Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 15

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This is a list of selected December 15 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.

Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.

To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.

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Images

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Emperor Hailingwang of Jin
The United States Constitution
Alamut besieged by Mongols
Adolf Eichmann on trial
F-22A Raptor
Sitting Bull
1906 GNP&BR poster
width=133

Ineligible

Blurb	Reason
Kingdom Day in Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten (1954);	outdated
533 – Forces led by Belisarius defeated Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Tricamarum, completing the "Reconquest of North Africa" under Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.	refimprove
1161 – Emperor Hailing of the Jin dynasty was assassinated in a military camp near the Yangtze River front following Jin losses in the Battle of Caishi.	unreferenced section
1167 – Stephen du Perche, Chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily, moved the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.	refimprove
1256 – The Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran was captured and destroyed by Hulagu Khan and the Mongols.	multiple issues
1964 – The six-month long Great Canadian Flag Debate effectively ended when the Canadian House of Commons voted to replace the de facto national flag of Canada, the Canadian Red Ensign, with an official one designed by historian George Stanley, the Maple Leaf Flag.	refimprove section; Flag of Canada already appears on February 15
1965 – The first space rendezvous took place when NASA spacecraft Gemini 6A maneuvered within 30 centimeters (12 inches) of Gemini 7.	Gemini 6A: refimprove section; Gemini 7: unreferenced/refimprove sections; Space rendezvous: too technical
1973 – The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders, the DSM-II.	refimprove section
1994 – Netscape Navigator 1.0, the leading web browser in the 1990s, was first released.	refimprove, date not cited
1995 – The European Court of Justice handed down the Bosman ruling, allowing footballers in the European Union to freely transfer from one UEFA Federation to another at the end of their contracts.	refimprove
2010 – A boat carrying around 90 asylum seekers, mostly from Iraq and Iran, crashed into rocks and sank off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing 48 people.	outdated

Eligible

687 – Sergius was elected pope, ending the last disputed period of sede vacante during the Byzantine Papacy.
1467 – Troops under Stephen III of Moldavia defeated the forces of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary in present-day Baia, Romania.
1791 – The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified.
1864 – American Civil War: Union troops defeated the Army of Tennessee, one of the largest Confederate forces, at the Battle of Nashville.
1890 – Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man, was killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation (in modern South Dakota, U.S.), leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
1906 – The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, a 14.17-kilometre (8.80 mi) long deep-level underground tube railway connecting Hammersmith and Finsbury Park, London, opened.
1942 – World War II: The Americans engaged Imperial Japanese forces at the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse in the hills near the Matanikau River area on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1943 – World War II: American and Australian forces began the Battle of Arawe as a diversion before a larger landing at Cape Gloucester on New Britain.
1946 – U.S.-backed Iranian troops brought an end to the Iran crisis when they marched upon the breakaway Republic of Mahabad and recaptured the territory.
1970 – The Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 (descent vehicle pictured) touched down on the surface of Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet.
1981 – The Iraqi Shia Islamist group al-Dawa carried out one of the first modern suicide bombings, targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in 61 deaths and 110 injuries.
2005 – The F-22 Raptor, a stealth fighter aircraft that the United States Air Force claimed is unmatched by any known or projected fighter, entered into service despite a protracted and costly development period.
2013 – The South Sudanese Civil War began when three opposition leaders voted to boycott the meeting of the National Liberation Council in Juba.
Born/died: David Teniers the Younger (b. 1610) · Sarah Trimmer (d. 1810) · Arthur Dehon Little (b. 1863) · Vibert Douglas (b. 1894) · Frankie Dettori (b. 1970) · León Febres Cordero (d. 2008)

December 15: Zamenhof Day (Esperanto culture)

Gone with the Wind
film poster

1025 – Constantine VIII became sole Byzantine emperor, 63 years after being crowned co-emperor.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of St. Lucia, the Royal Navy prevented French Navy ships from reaching their garrison on Saint Lucia in the West Indies.
1939 – The American historical epic film Gone With the Wind (poster shown), adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of the same name, premiered in Atlanta, Georgia.
1961 – Former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death after being found guilty on fifteen criminal charges, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Izaak Walton (d. 1683) · J. Paul Getty (b. 1892) · Surya Bonaly (b. 1973)

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