Facts

1690 The German organ maker Johann Denner from Nuremberg makes the first clarinet.

1822 Dimitrios Ypsilantis and Theodoros Kolokotronis take over Acrocorinth during the Greek Revolution.

1915 The chief of staff and later dictator Ioannis Metaxas, in his memorandum to Eleftherios Venizelos entitled “Asia Minor: Distribution Possibilities”, expresses strong reservations regarding a potential campaign in Asia Minor territory.

1943 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt meet secretly in Casablanca, along with military experts, on the issue of developing a second front in Europe. (World war II).

1963 Charlie Watts makes his first appearance as drummer for the Rolling Stones at London’s Flamingo Jazz Club.

1996 Patriarch Bartholomew is in favor of the full integration of Turkey into the European Union, on the grounds that this will solve the problems of the Patriarchate and the diaspora in Istanbul.

Births

1896 John Dos Passos, American writer. (“USA”, “Manhattan Transfer”, “42nd Parallel”) (D. 9/28/1970)

1918 Dimitris Tsafentas, a South African of Greek origin, who in 1966 murdered the apartheid prime minister Hendrik Ferwerd, because the authorities forbade him to marry a black woman. (D. 7/10/1999)

1941 Faye Dunaway, American actress.

Deaths

1951 Grigorios Xenopoulos, Greek novelist, journalist and playwright. (Born 9/12/1867)

1957 Humphrey Bogart, American actor. (“Casablanca”, “The Maltese Falcon”) (Born 12/25/1899)

1966 Sergei Korolev, Soviet space engineer, one of the people who shaped the space program of the USSR. (Born 30/12/1906)