#TodayInHistory – December 22

December 22 – Some important events on this day

1596 👉🏼 Ferryboat Meuniers crashes in Paris, 150 die
1666 👉🏼 The French Academy of Sciences, founded by Louis XIV with Jean-Baptiste Colbert first meets in the Kings Library
1790 👉🏼 Supposedly impenetrable Turkish fortress of Izmail stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–92)
1808 👉🏼 Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 5 and No. 6, Choral Fantasy and Piano Concerto No. 4 (featuring the composer as soloist) premiere at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria
1849 👉🏼 The execution of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky by firing squad is called off at the last second
1877 👉🏼 Thomas Edison’s Phonograph is announced by Scientific American
1885 👉🏼 Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan
1932 👉🏼 “The Mummy” directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff is released in the US – 1st Mummy horror film

1956 👉🏼 Colo is born, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity at Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Columbus, Ohio.
Colo, a western lowland gorilla whose name was a combination of Columbus and Ohio, was the daughter of Millie and Mac, two gorillas captured in French Cameroon, Africa, who were brought to the Columbus Zoo in 1951.

1962 👉🏼 1,000,000th NBA point scored
1972 👉🏼 6.25 earthquake strikes Managua Nicaragua, 12,000+ killed
1989 👉🏼 After 23 years of dictatorial rule, Romania ousts Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu
1990 👉🏼 Lech Wałęsa sworn in as Poland’s 1st popularly elected president
2010 👉🏼 Repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy”, a 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the US military, signed into law by President Barack Obama
2018 👉🏼 Tsunami hits Indonesia’s Sunda Strait killing over 400 after part of the Anak Krakatoa volcano slips into the sea