text:
December 15

Pre-1600

 * 533 – Vandalic War: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Tricamarum.
 * 687 – Pope Sergius I is elected as a compromise between antipopes Paschal and Theodore.
 * 1025 – Constantine VIII becomes sole emperor of the Byzantine Empire, 63 years after being crowned co-emperor.
 * 1161 – Jin–Song wars: Military officers conspire against the emperor Wanyan Liang of the Jin dynasty after a military defeat at the Battle of Caishi, and assassinate the emperor at his camp.
 * 1167 – Sicilian Chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
 * 1256 – Mongol forces under Hulagu enter and dismantle the Nizari Ismaili (Assassin) stronghold at Alamut Castle (in present-day Iran) as part of their offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
 * 1270 – The Nizari Ismaili garrison of Gerdkuh, Persia surrender after 17 years to the Mongols.
 * 1467 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
 * 1546 – The town of Ekenäs (Tammisaari) is founded by King Gustav Vasa of Sweden.

1601–1900

 * 1651 – Castle Cornet in Guernsey, the last stronghold which had supported the King in the Third English Civil War, surrenders.
 * 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia.
 * 1791 – The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
 * 1836 – The U.S. Patent Office building in Washington, D.C., nearly burns to the ground, destroying all 9,957 patents issued by the federal government to that date, as well as 7,000 related patent models.
 * 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Nashville begins at Nashville, Tennessee, and ends the following day with the destruction of the Confederate Army of Tennessee as a fighting force by the Union Army of the Cumberland.
 * 1869 – The short-lived Republic of Ezo is proclaimed in the Ezo area of Japan. It is the first attempt to establish a democracy in Japan.
 * 1871 – Sixteen-year-old telegraphist Ella Stewart keys and sends the first telegraphed message from Arizona Territory at the Deseret Telegraph Company office in Pipe Spring.
 * 1890 – Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
 * 1893 – Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World" a.k.a. the "New World Symphony") by Antonín Dvořák premieres in a public afternoon rehearsal at Carnegie Hall in New York City, followed by a concert premiere on the evening of December 16.
 * 1899 – British Army forces are defeated at the Battle of Colenso in Natal, South Africa, the third and final battle fought during the Black Week of the Second Boer War.

1901–present

 * 1903 – Italian American food cart vendor Italo Marchiony receives a U.S. patent for inventing a machine that makes ice cream cones.
 * 1905 – The Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin.
 * 1906 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
 * 1914 – World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
 * 1914  – A gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hōjō coal mine, in Kyushu, Japan, kills 687.
 * 1917 – World War I: An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed.
 * 1939 – Gone with the Wind (highest inflation adjusted grossing film) receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
 * 1941 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobytsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv.
 * 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
 * 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Arawe begins during the New Britain campaign.
 * 1944 – World War II: a single-engine UC-64A Norseman aeroplane carrying United States Army Air Forces Major Glenn Miller is lost in a flight over the English Channel.
 * 1945 – Occupation of Japan/Shinto Directive: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
 * 1960 – Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy.
 * 1960  – King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.
 * 1961 – Eichmann trial: Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.
 * 1965 – Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
 * 1970 – Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet.
 * 1973 – John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10.
 * 1973  – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
 * 1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan).
 * 1981 – A suicide car bombing targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, levels the embassy and kills 61 people, including Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon. The attack is considered the first modern suicide bombing.
 * 1989 – Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights relating the abolition of capital punishment is adopted.
 * 1993 – The Troubles: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
 * 1997 – Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 crashes in the desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, killing 85.
 * 2000 – The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.
 * 2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean.
 * 2005 – Introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
 * 2010 – A boat carrying 90 asylum seekers crashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing 48 people.
 * 2013 – The South Sudanese Civil War begins when opposition leaders Dr. Riek Machar, Pagan Amum and Rebecca Nyandeng vote to boycott the meeting of the National Liberation Council at Nyakuron.
 * 2014 – Gunman Man Haron Monis takes 18 hostages inside a café in Martin Place for 16 hours in Sydney. Monis and two hostages are killed when police raid the café the following morning.
 * 2017 – A 6.5earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Java in the city of Tasikmalaya, resulting in four deaths.

Pre-1600

 * AD 37 – Nero, Roman emperor (d. 68)
 * 130 – Lucius Verus, Roman emperor (d. 169)
 * 1242 – Prince Munetaka, Japanese shōgun (d. 1274)
 * 1447 – Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1508)
 * 1567 – Christoph Demantius, German composer, poet, and theorist (d. 1643)

1601–1900

 * 1610 – David Teniers the Younger, Flemish painter (d. 1690)
 * 1657 – Michel Richard Delalande, French organist and composer (d. 1726)
 * 1686 – Jean-Joseph Fiocco, Flemish violinist and composer (d. 1746)
 * 1710 – Francesco Zahra, Maltese painter (d. 1773)
 * 1789 – Carlos Soublette, Venezuelan general and politician, 11th President of Venezuela (d. 1870)
 * 1832 – Gustave Eiffel, French architect and engineer, co-designed the Eiffel Tower (d. 1923)
 * 1837 – E. W. Bullinger, English minister, scholar, and theologian (d. 1913)
 * 1852 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1908)
 * 1859 – L. L. Zamenhof, Polish linguist and ophthalmologist, created Esperanto (d. 1917)
 * 1860 – Niels Ryberg Finsen, Faroese-Danish physician and educator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1904)
 * 1860  – Abner Powell, American baseball player and manager (d. 1953)
 * 1861 – Charles Duryea, American engineer and businessman, co-founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company (d. 1938)
 * 1861  – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Finnish lawyer, judge, and politician, 3rd President of Finland (d. 1944)
 * 1863 – Arthur Dehon Little, American chemist and engineer (d. 1935)
 * 1869 – Leon Marchlewski, Polish chemist and academic (d. 1946)
 * 1875 – Emilio Jacinto, Filipino journalist and activist (d. 1899)
 * 1878 – Hans Carossa, German author and poet (d. 1956)
 * 1885 – Leonid Pitamic, Slovenian lawyer, philosopher, and academic (d. 1971)
 * 1886 – Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz, Polish politician and resistance fighter (d. 1968)
 * 1886  – Florence Jepperson Madsen, American contralto singer and professor of music (d. 1977)
 * 1888 – Maxwell Anderson, American journalist and playwright (d. 1959)
 * 1890 – Harry Babcock, American pole vaulter (d. 1965)
 * 1891 – A.P. Carter, American country singer-songwriter and musician (d. 1960)
 * 1892 – J. Paul Getty, American-English businessman and art collector, founded Getty Oil (d. 1976)
 * 1894 – Vibert Douglas, Canadian astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1988)
 * 1894  – Josef Imbach, Swiss sprinter (d. 1964)
 * 1896 – Betty Smith, American author and playwright (d. 1972)
 * 1899 – Harold Abrahams, English sprinter, lawyer, and journalist (d. 1978)

