1776 – Thomas Paine publishes his 1st “American Crisis” essay beginning”These are the times that try men’s souls” (date disputed). 1777 – During the American Revolution, General George Washington led 11,000 regulars to take up winter quarters at Valley Forge on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Philadelphia. 1783 – William Pitt the Younger becomes the youngest ever British Prime Minister at age 24. 1843 – English author Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol, which became one of the outstanding Christmas stories of modern literature. 1932 – British Broadcasting Corp begins transmitting overseas. 1946 – The Viet Minh, founded by Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh, began the First Indochina War against France. 1950 – Tibet’s Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion. 1958 – 1st radio broadcast from space, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower Christmas message “to all mankind, America’s wish for peace on Earth and goodwill to men everywhere”. 1966 – The United Nations General Assembly endorsed the Outer Space Treaty, an international treaty binding the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes. 1974 – Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States, succeeding Gerald Ford, who had been elevated to the presidency following the resignation of Richard Nixon. 1984 – Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration to transfer Hong Kong back to China in 1997. 1998 – The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice, though Clinton was acquitted by the Senate the following month. 2012 – Park Geun-Hye became the first female to be elected president of South Korea; she was sworn into office the following year; however, she also became the country’s first democratically elected president to be removed from office when she was impeached in 2017.
Births & Deaths: 1906 – Leonid Brezhnev, former President of Soviet Union, was born. 1910 – Jean Genet, a French criminal and social outcast turned writer who, as a dramatist, became a leading figure in the avant-garde theatre, especially the Theatre of the Absurd, was born. 1915 – French singer and actress Edith Piaf, whose interpretation of the chanson (French ballad) made her internationally famous, was born.
Sport: 2010 – “Miracle at the New Meadowlands”, Philadelphia Eagles trail New York Giants by 21 points with eight minutes to play, before scoring 4 touchdowns in final 7 minutes, including dramatic walk-off punt returned for a touchdown by DeSean Jackson.
Music: 1957 – “Music Man” opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 1375 performances.
TV & Film:1960 – Frank Sinatra’s 1st session with Reprise Records (Ring-A-Ding-Ding). 1971 – Stanley Kubrick’s X-rated film “A Clockwork Orange” based on the book by Anthony Burgess and starring Malcolm McDowell premieres. 1997 – James Cameron’s Titanic, a drama about the doomed ocean liner starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, premiered; it later became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.
