu, Egyptian-Turkish journalist, author, and politician (b. 1889)
 * 1975 – Cyril Delevanti, English-American actor (b. 1889)
 * 1975 – Addie Viola Smith, American lawyer and trade commissioner (b. 1893)
 * 1977 – Oguz Atay, Turkish engineer and author (b. 1934)
 * 1979 – Jon Hall, American actor and director (b. 1915)
 * 1979  – Behçet Necatigil, Turkish author, poet and translator (b. 1916)
 * 1983 – Alexander Schmemann, Estonian-American priest and theologian (b. 1921)
 * 1983  – Nichita Stănescu, Romanian poet and critic (b. 1933)
 * 1986 – Heather Angel, British-American actress (b. 1909)
 * 1986  – Ella Baker, American activist (b. 1903)
 * 1986  – Smita Patil, Indian actress and journalist (b. 1955)
 * 1992 – K. C. Irving, Canadian businessman (b. 1899)
 * 1992  – Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1899)
 * 1993 – Vanessa Duriès, French author (b. 1972)
 * 1995 – Ann Nolan Clark, American author and educator (b. 1896)
 * 1996 – Edward Blishen, English author and educator (b. 1920)
 * 1997 – Don E. Fehrenbacher, American historian, author, and academic (b. 1920)
 * 1998 – Lew Grade, Ukrainian-born British impresario and media proprietor (b. 1906)
 * 1998  – Richard Thomas, Royal Naval Officer (b. 1922)
 * 1998  – Wade Watts, civil rights activist (b. 1919)
 * 2002 – Zal Yanovsky, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who founded The Lovin' Spoonful (b. 1944)
 * 2004 – David Wheeler, English computer scientist and academic (b. 1927)
 * 2005 – Alan Shields, American painter and ferryboat captain (b. 1944)
 * 2006 – Lamar Hunt, American businessman, co-founded the American Football League and World Championship Tennis (b. 1932)
 * 2016 – Alan Thicke, Canadian actor, songwriter, game and talk-show host (b. 1947)
 * 2018 – Noah Klieger, Holocaust survivor who became an award-winning Israeli journalist (b. 1926)
 * 2022 – Stephen "tWitch" Boss, American dancer and media personality (b. 1982)

Holidays and observances

 * Christian feast day:
 * St Antiochus of Sulcis
 * St Judoc aka St Joyce
 * St Lucy
 * St Odile of Alsace
 * Acadian Remembrance Day (Acadians)
 * National Day (Saint Lucia)
 * Martial Law Victims Remembrance Day (Poland)
 * Nanking Massacre Memorial Day (China)
 * Nusantara Day (Indonesia)
 * Republic Day (Malta)
 * Sailor's Day (Brazil)
 * Saint Lucia Day (mainly in Scandinavia)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: December 13


text:
Dr. Seuss

Theodor Seuss Geisel ( March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was an American children's author and cartoonist. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss. His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.

Geisel adopted the name "Dr. Seuss" as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College and as a graduate student at Lincoln College, Oxford. He left Oxford in 1927 to begin his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for Vanity Fair, Life, and various other publications. He also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, including for FLIT and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM. He published his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937. During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children's literature to illustrate political cartoons, and he worked in the animation and film department of the United States Army.

After the war, Geisel returned to writing children's books, writing acclaimed works such as If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), Green Eggs and Ham (1960), One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (1960), The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961), The Lorax (1971), The Butter Battle Book (1984), and Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990). He published over 60 books during his career, which have spawned numerous adaptations, including eleven television specials, five feature films, a Broadway musical, and four television series.

He received two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Special for Halloween Is Grinch Night (1978) and Outstanding Animated Program for The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982). In 1984, he won a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. His birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative focused on reading created by the National Education Association.

Early years
Geisel was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Henrietta (née Seuss) and Theodor Robert Geisel. His father managed the family brewery and was later appointed to supervise Springfield's public park system by Mayor John A. Denison after the brewery closed because of Prohibition. Mulberry Street in Springfield, made famous in his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, is near his boyhood home on Fairfield Street. The family was of German descent, and Geisel and his sister Marnie experienced anti-German prejudice from other children following the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Geisel was raised as a Missouri Synod Lutheran and remained in the denomination his entire life.