1901–present

 * 1902 – Robert F. Bradford, American lawyer and politician, 57th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1983)
 * 1903 – Tamanishiki San'emon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 32nd Yokozuna (d. 1938)
 * 1907 – Gordon Douglas, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1993)
 * 1907  – Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian architect, designed the United Nations Headquarters and the Cathedral of Brasília (d. 2012)
 * 1908 – Swami Ranganathananda, Indian monk, scholar, and author (d. 2005)
 * 1909 – Sattar Bahlulzade, Azerbaijani-Russian painter (d. 1974)
 * 1909  – Eliza Atkins Gleason, American librarian (d. 2009)
 * 1910 – John Hammond, American record producer and critic (d. 1987)
 * 1911 – Nicholas P. Dallis, American psychiatrist and illustrator (d. 1991)
 * 1911  – Stan Kenton, American pianist and composer (d. 1979)
 * 1913 – Roger Gaudry, Canadian chemist and businessman (d. 2001)
 * 1913  – Muriel Rukeyser, American poet, academic, and activist (d. 1980)
 * 1915 – Eila Campbell, English geographer and cartographer (d. 1994)
 * 1916 – Miguel Arraes, Brazilian lawyer and politician, Governor of Pernambuco (d. 2005)
 * 1916  – Buddy Cole, American pianist and conductor (d. 1964)
 * 1916  – Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-English physicist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
 * 1917 – Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, Indian-Pakistani linguist and lexicographer (d. 2005)
 * 1918 – Jeff Chandler, American actor (d. 1961)
 * 1918  – Chihiro Iwasaki, Japanese painter and illustrator (d. 1974)
 * 1919 – Max Yasgur, American dairy farmer and host of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair (d. 1973)
 * 1920 – Gamal al-Banna, Egyptian author and scholar (d. 2013)
 * 1920  – Kurt Schaffenberger, German-American sergeant and illustrator (d. 2002)
 * 1921 – Alan Freed, American radio host (d. 1965)
 * 1923 – Pierre Cossette, American producer and manager (d. 2009)
 * 1923  – Freeman Dyson, English-American physicist and mathematician (d. 2020)
 * 1923  – Uziel Gal, German-Israeli engineer, designed the Uzi gun (d. 2002)
 * 1923  – Valentin Varennikov, Russian general and politician (d. 2009)
 * 1924 – Frank W. J. Olver, English-American mathematician and academic (d. 2013)
 * 1924  – Ruhi Sarıalp, Turkish triple jumper and educator (d. 2001)
 * 1925 – Kasey Rogers, American actress and author (d. 2006)
 * 1926 – Bill Pitt, Australian race car driver (d. 2017)
 * 1928 – Ernest Ashworth, American singer-songwriter (d. 2009)
 * 1928  – Ida Haendel, Polish-English violinist and educator (d. 2020)
 * 1928  – Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian-New Zealand painter and architect (d. 2000)
 * 1930 – Edna O'Brien, Irish novelist, playwright, poet and short story writer
 * 1931 – Klaus Rifbjerg, Danish author and poet (d. 2015)
 * 1932 – Jesse Belvin, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1960)
 * 1932  – John Meurig Thomas, Welsh chemist and academic (d. 2020)
 * 1933 – Bapu, Indian director and screenwriter (d. 2014)
 * 1933  – Tim Conway, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2019)
 * 1933  – Donald Woods, South African journalist and activist (d. 2001)
 * 1936 – Joe D'Amato, Italian director and producer (d. 1999)
 * 1938 – Michael Bogdanov, Welsh director and screenwriter (d. 2017)
 * 1938  – Billy Shaw, American football player
 * 1939 – Cindy Birdsong, American singer-songwriter
 * 1939  – Dave Clark, English musician and songwriter
 * 1940 – Nick Buoniconti, American football player and sportscaster (d. 2019)
 * 1942 – Kathleen Blanco, American educator and politician, 54th Governor of Louisiana (d. 2019)
 * 1943 – Lucien den Arend, Dutch sculptor
 * 1944 – Jim Leyland, American baseball player and manager
 * 1944  – Chico Mendes, Brazilian trade union leader and activist (d. 1988)
 * 1945 – Heather Booth, American civil rights activist, feminist, and political strategist
 * 1945  – Ivor Crewe, English political scientist and academic
 * 1946 – Carmine Appice, American drummer and songwriter
 * 1946  – Art Howe, American baseball player and manager
 * 1946  – Genny Lim, American writer
 * 1946  – Comunardo Niccolai, Italian footballer (Torres, Cagliari, national team) (d. 2024)
 * 1948 – Cassandra Harris, Australian actress (d. 1991)
 * 1948  – Charlie Scott, American basketball player
 * 1949 – Don Johnson, American actor
 * 1949  – Brian Roper, English economist and academic
 * 1950 – Melanie Chartoff, American actress and comedian
 * 1950  – Sylvester James Gates, American theoretical physicist and professor
 * 1951 – George Donikian, Australian journalist
 * 1951  – Joe Jordan, Scottish footballer and manager
 * 1951  – Tim Webster, Australian journalist and sportscaster
 * 1952 – Rudi Protrudi, American singer-songwriter and producer
 * 1952  – Allan Simonsen, Danish footballer and manager
 * 1952  – Julie Taymor, American director, producer, and screenwriter
 * 1953 – John R. Allen, American general and diplomat
 * 1953  – J. M. DeMatteis, American author
 * 1953  – Robert Charles Wilson, American-Canadian author
 * 1954 – Alex Cox, English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster
 * 1954  – Oliver Heald, English lawyer and politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales
 * 1954  – Mark Warner, American businessman and politician, 69th Governor of Virginia
 * 1955 – Hector Sants, English banker
 * 1955  – Paul Simonon, English singer-songwriter and bass player
 * 1956 – John Lee Hancock, American screenwriter, film director, and producer
 * 1956  – Tony Leon, South African lawyer and politician
 * 1957 – Mario Marois, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
 * 1957  – Mike McAlary, American journalist and author (d. 1998)
 * 1957  – Tim Reynolds, German-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1958 – Carlo J. Caparas, Filipino director and producer
 * 1958  – Richard Kastle, American classical pianist
 * 1959 – Greg Matthews, Australian cricketer
 * 1959  – Alan Whetton, New Zealand rugby player
 * 1959  – Gary Whetton, New Zealand rugby player
 * 1960 – Walter Werzowa, Austrian composer and producer
 * 1961 – Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist and politician
 * 1962 – Tim Gaines, American bass player
 * 1962  – Simon Hodgkinson, English rugby player and coach
 * 1963 – Ellie Cornell, American actress and producer
 * 1963  – Norman J. Grossfeld, American screenwriter and producer
 * 1963  – Helen Slater, American actress
 * 1963  – David Wingate, American basketball player
 * 1964 – Paul Kaye, English actor
 * 1966 – Carl Hooper, Guyanese cricketer and coach
 * 1966  – Molly Price, American actress
 * 1967 – David Howells, English footballer and coach
 * 1967  – Mo Vaughn, American baseball player
 * 1968 – Garrett Wang, American actor
 * 1969 – Ralph Ineson, English actor
 * 1969  – Chantal Petitclerc, Canadian wheelchair racer and senator
 * 1969  – Adam Setliff, American discus thrower and lawyer
 * 1970 – Frankie Dettori, Italian jockey
 * 1970  – Lawrence Funderburke, American basketball player
 * 1970  – Michael Shanks, Canadian actor, screenwriter and director
 * 1971 – Clint Lowery, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
 * 1972 – Rodney Harrison, American football player and sportscaster
 * 1972  – Lee Jung-jae, South Korean actor
 * 1972  – Stuart Townsend, Irish actor
 * 1972  – Alexandra Tydings, American actress, director, writer and producer
 * 1973 – Surya Bonaly, French figure skater
 * 1973  – Ryoo Seung-wan, South Korean actor, director, and screenwriter
 * 1974 – Garath Archer, English rugby player
 * 1974  – P. J. Byrne, American actor
 * 1975 – Samira Saraya, Palestinian actor, filmmaker, poet and rapper
 * 1976 – Baichung Bhutia, Indian footballer and manager
 * 1976  – Kim Eagles, Canadian sport shooter
 * 1976  – Aaron Miles, American baseball player and coach
 * 1976  – Todd Tichenor, American baseball player and umpire
 * 1977 – Mehmet Aurélio, Brazilian-Turkish footballer and manager
 * 1977  – Geoff Stults, American actor and producer
 * 1978 – Ned Brower, American drummer
 * 1978  – Mark Jansen, Dutch guitarist and songwriter
 * 1978  – Jerome McDougle, American football player
 * 1979 – Adam Brody, American actor
 * 1979  – Eric Young, Canadian-American wrestler
 * 1980 – Élodie Gossuin, French beauty pageant titleholder and model
 * 1980  – Sergio Pizzorno, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1980  – Manuel Wilhelm, German rugby player
 * 1981 – Michelle Dockery, English actress
 * 1981  – Brendan Fletcher, Canadian actor and screenwriter
 * 1981  – Andy González, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
 * 1981  – Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)
 * 1981  – Roman Pavlyuchenko, Russian footballer
 * 1982 – Charlie Cox, English actor
 * 1982  – Borja García, Spanish race car driver
 * 1982  – George O. Gore II, American actor and comedian
 * 1982  – Tatiana Perebiynis, Ukrainian tennis player
 * 1983 – Delon Armitage, Trinidadian-English rugby player
 * 1983  – René Duprée, Canadian professional wrestler
 * 1983  – Camilla Luddington, English actress
 * 1983  – Ronnie Radke, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
 * 1983  – Sophia Young, Vincentian-American basketball player
 * 1984 – Martyn Bernard, English high jumper
 * 1984  – Martin Škrtel, Slovak footballer
 * 1985 – Diogo Fernandes, Brazilian footballer
 * 1986 – Kim Junsu, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
 * 1986  – Iveta Mazáčová, Czech sprinter
 * 1986  – Keylor Navas, Costa Rican footballer
 * 1986  – Snejana Onopka, Ukrainian model
 * 1987 – Josh Norman, American football player
 * 1988 – Erik Gustafsson, Swedish ice hockey player
 * 1988  – Emily Head, English actress
 * 1988  – Steven Nzonzi, French footballer
 * 1989 – Nichole Bloom, American actress and model
 * 1991 – Conor Daly, American race car driver
 * 1991  – Yanni Gourde, Canadian ice hockey player
 * 1991  – Alana Haim, American musician and actress
 * 1992 – Daiamami Genki, Japanese sumo wrestler
 * 1992  – Jesse Lingard, English footballer
 * 1992  – Alex Telles, Brazilian footballer
 * 1993 – Daniel Ochefu, American basketball player
 * 1995 – Jahlil Okafor, American basketball player
 * 1996 – Jenifer Brening, German singer
 * 1996  – Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ukrainian footballer
 * 1997 – Maude Apatow, American actress
 * 1997  – Zach Banks, American race car driver
 * 1997  – Magdalena Fręch, Polish tennis player
 * 1997  – Stefania LaVie Owen, New Zealand-American actress
 * 1998 – Chandler Canterbury, American actor
 * 2000 – Kayvon Thibodeaux, American football player

