Happy Birthday December 14

Michel de Nostradame (Latinised as Nostradamus) was born on December 14, 1503 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Provence, France. After the death of Nostradamus' wife and two children, he became interested in the occult. He started to produce an annual almanac, the first being published in 1550. They were published two or three times each year and taken together, these almanacs contain at least 6,338 predictions.

The astronomer Tycho Brahe was born at his family's ancestral seat of Knutstorp Castle near Svalöv in then Danish Scania on December 14, 1546. His discovery and report of the 1572 supernova brought him recognition. Brahe was the last great naked eye astronomer, in the days before telescopes, making the most accurate measurements of the positions of stars and planets. His accurate observations of the planets enabled Johannes Kepler to prove that planets orbit the Sun in ellipses.

George VI of the UK was born Albert Windsor at York Cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on December 14, 1895. His father was Prince George, Duke of York (later King George V) and his mother the Duchess of York (later Queen Mary,). He took the throne after his older brother Edward defied royal protocol by marrying an American divorcee and ruled from 1936 until 1952. George's popularity soared during World War II when he was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people.

For more December 14 anniversaries, including Alabama becoming the 22nd U.S. state, the death of Prince Albert and Roald Amundsen's team becoming the first to reach the South Pole, check out OnThatDay.