This Day in History on 15 December
The historical events hold a lot of value for aspirants who are sitting for UPSC competitive exams including the IAS Exam.
On this page, we will list all historical events that occurred on 15 December. The students can refer to them while preparing for all competitive exams and banking exams.
Important Days
International Tea Day
Important Events
1794: Revolutionary tribunal in France ended.
1803: East India Company captured Orissa (now Odisha).
1890: Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
1916: France defeated Germany in the Battle of Verdun during the First World War.
1917: The Moldavian Republic declared independence from Russia.
1943: The Vengeance suffered numerous defects and teething troubles, necessitating temporary withdrawal from the two IAF squadrons, but the problems were eventually mitigated if not eradicated, and No. 8 Sqn flew its first operational Vengeance sorties against Japanese targets from Double Moorings, Chittagong.
1951: Scindia’s SS Jal Pushpa launched.
1953: Vijayalakshmi Pandit was elected the first woman president of the eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
1957: 60 Harijans enter the Vishwanath Temple at Varanasi.
1965: Third cyclone of the year kills another 15,000 at mouths of Ganges river.
1965: Maharastra State Agriculture Industry Development Corporation established.
1960: King Mahendra of Nepal imposed direct rule by suspending the country’s constitution, parliament and cabinet.
1965: 15,000 people died in a cyclone on the banks of the Ganges River in Bangladesh.
1675: Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded in Delhi by Aurangzeb for his refusal to embrace him.
1970: Russian spacecraft Venera-7 successfully landed on Venus.
1976: Samoa became a member of the United Nations.
1976: Daily newspaper “Lokmat” published it’s first Jalgaon edition.
1988: Landslide victory for GNLF in Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council elections.
1991: Satyajit Ray, film maestro, awarded Special Oscar for his lifetime achievement.
1992: BJP Governments of Sunderlal Patwa (MP), Shanta Kumar (HP) and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (Rajasthan) dismissed.
1995: Rajya Sabha approves extension of President’s rule in J & K for a further period of 6 months and also passes Government resolution approving imposition of President’s rule in UP.
1997: Magsaysay award winning litterateur Mahasweta Devi, Sitar maestro Annapurna Devi and Rabindra Sangeet exponent Suchitra Mitra honoured with ‘Desikottam’ by Visva Bharati University.
1997: Orissa Janata Dal unit splits with 29 of 43 Legislature Party members forming ‘Biju Janata Dal’.
1998: India won the third consecutive gold medal in kabaddi at the Asian Games in Bangkok.
1999: The CPI (M) urges the Centre to take over Dunlop India Ltd.
1999: Yashwant Sinha, Finance Minister, arrives in Berlin to attend G-20 meet.
2001: Pisa’s leaning tower in Italy reopened after 11 years of closure.
Birth/Birth Anniversary
37 AD: Nero, the fifth Roman emperor.
1832: Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, a French civil engineer, and architect.
1859: S. Kasturiranga Ayengar, owner of Hindu newspaper, was born.
1892: J. Paul Getty, an American-born British petrol-industrialist.
1894: Saraswatibai, famous singer and classical music expert, was born.
1905: Irawati Karve, an anthropologist, sociologist, educationist, and writer from Maharashtra, India.
1908: Ranganathananda, was a Hindu swami of the Ramakrishna Math order.
1912: Aspy Merwan, engineer and who became the Air Marchal of India, was born.
1917: Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee, Indian-Pakistani linguist and lexicographer (d. 2005)
1932: Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan, Chief Election Commissioner of India, was born.
1933: S. L. Narayana Bapu, an Indian film director, cartoonist, music artist, and, designer.
1935: Usha Mangeshkar, an Indian singer.
1948: Dipesh Chakrabarty, an Indian historian.
1969: Terrence Davis, an American programmer.
1971: Jeev Milkha Singh, an Indian professional golfer.
1976: Bhaichung Bhutia, a former Indian professional footballer.
1980: Hema Chengkalath, female Soccer(Football) player, was born in Calgary, Canada.
1988: Geeta Phogat, a freestyle wrestler who won India’s first-ever gold medal in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games.
Death/ Death Anniversary
1749: Shahu Chattrapati, grandson of Shivaji, died.
1878: Alfred Bird, an English food manufacturer, and chemist.
1890: Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota leader.
1950: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an Indian politician. He served as the First Deputy Prime Minister of India.
1952: Potti Sreeramulu, an Indian revolutionary.
1958: Wolfgang Pauli, an Austrian theoretical physicist.
1966: Walt Disney, an American entrepreneur, animator, writer, voice actor, and film producer.
1966: Keith Arbuthnott, 15th Viscount of Arbuthnott, Indian-Scottish general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Kincardineshire (b. 1897)
1974: Rasulatbai, veteran classical music expert, died.
1985: Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, a Mauritian politician, statesman, and philanthropist. He was the first prime minister of Mauritius.
1989: Diptendu Pramanick, a Bengali film personality from Calcutta.