39th year - N° 366 Tuesday, 31 December 2024

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
39th year - N° 366 Tuesday, 31 December 2024

31 December / Today's 32 Events:

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(-) 1689 years ago Tuesday 31st of December 0335 33rd Pope Silvester I dies of unknown causes in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

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(+) 646 years ago Thursday 31st of December 1378 209th Pope Callixtus III, originally Alfons de Borja is born in Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

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(+) 510 years ago Thursday 31st of December 1514 Anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius, originally Andries van Wesel is born in Brussel, Brabant, Belgium.

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(+) 155 years ago Friday 31st of December 1869 Artist Henri Émile-Benoît Matisse is born in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

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(-) 147 years ago Monday 31st of December 1877 Painter Gustave Jean Désiré Courbet dies of a liver disease aggravated by heavy drinking at the age of 58 in La Tour-de-Peilz, Vaud, Switzerland.

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(-) 126 years ago Saturday 31st of December 1898 Serial killer Joseph Vacher aka L'Eventreur du Sud-Est is executed by the Guillotine at the age of 29 in Bourg-en-Bresse, Rhône-Alpes, France.

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(+) 126 years ago Saturday 31st of December 1898 Singer and actress Umm Kulthum, originally Fātimah ʾIbrāhīm as-Sayyid al-Biltāǧī aka The Nightingale of the Nile is born in Tamay e-Zahayra, El Senbellawein, Dakahlia, Egypt. Some sources say Kulthum was born on 4 May 1904.

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(+) 116 years ago Thursday 31st of December 1908 Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal is born in Buczacz, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine.

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(x) 102 years ago Sunday 31st of December 1922 The Goetheanum, built by 61-year-old Philosopher, social reformer, architect and esotericist Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner aka The Father of Anthroposophy is destroyed by arson during the night of New Year's Eve in Goetheanum, Dornach, Solothurn, Switzerland. One suspect was Jakob Ott, a clockmaker and anthroposophist with positions opposite to those of Steiner. He was seen at the crime scene and most likely died in the fire. However a later report in 2007 claimed he was there to help put the fire out.

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(+) 87 years ago Friday 31st of December 1937 Actor Anthony Philip Hopkins known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in the movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ is born in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, United Kingdom.

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(+) 81 years ago Friday 31st of December 1943 Actor Ben Kingsley, originally Krishna Bhanji is born in Snainton, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

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(+) 81 years ago Friday 31st of December 1943 Singer-songwriter John Denver, originally Henry John Deutschendorf is born in Roswell, New Mexico, United States.

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(+) 76 years ago Friday 31st of December 1948 Singer-songwriter Donna Summer, originally LaDonna Adrian Gaines aka The Queen of Disco is born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

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(+) 65 years ago Thursday 31st of December 1959 Actor Val Edward Kilmer is born in Los Angeles, California, United States.

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(+) 64 years ago Saturday 31st of December 1960 Serial killer John Allen Muhammad, originally John Allen Williams aka The Beltway Sniper is born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States.

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(-) 62 years ago Monday 31st of December 1962 Patricia Bissette is raped and strangled by serial killer Albert DeSalvo aka The Boston Strangler aka The Measuring Man aka The Green Man in 515 Park Drive, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

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(-) 58 years ago Saturday 31st of December 1966 Tuula Hoeoek is presumably battered to death by Satan worshipper and serial rapist Edward Paisnel aka The Beast of Jersey in Rue Laurens, St. Clement, Jersey, United Kingdom. In July 2013 the case was reopened.

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(x) 57 years ago Sunday 31st of December 1967 An unidentified woman is raped and robbed by serial killer Gustaaf Van Eyken aka De Vampier van Muizen in Wielewaalreservaat Zellaar, Bonheiden, Antwerpen, Belgium.

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(-) 55 years ago Wednesday 31st of December 1969 Labor leader of the United Mine Workers Joseph Albert Yablonski aka Jock is shot dead in his house by three hitmen hired by a union political opponent at the age of 59 in East Bethlehem Township, Clarksville, Pennsylvania, United States. Yablonski's wife Margaret and 25-year-old daughter Charlotte were also shot dead. Their bodies were found on 5 January 1970 by Yablonski's son Kenneth.

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(-) 44 years ago The Medium of the Message was Dead Wednesday 31st of December 1980 Philosopher Marshall Herbert McLuhan known for “the medium is the message” dies of complications from a stroke at the age of 69 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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(x) 42 years ago Friday 31st of December 1982 Toshimitsu Ozawa is attacked by serial killer Dennis Nilsen aka Killing For Company in 23 Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

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(x) 40 years ago Monday 31st of December 1984 37-year-old Bernhard Hugo Goetz aka The Subway Vigilante turns himself in for the shooting of four robbers in a subway train in Concord, New Hampshire, United States. Goetz shot them on a New York City Subway train in Manhattan on 22 December 1984.

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(-) 39 years ago Tuesday 31st of December 1985 Teen idol Ricky Eric Hilliard Nelson dies in a Douglas DC-3 plane crash at the age of 45 in US-82, De Kalb, Texas, United States. Seven of the nine occupants were killed: Nelson and his 27-year-old companion Helen Blair, 35-year-old bass guitarist Patrick Woodward, 22-year-old drummer Rick Intveld, 34-year-old keyboardist Andy Chapin, 38-year-old guitarist Bobby Neal, and 35-year-old road manager/soundman Donald Clark Russell. Pilots Ken Ferguson and Brad Rank escaped via cockpit windows, although Ferguson was severely burned.

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(x) 38 years ago Wednesday 31st of December 1986 97 die in Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in Dupont Plaza, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fire was set with the intention of scaring tourists away by Héctor Escudero Aponte, José Rivera López and Arnaldo Jiménez Rivera, three disgruntled employees of the hotel who were in the middle of a labor dispute with the owners.

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(x) 38 years ago Wednesday 31st of December 1986 Noise music band Club Moral play their 61st concert at the New Noise Year's Party in Club Moral, Kattenberg 122, Borgerhout, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium. Also played: H64, Con-Dom, Victor/im, Iron Brotherhood, Export

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(x) 34 years ago Monday 31st of December 1990 Heidemarie Heidi Hammerer is found strangled by serial killer Jack Unterweger aka Jack the Writer aka Der Häfenpoet aka The Pug Dumper in Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria. Hammerer was abducted on 6 December.

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(-) 31 years ago Friday 31st of December 1993 First democratically elected President of Georgia in the post-Soviet era Zviad Gamsakhurdia commits suicide by a shot in the head at the age of 54 in Khibula, Mingrelia, Georgia. Gamsakhurdia shot himself when he and a group of colleagues found the building where he was sheltering surrounded by forces of the pro-Shevardnadze Mkhedrioni militia.

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25 years ago The Eyes had it Friday 31st of December 1999 An actor on a street stage in Pahurat, Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand.

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(x) 17 years ago Monday 31st of December 2007 77-year-old Attempted assassin of President Gerald Ford Sara Jane Kahn Moore is released from prison on parole after serving 32 years of her life sentence in Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin, California, United States.

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7 years ago The Eyes had it Sunday 31st of December 2017 A forgettable New Year's eve in Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

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4 years ago The Eyes had it Thursday 31st of December 2020 A rainbow standing on the beach in San Rocco, Mariakerke, Oostende, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

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(-) 2 years ago Saturday 31st of December 2022 265th Pope Benedictus XVI , originally Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger dies of old age at the age of 95 in Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, Vatican City, Rome, Lazio, Italy.

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