On December 23, 1954 in Boston, a surgical team led by Joseph Murray (right photo) peforms the first successful transplant of a kidney from a living donor. The recipient was 23-year old Richard Herrick (middle in left photo); the donor, his identical twin brother Ronald (right in right photo, receiving a briefing on the transplant procedure from a team doctor). Kidney transplantation was first proposed in 1907, but up to this time, had only been performed successfully with kidneys taken from deceased donors. The first attempt with a living donor, in 1952, ended with the recipient rejecting the new kidney after 3 weeks. Murray and his team felt this attempt would be more successful due to the DNA compatability of the identical twins. Richard lived another 8 years with the donated kidney, while Ronald survived with only one kidney for another 50 years. Murray, often known in medical circles as "the father of transplantation" would receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1990; essentially a life-time achievement award. On December 23, 1941, following 15 days of fighting, the Japanese navy occupies Wake Island. The U.S. Marines garrisoned Wake - a U.S. territory in the north Pacific - in August with 450 marines under Major James Devereaux, with mostly light weapons. Their strongest defensive pieces were 6 coastal artillery guns and a squadron of F4F Wildcat fighters. There were also about 70 army and navy personnel on the island, along with 1,200 civilian workers. The Japanese bombed the island on December 8, then launched an unsuccessful amphibious attack on December 11. By the time they were able to successfully conquer the defending force (the navy dispatched a task force with reinforcements but recalled it to protect the aircraft carrier involved), the Japanese had committed 15 combat vessels, including 2 aircraft carriers, and a 2,500 man landing force to the effort. They would hold Wake until surrendering on September 4, 1945, two days after the official surrender on the USS Missouri (memorial to the Wake Island defenders). On December 23, 1905, Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin meet for the first time. The occasion was an unofficial meeting of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, in Tampere, Finland. Stalin - an undistinguished party delegate at the time - would initially come away unimpressed with meeting the father of modern Socialism for the first time, noting in his memoirs that he was physically unordinary (he expected such a noted leader to be taller). He was also surprised that Lenin arrived for the meeting on time and milled about with lesser party members before the conference began, observing that it was customary for someone of Lenin's stature to arrive late and with pomp appropriate to their rank. He would later re-assess, saying Lenin's behavior was typical of his "simplicity and modesty." There were no minutes taken during the conference and no photographers, and the unattributed painting below is the only record of the two leaders' first meeting.
