Today In History

On this day...
    In 1674, Father Jacques Marquette builds first dwelling, a mission, in what is now Chicago.
    In 1783, General Washington bids his officers farewell at Fraunce's Tavern, New York.
    In 1786, Mission Santa Barbara, Franciscan order, founded in California.
    In 1791, Britain's Observer newspaper, the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world, was first published.
    In 1812, horsedrawn lawnmower patented by Peter Gaillard of Lancaster, PA.
    In 1816, James Monroe was elected fifth president of the United States and he was the first president who had been a senator.
    In 1829, Britain abolished the practice of "suttee" in India, by which a widow burns herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre.
    In 1871, Germany adopts gold standard.
    In 1875, William Marcy Tweed, the "Boss" of New York City's Tammany Hall political organization, escaped from jail and fled from the U.S.
    In 1904, Japanese lose another 11,000 men but gain last hill at Port Arthur in Russo-Japanese War.
    In 1912, Roald Amundsen reaches South pole.
    In 1915, Panama Pacific International Exposition opens.
    In 1918, through December 22nd. Under the command of Maj. Albert D. Smith, four JN-4s fly from San Diego, Calif., to Jacksonville, Fla., to complete the Army's first transcontinental flight. Only Major Smith's plane manages to make the entire trip.
    In 1933, Tobacco Road, a dramatization Erskine Caldwell's novel, opened on Broadway where it ran for 3,182 performances.
    In 1942, Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberator crews, based in Egypt, bomb Naples--the first American attacks in Italy.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration. The program had been created in order to provide jobs during the Great Depression.
    In 1947, Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire" was premiered in New York.
    In 1952, Great London smog starts; 4,000 to die in next three weeks.
    In 1956, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins hold an impromptu recording session at Sun Studios, Memphis, Tennessee.
    In 1965, the U.S. launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Comdr. James A. Lovell on board.
    In 1971, India joined East Pakistan in its war for independence from West Pakistan. East Pakistan became the republic of Bangladesh.
    In 1972, No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: "I Am Woman," Helen Reddy.
    In 1978, Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco's first woman mayor when she was named to replace George Moscone, who had been murdered.
    In 1980, bodies were dug up of four American church women slain in El Salvador two days earlier; five national guardsmen later were convicted in the deaths of nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel, and lay worker Jean Donovan.
    In 1981, three American nuns and one lay missionary were found murdered outside San Salvador, El Salvador. They were believed to have been assassinated by a right-wing death squad.
    In 1989, President Bush briefed NATO leaders in Brussels, Belgium, on the just-concluded Malta summit with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
    In 1991, Journalist Terry Anderson, the last American and longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon, was freed by his Islamic Jihad (Holy War) kidnappers after being held for 2,454 days. He was kidnapped on March 16, 1985.

Pan American World Airways, founded in 1927, folds operations.

Former Lincoln Savings and Loan Association Chairman Charles Keating was convicted on 17 counts of securities fraud.

Paula Abdul, actress, is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
    In 1992, President Bush ordered American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia.
    In 1993, the Angolan government and its UNITA guerrilla foes formally adopted terms for a truce. The conflict was killing an estimated 1,000 people per day.
    In 1994, singer Aretha Franklin, composer Morton Gould and folk singer Pete Seeger are among those honored at ceremonies held by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The center in Washington, D.C., has held the annual ceremonies since 1978.

Chung Kang, Kapolei, Hi., Steve Lindsay, Hanover, Pa., and Lowell Skelton, Littlestown, Pa., joined the Colonel's BBS.

Bosnian Serbs released 53 of some 400 U.N. peace keepers held as insurance against further NATO air strikes.
In 1995, John David, Hanover, Pa., joined the Colonel's BBS.

An advance team of NATO troops landed in Sarajevo in the first wave of an unprecedented deployment to enforce a peace accord ending four years of war in former Yugoslavia.

Mary Chapin Carpenter, Pam Tillis, John Berry, David Ball and Bryan White are among the singers performing on World AIDS Day at the third annual Country Music CARES concert at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry House.

Michael Jackson appears with legendary mime Marcel Marceau at New York news conference promoting a Jackson special airing on HBO.

Officials of the United Auto Workers union called an end to a largely unsuccessful 17-month-long strike against Caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois.
In 1996, NASA's first Mars rover headed to the Red Planet after roaring away from its Florida launch pad at Cape Canaveral. It landed successfully on the planet on July 4, 1997.

Madonna, Mariah Carey and Carlos Santana are honored with special honors at the Billboard Music Awards. Madonna receives Billboard's artist achievement award which recognizes popularity, record sales and career achievement. Carey is honored for setting a new chart record with her single "One Sweet Day," a duet with Boyz II Men. The song remains at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart for sixteen weeks. Santana wins the ultimate Billboard century award.

Jonathan Schmitz went to prison for the slaying of Scott Amedure who had confessed to having a crush on Schmitz during the TV taping of The Jenny Jones Show. The segment never aired.
In 1997, a historic treaty to ban anti-personnel landmines worldwide becomes reality when 121 nations signed the accord in Ottawa; the U.S. was among the abstainers.

Top health officials in Europe voted to ban most forms of advertising of tobacco beginning in four to five years.
In 1998, the last Khmer Rouge fighters surrendered to the Cambodian government, ending the group's 20-year war against the government.

Space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of six blasted off on a mission to begin assembling the first international space station.
In 2000, O.J. Simpson was involved in an incident with another motorist in Miami, Florida. Simpson was accused of scratching the other motorist's face while pulling off the man's glasses.

O.J. Simpson's home in Florida was raided by the FBI in an ongoing two year international investigation into drug trafficking, satellite service pilfering and money laundering. Some satellite equipment was taken from Simpson's home and no drugs were found.
    In 2002, a Roman Catholic priest was indicted on seven counts in a 7-month investigation of sex abuse allegations in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. Nine others faced charges in the case.
    In 2003, an especially virulent strain of the flu hit the United States, mostly in the West at first, with Colorado reporting more than 6,300 cases with the deaths of five children.
    In 2004, Colombia extradited to the United States the most notorious drug cartel kingpin in its custody, Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, a co-founder of the notorious Cali cartel.
    In 2005, five American artists are honored at the Kennedy Center's 28th National celebration of the arts in Washington, D.C.: singer Tony Bennett; dancer and teacher Suzanne Farrell; actress Julie Harris; actor, director, and producer Robert Redford; and singer Tina Turner.