December 15 in history — What Happened Today in History

John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10.

The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet.

The Silver Bridge collapses, killing 46 people.

Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.

Eichmann trial: Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.

Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy.

King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.

Occupation of Japan/Shinto Directive: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.

World War II: a single-engine UC-64A Norseman aeroplane carrying United States Army Air Forces Major Glenn Miller is lost in a flight over the English Channel.

World War II: The Battle of Arawe begins during the New Britain campaign.

World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal campaign.

The Holocaust in Ukraine: German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobytsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv.

Gone with the Wind (highest inflation adjusted grossing film) receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

Anarchist insurrection suppressed in Zaragoza, Spain.

World War I: An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed.

World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.

A gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hōjō coal mine, in Kyushu, Japan, kills 687.

The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.

The Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin.

Italian American food cart vendor Italo Marchiony receives a U.S. patent for inventing a machine that makes ice cream cones.

British Army forces are defeated at the Battle of Colenso in Natal, South Africa, the third and final battle fought during the Black Week of the Second Boer War.

Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World" a.k.a. the "New World Symphony") by Antonín Dvořák premieres in a public afternoon rehearsal at Carnegie Hall in New York City, followed by a concert premiere on the evening of December 16.

Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Sixteen-year-old telegraphist Ella Stewart keys and sends the first telegraphed message from Arizona Territory at the Deseret Telegraph Company office in Pipe Spring.

The short-lived Republic of Ezo is proclaimed in the Ezo area of Japan. It is the first attempt to establish a democracy in Japan.

American Civil War: The Battle of Nashville begins at Nashville, Tennessee, and ends the following day with the destruction of the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General John Bell Hood as a fighting force by the Union Army of the Cumberland under General George H. Thomas.

American Civil War: The Battle of Fredericksburg ends in a Union defeat as General Ambrose Burnside withdraws the Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock River.

Yanni Gourde, Canadian ice hockey player

Alana Haim, American musician and actress

Erik Gustafsson, Swedish ice hockey player

Steven Nzonzi, French footballer

Kim Junsu, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer

Keylor Navas, Costa Rican footballer

Snejana Onopka, Ukrainian model

Diogo Fernandes, Brazilian footballer

Martin Škrtel, Slovak footballer

Delon Armitage, Trinidadian-English rugby player

René Duprée, Canadian professional wrestler

Camilla Luddington, English actress

Ronnie Radke, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Joan Fontaine, British-American actress (born 1917)

Dyron Nix, American basketball player (born 1967)

Owoye Andrew Azazi, Nigerian general (born 1952)

Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, Nigerian politician, 18th Governor of Kaduna State (born 1948)

Olga Zubarry, Argentinian actress (born 1929)

Bob Brookmeyer, American trombone player and composer (born 1929)

Christopher Hitchens, English-American essayist, literary critic, and journalist (born 1949)

Blake Edwards, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1922)

Bob Feller, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1918)

Eugene Victor Wolfenstein, American psychoanalyst and theorist (born 1940)

Eliza Atkins Gleason, American librarian (born 1909)

Oral Roberts, American evangelist, founded the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (born 1918)

León Febres Cordero, Ecuadorian engineer and politician, 46th President of Ecuador (born 1931)