Under Tuesday, December 7th, the book of history records, among other things:
1876: The comedy “Joke, Satire, Irony and Deeper Meaning” by Christian Dietrich Grabbe will be premiered in Vienna.
1881: German premiere of the opera “Hoffmanns Erzählungen”, by Jacques Offenbach, in the Ringtheater in Vienna. The next day the theater was completely destroyed by fire.
1891: Luther Gulick, director of the YMCA in Springfield, hires the educator James Naismith to design a new indoor sport. Since injuries often occur when playing football indoors in winter, the new game should get by with less physical contact. The first basketball game starts on December 15th with thirteen rules, which are published on February 15th, 1892.
1916: David Lloyd George replaces Herbert Henry Asquith as British Prime Minister.
1926: Max Brod ignored the last will of his friend Franz Kafka and published his fragmentary novel “Das Schloss” from 1922. In his will, Kafka had ordered the burning of his unpublished manuscripts.
1941: The war in the Pacific begins with a surprise attack by the Japanese air force against the US navy in Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
1941: According to the “Night and Fog Decree” for the occupied countries signed by the Chief of the High Command of the German Wehrmacht, Wilhelm Keitel, arrested persons are to be removed in such a way that relatives do not find out anything about their whereabouts. (“The deterrent effect lies in the fact that it disappears without a trace”.)
1946: A hotel fire in Atlanta, Georgia, US state kills 119 people.
1951: France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union increase the occupation costs for Austria.
1971: The Soviet “Mars-2” probe launched on May 19 throws a capsule with a flag above the planet on which the state coat of arms of the Soviet Union is depicted.
1971: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto becomes Pakistani Prime Minister.
1976: The Austrian diplomat, former Foreign Minister and defeated ÖVP presidential candidate (1971) Kurt Waldheim is re-elected for a second five-year mandate as Secretary General of the United Nations. China abstains from voting in the UN Security Council.
1981: The NATO foreign ministers sign a protocol on Spain’s accession to the military alliance.
2001: In Afghanistan, the Taliban are giving up their last bastion, Kandahar, and taking refuge in the mountains.
2001: Almost a year after the start of the comprehensive rapid tests, a cattle in Austria is tested positive for BSE for the first time. The farm affected is located in Groß Höhaben in the Waldviertel, all other cattle on the farm are killed ten days later.
2006: Austria wants to examine steps under international law against the official operating license (approval) of the Czech Temelín nuclear power plant. Environment Minister Josef Pröll (ÖVP) explains that Prague has to fulfill all the agreements of the Melker Protocol and the Brussels Agreement. Austria continues to insist on the “zero option”, i.e. the closure of the controversial nuclear power plant.
2011: The National Council rewrote the national anthem. Instead of “Home are you great sons”, “Home of great daughters and sons” will be sung from January 1st. In verse three the “brother choirs” are replaced by “jubilation choirs”.
Birthdays: Johann Nestroy, east. Playwright / actor (1801-1862); Arturo Pedretti, Switzerland. Painter (1896-1964); Lily Abegg, Switzerland. Publicist (1901-1974); Elisabeth Höngen, German-East. Contralto (1906-1997); Oswald Kneip, east. Actor (1946-2005).
Days of Death: Élie Ducommun, Switzerland. Journalist / politician; Nobel Peace Prize 1902 (1833-1906); Jeane Kirkpatrick, former United States Ambassador to the United States (1926-2006); Gregory Stuart “Greg” Lake, British bassist, guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer; “Emerson, Lake and Palmer” (1947-2016).
Name days: Ambrosius, Gerbald, Agathon, Fara, Josefa, Gerold, Martin, Urban, Katharina.