Pre-1600

 * 933 – Li Siyuan, Chinese emperor (b. 867)
 * 1025 – Basil II, Byzantine emperor (b. 958)
 * 1072 – Alp Arslan, Turkish sultan (b. 1029)
 * 1161 – Wanyan Liang, Chinese emperor (b. 1122)
 * 1230 – Ottokar I, duke of Bohemia (b. 1155)
 * 1283 – Philip I, Latin emperor (b. 1243)
 * 1343 – Hasan Kucek, Chopanid prince (b. c. 1319)
 * 1467 – Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna, archbishop and regent of Sweden (b. 1417)
 * 1574 – Selim II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1524)
 * 1598 – Philips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde, Dutch nobleman (b. 1540)

1601–1900

 * 1621 – Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, French courtier, Constable of France (b. 1578)
 * 1673 – Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, English noblewoman (b. 1623)
 * 1675 – Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter and educator (b. 1632)
 * 1683 – Izaak Walton, English author (b. 1593)
 * 1688 – Gaspar Fagel, Dutch lawyer and politician (b. 1634)
 * 1698  – Louis Victor de Rochechouart de Mortemart, French nobleman (b. 1636)
 * 1715 – George Hickes, English minister and scholar (b. 1642)
 * 1753 – Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, English architect and politician, designed Chiswick House (b. 1694)
 * 1792 – Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish pianist, violinist, and composer (b. 1756)
 * 1812 – Shneur Zalman, Russian rabbi, author and founder of Chabad (b. 1745)
 * 1817 – Federigo Zuccari, astronomer, director of the Astronomical Observatory of Naples (b. 1783)
 * 1819 – Daniel Rutherford, Scottish chemist and physician (b. 1749)
 * 1855 – Jacques Charles François Sturm, French mathematician and academic (b. 1803)
 * 1878 – Alfred Bird, English chemist and businessman, invented baking powder (b. 1811)
 * 1890 – Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota tribal chief (b. 1831)

1901–present

 * 1943 – Fats Waller, American singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1904)
 * 1944 – Glenn Miller, American bandleader and composer (b. 1904)
 * 1947 – Arthur Machen, Welsh journalist and author (b. 1863)
 * 1947  – Crawford Vaughan, Australian politician, 27th Premier of South Australia (b. 1874)
 * 1950 – Vallabhbhai Patel, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Deputy Prime Minister of India (b. 1875)
 * 1958 – Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian-Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
 * 1962 – Charles Laughton, English-American actor, director, and producer (b. 1899)
 * 1965 – M. Balasundaram, Sri Lankan journalist, lawyer, and politician (b. 1903)
 * 1966 – Keith Arbuthnott, 15th Viscount of Arbuthnott, Indian-Scottish general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Kincardineshire (b. 1897)
 * 1966  – Walt Disney, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (b. 1901)
 * 1968 – Antonio Barrette, Canadian politician, 18th Premier of Quebec (b. 1899)
 * 1968  – Jess Willard, American boxer and actor (b. 1881)
 * 1969 – Karl Theodor Bleek, German lawyer and politician, 12th Mayor of Marburg (b. 1898)
 * 1971 – Paul Lévy, French mathematician and theorist (b. 1886)
 * 1974 – Anatole Litvak, Russian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1902)
 * 1977 – Wilfred Kitching, English 7th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1893)
 * 1978 – Chill Wills, American actor (b. 1903)
 * 1980 – Peter Gregg, American race car driver (b. 1940)
 * 1984 – Jan Peerce, American tenor and actor (b. 1904)
 * 1985 – Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, Mauritian physician and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Mauritius (b. 1900)
 * 1986 – Serge Lifar, Russian-French ballet dancer and choreographer (b. 1905)
 * 1989 – Edward Underdown, English actor and jockey (b. 1908)
 * 1991 – Vasily Zaytsev, Russian captain (b. 1915)
 * 1993 – William Dale Phillips, American chemist and engineer (b. 1925)
 * 2000 – Haris Brkić, Bosnian-Serbian basketball player (b. 1974)
 * 2003 – Vincent Apap, Maltese sculptor (b. 1909)
 * 2003  – George Fisher, American cartoonist (b. 1923)
 * 2003  – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1947)
 * 2004 – Vassal Gadoengin, Nauruan educator and politician, Speaker of the Nauru Parliament (b. 1943)
 * 2005 – Heinrich Gross, Austrian physician and psychiatrist (b. 1914)
 * 2005  – Stan Leonard, Canadian golfer (b. 1915)
 * 2005  – William Proxmire, American soldier, journalist, and politician (b. 1915)
 * 2005  – Darrell Russell, American football player (b. 1976)
 * 2006 – Clay Regazzoni, Swiss race car driver (b. 1939)
 * 2006  – Mary Stolz, American journalist and author (b. 1920)
 * 2007 – Julia Carson, American lawyer and politician (b. 1938)
 * 2008 – León Febres Cordero, Ecuadorian engineer and politician, 46th President of Ecuador (b. 1931)
 * 2009 – Eliza Atkins Gleason, American librarian (b. 1909)
 * 2009  – Oral Roberts, American evangelist, founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (b. 1918)
 * 2010 – Blake Edwards, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)
 * 2010  – Bob Feller, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1918)
 * 2010  – Eugene Victor Wolfenstein, American psychoanalyst and theorist (b. 1940)
 * 2011 – Bob Brookmeyer, American trombone player and composer (b. 1929)
 * 2011  – Christopher Hitchens, English-American essayist, literary critic, and journalist (b. 1949)
 * 2012 – Owoye Andrew Azazi, Nigerian general (b. 1952)
 * 2012  – Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, Nigerian politician, 18th Governor of Kaduna State (b. 1948)
 * 2012  – Olga Zubarry, Argentinian actress (b. 1929)
 * 2013 – Harold Camping, American evangelist, author, radio host (b. 1921)
 * 2013  – Joan Fontaine, British-American actress (b. 1917)
 * 2013  – Dyron Nix, American basketball player (b. 1967)
 * 2014 – Donald Metcalf, Australian physiologist and immunologist (b. 1929)
 * 2014  – Fausto Zapata,  Mexican journalist, lawyer, and politician, Governor of San Luis Potosí (b. 1940)
 * 2015 – Harry Zvi Tabor, English-Israeli physicist and engineer (b. 1917)
 * 2016 – Craig Sager, American sports journalist (b. 1951)
 * 2017 – Heinz Wolff, scientist and TV presenter (b. 1928)
 * 2017  – Calestous Juma, academic (b. 1953)
 * 2018 – Eryue He, Chinese historical fiction writer (b.1945)
 * 2018  – Girma Wolde-Giorgis, President of Ethiopia (b. 1924)
 * 2020 – Saufatu Sopoanga, Tuvaluan politician, 8th Prime Minister of Tuvalu (b. 1952)

Holidays and observances

 * Bill of Rights Day (United States)
 * 2nd Amendment Day (South Carolina)
 * Christian feast day:
 * Drina Martyrs
 * Drostan (Aberdeen Breviary)
 * John Horden and Robert McDonald (Episcopal Church (USA))
 * Maria Crocifissa di Rosa
 * Mesmin
 * Valerian of Abbenza
 * Virginia Centurione Bracelli
 * December 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
 * Homecoming Day (Alderney)
 * Kingdom Day (Netherlands), moves to December 16 if the 15th is on a Sunday
 * Zamenhof Day (International Esperanto Community)

title: December 15


text:
Diogo Cão

Diogo Cão (c. 1452 – 1486), also known as Diogo Cam, was a Portuguese mariner and one of the most notable explorers of the fifteenth century. He made two voyages along the west coast of Africa in the 1480s, exploring the Congo River and the coasts of present-day Angola and Namibia.

Early life and family
Little is known about the early life of Diogo Cão. According to tradition, he was born in Vila Real, Portugal, around 1452. His grandfather, Gonçalo Cão, had fought for Portuguese independence at the Battle of Aljubarrota.

By 1480, Cão was sailing off the coast of Africa in the service of João II. There is a record that he returned to Portugal with captured Spanish ships.

Exploration
When the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1480) confirmed Portugal's monopoly on trade and exploration along Africa's west coast, João II moved quickly to secure and expand his hold on the region. In 1481, a fleet of ten ships was dispatched to the Gold Coast to construct a fortress known as Sao Jorge da Mina. The fort would serve as a commercial center for trade (including in slaves) and an important point of resupply for Portuguese voyages. João II also re-instituted a program of exploration southward along the African coast, an initiative that had been held in abeyance during the war with Spain. Diogo Cão was selected to lead João's first voyage of exploration in 1482.

First voyage
When João II restarted the work of Henry the Navigator, he sent out Cão, probably around midsummer 1482, to explore the African coast south of the equator. Diogo Cão filled his ship with stone pillars (padrões) surmounted by the cross of the Order of Christ and engraved with the Portuguese royal arms, planning to erect them at significant landmarks along his voyage of discovery. On the way, the expedition stopped at Sao Jorge da Mina to resupply.

