Today in History: The Execution of 19-Year-Old Erdal Eren, Sentenced to Death, Confirmed

December 12 is the 346th day of the year (347th in leap years) according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 19.

Railways

• 12 December 1901 began to give loans to the Hicaz Railways of Ziraat Bank. The bank provided a total of 1908 thousand pounds loans up to 480. 8 for the Hejaz Railway was generating total 3.919.696 liras income per year. The 34 of this revenue was donations.

Events

• 627 – Battle of Nineveh: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius' army, Sassanid Emperor II. He defeated Khosrow's forces.
• 1870 - Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black elected to the United States congress.
• 1900 - Norwegian Johann Waaler patented the "Paper holder" (paper clip).
• 1901 - Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi develops the radio-telegraph system and sends the first transatlantic message from the UK.
• 1911 - India's Capital became Delhi instead of Kolkata.
• 1913 – Lost and stolen from the Louvre Museum in 1911 Mona Lisa The painting was found in Florence.
• 1923 – The Turkish Grand National Assembly decided to award the Medal of Independence to those who showed outstanding service between May 15, 1919 and November 1, 1923.
• 1925 – In Iran, Reza Khan Pahlavi put an end to the Qajar Dynasty.
• 1929 – Prime Minister İsmet Pasha said, “Our main goal is to value our national currency and tie it to gold”.
• 1940 – The ship Salvador sank in front of Silivri. 352 of the 230 Jewish passengers on the ship, which was reported to have gone from Bulgaria to Palestine, drowned.
• 1941 – II. World War II: United Kingdom to Bulgaria; Hungary and Romania to the USA; India also declared war on Japan.
• 1948 – Süleyman Demirel married Nazmiye Şener.
• 1949 – The Turkish Grand National Assembly approved the accession of Turkey to the Council of Europe.
• 1956 - Japan became a member of the United Nations.
• 1957 – Turkey warned the UN: “If the Greece thesis is accepted, a civil war may break out in Cyprus.”
• 1962 – Mehmet Ali Aybar, Chairman of the Workers' Party of Turkey, was acquitted. Aybar was on trial for allegedly acting against national interests.
• 1963 – Kenya declared its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1968 – Immunities of 5 natural senators (Sezai Okan, Şükran Özkaya, Mucip Ataklı, Ekrem Acuner and Suphi Karaman) were lifted for allegedly having relations with a secret organization called the National Revolutionary Army, which is alleged to have been formed within the Armed Forces.
• 1978 – In Istanbul, worker Abdülaziz Kılıç killed worker Nusret Ateş with a cut on the head in order to steal their money, and injured three workers. He was executed on September 12.
• 1979 - Rhodesia is renamed Zimbabwe.
• 1979 – A military coup occurred in South Korea.
• 1980 – The National Security Council approved the execution of 19-year-old Erdal Eren, who was tried for the murder of Infantry Private Zekeriya Önge and sentenced to death.
• 1990 – Formation of new parties is allowed in Albania.
• 1990 – Erdal İnönü and Süleyman Demirel met, they signed a joint statement and demanded early elections.
• 1991 – 1500 people died in the earthquake in Indonesia.
• 1994 – Fikri Sağlar resigned from the General Secretary of the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP). Sağlar announced that he resigned because the anti-terrorism bill was not enacted.
• 1996 - Saddam Hussein's son, Uday Hussein, is seriously injured in an assassination attempt.
• 1997 – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan went to Siirt upon invitation, during the meeting Ziya Gökalp wrote about the Balkan War in 1912. Soldier's Prayer with a modified version of his poem; Instead of saying the verse praising the army, “Minarets bayonet/ Domes our helmets/ Mosques are our barracks/ Believers are soldiers.,” he was put on trial at the Diyarbakir State Security Court for adding his lines. As a result of the trial, according to article 312/2 of the Turkish Penal Code, “Openly inciting the people to hatred and enmity by discriminating against religion and raceHe was sentenced to four months in prison on the grounds that he had committed his crime. He completed this sentence on July 24, 1999.
• 2000 – The US Supreme Court halts the recount of the votes in Florida and announces that the Republican candidate, George W. Bush, has won the election.
• 2000 – The peace agreement ending the 2-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea was signed in Algeria.
• 2002 – At the Copenhagen summit where the EU discussed enlargement, Danish Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen, the EU Term President, stated that if it is decided that it fulfills the Copenhagen criteria, the decision to start negotiations with Turkey in December 2004 will be evaluated.
• 2004 – Fatih Akın's movie Against the wallAwarded by the European Film Academy 2004 European Best Film Awardnude won.

