What happened on December 22 ?

1178 - Emperor Antoku of Japan (d. 1185)

1639 - Jean Racine, French dramatist (d. 1699)

1666 - Guru Gobind Singh, (d. 1708)

1694 - Hermann Samuel Reimarus, German philosopher and writer (b. 1768)

1696 - James Oglethorpe, English general and founder of the state of Georgia (d. 1785)

1723 - Karl Friedrich Abel, German composer (d. 1787)

1805 - John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist (d. 1893)

1807 - Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (d. 1873)

1819 - Franz Wilhelm Abt, German composer (d. 1870)

1853 - Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan pianist (d. 1917)

1856 - Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)

1858 - Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer (d. 1924)

1860 - Austin Norman Palmer, American penmanship innovator (d. 1927)

1862 - Connie Mack, baseball executive and manager (d. 1956)

1869 - Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet (d. 1935)

1872 - Camille Guérin, French veterinarian and bacteriologist (d. 1961)

1874 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (d. 1939)

1876 - Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Italian poet and editor (d. 1944)

1883 - Edgard Varèse French-born composer (d. 1965)

1887 - Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician (d. 1920)

1888 - J. Arthur Rank, American producer (d. 1972)

1898 - Vladimir Aleksandrovich Fock, Russian physicist (d. 1974)

1899 - Gustav Gründgens, German actor and director (d. 1963)

1903 - Haldan Keffer Hartline, American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1983)

1905 - Kenneth Rexroth, American poet (d. 1982)

1907 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft, English actress (d. 1991)

1909 - Patricia Hayes, actress on 'Carry On' series, Mama The Turk in "Superbitch"(1973) (d. 1998)

1912 - Lady Bird Johnson, First Lady of the United States

1915 - Barbara Billingsley, American actress

1917 - Gene Rayburn, American game show host (d. 1999)

1922 - Jack Brooks, American politician

1922 - Ruth Roman, American actress (d. 1999)

1934 - David Pearson, NASCAR Driver 1960-1986

1937 - Eduard Uspensky, Russian writer

1939 - James Gurley, American musician

1943 - Paul Wolfowitz, American politician

1944 - Steve Carlton, baseball player

1945 - Diane Sawyer, American journalist

1946 - Rick Nielsen, American musician (Cheap Trick)

1948 - Lynne Thigpen, American actress (d. 2003)

1948 - Noel Edmonds, UK game show host

1948 - Patricia Hewitt, Senior British Labour Politician

1949 - Maurice Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003)

1949 - Robin Gibb, English musician (The Bee Gees)

1951 - Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster

1953 - Ian Turnbull, Canadian ice hockey player

1957 - Carole James, Canadian politician

1958 - Frank Gambale, Australian guitarist

1958 - Mikael Nordfors, Swedish physician and author

1959 - Bernd Schuster, German footballer

1960 - Patrick Fitzgerald, US Attorney

1961 - Andrew Fastow, Enron CFO, convicted of fraud

1962 - Ralph Fiennes, English actor

1966 - Dmitry Bilozerchev, Soviet gymnast

1967 - Dan Petrescu, Romanian footballer

1967 - Richey James Edwards, Manic Street Preachers songwriter/guitarist, (missing since 1995)

1969 - Myriam Bédard, Canadian athlete

1974 - Heather Donahue, American actress, famous for her role in The Blair Witch Project

1975 - Crissy Moran, American erotic actress

1975 - Stanislav Necká?, Czech ice hockey player

1977 - Steve Kariya, Canadian ice hockey player

1980 - Devin Anderson, American composer

1983 - Jennifer Hawkins, Miss Universe 2004