Energieverteilung im Normalspektrum (On the Theory of the Law of Energy Distribution in Normal Spectrum) at a meeting of the German Physical Society in Berlin. The 1899 Hague Convention was revised in Brussels. Saturday, December 15, 1900 Soon after Lord Roberts declared that the Second Boer War was over, British troops in South Africa suffered a surprise defeat and the capture of hundreds of their men by the Boer attackers led by General P.H. Kritzinger. A total of 573 men in four companies of the Northumberland Fusiliers were taken prisoner at the battle of Magaliesberg. At Zastron on December 13, 120 British soldiers stationed there were captured by the Boers. In one of the earliest "bad trades" in baseball, the Cincinnati Reds sent rookie pitcher Christy Mathewson to the New York Giants in return for legendary pitcher Amos Rusie. Both were future Hall of Fame stars, one rising (Mathewson went on to win 373 games) and the other falling (Rusie pitched only 22 innings for Cincinnati). Sunday, December 16, 1900 The German training frigate Gneisenau, with 450 naval cadets on board, sank in a storm during exercises off of the Spanish coast at Málaga, drowning 136. In Rome, the "Mediterranean Agreement" was signed by France and Italy, providing that if France extended influence in Morocco, it would not oppose Italian occupation of Cyrenaica and Tripoli (now Libya). George Bernard Shaw's play, Captain Brassbound's Conversion in London. Born: Rudolf Diels, German party official, founder of the Gestapo; in Berghausen, Germany. Diels escaped prosecution after World War II, but died November 18, 1957, in a hunting accident. Monday, December 17, 1900 The Guzman Prize, first and only prize ever offered for communication with extraterrestrials, was announced in Paris. A prize of 100,000 francs was provided, except for communication with Mars, which was considered too easy. Ellis Island's processing center reopened, after an 1897 fire. The Kaiser Wilhelm III brought 654 Italian immigrants, who were first of the 2,251 who come through on that day. Tuesday, December 18, 1900 Fifteen-year-old Edward Cudahy Jr., whose father was an official at the Cudahy Meatpacking Company, was kidnapped by two men in front of his home at Omaha, Nebraska. Eddie was released on December 20 after his father paid $25,000 in gold. American diplomat Joseph Hodges Choate met for several hours in London with Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne, over the two nations' sudden disagreement on China