In August 1482, Cão arrived at the Congo River mouth and marked it with a padrão erected on Shark Point, commemorating the Portuguese occupation. This padrão stood until 1642 when it was destroyed by the Dutch during their occupation of the Congo.

Cão sailed up the great river for a short distance and commenced modest commerce with the natives of the Bakongo kingdom. He was told that their king lived farther upriver, so he sent four Christian native messengers to search for the ruler and then proceeded south along the coast of present-day Angola where he erected a second padrão, probably marking the termination of this voyage, at Cabo de Santa Maria. When he returned to the Congo, Cão was annoyed to find that his messengers had not returned, so he abducted four local natives who were visiting his ship and returned with them to Portugal.

He reached Lisbon by 8 April 1484, where John II ennobled him, promoting him from esquire to a cavalier of his household, and granted him an annuity of ten thousand reals and a coat of arms on which two padrões are depicted.

The King also asked him to sail back to Kongo to repatriate the 4 men he left behind.

Second voyage
That Cão, on his second voyage of 1484–1486, was accompanied by Martin Behaim (as alleged on the latter's Nuremberg globe of 1492) is very doubtful. But it is known that the explorer revisited the Congo and erected two more padrãos on land beyond his previous voyage. The first was at Cabo Negro, Angola, the second at Cape Cross. The Cape Cross pillar probably marked the end of his progress southward, some 1,400 kilometers. Diogo Cão also embarked the four indigenous ambassadors, that he had promised not to keep for more than fifteen moons.

Cão sailed 170 kilometers up the Congo River to the falls of Ielala. On the cliffs above this site an inscription was engraved which records the passage of Cão and his men: "Here arrived the ships of the illustrious monarch, Dom João the Second of Portugal – Diogo Cão, Pedro Anes, Pedro da Costa, Alvaro Pires, Pero Escolar".

Death
Information regarding Cão's death is scanty and contradictory. A legend on the globe created by Martin Behaim reads "hic moritur" (here he dies), seeming to indicate that the explorer lost his life on the coast of Africa in 1486 during his second voyage. However, sixteenth-century historian João de Barros never mentions Cão's death but wrote instead of his return to the Congo, and subsequent taking of a native envoy back to Portugal.

A report by a board of astronomers and pilots presented at a 1525 conference in Badajo clearly stated that his death happened near Serra Parda. A coast map by Henricus Martellus Germanus published in 1489 indicated the location of a padrão erected by Diogo Cão in Ponta dos Farilhões nearby Serra Parda, with the legend "et hic moritur" ("and here he died").

Padrões
The four pillars set up by Cão on his two voyages have all been discovered still on their original site, and the inscriptions on two of them from Cape Santa Maria and Cape Cross, dated 1482 and 1485 respectively, are still to be read and have been printed. The Cape Cross padrão was long in Berlin (replaced on the spot by a granite facsimile) but was recently returned to Namibia; those from the Kongo estuary and the more southerly Cape Santa Maria and Cabo Negro are in the Museum of the Lisbon Geographical Society.

Tributes post-mortem
In 1951, botanists named a genus of plants from western central tropical Africa in his honour, Diogoa.

In Vila Real, the plaza Diogo Cão was named after him. In the center of the plaza, stands a bronze statue of him supported on a square granite pedestal base.

In 1999, André Roubertou from the French Hydrographic Office (SHOM) named an undersea hole located off the southern coast of Portugal (Gulf of Cádiz) the Diogo Cão Hole.

In 2018, a hopper dredger called the Diogo Cao and immatriculated in Luxembourg was launched afloat.

In literature
Diogo Cão is the subject of Padrão, one of the best-known poems in Fernando Pessoa's book Mensagem, the only one published during the author's lifetime. He also figures strongly in the 1996 novel Lord of the Kongo by Peter Forbath.

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

title: Diogo Cão


text:
Drinking game

Drinking games are games which involve the consumption of alcoholic beverages and often enduring the subsequent intoxication resulting from them. Evidence of the existence of drinking games dates back to antiquity. Drinking games have been banned at some institutions, particularly colleges and universities.

Ancient Greece
Kottabos is one of the earliest known drinking games from ancient Greece, dated to the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Players would use dregs (remnants of what was left in their cup) to hit targets across the room with their wine. Often, there were special prizes and penalties for one's performance in the game.

Ancient China
Drinking games were enjoyed in ancient China, usually incorporating the use of dice or verbal exchange of riddles. During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the Chinese used a silver canister where written lots could be drawn that designated which player had to drink and specifically how much; for example, from 1, 5, 7, or 10 measures of drink that the youngest player, or the last player to join the game, or the most talkative player, or the host, or the player with the greatest alcohol tolerance, etc. had to drink. There were even drinking game referee officials, including a 'registrar of the rules' who knew all the rules to the game, a 'registrar of the horn' who tossed a silver flag down on calling out second offenses, and a 'governor' who decided one's third call of offense. These referees were used mainly for maintaining order (as drinking games often became rowdy) and for reviewing faults that could be punished with a player drinking a penalty cup. If a guest was considered a 'coward' for dropping out of the game, he could be branded as a 'deserter' and not invited back to further drinking bouts. There was another game where little puppets and dolls dressed as western foreigners with blue eyes (Iranian peoples) were set up and when one fell over, the person it pointed to had to empty his cup of wine.

Germany

Drinking games in 19th century Germany included Bierskat, Elfern, Rammes and Quodlibet, as well as Schlauch and Laubober, probably the same game as Grasobern. But the "crown of all drinking games" was one with an ancient and distinctive name: Cerevis. One feature of the game was that everything went under a different name from normal. So the cards (Karten) were called 'spoons' (Löffel), the Sevens were 'Septembers' and the Aces were the 'Juveniles' (junge Leichtsinn). A player who used the normal names was penalised. Every time a card was played, it was supposed to be accompanied by humorous words, so if a Jack or Unter was played, the player might say something like "my merry Unterkasser" (Lustig mein Unterkasser) or "long live my Unterkasser" (Vivat mein Unterkasser). If his opponent beat it, he might say "hang the Unterkasser" (Hängt den Unterkasser). The loser had to chalk up a figure such as a swallow, a wheel or a pair of scissors depending on the number of minus points gained and was only allowed to erase them once he had drunk the associated amount of beer.

Silver wager cups, originally used during 16th century German wedding feasts, are used in dexterity drinking games. Players fill both the large cup and the smaller cup that swings beneath it, and must drink from the former without spilling the latter.

Endurance
The simplest drinking games are endurance games in which players compete to out-drink one another. Players take turns taking shots, and the last person standing is the winner. Some games have rules involving the "cascade", "fountain", or "waterfall", which encourages each player to drink constantly from their cup so long as the player before him does not stop drinking. Such games can also favor speed over quantity, in which players race to drink a case of beer the fastest. Often drinking large amounts will be combined with a stylistic element or an abnormal method of drinking, as with the boot of beer, yard of ale, or a keg stand.

Tolerance games are simply about seeing which player can last the longest. It can be as simple as two people matching each other drink for drink until one of the participants "passes out". Power hour and its variant, centurion, fall under this category.

Speed
Many pub or bar games involve competitive drinking for speed. Examples of such drinking games are Edward Fortyhands, boat races, beer bonging, shotgunning, flippy cup (a team-based speed game), and yard. Some say that the most important skill to improving speed is to relax and take fewer but larger gulps. There are a variety of individual tactics to accomplishing this, such as bending the knees in anticipation, or when drinking from a plastic cup, squeezing the sides of the cup to form a more perfect funnel.

Athletic races involving alcohol including the beer mile, which consists of a mile run with a can of beer consumed before each of the four laps. A variant is known in German speaking countries as Bierkastenlauf (beer crate running) where a team of two carries a crate of beer along a route of several kilometers and must consume all of the bottles prior to crossing the finish line.

Skill
Some party and pub games focus on the performance of a particular act of skill, rather than on either the amount a participant drinks or the speed with which they do so. Examples include beer pong, quarters, chandeliers (also known as gauchoball, rage cage, stack cup), caps, polish horseshoes, pong, baseball, and beer darts.

Pub golf involves orienteering and pub crawling together.

A unique drinking game is made in the tavern Oepfelchammer in Zürich, Switzerland. It is called "Balkenprobe" and one has therefore to climb up a beam at the ceiling and move to another beam and then to drink a glass of wine with the head hanging down.

Thinking
Thinking games rely on the players' powers of observation, recollection, logic and articulation.

Numerous types of thinking games exist, including Think or Drink, 21, beer checkers, bizz buzz, buffalo, saved by the bell, bullshit, tourettes, matchboxes, never have I ever, roman numerals, fuzzy duck, pennying, wine games, and Zoom Schwartz Profigliano. Trivia games, such as Trivial Pursuit, are sometimes played as drinking games.

Card and dice
Drinking games involving cards include president, horserace, Kings, liar's poker, pyramid, ring of fire, toepen, ride the bus and black or red.

