Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 22

This is a list of selected December 22 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.

Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.

To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.

← December 21	December 23 →

Staging area

Images

Use only ONE image at a time

• 
  President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan
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  President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan
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  William Tecumseh Sherman
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  President Ion Iliescu of Romania
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  Brandenburg Gate
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  Deng Xiaoping, paramount leader of PR China
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  Ludwig van Beethoven
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  Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi of Japan
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  Anthony McAuliffe
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  Chico Mendes in 1988
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  Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird
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  Entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey
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  Vitellius on a coin
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  President Obama signing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act

Ineligible

Blurb	Reason
Midsummer festivities (Southern Hemisphere, 2011);	Brazil is the only Southern Hemisphere country listed in the article
Mother's Day in Indonesia	refimprove section
1216 – Pope Honorius III issued the papal bull Religiosam vitam to establish the Dominican Order.	refimprove
1808 – German composer Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Fourth Piano Concerto, and Choral Fantasy were premiered in a concert at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna.	5th: refimprove sections
1864 – American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea ended with the capture of Savannah, Georgia.	refimprove section
1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai from Chōshū, became the first prime minister of Japan.	refimprove section, neutrality issues
1944 – Vietnamese revolutionary Hồ Chí Minh formed the People's Army of Vietnam to drive French colonialists and Japanese occupiers out of Indochina.	refimprove
1944 – World War II: U.S. Army General Anthony McAuliffe responded to the German ultimatum of surrender during the Battle of the Bulge with a single word, "NUTS!"	refimprove
1947 – The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly.	refimprove
1963 – A total of 128 people died when the ocean liner TSMS Lakonia burned at sea 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira.	refimprove
1974 – Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli voted to become the independent nation of the Comoros.	unreferenced section
1978 – The Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China opened, where Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and other party officials agreed to launch economic reforms and to open up China.	refimprove
1987 – The Zimbabwe African National Union and Zimbabwe African People's Union agreed to merge, bringing an end to the Gukurahundi, the suppression of predominantly Ndebele civilians by the 5th Brigade.	refimprove section
1989 – Romanian Revolution: After a week of bloody demonstrations, Ion Iliescu took over as president of Romania, ending the Communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu.	outdated, expansion
1989 – Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate re-opened after nearly 30 years, symbolizing the unity of East and West Germany.	refimprove section
1990 – The Parliament of Croatia adopted the country's current constitution.	refimprove section
2001 – CC the cat, the first cloned pet, was born.	stubby
* 1971 – Two groups of French doctors involved in humanitarian aid merged to form Médecins Sans Frontières.	Tagged for COI

Eligible

• 69 – Roman emperor Vitellius was captured by soldiers loyal to Vespasian and executed at the Gemonian stairs in Rome.
• 401 – Pope Innocent I began his papacy, succeeding Anastasius I.
• 1769 – Defeated by the Burmese Konbaung dynasty, Qing China agreed to a peace treaty to end the Sino-Burmese War.
• 1807 – In an effort to avoid engaging in the Napoleonic Wars, the United States Congress passed the Embargo Act, forbidding American ships from engaging in trade with foreign nations.
• 1920 – The Congress of Soviets approved the GOELRO plan, the first Soviet plan for national economic recovery and development.
• 1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel, connecting New York City to Weehawken, New Jersey, opened.
• 1939 – Members of the All-India Muslim League observed a "Day of Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over the decision to enter the Second World War at the request of the United Kingdom.
• 1964 – The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the United States Air Force's long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft and the world's fastest air-breathing manned aircraft, made its first flight.
• 1968 – Cultural Revolution: The People's Daily published a piece by Chinese leader Mao Zedong directing that "the intellectual youth must go to the country, and will be educated from living in rural poverty".
• 1984 – While riding a New York City Subway train, Bernhard Goetz shot four African-American youths who had attempted to rob him, sparking a nationwide debate on vigilantism, racism, and the legal limits of self-defense.
• 1997 – Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquished the disputed title of President of Somalia.
• 2001 – Burhanuddin Rabbani of the Northern Alliance handed over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by Hamid Karzai.
• 2001 – Richard Reid unsuccessfully attempted to detonate a bomb in his shoe on a transatlantic flight from Paris to Miami.
• 2010 – The United States repealed its controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the military.
• Born/died: | Cynesige |d|1060| Étienne Martellange |b|1569| John Newbery |d|1767| Teresa Carreño |b|1853| Frank B. Kellogg |b|1856| Jean-Victor Poncelet |d|1867| Alan Bush |b|1900| Tommy Flowers |b|1905| Peggy Ashcroft |b|1907| Rose Talbot Bullard |d|1915| Basshunter |b|1984

Notes

• Battle of the Bulge appears on December 16, so Anthony McAuliffe should not appear in the same year
• Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab/Northwest Airlines Flight 253 appears on December 25, so Richard Reid/2001 shoe bomb plot should not appear in the same year

December 22

Aerial view of the Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill

• 856 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 struck the eastern Alborz mountains in Persia, causing an estimated 200,000 deaths.
• 1948 – Chaired by Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia was established to counter Dutch attempts to re-assert colonial control.
• 1988 – Brazilian unionist and environmental activist Chico Mendes was murdered at his home in Xapuri.
• 2008 – A dike ruptured at a waste containment area for a coal-fired power plant in Kingston, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion gallons (4.2 million m³) of coal fly ash slurry (aftermath pictured) in the largest industrial spill in US history.

• Carl Friedrich Abel (b. 1723)
• William Hyde Wollaston (d. 1828)
• Meghan Trainor (b. 1993)
• Dina Belenkaya (b. 1993)

More anniversaries:

• December 21
• December 22
• December 23