| On this date in: |
| 1608 |
Poet John Milton was born in London. |
| 1854 |
The poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was published in England. |
| 1907 |
Christmas seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Del., post office. The proceeds went to fight tuberculosis. |
| 1912 |
Longtime House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill was born in Cambridge, Mass. |
| 1940 |
British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II. |
| 1941 |
China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy. |
| 1958 |
The anti-Communist John Birch Society was formed in Indianapolis. |
| 1975 |
President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default. |
| 1992 |
Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (They divorced in 1996.) |
| 1993 |
The Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos marked for elimination under an arms control treaty. |
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| AP Photo/Cliff Schiappa |
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| 1995 |
Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., was chosen to head the NAACP. |
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| AP Photo/Reginald Pearman |
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| 2000 |
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt in the Florida presidential vote count. |
| 2002 |
United Airlines filed the biggest bankruptcy in aviation history after losing $4 billion in the previous two years. |
| 2004 |
Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was constitutional. |
| 2008 |
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on suspicion of scheming to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat for cash or a job for himself in the new administration. (Blagojevich was convicted of lying to the FBI; he awaits re-trial on 23 other charges.) |
