Timeline December 2006

Events in December 2006 19

• 1913 – 2006 Gerald Ford 38th President — never elected VP or President Gerald Ford (Jul 14, 1913 – Dec 26, 2006) was the 38th President 1974-1977, the only person to serve as both VP and President without being elected to either. He controversially pardoned Nixon and was the longest-lived president at 93.
• 1915 – 2006 Augusto Pinochet (1915-2006) Died 10 December 2006, aged 91 Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator who ruled from 1973 to 1990, died while facing numerous charges for human rights abuses and corruption. His seventeen-year rule was marked by the killing and disappearance of thousands of opponents. He never stood trial for the crimes committed under his regime.
• 1924 – 2006 David Bronstein Creative Soviet grandmaster David Bronstein nearly became World Champion in 1951 and became famous for imaginative and original attacking ideas.
• 1932 – 2006 Lamar Hunt (1932-2006) Died 13 December 2006, aged 74 Lamar Hunt, the American sports magnate who founded the American Football League and helped create the Super Bowl, died of prostate cancer. He was also a founding figure in North American professional soccer. He is credited with coining the term "Super Bowl."
• 1933 – 2006 James Brown (1933-2006) Died 25 December 2006, aged 73 James Brown, the American singer known as the "Godfather of Soul," died of heart failure on Christmas Day. His decades-long career shaped funk, soul and hip-hop music. Tributes and memorial services were held in his honor in several US cities.
• 1937 – 2006 Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) Died 30 December 2006, aged 69 Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, was executed by hanging after being convicted of crimes against humanity for the 1982 Dujail massacre. His trial and execution were broadcast and photographed despite official restrictions, causing international controversy. His death marked a symbolic end to the Baathist era in Iraq.
• 2002 – 2006 Chairman of Keidanren Served as chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), Japan's most powerful business lobby, giving him influence over national economic policy. He used the platform to advocate for corporate reform and globalisation.
• 2002 – 2006 Sitcom and Supporting Roles Appeared in the television sitcom Lovers (2002) and took supporting roles across film and TV, steadily building his craft during years of relative obscurity.
• 2006 2006: Fernando Alonso Renault Alonso successfully defended his title, fending off Schumacher in a fierce battle that saw the German retire at the end of the season.
• 2006 Dancing with the Stars Competed on Dancing with the Stars, showing a self-deprecating charm that contrasted with his confrontational show persona.
• 2006 Doctoral Student Andrew Fire Wins Nobel Prize His former doctoral student Andrew Fire was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference, a gene-silencing mechanism. The award underscored the extraordinary influence of Sharp's laboratory on the field of RNA biology.
• 2006 Franz Kafka Prize Received the Franz Kafka Prize, an international literary award. Several previous winners had gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, fuelling annual speculation about Murakami.
• 2006 Stepped Down Stepped down as Toyota's chairman after eleven years of leading the company. Under his tenure, Toyota had risen from Japan's largest automaker to one challenging General Motors for the global crown.
• 2006 Teddy Boy EP — Kavinsky Is Born Released the Teddy Boy EP on the French label Record Makers, introducing the fictional Kavinsky persona: a zombie driver who crashed his Ferrari Testarossa in 1986 and returned from the dead to make electronic music. The sound — pulsing synthesisers inspired by 1980s movie soundtracks, arcade games and sports cars — helped define what would become known as synthwave.
• 2006 Praemium Imperiale Became the first Japanese woman to receive the Praemium Imperiale, one of Japan's highest honours for internationally recognised artists. Also received the Order of the Rising Sun in the same year.
• 2006 F-35 Lightning II first flight Fort Worth, Texas The first F-35A, AA-1, flies from Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant.
• 2006 Ethiopia invades Somalia Intervention against the Islamic Courts Union Ethiopian forces crossed into Somalia to back the weak Transitional Federal Government against the Islamic Courts Union, which had taken control of Mogadishu. Combined with Somali government troops, they quickly routed the Islamist forces. The intervention deepened years of instability and insurgency in Somalia.
• 2006 James Brown dies in Atlanta Christmas Day Dies aged 73 — his body lies in state at the Apollo.
• 2006 Madrid airport bombing ends ETA truce Car bomb at Barajas terminal car park ETA detonated a van bomb in a car park at Madrid-Barajas Airport, killing two people and destroying part of the structure. The attack shattered the group's ceasefire declared earlier in the year. Spanish authorities formally ended peace negotiations afterward.