Geisel attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1925. At Dartmouth, he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief. While at Dartmouth, he was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room. At the time, the possession and consumption of alcohol was illegal under Prohibition laws, which remained in place between 1920 and 1933. As a result of this infraction, Dean Craven Laycock insisted that Geisel resign from all extracurricular activities, including the Jack-O-Lantern. To continue working on the magazine without the administration's knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss". He was encouraged in his writing by professor of rhetoric W. Benfield Pressey, whom he described as his "big inspiration for writing" at Dartmouth.

Upon graduating from Dartmouth, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) in English literature. At Oxford, he met his future wife Helen Palmer, who encouraged him to give up becoming an English teacher in favor of pursuing drawing as a career. She later recalled that "Ted's notebooks were always filled with these fabulous animals. So I set to work diverting him; here was a man who could draw such pictures; he should be earning a living doing that."

Early career
Geisel left Oxford without earning a degree and returned to the United States in February 1927, where he immediately began submitting writings and drawings to magazines, book publishers, and advertising agencies. Making use of his time in Europe, he pitched a series of cartoons called Eminent Europeans to Life magazine, but the magazine passed on it. His first nationally published cartoon appeared in the July 16, 1927, issue of The Saturday Evening Post. This single $25 sale encouraged Geisel to move from Springfield to New York City. Later that year, Geisel accepted a job as writer and illustrator at the humor magazine Judge, and he felt financially stable enough to marry Palmer. His first cartoon for Judge appeared on October 22, 1927, and Geisel and Palmer were married on November 29. Geisel's first work signed "Dr. Seuss" was published in Judge about six months after he started working there.

In early 1928, one of Geisel's cartoons for Judge mentioned Flit, a common bug spray at the time manufactured by Standard Oil of New Jersey. According to Geisel, the wife of an advertising executive in charge of advertising Flit saw Geisel's cartoon at a hairdresser's and urged her husband to sign him. Geisel's first Flit ad appeared on May 31, 1928, and the campaign continued sporadically until 1941. The campaign's catchphrase "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" became a part of popular culture. It spawned a song and was used as a punch line for comedians such as Fred Allen and Jack Benny. As Geisel gained fame for the Flit campaign, his work was in demand and began to appear regularly in magazines such as Life, Liberty and Vanity Fair.

The money Geisel earned from his advertising work and magazine submissions made him wealthier than even his most successful Dartmouth classmates. The increased income allowed the Geisels to move to better quarters and to socialize in higher social circles. They became friends with the wealthy family of banker Frank A. Vanderlip. They also traveled extensively: by 1936, Geisel and his wife had visited 30 countries together. They did not have children, neither kept regular office hours, and they had ample money. Geisel also felt that traveling helped his creativity.

Geisel's success with the Flit campaign led to more advertising work, including for other Standard Oil products like Essomarine boat fuel and Essolube Motor Oil and for other companies like the Ford Motor Company, NBC Radio Network, and Holly Sugar. His first foray into books, Boners, a collection of children's sayings that he illustrated, was published by Viking Press in 1931. It topped The New York Times non-fiction bestseller list and led to a sequel, More Boners, published the same year. Encouraged by the books' sales and positive critical reception, Geisel wrote and illustrated an ABC book featuring "very strange animals" that failed to interest publishers.

In 1936, Geisel and his wife were returning from an ocean voyage to Europe when the rhythm of the ship's engines inspired the poem that became his first children's book: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Based on Geisel's varied accounts, the book was rejected by between 20 and 43 publishers. According to Geisel, he was walking home to burn the manuscript when a chance encounter with an old Dartmouth classmate led to its publication by Vanguard Press. Geisel wrote four more books before the US entered World War II. This included The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins in 1938, as well as The King's Stilts and The Seven Lady Godivas in 1939, all of which were in prose, atypically for him. This was followed by Horton Hatches the Egg in 1940, in which Geisel returned to the use of verse.

World War II-era work
As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-leaning New York City daily newspaper, PM. Geisel's political cartoons, later published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War, denounced Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and were highly critical of non-interventionists ("isolationists"), such as Charles Lindbergh, who opposed US entry into the war. One cartoon depicted Japanese Americans being handed TNT in anticipation of a "signal from home", while other cartoons deplored the racism at home against Jews and blacks that harmed the war effort. His cartoons were strongly supportive of President Roosevelt's handling of the war, combining the usual exhortations to ration and contribute to the war effort with frequent attacks on Congress (especially the Republican Party), parts of the press (such as the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Washington Times-Herald), and others for criticism of Roosevelt, criticism of aid to the Soviet Union, investigation of suspected Communists, and other offences that he depicted as leading to disunity and helping the Nazis, intentionally or inadvertently.

