31st year - N° 354 Monday, 19 December 2016

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
31st year - N° 354 Monday, 19 December 2016

19 December / Today's 13 Events:

---

(-) 165 years ago the Sun was God Friday 19th of December 1851 Romantic landscape painter William Joseph Mallord Turner dies of natural causes at the age of 76 in 119 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, Greater London, United Kingdom. Turner died in the house of his mistress Sophia Caroline Booth. His last words were "The sun is God."

---

(+) 110 years ago Wednesday 19th of December 1906 Soviet statesman Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev is born in Dniprodzerzhynsk, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine.

---

(x) 109 years ago Thursday 19th of December 1907 239 die in Darr Mine explosion in Pittsburgh Coal Company Darr Mine, Jacob's Creek, Pennsylvania, United States.

---

(+) 107 years ago Sunday 19th of December 1909 Unitarian peace activist Florence Beaumont is born in New York City, New York, United States.

---

(+) 106 years ago Monday 19th of December 1910 Writer, thief and political activist Jean Genet is born in Maternité de la Rue d'Assas, Rue d'Assas 22, VIe, Paris, Île-de-France, France. Genet's mother Camille Gabrielle Genet was a young prostitute who raised him for the first seven months of his life before putting him up for adoption.

---

(+) 101 years ago Sunday 19th of December 1915 Singer Édith Piaf, originally Édith Giovanna Gassion aka La Môme Piaf is born in Rue de Belleville 72, XXe, Paris, Île-de-France, France. Legend has it that Piaf was born on the pavement of Rue de Belleville 72 but her birth certificate cites the Hôpital Tenon.

---

(-) 101 years ago Sunday 19th of December 1915 Psychiatrist and neuropathologist Aloysius Alzheimer dies of heart failure at the age of 51 in Breslau, Schlesien, Germany.

---

(x) 85 years ago Saturday 19th of December 1931 Nazi leader and Reichspropagandaleiter Joseph Paul Goebbels dies of heart failure in Gut Severin, Parchim, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

---

(-) 71 years ago Wednesday 19th of December 1945 Stunt actress Mary Wiggins aka Lucky known for doubling actress Ann Sothern commits suicide by a shot through the head at the age of 36 in Hollywood, California, United States.

---

(-) 57 years ago Saturday 19th of December 1959 Jillian Macpherson Brewer is stabbed and hacked to death with a tomahawk and a pair of scissors by serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke aka The Australian Nightmare in Cottesloe, Western Australia, Australia. 18-year old Darryl Beamish provided four confessions, two through a sign language interpreter, one a written statement and another in notes scrawled on the exercise yard at the Perth lock-up. Beamish said the confessions were obtained through intimidation and threats, and were untrue. Nevertheless Beamish was convicted of wilful murder in 1961 and sentenced to death by hanging. The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he served 15 years. After six appeals his conviction was finally o verturned in 2005.

---

(-) 52 years ago Saturday 19th of December 1964 Christiane Herreman is raped and strangled by serial killer Michel Bellen aka The Strangler of the Left Bank in Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

---

(x) 41 years ago Friday 19th of December 1975 27-year-old Member of the 'Manson Family' Lynette Alice Fromme aka Squeaky known for attempting to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford is sentenced to life-imprisonment for the attempted assassination of president Ford in Sacramento, California, United States.

---

(x) 19 years ago Friday 19th of December 1997 104 die in SilkAir Boeing 737-36N Flight 185 crash in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia. The time it took the aircraft to dive from cruise altitude to the river was less than one minute. The plane was traveling faster than the speed of sound for a few seconds before impact. Due to the high speed the entire aircraft and passengers disintegrated upon impact.

---