December 8

It often takes a while for the effects of a spectacular invention to be felt. Movable type may have been perfected in Korea in the 13th century but it was not introduced to Europe until the middle of the fifteenth century when Johannes Gutenberg perfected a printing press with movable type that would send ripples through the world. Gutenberg’s press allowed books to be produced with greater speed and at remarkably lower cost. Steadily rising literacy rates in Europe established a strong market for books of all sorts, though it would take several more centuries for scandal sheets to be perfected. The first public library was the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, which opened in 1602 with Thomas Bodley’s collection of 2000 books as its centerpiece. A few years later, in Milan, Italy, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, the second public library in Europe opened its reading room on the 8th in 1609.

December 7

On the 7th in 1972, onboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft, the last manned mission to the moon, Jack ‘Harrison’ Schmitt, the lunar module pilot, snapped what has come to be known as ‘The Blue Marble’ photograph. His comment upon taking the picture was “Ah! You see one Earth, you’ve seen them all.”

Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17’s commander, the last person to walk on the moon (On December 14, 1972), as he re-entered the lunar module said “As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come – but we believe not too long into the future – I'd like to just say what I believe history will record – that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."

December 6

On the 6th in 1768 Scotsmen Colin Macfarquhar, a printer, and Andrew Bell[i], an engraver, began publishing the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica[ii]. The editor was William Smellie[iii] (what a horrid last name). When completed in 1771 the first full edition consisted of 2,391 pages divided into three volumes. Time has been kind to the Britannica and today there are, in addition to the print edition, online and CD versions. The CD version contains over 55 million words. In spite of the dramatic digital expansion of the books, for collectors the 1911 edition is the one to have. For some reason the 1911 is the 1957 Fender Stratocaster of books.

[i] Bell was only 4’ 6” tall.
[ii] The first edition of the encyclopedia was sold in weekly installments between 1768 and 1771.
[iii] Smellie had inserted many salacious engravings in the first edition. These were promptly censored by King George III when he learned of it.

December 5

Niccolò Sfondrati, was born on February 11, 1535. Born into a rather prosperous family he early on achieved a reputation for modesty and piety. He entered the priesthood and in 1560 was made a cardinal by Pope Gregory XIII. On the 5th in 1590, at the conclave held upon the death of Pope Urban, Sfondrati was elevated to the papacy and assumed the name Pope Gregory XIV. When informed of his election he purportedly burst into tears and responded to the cardinals who informed him by stating “God forgive you! What have you done?”

In March of 1591, he issued his first papal bull, Cogit nos, in which he forbade under pain of excommunication ‘all betting concerning the election of the Pope, the duration of a pontificate, or the creation of new cardinals.’ Gregory XIV died on October 16, 1591 making his pontificate one of the shorter ones in church history. There are no records extant indicating the odds on his dying on that day or what the payoff was.

December 4

Pyrrhus may have had a point when he made the observation that “one more victory like this, and we are undone.” On the 4th in 1864, during the American Civil War, Union General Judson Kilpatrick[i] at Waynesboro, Georgia, intercepted the Confederate forces under the command of General Joseph Wheeler[ii] as Wheeler attempted to stop Sherman’s March to the Sea. Wheeler was stopped and Sherman continued on, unimpeded, to burn Georgia to a crisp. However, Kilpatrick’s troops suffered more than three times the casualties that Wheeler’s troops did.

[i] Socialite Gloria Vanderbilt is Kilpatrick’s great-granddaughter.
[ii] Wheeler served in both the Civil War and the Spanish-American war.

December 3

I don’t really follow sports and know very little about any of the many sporting events that seem to be so popular. Well, that’s not entirely true. I am a big fan of curling, which I only have to deal with every four years during the Winter Olympics. The following must be a sporting event that I am unaware of. Are there really father and son Nobel Prize tag teams? Perhaps. Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn was born on the 3rd in 1886. He was a Swedish physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1924. It seems that I have stumbled across a bunch of folks born in December seemingly possessed of more than their fair share of good genes. Siegbahn’s son Kai Manne Borje Siegbahn, would also go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1981.