Dice games include beer die, dudo, kinito, liar's dice, Mexico, mia, ship, captain, and crew, three man, and Triple Snakes.

Arts
Movie drinking games are played while watching a movie (sometimes a TV show or a sporting event) and have a set of rules for who drinks when and how much based on on-screen events and dialogue. The rules may be the same for all players, or alternatively players may each be assigned rules related to particular characters. The rules are designed so that rarer events require larger drinks. Rule sets for such games are usually arbitrary and local, although they are sometimes published by fan clubs.

In reference to film, a popular game among young adults consists of printing out a mustache and taping it on the television screen. Every time the mustache fits appropriately to a person on the screen, one must drink the designated amount.

Live drinking games such as Los Angeles–based "A Drinking Game" involve recreating films of the 80s in a "Rocky Horror" fashion, with gift bags, drinking cues, and costumed actors. A suggestion to "do six shots for SEAL Team 6" following every mention of Osama bin Laden at the 2012 Democratic National Convention necessitated a prominent disclaimer on the satire site that posted it, as the quantity of alcohol ingested would probably have been lethal.

"Datsyuk Game" involves a Datsyuk highlight reel being played and contestants drink every time the word Datsyuk is mentioned. The ceremonial playing of the Russian national anthem before the game is another tradition.

Music can also be used as a basis for drinking games. The song "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC is used in which a player begins drinking when the word thunder is sung and switches to the next player the next time it is sung.

Sport related drinking games involve the participants each selecting a scenario of the game resulting in their drink being downed. Examples of this include participants each picking a footballer in a game while other versions require multiple players to be selected. Should a player score or be sent off, a drink must be taken. Another version requires a drink for every touch a player takes of the ball.

Hybrid games
Some drinking games can fall into multiple categories such as a Power hour which is a primarily an endurance-based game, but can also incorporate the arts if players are prompted to drink by a playlist that changes songs every 60 seconds. Similarly, Flip cup combines the skill of flipping cups with the speed of drinking quickly prior to flipping.

Russian roulette
There is a drinking game based on Russian roulette. The game involves six shot glasses filled by a non-player: five are filled with water, but the sixth with vodka. Among some groups, low quality vodka is preferred, as it makes the glass representing the filled chamber less desirable. The glasses are arranged in a circle, and players take turns choosing a glass to take a shot from at random.

There is also a game called "Beer Hunter" (titled after the Russian roulette scenes in the film The Deer Hunter). In this game, six cans of beer are placed between the participants: one can is vigorously shaken, and the cans are scrambled. The participants take turns opening the cans of beer right under their noses; the person who opens the shaken can (and thus sprays beer up their nose) is deemed the loser.

Both are non-lethal compared to the game with the firearm which is almost always lethal.

title: Drinking game


text:
Devon

Devon (historically also known as Devonshire, ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west. The city of Plymouth is the largest settlement, and the city of Exeter is the county town.

The county has an area of 2590 mi2 and a population of 1,194,166. The largest settlements after Plymouth (264,695) are the city of Exeter (130,709) and the seaside resorts of Torquay and Paignton, which have a combined population of 115,410. They all are located along the south coast, which is the most populous part of the county; Barnstaple (31,275) and Tiverton (22,291) are the largest towns in the north and centre respectively. For local government purposes Devon comprises a non-metropolitan county, with eight districts, and two unitary authority areas: Plymouth and Torbay.

Devon has a varied geography. It contains Dartmoor and part of Exmoor, two upland moors which are the source of most of the county's rivers, including the Taw, Dart, and Exe. The longest river in the county is the Tamar, which forms most of the border with Cornwall and rises in the Devon's northwest hills. The southeast coast is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, and characterised by tall cliffs which reveal the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous geology of the region. The county gives its name to the Devonian geologic period, which includes the slates and sandstones of the north coast. Dartmoor and Exmoor have been designated national parks, and the county also contains, in whole or in part, five national landscapes.

In the Iron Age, Roman and the Sub-Roman periods, the county was the home of the Dumnonii Celtic Britons. The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the kingdom of Wessex in the eighth and ninth centuries, and the western boundary with Cornwall was set at the Tamar by king Æthelstan in 936.

Toponymy
The name Devon derives from the name of the Brythons who inhabited the southwestern peninsula of Britain at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain known as the Dumnonii, thought to mean 'deep valley dwellers' from Proto-Celtic *dubnos 'deep'. In the Brittonic, Devon is known as Dyfnaint, Devnent and Dewnens, each meaning 'deep valleys'. (For an account of Celtic Dumnonia, see the separate article.) Among the most common Devon placenames is -combe which derives from Brittonic cwm meaning 'valley' usually prefixed by the name of the possessor.

William Camden, in his 1607 edition of Britannia, described Devon as being one part of an older, wider country that once included Cornwall: "THAT region which, according to the Geographers, is the first of all Britaine, and, growing straiter still and narrower, shooteth out farthest into the West, [...] was in antient time inhabited by those Britans whom Solinus called Dumnonii, Ptolomee Damnonii [...] For their habitation all over this Countrey is somewhat low and in valleys, which manner of dwelling is called in the British tongue Dan-munith, in which sense also the Province next adjoyning in like respect is at this day named by the Britans Duffneit, that is to say, Low valleys. [...] But the Country of this nation is at this day divided into two parts, knowen by later names of Cornwall and Denshire, [...]"

The term Devon is normally used for everyday purposes (e.g., "Devon County Council"), but Devonshire has continued to be used in the names of the "Devonshire and Dorset Regiment" (until 2007) and "The Devonshire Association". One erroneous theory is that the shire suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire, resident in Derbyshire. However, there are references to Defenasċīre in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 CE (this would mean 'Shire of the Devonians'), which translates to modern English as Devonshire. The term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia (Latin) to Defenasċīr.

Human occupation
Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30 to 40,000 years ago. Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under military occupation for around 350 years. Later, the area began to experience Saxon incursions from the east around 600 AD, firstly as small bands of settlers along the coasts of Lyme Bay and southern estuaries and later as more organised bands pushing in from the east. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was largely absorbed into Wessex by the mid ninth century.

A genetic study carried out by the University of Oxford & University College London discovered separate genetic groups in Cornwall and Devon. Not only were there differences on either side of the River Tamar—-with a division almost exactly following the modern county boundary —but also between Devon and the rest of Southern England. Devon's population also exhibited similarities with modern northern France, including Brittany. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited, rather than a mass movement of people.

The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD. Danish raids also occurred sporadically along many coastal parts of Devon between around 800AD and just before the time of the Norman conquest, including the silver mint at Hlidaforda Lydford in 997 and Taintona (a settlement on the Teign estuary) in 1001.

Devon was the home of a number of anticlerical movements in the Later Middle Ages. For example, the Order of Brothelyngham—a fake monastic order of 1348 — regularly rode through Exeter, kidnapping both religious men and laymen, and extorting money from them as ransom.

Devon has also featured in most of the civil conflicts in England since the Norman conquest, including the Wars of the Roses, Perkin Warbeck's rising in 1497, the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549, and the English Civil War. The arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham.

Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times. Devon's tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devon's Stannary Convocation, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748.

Economy and industry
Devon's total economic output in 2019 was over £26 billion, larger than either Manchester, or Edinburgh. A 2021 report states that "health, retail and tourism account for 43.1% of employment. Agriculture, education, manufacturing, construction and real estate employment are also over-represented in Devon compared with nationally".

Like neighbouring Cornwall to the west, historically Devon has been disadvantaged economically compared to other parts of Southern England, owing to the decline of a number of core industries, notably fishing, mining, and farming, but it is now significantly more diverse. Agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century. The 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis harmed the farming community severely. Since then some parts of the agricultural industry have begun to diversify and recover, with a strong local food sector and many artisan producers. Nonetheless, in 2015 the dairy industry was still suffering from the low prices offered for wholesale milk by major dairies and especially large supermarket chains.

The pandemic negatively affected the economy during 2020 and early 2021; an August 2021 report states that "the immediate economic impacts of COVID-19 for the County as a whole [was] as severe as any in living memory".

in 2014 to 2016, the attractive lifestyle of the area was drawing in new industries which are not heavily dependent upon geographical location; Dartmoor, for instance, has recently seen a significant rise in the percentage of its inhabitants involved in the digital and financial services sectors. The Met Office, the UK's national and international weather service, moved to Exeter in 2003. Plymouth hosts the head office and first ever store of The Range, the only major national retail chain headquartered in Devon.

Since the rise of seaside resorts with the arrival of the railways in the 19th century, Devon's economy has been heavily reliant on tourism. The county's economy followed the declining trend of British seaside resorts since the mid-20th century, but with some recent revival and regeneration of its resorts, particularly focused around camping; sports such as surfing, cycling, sailing and heritage. This revival has been aided by the designation of much of Devon's countryside and coastline as the Dartmoor and Exmoor national parks, and the Jurassic Coast and Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Sites. In 2019 the county's visitor spend was almost £2.5 billion. More successful visitor attractions are particularly concentrated on food and drink, including sea-view restaurants in North-West Devon (such as one example belonging to Damien Hurst), walking the South West Coast Path, cycling on the Devon Coast to Coast Cycle Route and other cycle routes such as the Tarka Trail and the Stover Trail; watersports; surfing; indoor and outdoor folk music festivals across the county and sailing in the 5 mi hill-surrounded inlet (ria) at Salcombe.

