December 15

Events533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Ticameron.1167 - Sicilian chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.1256 - Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.1467 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.1791 - The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia legislature.1818 - Irwin County, Georgia is created.1891 - James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.1913 - Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.1939 - Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta, Georgia.1941 - Annihilation of Jews in Kharkiv, Ukraine: in the proximity of the Rogan works, 8 km away from Kharkiv, in "Drobitsky Ravine" (Drobitsky Yar), over 15 000 Jews were shot, at -15 degrees C below zero. 1945 - Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as state religion of Japan.1960 - King Baudouin of Belgium marries Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón in Brussels.1960 - Richard Paul Pavlick is arrested for attempting to blow up and assassinate the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy only four days earlier.1961 - In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.1965 - Gemini program: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieved the first space rendezvous with Gemini 7. 1965 - The film The Sound of Music is released.1967 - The Silver Bridge collapses, killing 46 people.1970 - Illinois State Constitution is adopted at a special election.1976 - Samoa becomes a member of the UN.1993 - History of Northern Ireland: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.1994 - The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released.1994 - Palau becomes a member of the UN.1995 - The European Communities Court of Justice hands down the "Bosman ruling", giving EU footballers the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts, with the provision that they are transferring from one UEFA Federation to another.1997 - A chartered Tupolev TU-154 from Tajikistan crashes in the desert near Sharja, United Arab Emirates airport killing 85.2002 - Triple H defeats Shawn Michaels in a Three Stages of Hell match at Armageddon, consisting of a street fight, steel cage match, and ladder match; Triple H won the first and third falls.}} Triple H became the first ever person to become a two time World Heavyweight Champion2005 - The 43rd known Mersenne prime is discovered by Dr. Curtis Cooper & Dr. Steven Boone of USA, participants of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search distributed computing project. The prime number is 2nd largest known prime and has more than nine million digits.2005 - Latvia edits its constitution to ban equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians.2005 - Argentina's president Néstor Kirchner announces the early repayment of its external debt to the IMF.2005 - Introduction of the F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.2006 - First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.
See more at Wikipedia.org...