Birthdays:, Roman Emperor Servius Galba, English King John Ist Lackland, Dr Benjamin Rush, Kit Carson, Howard Hughes, Ava Gardner, Michael Curtiz real name Michali Kertesz, I.F.Stone, Robert Joffrey of the Joffrey Ballet,Susan Lucci, Nicholas Meyer, Ricky Martin is 36

This was the birth festival of Mithras, the Persian sun god. Mithraism was Christianity's chief competitor for converts during the late Roman Empire. It professed a dualistic theology, that God and the Devil battled equally for the souls of men: light and dark, hot and cold, day and night, etc. It was very popular among the troops of Rome’s Legions. There were Mithraic temples from Scotland to Iran, and even into the Middle Ages it resurfaced as a Christian heresy, Manicheanism and,later, Catharism. There are 200,000 Zoroastrians around today and 18,000 in North America. Legend says Mithras was born in the wilderness and was adored by shepherds. Hmmm.
Mithras slaying the bull
In the Middle Ages this was the Feast of Saints Adam and Eve. The western theatrical tradition survived in the form of Mystery Plays, acting out stories from the Bible. So this day they would do a play about the temptation and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. A tree was brought into the church and decorated to represent the Tree of Life, glass balls representing the fruit. This is one of the origins of the Christmas Tree, The Feast of Adam and Eve was dispensed with during the Counter-Reformation.

1247- Sir Robin of Loxley, called Robin Hood, died. Legend has it that he fired an arrow out his window with instructions to bury him where it fell. There's been books written on just who the heck this Robin Hood guy was anyway. He's sort of a composite of several notable rogues. Robin of Loxley was a Saxon bandit, but evil King John liked crooks so he gave him a job. A few decades later there was Will of the Weald called Windikin, Fulk the Black and other woodsmen fighting for England's poor in King Henry III 's reign. But the problem was Henry was a good king- well, kind of an okay-middle-of-the-road-could-have-done-better king. So it's convenient to combine them with Loxley and King John the Bad king.
Death of Robin Hood by N.C.Wyeth

1652- In England the Puritan Parliament of Oliver Cromwell forbade any celebration of Christmas. Their brethren, the Puritans of Massachusetts, would arrest anyone found making merry and fine them three shillings. But after the restoration of King Charles II the partying came back.

1848-the song Silent Night composed by an Austrian minister named Rudolph Scribner.

1888- Vincent Van Gogh cuts off a piece of his left ear after an argument with Paul Gaugin over the affection of a prostitute named Rachel. He sent his ear to the prostitute. She fainted.

1889- Daniel Stover & W. Hance of Freeport Ill. invented the bicycle backpedal brake.

1922- The BBC presented it’s first radio play:" The truth about Father Christmas."

1951- Gina Carlo Menotti’s opera "Amal and the Night Visitors" premiered on NBC TV.

1964- First day of shooting on the “Cage” a pilot for a new TV show called Star Trek. The project was greenlit by Lucille Ball as part of her Desilu production company. Jeffrey Hunter was the first captain, later replaced by William Shatner when Hunter’s wife advised him to skip the series. She was worried he’d be typecast.

1985- Fidel Castro announced that on doctors’ orders he has given up smoking cigars.

1990- Tom Cruise married Nicole Kidman.

1997- 62-year-old Film director Woody Allen married 27-year-old Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his former lover, Mia Farrow. When asked to explain himself the director said: " The Heart wants what it Wants.."

Merry Christmas!—t.s.