Incomes vary significantly and the average is bolstered by a high proportion of affluent retired people. Incomes in much of the South Hams and in villages surrounding Exeter and Plymouth are close to, or above the national average, but there are also areas of severe deprivation, with earnings in some places among the lowest in the UK.

The table also shows the population change in the ten years to the 2011 census by subdivision. It also shows the proportion of residents in each district reliant upon lowest income and/or joblessness benefits, the national average proportion of which was 4.5% as at August 2012, the year for which latest datasets have been published. It can be seen that the most populous district of Devon is East Devon but only if excluding Torbay which has marginally more residents and Plymouth which has approximately double the number of residents of either of these. West Devon has the fewest residents, having 63,839 at the time of the census.

Bus
There is a network of bus services across Devon. Bus operators include: Stagecoach (much of Devon), AVMT Buses (East Devon/Jurassic Coast), County Bus (Teignbridge) and Plymouth Citybus.

Rail
The key train operator for Devon is Great Western Railway, which operates numerous regional, local and suburban services, as well as inter-city services north to London Paddington and south to Plymouth and Penzance. Other inter-city services are operated by CrossCountry north to Manchester Piccadilly, Edinburgh Waverley, Glasgow Central, Dundee, Aberdeen and south to Plymouth and Penzance; and by South Western Railway, operating hourly services between London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids, via the West of England Main Line. All Devon services are diesel-hauled, since there are no electrified lines in the county.

Okehampton station in Devon was closed in 1972 to passenger traffic as a result of the Beeching cuts, but regained regular passenger services run by GWR to Exeter in November 2021, funded by the UK Government's Restoring your Railway programme.

There are proposals to reopen the line from Tavistock to Bere Alston for a through service to Plymouth. The possibility of reopening the line between Tavistock and Okehampton, to provide an alternative route between Exeter and Plymouth, has also been suggested following damage to the railway's sea wall at Dawlish in 2014, which caused widespread disruption to trains between Exeter and Penzance. However, a study by Network Rail determined that maintaining the existing railway line would offer the best value for money and work to strengthen the line at Dawlish began in 2019.

Devon Metro
Devon County Council has proposed a 'Devon Metro' scheme to improve rail services in the county and offer a realistic alternative to car travel. This includes the opening of Cranbrook station in December 2015, plus four new stations to be constructed (including Edginswell) as a priority. Several elements of the scheme have, or are in the process of being delivered including the building of Marsh Barton station on the edge of Exeter which was opened in July 2023, and a regular half hourly local rail service now extended from the Avocet Line across Exeter to include the Riviera Line.

Air
Exeter Airport is the only passenger airport in Devon and in 2019 was used by over one million people. Until 2020, Flybe had its headquarters at the airport. Destinations include various locations within the UK (London City, Manchester, Belfast, Edinburgh, etc.), as well as locations in Cyprus, Italy, Netherlands, Lapland, Portugal, Spain, France, Malta, Switzerland and Turkey.

Geography and geology
Devon straddles a peninsula and so, uniquely among English counties, has two separate coastlines: on the Bristol Channel and Celtic Sea in the north, and on the English Channel in the south. The South West Coast Path runs along the entire length of both, around 65% of which is named as Heritage Coast. Before the changes to English counties in 1974, Devon was the third largest county by area and the largest of the counties not divided into county-like divisions (only Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were larger and both were sub-divided into ridings or parts, respectively). Since 1974 the county is ranked fourth by area (due to the creation of Cumbria) amongst ceremonial counties and is the third largest non-metropolitan county. The island of Lundy and the reef of Eddystone are also in Devon. The county has more mileage of road than any other county in England.

Inland, the Dartmoor National park lies wholly in Devon, and the Exmoor National Park lies in both Devon and Somerset. Apart from these areas of high moorland the county has attractive rolling rural scenery and villages with thatched cob cottages. All these features make Devon a popular holiday destination.

In South Devon the landscape consists of rolling hills dotted with small towns, such as Dartmouth, Ivybridge, Kingsbridge, Salcombe, and Totnes. The towns of Torquay and Paignton are the principal seaside resorts on the south coast. East Devon has the first seaside resort to be developed in the county, Exmouth and the more upmarket Georgian town of Sidmouth, headquarters of the East Devon District Council. Exmouth marks the western end of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. Another notable feature is the coastal railway line between Newton Abbot and the Exe Estuary: the red sandstone cliffs and sea views are very dramatic and in the resorts railway line and beaches are very near.

North Devon is very rural with few major towns except Barnstaple, Great Torrington, Bideford and Ilfracombe. Devon's Exmoor coast has the highest cliffs in southern Britain, culminating in the Great Hangman, a 318 m "hog's-back" hill with a 250 m cliff-face, located near Combe Martin Bay. Its sister cliff is the 218 m Little Hangman, which marks the western edge of coastal Exmoor. One of the features of the North Devon coast is that Bideford Bay and the Hartland Point peninsula are both west-facing, Atlantic facing coastlines; so that a combination of an off-shore (east) wind and an Atlantic swell produce excellent surfing conditions. The beaches of Bideford Bay (Woolacombe, Saunton, Westward Ho! and Croyde), along with parts of North Cornwall and South Wales, are the main centres of surfing in Britain.

Geology
A geological dividing line cuts across Devon roughly along the line of the Bristol to Exeter line and the M5 motorway east of Tiverton and Exeter. It is a part of the Tees–Exe line broadly dividing Britain into a southeastern lowland zone typified by gently dipping sedimentary rocks and a northwestern upland zone typified by igneous rocks and folded sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.

The principal geological components of Devon are i) the Devonian strata of north Devon and south west Devon (and extending into Cornwall); ii) the Culm Measures (north western Devon also extending into north Cornwall); and iii) the granite intrusion of Dartmoor in central Devon, part of the Cornubian batholith forming the 'spine' of the southwestern peninsula. There are blocks of Silurian and Ordovician rocks within Devonian strata on the south Devon coast but otherwise no pre-Devonian rocks on the Devon mainland. The metamorphic rocks of Eddystone are of presumed Precambrian age.

The oldest rocks which can be dated are those of the Devonian period which are approximately 395–359 million years old. Sandstones and shales were deposited in North and South Devon beneath tropical seas. In shallower waters, limestone beds were laid down in the area now near Torquay and Plymouth. This geological period was named after Devon by Roderick Murchison and Adam Sedgwick in the 1840s and is the only British county whose name is used worldwide as the basis for a geological time period.

Devon's second major rock system is the Culm Measures, a geological formation of the Carboniferous period that occurs principally in Devon and Cornwall. The measures are so called either from the occasional presence of a soft, sooty coal, which is known in Devon as culm, or from the contortions commonly found in the beds. This formation stretches from Bideford to Bude in Cornwall, and contributes to a gentler, greener, more rounded landscape. It is also found on the western, north and eastern borders of Dartmoor.

The sedimentary rocks in more eastern parts of the county include Permian and Triassic sandstones (giving rise to east Devon's well known fertile red soils); Bunter pebble beds around Budleigh Salterton and Woodbury Common and Jurassic rocks in the easternmost parts of Devon. Smaller outcrops of younger rocks also exist, such as Cretaceous chalk cliffs at Beer Head and gravels on Haldon, plus Eocene and Oligocene ball clay and lignite deposits in the Bovey Basin, formed around 50 million years ago under tropical forest conditions.

Climate
Devon generally has a cool oceanic climate, heavily influenced by the North Atlantic Drift. In winter, snow is relatively uncommon away from high land, although there are few exceptions. The county has mild summers with occasional warm spells and cool rainy periods. Winters are generally cool and the county often experiences some of the mildest winters in the world for its high latitude, with average daily maximum temperatures in January at 8 C. Rainfall varies significantly across the county, ranging from over 2000 mm on parts of Dartmoor, to around 750 mm in the rain shadow along the coast in southeastern Devon and around Exeter. Sunshine amounts also vary widely: the moors are generally cloudy, but the SE coast from Salcombe to Exmouth is one of the sunniest parts of the UK (a generally cloudy region). With westerly or south-westerly winds and high pressure the area around Torbay and Teignmouth will often be warm, with long sunny spells due to shelter by high ground (Foehn wind).

