TODAY IN HISTORY
In 1783, George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
In 1788, Maryland passed an act to cede an area “not exceeding ten miles square” for the seat of the national government; about two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
In 1823, the poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” was published in the Troy (New York) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as ”‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” was later attributed to Clement C. Moore.
In 1913, the Federal Reserve System was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act.
In 1941, during World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.
In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.
In 1954, the first successful human kidney transplant took place at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston as a surgical team removed a kidney from 23-year-old Ronald Herrick and implanted it in Herrick’s twin brother, Richard.
In 1968, 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
In 1972, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck Nicaragua; the disaster claimed some 5,000 lives.
In 1986, the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, non-refueled round-the-world flight as it returned safely to Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 1997, a federal jury in Denver convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, declining to find him guilty of murder. (Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)
In 2003, a jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, sentenced teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo to life in prison, sparing him the death penalty.
In 2016, the United States allowed the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation” of international law; the decision to abstain from the council’s 14-0 vote was one of the biggest American rebukes of its longstanding ally in recent memory.
In 2021, Joan Didion, the revered author and essayist known for her provocative social commentary and detached, methodical literary voice, died of complications from Parkinson’s disease at age 87.
In 2022, winter weather blanketed the U.S. as a massive storm sent temperatures crashing and created whiteout conditions. More than 200 million people — about 60% of the U.S. population — were under some form of weather advisory or warning.
BIRTHDAYS
Actor Ronnie Schell is 92.
Former Emperor Akihito of Japan is 90.
Rock musician Jorma Kaukonen is 83.
Actor-comedian Harry Shearer is 80.
U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark (ret.) is 79.
Actor Susan Lucci is 77.
Singer-musician Adrian Belew is 74.
Rock musician Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) is 67.
Actor Joan Severance is 65.
Singer Terry Weeks is 60.
Rock singer Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) is 59.
The former first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is 56.
Rock musician Jamie Murphy is 48.
Jazz musician Irvin Mayfield is 46.
Actor Estella Warren is 45.
Actor Elvy Yost is 36.
Actor Anna Maria Perez de Tagle is 33.
Actor Spencer Daniels is 31.
Actor Caleb Foote is 30.
