Today In History...
In 1569 St. Philip of Moscow is martyred by Ivan the Terrible.
In 1672 Giovanni Cassini discovers Rhea, a satellite of Saturn.
In 1690 John Flamsteed observes Uranus for the first time.
In 1783 George Washington resigns as the U.S. Army's commander-in-chief and
retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
In 1788 Maryland votes to give up a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the
national government. About two-thirds of the area became the
District of Columbia.
In 1823 Clement C. Moore's poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" is published in
the Troy, NY, Sentinel.
In 1893 The opera "Haensel und Gretel" is first performed publicly in
Weimar, Germany.
In 1913 The U.S. Federal Reserve system is authorized.
In 1920 Ireland divides into two parts, each with its own parliament.
In 1928 NBC sets up a permanent coast-to-coast radio network.
In 1941 During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrender to the
Japanese.
In 1947 The transistor is invented by Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley in
Bell Laboratories.
In 1948 The U.S. hangs Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 6 other
Japanese war leaders for war crimes.
In 1967 President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.
In 1967 Cuba accepts a $50 million ransom and begins releasing Americans
captured at the "Bay of Pigs" invasion.
In 1968 82 crew members of the U.S. navy ship "Publeo" are released by
North Korea, 11 months after their capture.
In 1968 Borman, Lovell and Anders are the first men to orbit the moon.
In 1972 A 6.2 earthquake destroys central Managua, Nicaragua.
In 1973 Six Persian Gulf nations double their oil prices.
In 1975 The U.S. Congress passes the Metric Conversion Act.
In 1975 Richard S. Welch, the U.S. CIA station chief in Athens, Greece, is
shot and killed outside his home.
In 1980 A state funeral is held in Moscow for former Premier Alexei Kosygin,
who had died December 18th at age 76.
In 1982 Actor/director, Jack Webb ("Dragnet") dies at age 62.
In 1986 After circling the globe non-stop, without refueling, the
experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana
Yeager, lands safely at Edwards Air Force Base.
In 1987 Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted
assassination of President Ford, escapes from prision, but is
recaptured 2 days later.
In 1988 Pope John Paul II meets with Yasser Arafat at the Vatican.
In 1991 President Bush speaks with Russian President Boris Yeltsin by phone
extending diplomatic recognition to the Russian republic.
In 1992 During an American mission to save lives in Somalia, a U.S. vehicle
hits a land mine near Bardera, killing civilian Army employee
Lawrence N. Freedman of Fayetteville, NC.
In 1992 An American mission to save lives in Somalia loses the first of its
own when a U.S. vehicle hit a land mine near Bardera, killing
civilian Army employee Lawrence N. Freedman of Fayetteville, NC.
In 1993 President Clinton instructs his attorney to give the U.S. Justice
Department all records of his investment in an Arkansas real estate
partnership linked to a failed savings and loan company.
In 1995 A fire in Dabwali, India, kills 540 people, including 170 children,
during a year-end party being held near the children's school.
In 1995 The charred bodies of 16 members of a doomsday cult, the Order of
the Solar Temple, are found outside Grenoble, France.
In 1996 Russian President Boris Yeltsin returns to his office at the Kremlin
after a 6-month bout with a heart ailment.
In 1997 A jury in Denver convicts Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter
and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, declining
to find him guilty of murder.
In 1997 Woody Allen marries Soon-Yi Previn in Venice, Italy.
In 2000 Pro-democracy forces claim sweeping victory in Serbia's
parliamentary elections.
In 2000 Death claims comedian Victor Borge in Greenwich, CT, at age 91 and
actor Billy Barty in Glendale, CA, at age 76.
In 2001 Israel bars Yasser Arafat from making his annual Christmas Eve visit
to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus.
In 2002 Senate Republicans unanimously elect Bill Frist to succeed Trent Lott
as their leader in the next Congress.
In 2003 A jury in Chesapeake, VA, sentences teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo to
life in prison, sparing him the death penalty.
In 2003 New York Governor George Pataki posthumously pardons comedian
Lenny Bruce for his 1964 obscenity conviction.
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