December 1909 in History

Events in History

Dec 1 1st Christmas Club payment made, to Carlisle Trust Co, Pennsylvania
Dec 1 1st Israeli kibbutz founded, Deganya Alef

Historic Invention

Dec 7 Inventor Leo Baekeland patents the first thermo-setting plastic, Bakelite, sparking the birth of the plastics industry

Dec 8 Bird banding society found
Dec 9 1st US monoplane flown (Henry W Walden, Long Island, NY)

Nobel Prize

Dec 10 Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature

Dec 11 Canadian Football exhibition game played in Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, Hamilton Tigers beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 11-6 before 15,000
Dec 16 A conservative revolution and US pressure forces Nicaraguan President Jose Santos from office
Dec 17 Leopold II, king of Belgium, died in Laeken after a reign of exactly 44 years
Dec 21 1st junior high school established (Berkeley California)

Theater Premiere

Dec 21 Clyde Fitch's play "The City" premieres in NYC

Dec 21 Unitversity of Copenhagen rejects American Explorer Frederick A Cook's claim that he was 1st to North Pole
Dec 23 Albert I becomes the third King of the Belgians

Birthdays in History

Dec 1 Jan Koplowitz, German writer, born in Kudowa (d. 2001)
Dec 6 Kenneth Watkins, British woodland conservationist and founder (The Woodland Trust) (d. 1996)
Dec 7 Arch Oboler, American director, screen and radio writer, and producer (Lights Out, Bwana Devil), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1987)
Dec 7 Jacob Kainen, American painter and curator, born in Waterbury, Connecticut (d. 2001)
Dec 11 Ronald McKie, Australian author (The Mango Tree), born in Toowoomba, Queensland (d. 1991)
Dec 12 Armand Boni, Flemish poet and writer, born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1991)
Dec 14 Edward L Tatum, American molecular geneticist and biochemist (Nobel Prize 1958), born in Boulder, Colorado (d. 1975)
Dec 16 Henricus Verbunt, Dutch civil servant and resistance fighter, born in Tilburg, Netherlands (d. 1944)
Dec 19 W.A. Criswell, American (Baptist) preacher (d. 2002)
Dec 20 Vakkom Majeed, Indian freedom fighter & politician, born in the Kingdom of Travancore (d. 2000)
Dec 21 George Ball, American politician and diplomat (US Ambassador to the UN, Under Secretary of State), born in Des Moines, Iowa (d. 1994)
Dec 21 Seichō Matsumoto, Japanese mystery writer and journalist, born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan (d. 1992)
Dec 24 Adam Rapacki, Polish minister of Foreign Affairs (1956-68), born in Lviv, Ukraine (d. 1970)
Dec 25 Louis van Lint, Belgian painter (post-war abstraction), born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1986)
Dec 28 Nikola Vaptsarov, Bulgaria poet and communist revolutionary (Subrani Sutsjinenija), born in Bansko, Ottoman Empire (d. 1942)

Deaths in History

Dec 4 Paul-Albert Besnard, French painter and graphic artist (Elle), dies at 60
Dec 7 Whitcomb Judson, American inventor (zipper), dies at 63
Dec 10 Red Cloud, Sioux indian chief, dies
Dec 11 Innokenty Annensky, Russian poet (b. 1855)
Dec 13 Innokenti Annenski, Russian poet and interpreter, dies of a heart attack at 54
Dec 14 Leopold II, King of Belgium (1865-1909), sole owner of the Congo Free State (1885-1908), dies at 74
Dec 17 Leopold II, King of Belgium (1865-1909), dies at 74
Dec 24 Nicolaas Pierson, Dutch economist and politician (Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1897-1901), dies at 80
Dec 26 Frederic Remington, American artist and sculptor of American West, dies at 48