Ecology
The variety of habitats means that there is a wide range of wildlife (see Dartmoor wildlife, for example). A popular challenge among birders is to find over 100 species in the county in a day. The county's wildlife is protected by several wildlife charities such as the Devon Wildlife Trust, which looks after 40 nature reserves. The Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society (founded in 1928 and known since 2005 as "Devon Birds") is a county bird society dedicated to the study and conservation of wild birds. The RSPB has reserves in the county, and Natural England is responsible for over 200 Devon Sites of Special Scientific Interest and National Nature Reserves, such as Slapton Ley. The Devon Bat Group was founded in 1984 to help conserve bats. Wildlife found in this area extend to a plethora of different kinds of insects, butterflies and moths; an interesting butterfly to take look at is the chequered skipper.

Devon is a national hotspot for several species that are uncommon in Britain, including the cirl bunting; greater horseshoe bat; Bechstein's bat and Jersey tiger moth. It is also the only place in mainland Britain where the sand crocus (Romulea columnae) can be found – at Dawlish Warren, and is home to all six British native land reptile species, partly as a result of some reintroductions. Another recent reintroduction is the Eurasian beaver, primarily on the river Otter. Other rare species recorded in Devon include seahorses and the sea daffodil.

The botany of the county is very diverse and includes some rare species not found elsewhere in the British Isles other than Cornwall. Devon is divided into two Watsonian vice-counties: north and south, the boundary being an irregular line approximately across the higher part of Dartmoor and then along the canal eastwards. Botanical reports begin in the 17th century and there is a Flora Devoniensis by Jones and Kingston in 1829. A general account appeared in The Victoria History of the County of Devon (1906), and a Flora of Devon was published in 1939 by Keble Martin and Fraser. An Atlas of the Devon Flora by Ivimey-Cook appeared in 1984, and A New Flora of Devon, based on field work undertaken between 2005 and 2014, was published in 2016.

Rising temperatures have led to Devon becoming the first place in modern Britain to cultivate olives commercially.

In January 2024, plans were announced to plant over 100,000 trees in northern Devon to support Celtic rainforests, which are cherished yet at risk ecosystems in the UK. The project aims to create 50 hectares of new rainforest across three sites, planting trees near existing rainforest areas along the coast and inland. Among the tree species to be planted is the rare Devon whitebeam, known for its unique reproduction method and once-popular fruit. Led by the National Trust and with the assistance of volunteers and community groups, the initiative will focus on locations in Exmoor, Woolacombe, Hartland, and Arlington Court.

Politics and administration
The administrative centre and capital of Devon is the city of Exeter. The largest city in Devon, Plymouth, and the conurbation of Torbay (which includes the largest town in Devon and capital of Torbay, Torquay, as well as Paignton and Brixham) have been unitary authorities since 1998, separate from the remainder of Devon which is administered by Devon County Council for the purposes of local government.

Devon County Council is controlled by the Conservatives, and the political representation of its 62 councillors are: 38 Conservatives, 9 Liberal Democrats, seven Labour, four UKIP, three Independents and one Green.

At the 2019 general election, Devon returned 10 Conservatives and two Labour MPs to the House of Commons.

Historically Devon was divided into 32 hundreds: Axminster, Bampton, Black Torrington, Braunton, Cliston, Coleridge, Colyton, Crediton, East Budleigh, Ermington, Exminster, Fremington, Halberton, Hartland, Hayridge, Haytor, Hemyock, Lifton, North Tawton and Winkleigh, Ottery, Plympton, Roborough, Shebbear, Shirwell, South Molton, Stanborough, Tavistock, Teignbridge, Tiverton, West Budleigh, Witheridge, and Wonford.
 * Hundreds

 * Devolution

A devolution deal was approved by both Devon County Council and Torbay Council to create a Combined County Authority with various powers such as transport, housing, skills, and support for business devolved from the UK Government.

Cities, towns and villages
The main settlements in Devon are the cities of Plymouth, a historic port now administratively independent, Exeter, the county town, and Torbay, the county's tourist centre. Devon's coast is lined with tourist resorts, many of which grew rapidly with the arrival of the railways in the 19th century. Examples include Dawlish, Exmouth and Sidmouth on the south coast, and Ilfracombe and Lynmouth on the north. The Torbay conurbation of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham on the south coast is now administratively independent of the county. Rural market towns in the county include Barnstaple, Bideford, Honiton, Newton Abbot, Okehampton, Tavistock, Totnes and Tiverton.

The boundary with Cornwall has not always been on the River Tamar as at present: until the late 19th century a few parishes in the Torpoint area were in Devon and five parishes now in north-east Cornwall were in Devon until 1974 (however, for ecclesiastical purposes these were nevertheless in the Archdeaconry of Cornwall and in 1876 became part of the Diocese of Truro).

Ancient and medieval history
The region of Devon was the dominion of the pre-Roman Dumnonii Celtic tribe, known as the "Deep Valley Dwellers". The region to the west of Exeter was less Romanised than the rest of Roman Britain since it was considered a remote part of the province. After the formal Roman withdrawal from Britain in AD 410, one of the leading Dumnonii families attempted to create a dynasty and rule over Devon as the new Kings of Dumnonii.

Celtic paganism and Roman practices were the first known religions in Devon, although in the mid-fourth century AD, Christianity was introduced to Devon. In the Sub-Roman period the church in the British Isles was characterised by some differences in practice from the Latin Christianity of the continent of Europe and is known as Celtic Christianity;  however it was always in communion with the wider Roman Catholic Church. Many Cornish saints are commemorated also in Devon in legends, churches and place-names. Western Christianity came to Devon when it was over a long period incorporated into the kingdom of Wessex and the jurisdiction of the bishop of Wessex. Saint Petroc is said to have passed through Devon, where ancient dedications to him are even more numerous than in Cornwall: a probable seventeen (plus Timberscombe just over the border in Somerset), compared to Cornwall's five. The position of churches bearing his name, including one within the old Roman walls of Exeter, are nearly always near the coast, as in those days travelling was done mainly by sea. The Devonian villages of Petrockstowe and Newton St Petroc are also named after Saint Petroc and the flag of Devon is dedicated to him.

The history of Christianity in the South West of England remains to some degree obscure. Parts of the historic county of Devon formed part of the diocese of Wessex, while nothing is known of the church organisation of the Celtic areas. About 703 Devon and Cornwall were included in the separate diocese of Sherborne and in 900 this was again divided into two, the Devon bishop having from 905 his seat at Tawton (now Bishop's Tawton) and from 912 at Crediton, birthplace of St Boniface. Lyfing became Bishop of Crediton in 1027 and shortly afterwards became Bishop of Cornwall.

The two dioceses of Crediton and Cornwall, covering Devon and Cornwall, were united under Edward the Confessor by Lyfing's successor Bishop Leofric, hitherto Bishop of Crediton, who became first Bishop of Exeter under Edward the Confessor, which was established as his cathedral city in 1050. At first, the abbey church of St Mary and St Peter, founded by Athelstan in 932 and rebuilt in 1019, served as the cathedral.

Devon came under the political influence of several different nobles during the Middle Ages, especially the Courtenays Earl of Devon. During the Wars of the Roses, important magnates included the Earl of Devon, William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, and Humphrey Stafford, earl of Devon whose wider influence stretched from Cornwall to Wiltshire. After 1485, one of the county's influential figures included Henry VII's courtier Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke.

Later history
In 1549, the Prayer Book Rebellion caused the deaths of thousands of people from Devon and Cornwall. During the English Reformation, churches in Devon officially became affiliated with the Church of England. From the late sixteenth century onwards, zealous Protestantism – or 'puritanism' – became increasingly well-entrenched in some parts of Devon, while other districts of the county remained much more conservative. These divisions would become starkly apparent during the English Civil War of 1642–46, when the county split apart along religious and cultural lines. The Methodism of John Wesley proved to be very popular with the working classes in Devon in the 19th century. Methodist chapels became important social centres, with male voice choirs and other church-affiliated groups playing a central role in the social lives of working class Devonians. Methodism still plays a large part in the religious life of Devon today, although the county has shared in the post-World War II decline in British religious feeling.

The Diocese of Exeter remains the Anglican diocese including the whole of Devon. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth was established in the mid 19th century.

Coat of arms
There was no established coat of arms for the county until 1926: the arms of the City of Exeter were often used to represent Devon, for instance in the badge of the Devonshire Regiment. During the forming of a county council by the Local Government Act 1888 adoption of a common seal was required. The seal contained three shields depicting the arms of Exeter along with those of the first chairman and vice-chairman of the council (Lord Clinton and the Earl of Morley).

On 11 October 1926, the county council received a grant of arms from the College of Arms. The main part of the shield displays a red crowned lion on a silver field, the arms of Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cornwall. The chief or upper portion of the shield depicts an ancient ship on wavers, for Devon's seafaring traditions. The Latin motto adopted was Auxilio Divino (by Divine aid), that of Sir Francis Drake. The 1926 grant was of arms alone. On 6 March 1962 a further grant of crest and supporters was obtained. The crest is the head of a Dartmoor Pony rising from a "Naval Crown". This distinctive form of crown is formed from the sails and sterns of ships, and is associated with the Royal Navy. The supporters are a Devon bull and a sea lion.