In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he joined the Army as a captain and was commander of the Animation Department of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces, where he wrote films that included Your Job in Germany, a 1945 propaganda film about peace in Europe after World War II; Our Job in Japan and the Private Snafu series of adult army training films. While in the Army, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. Our Job in Japan became the basis for the commercially released film Design for Death (1947), a study of Japanese culture that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) was based on an original story by Seuss and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Later years
After the war, Geisel and his wife moved to the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, where he returned to writing children's books. He published most of his books through Random House in North America and William Collins, Sons (later HarperCollins) internationally. He wrote many, including such favorites as If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Horton Hears a Who! (1955), If I Ran the Circus (1956), The Cat in the Hat (1957), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), and Green Eggs and Ham (1960). He received numerous awards throughout his career, but he won neither the Caldecott Medal nor the Newbery Medal. Three of his titles from this period were, however, chosen as Caldecott runners-up (now referred to as Caldecott Honor books): McElligot's Pool (1947), Bartholomew and the Oobleck (1949), and If I Ran the Zoo (1950). Dr. Seuss also wrote the musical and fantasy film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T., which was released in 1953. The movie was a critical and financial failure, and Geisel never attempted another feature film. During the 1950s, he also published a number of illustrated short stories, mostly in Redbook magazine. Some of these were later collected (in volumes such as The Sneetches and Other Stories) or reworked into independent books (If I Ran the Zoo). A number have never been reprinted since their original appearances.

In May 1954, Life published a report on illiteracy among school children which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. William Ellsworth Spaulding was the director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin (he later became its chairman), and he compiled a list of 348 words that he felt were important for first-graders to recognize. He asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and to write a book using only those words. Spaulding challenged Geisel to "bring back a book children can't put down". Nine months later, Geisel completed The Cat in the Hat, using 236 of the words given to him. It retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Geisel's earlier works but, because of its simplified vocabulary, it could be read by beginning readers. The Cat in the Hat and subsequent books written for young children achieved significant international success and they remain very popular today. For example, in 2009, Green Eggs and Ham sold 540,000 copies, The Cat in the Hat sold 452,000 copies, and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (1960) sold 409,000 copies—all outselling the majority of newly published children's books.

Geisel went on to write many other children's books, both in his new simplified-vocabulary manner (sold as Beginner Books) and in his older, more elaborate style.

In 1955, Dartmouth awarded Geisel an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters, with the citation: "Creator and fancier of fanciful beasts, your affinity for flying elephants and man-eating mosquitoes makes us rejoice you were not around to be Director of Admissions on Mr. Noah's ark. But our rejoicing in your career is far more positive: as author and artist you singlehandedly have stood as St. George between a generation of exhausted parents and the demon dragon of unexhausted children on a rainy day. There was an inimitable wriggle in your work long before you became a producer of motion pictures and animated cartoons and, as always with the best of humor, behind the fun there has been intelligence, kindness, and a feel for humankind. An Academy Award winner and holder of the Legion of Merit for war film work, you have stood these many years in the academic shadow of your learned friend Dr. Seuss; and because we are sure the time has come when the good doctor would want you to walk by his side as a full equal and because your College delights to acknowledge the distinction of a loyal son, Dartmouth confers on you her Doctorate of Humane Letters." Geisel joked that he would now have to sign "Dr. Dr. Seuss". His wife was ill at the time, so he delayed accepting it until June 1956.

Geisel's wife Helen had a long struggle with illnesses. On October 23, 1967, Helen died by suicide. Eight months later, on June 21, 1968, Geisel married Audrey Dimond with whom he had reportedly been having an affair. Although he devoted most of his life to writing children's books, Geisel had no children of his own, saying of children: "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em." Audrey added that Geisel "lived his whole life without children and he was very happy without children." Audrey oversaw Geisel's estate until her death on December 19, 2018, at the age of 97.

Geisel was awarded an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Whittier College in 1980. He also received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the professional children's librarians in 1980, recognizing his "substantial and lasting contributions to children's literature". At the time, it was awarded every five years. He won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1984 citing his "contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America's children and their parents".