Births

• 1526 – Álvaro de Bazán, Spanish navy commander (d. 1588)
• 1799 – Karl Briullov, Russian painter (d. 1852)
• 1803 – Gerald Griffin, Irish writer (d. 1840)
• 1805 – William Lloyd Garrison, American social reformer (d. 1879)
• 1821 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (d. 1880)
• 1863 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian expressionist painter (known for his painting The Scream) (d. 1944)
• 1866 – Alfred Werner, Swiss chemist and Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry (d. 1919)
• 1893 – Edward G. Robinson, American actor (d. 1973)
• 1903 – Yasujirō Ozu, Japanese film director (d. 1963)
• 1915 – Frank Sinatra, American actor, singer, and Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor (d. 1998)
• 1916 – Cemil Meriç Turkish writer and thinker (d. 1987)
• 1918 – Orhon Murat Arıburnu, Turkish poet, director, actor, screenwriter and producer (d. 1989)
• 1923 – Bob Dorough, American bebop cool jazz pianist, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger, and record producer (d. 2018)
• 1924 – Ed Koch, American politician (d. 2013)
• 1927 – Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel (d. 1990)
• 1928 – Chingiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyz writer (d. 2008)
• 1929 – John Osborne, English playwright, screenwriter, and political activist (d. 1994)
• 1932 - Bob Pettit, American former professional basketball player
• 1934 – Miguel de la Madrid, President of Mexico from 1982-1988 (d. 2012)
• 1936 – Iolanda Balaș, Romanian athlete, high jumper (d. 2016)
• 1936 – Vladimir Tretyakov, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 2021)
• 1938 – Hüseyin Hatemi, Turkish academic, writer and lawyer
• 1938 – Hüsrev Hatemi, Turkish medical professor, writer and poet
• 1939 – Veysel Donbaz, Turkish asurologist and sumerologist, also cartoonist
• 1940 – Maire Dionne Warwick, American singer and actress, 5 Grammy award winner
• 1942 – Fatma Girik, Turkish actress
• 1946 – Stanislas Lefebvre de Laboulaye, French diplomat
• 1947 – Hülya Koçyiğit, Turkish actress
• 1948 – Colin Todd, English football player and manager
• 1949 - Bill Nighy, English actor
• 1949 – Marc Ravalomanana, Malagasy politician
• 1950 – Rajinikanth, Indian actor, producer, screenwriter, media personality and cultural icon
• 1952 – Neslihan Hakimi, Turkish fashion designer
• 1957 – Yeliz Eker, Turkish voice artist
• 1960 – Luis Amuchástegui, Argentine football player
• 1960 – Vitaliano Trevisan; Italian writer, screenwriter and actor (d. 2022)
• 1962 – Tracy Austin, retired American tennis player
• 1963 – Antonio Marcegaglia, Italian businessman
• 1965 – Milonja Đukić, Serbian football player
• 1966 – Maurizio Gaudino, German football player
• 1968 – Rory Kennedy, American documentary director and producer
• 1974 – Bernard Lagat, Kenyan-American middle and long distance runner
• 1975 – Mayim Bialik, American actress
• 1975 – Craig Moore, Australian former football player
• 1978 – Yelena Pavlova, Kazakh volleyball player
• 1979 – Engin Bayrak, Turkish composer, writer and musician of Yugoslav origin
• 1980 – Dorin Goian, Romanian former football player
• 1980 – Berkant Göktan, Turkish football player
• 1981 Stephen Warnock, English former football player
• 1983 – Gulzhan Issanova, Kazakh athlete
• 1984 – Daniel Agger, Danish football player
• 1986 – Perparim Hetemaj, Finnish national football player
• 1988 – Ham Eun-jeong, South Korean singer, dancer, actress, rapper, model, and member of T-ara
• 1990 – Polat Kemboi Arıkan, Kenyan-born Turkish long-distance runner
• 1991 – Jaime Lorente López, Spanish actor
• 1993 – Max Rendschmidt, German canoeist
• 1994 – Otto Warmbier, American citizen who was arrested in North Korea as a tourist and died soon after his release (d. 2017)