Devon County Council adopted a "ship silhouette" logo after the 1974 reorganisation, adapted from the ship emblem on the coat of arms, but following the loss in 1998 of Plymouth and Torbay re-adopted the coat of arms. In April 2006 the council unveiled a new logo which was to be used in most everyday applications, though the coat of arms will continue to be used for "various civic purposes".

Flag
Devon also has its own flag which has been dedicated to Saint Petroc, a local saint with dedications throughout Devon and neighbouring counties. The flag was adopted in 2003 after a competition run by BBC Radio Devon. The winning design was created by website contributor Ryan Sealey, and won 49% of the votes cast. The colours of the flag are those popularly identified with Devon, for example, the colours of the University of Exeter, the rugby union team, and the Green and White flag flown by the first Viscount Exmouth at the Bombardment of Algiers (now on view at the Teign Valley Museum), as well as one of the county's football teams, Plymouth Argyle. On 17 October 2006, the flag was hoisted for the first time outside County Hall in Exeter to mark Local Democracy Week, receiving official recognition from the county council. In 2019 Devon County Council with the support of both the Anglican and Catholic churches in Exeter and Plymouth, officially recognised Saint Boniface as the Patron Saint of Devon.

Place names and customs

Devon's toponyms include many with the endings "coombe/combe" and "tor". Both 'coombe' (valley or hollow, cf. Welsh cwm, Cornish komm) and 'tor' (Old Welsh twrr and Scots Gaelic tòrr from Latin turris; 'tower' used for granite formations) are rare Celtic loanwords in English and their frequency is greatest in Devon which shares a boundary with historically Brittonic speaking Cornwall. Ruined medieval settlements of Dartmoor longhouses indicate that dispersed rural settlement (OE tun, now often -ton) was very similar to that found in Cornish 'tre-' settlements, however these are generally described with the local placename -(a)cott, from the Old English for homestead, cf. cottage. Saxon endings in -worthy (from Anglo-Saxon worthig) indicate larger settlements. Several 'Bere's indicate Anglo-Saxon wood groves, as 'leighs' indicate clearings.

Devon has a variety of festivals and traditional practices, including the traditional orchard-visiting Wassail in Whimple every 17 January, and the carrying of flaming tar barrels in Ottery St. Mary, where people who have lived in Ottery for long enough are called upon to celebrate Bonfire Night by running through the village (and the gathered crowds) with flaming barrels on their backs. Berry Pomeroy still celebrates Queene's Day for Elizabeth I.

Education
Devon has a mostly comprehensive education system. There are 37 state and 23 independent secondary schools. There are three tertiary (FE) colleges and an agricultural college (Bicton College, near Budleigh Salterton). Torbay has 8 state (with 3 grammar schools) and 3 independent secondary schools, and Plymouth has 17 state (with 3 grammar schools – two female and one male) and one independent school, Plymouth College. East Devon and Teignbridge have the largest school populations, with West Devon the smallest (with only two schools). Only one school in Exeter, Mid Devon, Torridge and North Devon have a sixth form – the schools in other districts mostly have sixth forms, with all schools in West Devon and East Devon having a sixth form.

Two universities are located in Devon, the University of Exeter (split between the Streatham Campus and St Luke's Campus, both in Exeter, and a campus in Cornwall); in Plymouth the University of Plymouth in Britain is present, along with the University of St Mark & St John to the city's north. The universities of Exeter and Plymouth have together formed the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry which has bases in Exeter and Plymouth. There is also Schumacher College.

Cuisine
The county has given its name to a number of culinary specialities. The Devonshire cream tea, involving scones, jam and clotted cream, is thought to have originated in Devon (though claims have also been made for neighbouring counties); in other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, it is known as a "Devonshire tea". It has also been claimed that the pasty originated in Devon rather than Cornwall, with the first record of the pasty coming from Plymouth in 1509.

In October 2008, Devon was awarded Fairtrade County status by the Fairtrade Foundation.

Sport
Devon has been home to a number of customs, such as its own form of Devon wrestling, similar in some ways to Cornish wrestling. As recently as the 19th century, a crowd of over 17,000 at Devonport, near Plymouth, attended a match between the champions of Devon and Cornwall. Another Devon sport was outhurling which was played in some regions until the 20th century (e.g. 1922, at Great Torrington). Other ancient customs which survive include Dartmoor step dancing, and "Crying The Neck".

Devon has three professional football teams, based in each of its most populous towns and cities. As of 2023, Plymouth Argyle F.C. competes in the EFL Championship, Exeter City F.C. in the EFL League One, whilst Torquay United F.C. compete in the National League. Plymouth's highest Football League finish was fourth in the Second Division, which was achieved twice, in 1932 and 1953. Torquay and Exeter have never progressed beyond the third tier of the league; Torquay finished second on goal average in the Third Division (S) behind Sir Alf Ramsey's Ipswich Town in 1957. Exeter's highest position has been eighth in the Third Division (S). The county's biggest non-league clubs are Plymouth Parkway F.C. and Tiverton Town F.C. which compete in the Southern Football League Premier Division, and Bideford A.F.C., Exmouth Town F.C. and Tavistock A.F.C. which are in the Southern Football League Division One South and West.

Rugby Union is popular in Devon with over forty clubs under the banner of the Devon Rugby Football Union, many with various teams at senior, youth and junior levels. One club – Exeter Chiefs – play in the Aviva Premiership, winning the title in 2017 for the first time in their history after beating Wasps RFC in the final 23–20. Plymouth Albion who are,, in the National League 1 (The third tier of English Professional Rugby Union).

There are five rugby league teams in Devon. Plymouth Titans, Exeter Centurions, Devon Sharks from Torquay, North Devon Raiders from Barnstaple and East Devon Eagles from Exmouth. They all play in the Rugby League Conference.

Plymouth City Patriots represent Devon in the British Basketball League. Formed in 2021, they replaced the former professional club, Plymouth Raiders, after the latter team were withdrawn from competition due to venue issues. Motorcycle speedway is also supported in the county, with both the Exeter Falcons and Plymouth Gladiators succeeding in the National Leagues in recent years.

The University of Exeter Hockey Club enter teams in both the Men's and Women's England Hockey Leagues.

Horse Racing is also popular in the county, with two National Hunt racecourses (Exeter and Newton Abbot), and numerous point to point courses. There are also many successful professional racehorse trainers based in Devon.

The county is represented in cricket by Devon County Cricket Club, who play at a Minor counties level.

Notable Devonians

Devon is known for its mariners, such as Sir Francis Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Richard Grenville, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Francis Chichester. Henry Every, described as the most notorious pirate of the late 17th century, was probably born in the village of Newton Ferrers. John Oxenham (1536–1580) was a lieutenant of Drake but considered a pirate by the Spanish. Thomas Morton (1576–1647) was an avid Elizabethan outdoorsman probably born in Devon who became an attorney for The Council For New England, and built the New England fur-trading-plantation called Ma-Re Mount or Merrymount around a West Country-style Maypole, much to the displeasure of Pilgrim and Puritan colonists. Morton wrote a 1637 book New English Canaan about his experiences, partly in verse, and may have thereby become America's first poet to write in English. Another famous mariner and Devonian was Robert Falcon Scott, the leader of the unfortunate Terra Nova Expedition to reach the geographical South Pole. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the crime writers Agatha Christie and Bertram Fletcher Robinson, the Irish writer William Trevor, and the poet Ted Hughes lived in Devon. The painter and founder of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, was born in Devon. Chris Dawson, the billionaire owner of retailer The Range was born in Devon, where his business retains its head office in Plymouth.

The actor Matthew Goode was raised in Devon, and Bradley James, also an actor, was born there. The singer Joss Stone was brought up in Devon and frontman Chris Martin from the British rock group Coldplay was born there. Matt Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme from the English group Muse all grew up in Devon and formed the band there. Dave Hill of rock band Slade was born in Flete House which is in the South Hams district of Devon. Singer-songwriter Ben Howard grew up in Totnes, a small town in Devon. Another famous Devonian is the model and actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who was born in Plymouth and raised in Tavistock. The singer and songwriter Rebecca Newman was born and raised in Exmouth. Roger Deakins, called "the pre-eminent cinematographer of our time", was born and lives in Devon. Trevor Francis, former Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City professional footballer, and the first English footballer to cost £1 million, was born and brought up in Plymouth.

Swimmer Sharron Davies and diver Tom Daley were born in Plymouth. The Olympic runner Jo Pavey was born in Honiton. Peter Cook the satirist, writer and comedian was born in Torquay, Devon. Leicester Tigers and British and Irish Lions Rugby player Julian White was born and raised in Devon and now farms a herd of pedigree South Devon beef cattle. The dog breeder John "Jack" Russell was also from Devon. Jane McGrath, who married Australian cricketer Glenn McGrath was born in Paignton, her long battle with and subsequent death from breast cancer inspired the formation of the McGrath Foundation, which is one of Australia's leading charities.

Devon has also been represented in the House of Commons by notable Members of Parliament (MPs) such as Nancy Astor, Gwyneth Dunwoody, Michael Foot and David Owen and the Prime Ministers Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston.

title: Devon