Illness, death, and posthumous honors
Geisel died of cancer on September 24, 1991, at his home in the La Jolla community of San Diego at the age of 87. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean. On December 1, 1995, four years after his death, University of California, San Diego's University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions that they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy.

In 2002, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in Springfield, Massachusetts, featuring sculptures of Geisel and of many of his characters. In 2017, the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum opened next to the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in the Springfield Museums Quadrangle. In 2008, Dr. Seuss was inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2004, U.S. children's librarians established the annual Theodor Seuss Geisel Award to recognize "the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States during the preceding year". It should "demonstrate creativity and imagination to engage children in reading" from pre-kindergarten to second grade. On April 4, 2012, the Dartmouth Medical School was renamed the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine in honor of their many years of generosity to the college. Dr. Seuss has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

In 2012, a crater on the planet Mercury was named after Geisel.

Pen names
Geisel's most famous pen name is regularly pronounced, an anglicized pronunciation of his German name (the standard German pronunciation is ). He himself noted that it rhymed with "voice" (his own pronunciation being ). Alexander Laing, one of his collaborators on the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, wrote of it:

Geisel switched to the anglicized pronunciation because it "evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children's books to be associated with—Mother Goose" and because most people used this pronunciation. He added the "Doctor (abbreviated Dr.)" to his pen name because his father had always wanted him to practice medicine.

For books that Geisel wrote and others illustrated, he used the pen name "Theo LeSieg", starting with I Wish That I Had Duck Feet published in 1965. "LeSieg" is "Geisel" spelled backward. Geisel also published one book under the name Rosetta Stone, 1975's Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!!, a collaboration with Michael K. Frith. Frith and Geisel chose the name in honor of Geisel's second wife Audrey, whose maiden name was Stone.

Political views
Geisel was a liberal Democrat and a supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. His early political cartoons show a passionate opposition to fascism, and he urged action against it both before and after the U.S. entered World War II. His cartoons portrayed the fear of communism as overstated, finding greater threats in the House Committee on Unamerican Activities and those who threatened to cut the U.S.'s "life line" to the USSR and Stalin, whom he once depicted as a porter carrying "our war load".

Geisel supported the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II in order to prevent possible sabotage. Geisel explained his position:

"But right now, when the Japs are planting their hatchets in our skulls, it seems like a hell of a time for us to smile and warble: 'Brothers!' It is a rather flabby battle cry. If we want to win, we've got to kill Japs, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left."

After the war, Geisel overcame his feelings of animosity and re-examined his view, using his book Horton Hears a Who! (1954) as an allegory for the American post-war occupation of Japan, as well as dedicating the book to a Japanese friend.

Geisel converted a copy of one of his famous children's books, Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!, into a polemic shortly before the end of the 1972–1974 Watergate scandal, in which U.S. president Richard Nixon resigned, by replacing the name of the main character everywhere that it occurred. "Richard M. Nixon, Will You Please Go Now!" was published in major newspapers through the column of his friend Art Buchwald.

The line "a person's a person, no matter how small" from Horton Hears a Who! has been used widely as a slogan by the pro-life movement in the United States. Geisel and later his widow Audrey objected to this use; according to her attorney, "She doesn't like people to hijack Dr. Seuss characters or material to front their own points of view." In the 1980s, Geisel threatened to sue an anti-abortion group for using this phrase on their stationery, according to his biographer, causing them to remove it. The attorney says he never discussed abortion with either of them, and the biographer says Geisel never expressed a public opinion on the subject. After Seuss's death, Audrey gave financial support to Planned Parenthood.

In his children's books
Geisel made a point of not beginning to write his stories with a moral in mind, stating that "kids can see a moral coming a mile off." He was not against writing about issues, however; he said that "there's an inherent moral in any story", and he remarked that he was "subversive as hell."

Geisel's books express his views on a wide variety of social and political issues: The Lorax (1971), about environmentalism and anti-consumerism; The Sneetches (1961), about racial equality; The Butter Battle Book (1984), about the arms race; Yertle the Turtle (1958), about Adolf Hitler and anti-authoritarianism; How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957), criticizing the economic materialism and consumerism of the Christmas season; and Horton Hears a Who! (1954), about anti-isolationism and internationalism.