Deaths

• 627 – Rhahzadh, Persian general of Armenian descent (b. ?)
• 1112 – Tancred, Norman leader of the First Crusade, later Prince of Galilee and regent of Antioch (b. 1075)
• 1447 – II. Mircea, voivode of the principality of Wallachia in 1442 (b. 1428)
• 1586 – Stephen Báthory, prince of Erdel (Transylvania) (1571-76) and king of Poland (1575-86) (b. 1533)
• 1681 – Hermann Conring, German intellectual (b. 1606)
• 1685 – John Pell, English mathematician (b. 1611)
• 1843 – Willem I, King of the Netherlands (b. 1772)
• 1851 – Joel Roberts Poinsett, American politician, psychiatrist, and botanist (b. 1779)
• 1913 – II. Menelik, emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1844)
• 1921 – Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer (b. 1868)
• 1933 – Camille Julian, French historian (b. 1859)
• 1935 – Necip Asım Yazıksız, Turkish politician (b. 1861)
• 1939 – Douglas Fairbanks, American actor, screenwriter, and director (b. 1883)
• 1942 – Haydar Rifat Yorulmaz, Turkish lawyer, writer and translator (b. 1877)
• 1944 – Kemani Serkis Efendi, Turkish composer of Armenian descent (b. 1885)
• 1945 – Selim Nüzhet Gerçek, Turkish journalist (b. 1891)
• 1963 – Yasujirō Ozu, Japanese film director (b. 1903)
• 1963 – Theodor Heuss, first President of West Germany (b. 1884)
• 1968 – Tallulah Bankhead, American actress (b. 1902)
• 1985 – Anne Baxter, American actress (b. 1923)
• 1988 – Zeki Faik Izer, Turkish painter (b. 1905)
• 1993 – József Antall, Hungarian politician (b. 1932)
• 1995 – Çetin Karamanbey, Turkish filmmaker and journalist (b. 1922)
• 1999 – Joseph Heller, American satirist and short story writer (b. 1923)
• 2002 – Dee Brown, American author, historian, and librarian (b. 1908)
• 2003 – Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijani statesman and President of Azerbaijan (b. 1923)
• 2006 – Paul Arizin, American professional basketball player (b. 1928)
• 2006 – Peter Boyle, American actor (b. 1935)
• 2007 – Ike Turner, American Reggae-Rock musician singer and songwriter (b. 1931)
• 2008 – Van Johnson, American actor (b. 1916)
• 2008 – Tasos Papadopoulos, President of the Republic of Cyprus and politician (b. 1934)
• 2010 – Abdurrahman Kızılay, Turkmen musician (b. 1938)
• 2013 – Audrey Totter, American actress (b. 1917)
• 2015 – Suphi Vural Doğu, Turkish violin virtuoso (b. 1938)
• 2016 – Claus Ryskjær, Danish actor and voice actor (b. 1945)
• 2017 – Ed Lee, American politician and lawyer (b. 1952)
• 2017 – Pat DiNizio, American rock musician, singer, and actor (b. 1955)
• 2018 – Carlos Cecconato, Argentine former international football player (b. 1930)
• 2018 – Irac Daneyferd, Iranian football player (b. 1951)
• 2018 – Ferenc Kósa, Hungarian film director and screenwriter (b. 1937)
• 2019 – Daniel Louis Aiello Jr., American actor (b. 1933)
• 2019 – PHASE 2, American mural graffiti artist (b. 1955)
• 2020 – John le Carré (real name; David John Moore Cornwell), British author of espionage novels (b. 1931)
• 2020 – Valentin Gaft, Soviet-Russian theater, film and television actor (b. 1935)
• 2020 – Ann Reinking, American actress, dancer, and choreographer (b. 1949)
• 2020 – Jack Steinberger, American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics (b. 1921)
• 2020 – Fikri Selassie Wogderess, Ethiopian politician (b. 1945)
• 2020 – Ruhollah Zem, Iranian activist and journalist (b. 1978)

Holidays and special occasions

• Domestic Goods Week (12-18 December)
• Kenya – “Independence Day”, (from the UK in 1963)
• Shopkeepers Day