Retired books
Seuss's work for children has been criticized for unconscious racist themes. Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the organization that owns the rights to the books, films, TV shows, stage productions, exhibitions, digital media, licensed merchandise, and other strategic partnerships, announced on March 2, 2021, that it will stop publishing and licensing six books. The publications include And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), If I Ran the Zoo (1950), McElligot's Pool (1947), On Beyond Zebra! (1955), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953) and The Cat's Quizzer (1976). According to the organization, the books "portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong" and are no longer being published.

Poetic meters
Geisel wrote most of his books in anapestic tetrameter, a poetic meter employed by many poets of the English literary canon. This is often suggested as one of the reasons that Geisel's writing was so well received.

Artwork

Geisel's early artwork often employed the shaded texture of pencil drawings or watercolors, but in his children's books of the postwar period, he generally made use of a starker medium—pen and ink—normally using just black, white, and one or two colors. His later books, such as The Lorax, used more colors.

Geisel's style was unique—his figures are often "rounded" and somewhat droopy. This is true, for instance, of the faces of the Grinch and the Cat in the Hat. Almost all his buildings and machinery were devoid of straight lines when they were drawn, even when he was representing real objects. For example, If I Ran the Circus shows a droopy hoisting crane and a droopy steam calliope.

Geisel evidently enjoyed drawing architecturally elaborate objects, and a number of his motifs are identifiable with structures in his childhood home of Springfield, including examples such as the onion domes of its Main Street and his family's brewery. His endlessly varied but never rectilinear palaces, ramps, platforms, and free-standing stairways are among his most evocative creations. Geisel also drew complex imaginary machines, such as the Audio-Telly-O-Tally-O-Count, from Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book, or the "most peculiar machine" of Sylvester McMonkey McBean in The Sneetches. Geisel also liked drawing outlandish arrangements of feathers or fur: for example, the 500th hat of Bartholomew Cubbins, the tail of Gertrude McFuzz, and the pet for girls who like to brush and comb, in One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

Geisel's illustrations often convey motion vividly. He was fond of a sort of "voilà" gesture in which the hand flips outward and the fingers spread slightly backward with the thumb up. This motion is done by Ish in One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish when he creates fish (who perform the gesture with their fins), in the introduction of the various acts of If I Ran the Circus, and in the introduction of the "Little Cats" in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back. He was also fond of drawing hands with interlocked fingers, making it look as though his characters were twiddling their thumbs.

Geisel also follows the cartoon tradition of showing motion with lines, like in the sweeping lines that accompany Sneelock's final dive in If I Ran the Circus. Cartoon lines are also used to illustrate the action of the senses—sight, smell, and hearing—in The Big Brag, and lines even illustrate "thought", as in the moment when the Grinch conceives his awful plan to ruin Christmas.

Adaptations
For most of his career, Geisel was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books. However, he did permit the creation of several animated cartoons, an art form in which he had gained experience during World War II, and he gradually relaxed his policy as he aged.

The first adaptation of one of Geisel's works was an animated short film based on Horton Hatches the Egg, animated at Leon Schlesinger Productions in 1942 and directed by Bob Clampett. As part of George Pal's Puppetoons theatrical cartoon series for Paramount Pictures, two of Geisel's works were adapted into stop-motion films by George Pal. The first, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, was released in 1943. The second, And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street, with a title slightly altered from the book's, was released in 1944. Both were nominated for an Academy Award for "Short Subject (Cartoon)".

In 1966, Geisel authorized eminent cartoon artist Chuck Jones—his friend and former colleague from the war—to make a cartoon version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The cartoon was narrated by Boris Karloff, who also provided the voice of the Grinch. It is often broadcast as an annual Christmas television special. Jones directed an adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! in 1970 and produced an adaptation of The Cat in the Hat in 1971.

From 1972 to 1983, Geisel wrote six animated specials that were produced by DePatie-Freleng: The Lorax (1972); Dr. Seuss on the Loose (1973); The Hoober-Bloob Highway (1975); Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977); Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (1980); and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982). Several of the specials won multiple Emmy Awards. A Soviet paint-on-glass-animated short film was made in 1986 called Welcome, an adaptation of Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose. The last adaptation of Geisel's work before he died was The Butter Battle Book, a television special based on the book of the same name, directed by Ralph Bakshi. A television film titled In Search of Dr. Seuss was released in 1994, which adapted many of Seuss's stories.

After Geisel died of cancer at the age of 87 in 1991, his widow Audrey Geisel took charge of licensing matters until her death in 2018. Since then, licensing is controlled by the nonprofit Dr. Seuss Enterprises. Audrey approved a live-action feature-film version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey, as well as a Seuss-themed Broadway musical called Seussical, and both premiered in 2000. In 2003, another live-action film was released, this time an adaptation of The Cat in the Hat that featured Mike Myers as the title character. Audrey Geisel spoke critically of the film, especially the casting of Myers as the Cat in the Hat, and stated that she would not allow any further live-action adaptations of Geisel's books. However, a first animated CGI feature film adaptation of Horton Hears a Who! was approved, and was eventually released on March 14, 2008, to positive reviews. A second CGI-animated feature film adaptation of The Lorax was released by Universal on March 2, 2012 (on what would have been Seuss's 108th birthday). The third adaptation of Seuss's story, the CGI-animated feature film, The Grinch, was released by Universal on November 9, 2018.

Five television series have been adapted from Geisel's work. The first, Gerald McBoing-Boing, was an animated television adaptation of Geisel's 1951 cartoon of the same name and lasted three months between 1956 and 1957. The second, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, was a mix of live-action and puppetry by Jim Henson Television, the producers of The Muppets. It aired for two seasons on Nickelodeon in the United States, from 1996 to 1998. The third, Gerald McBoing-Boing, is a remake of the 1956 series. Produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Entertainment (now DHX Media) and North America by Classic Media (now DreamWorks Classics), it ran from 2005 to 2007. The fourth, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!, produced by Portfolio Entertainment Inc., began on August 7, 2010, in Canada and September 6, 2010, in the United States and is producing new episodes. The fifth, Green Eggs and Ham, is an animated streaming television adaptation of Geisel's 1960 book of the same title and premiered on November 8, 2019, on Netflix,   and a second season by the title of Green Eggs and Ham: The Second Serving premiered in 2022.

Geisel's books and characters are featured in Seuss Landing, one of many islands at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida. In an attempt to match Geisel's visual style, there are reportedly "no straight lines" in Seuss Landing.

The Hollywood Reporter has reported that Warner Animation Group and Dr. Seuss Enterprises have struck a deal to make new animated movies based on the stories of Dr. Seuss. Their first project will be a fully animated version of The Cat in the Hat.

Selected titles

 * And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937)
 * Horton Hatches the Egg (1940)
 * Horton Hears a Who! (1954)
 * The Cat in the Hat (1957)
 * How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1957)
 * The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (1958)
 * One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (1960)
 * Green Eggs and Ham (1960)
 * The Sneetches and Other Stories (1961)
 * Hop on Pop (1963)
 * Fox in Socks (1965)
 * The Lorax (1971)
 * The Butter Battle Book (1981)
 * I Am Not Going to Get Up Today! (1987)
 * Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)

title: Dr. Seuss


text:
Digital compositing

Digital compositing is the process of digitally assembling multiple images to make a final image, typically for print, motion pictures or screen display. It is the digital analogue of optical film compositing. It’s part of the VFX processing.

Mathematics
The basic operation used in digital compositing is known as alpha blending, where an opacity value, 'α', is used to control the proportions of two input pixel values that end up a single output pixel.

As a simple example, suppose two images of the same size are available and they are to be composited. The input images are referred to as the foreground image and the background image. Each image consists of the same number of pixels. Compositing is performed by mathematically combining information from the corresponding pixels from the two input images and recording the result in a third image, which is called the composited image.

Consider three pixels; and
 * a foreground pixel, f
 * a background pixel, b
 * a composited adetpixel, c
 * α, the opacity value of the foreground pixel. (α = 1 for an opaque foreground, α = 0 for a completely transparent foreground). A monochrome raster image where the pixel values are to be interpreted as alpha values is known as a matte.

Then, considering all three colour channels, and assuming that the colour channels are expressed in a γ=1 colour space (that is to say, the measured values are proportional to light intensity), we have:

 * cr = α fr + (1 − α) br
 * cg = α fg + (1 − α) bg
 * cb = α fb + (1 − α) bb

Note that if the operations are performed in a colour space where γ is not equal to 1 then the operation will lead to non-linear effects which can potentially be seen as aliasing artifacts (or "jaggies") along sharp edges in the matte. More generally, nonlinear compositing can have effects such as "halos" around composited objects, because the influence of the alpha channel is non-linear. It is possible for a compositing artist to compensate for the effects of compositing in non-linear space.

Performing alpha blending is an expensive operation if performed on an entire image or 3D scene. If this operation has to be done in real time video games, there is an easy trick to boost performance.

 * cout = α fin + (1 − α) bin
 * cout = α fin + bin − α bin
 * cout = bin + α (fin − bin)

By simply rewriting the mathematical expression, one can save 50% of the multiplications required.

Algebraic properties
When many partially transparent layers need to be composited together, it is worthwhile to consider the algebraic properties of compositing operators used. Specifically, the associativity and commutativity determine when repeated calculation can or cannot be avoided.

Consider the case when we have four layers to blend to produce the final image: F=A*(B*(C*D)) where A, B, C, D are partially transparent image layers and "*" denotes a compositing operator (with the left layer on top of the right layer). If only layer C changes, we should find a way to avoid re-blending all of the layers when computing F. Without any special considerations, four full-image blends would need to occur. For compositing operators that are commutative, such as additive blending, it is safe to re-order the blending operations. In this case, we might compute T=A*(B*D) only once and simply blend T*C to produce F, a single operation. Unfortunately, most operators are not commutative. However, many are associative, suggesting it is safe to re-group operations to F=(A*B)*(C*D), i.e. without changing their order. In this case, we may compute S:=A*B once and save this result. To form F with an associative operator, we need only do two additional compositing operations to integrate the new layer S, by computing F:=S*(C*D). This expression indicates compositing C with all of the layers below it in one step, and then blending all of the layers on top of it with the previous result to produce the final image in the second step.

If all layers of an image change regularly but many layers still need to be composited (such as in distributed rendering), the commutativity of a compositing operator can still be exploited to speed up computation through parallelism even when there is no gain from pre-computation. Again, consider the image F=A*(B*(C*D)). Each compositing operation in this expression depends on the next, leading to serial computation. However, associativity can allow us to rewrite F=(A*B)*(C*D) where there are clearly two operations that do not depend on each other that may be executed in parallel. In general, we can build a tree of pair-wise compositing operations with a height that is logarithmic in the number of layers.

Software
The most historically significant nonlinear compositing system was the Cineon, which operated in a logarithmic color space, which more closely mimics the natural light response of film emulsions (the Cineon System, made by Kodak, is no longer in production). Due to the limitations of processing speed and memory, compositing artists did not usually have the luxury of having the system make intermediate conversions to linear space for the compositing steps. Over time, the limitations have become much less significant, and now most compositing is done in a linear color space, even in cases where the source imagery is in a logarithmic color space.

Compositing often also includes scaling, retouching and colour correction of images.

Node-based and layer-based compositing
There are two radically different digital compositing workflows: node-based compositing and layer-based compositing.

Node-based compositing represents an entire composite as a directed acyclic graph, linking media objects and effects in a procedural map, intuitively laying out the progression from source input to final output, and is in fact the way all compositing applications internally handle composites. This type of compositing interface allows great flexibility, including the ability to modify the parameters of an earlier image processing step "in context" (while viewing the final composite). Node-based compositing packages often handle keyframing and time effects poorly, as their workflow does not stem directly from a timeline, as do layer-based compositing packages. Software which incorporates a node based interface include Natron, Shake, Blender, Blackmagic Fusion, and Nuke. Nodes are a great way to organize the effects in a complex shot while maintaining a grip on the smaller details.

Layer-based compositing represents each media object in a composite as a separate layer within a timeline, each with its own time bounds, effects, and keyframes. All the layers are stacked, one above the next, in any desired order; and the bottom layer is usually rendered as a base in the resultant image, with each higher layer being progressively rendered on top of the previously composited of layers, moving upward until all layers have been rendered into the final composite. Layer-based compositing is very well suited for rapid 2D and limited 3D effects, such as in motion graphics, but becomes awkward for more complex composites entailing numerous layers. A partial solution to this is some programs' ability to view the composite-order of elements (such as images, effects, or other attributes) with a visual diagram called a flowchart to nest compositions, or "comps," directly into other compositions, thereby adding complexity to the render-order by first compositing layers in the beginning composition, then combining that resultant image with the layered images from the proceeding composition, and so on.

title: Digital compositing