| On this date in: |
| 1732 |
Benjamin Franklin began publishing “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” |
| 1776 |
Thomas Paine published his first “American Crisis” essay, writing: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” |
| 1777 |
Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter. |
| 1843 |
Charles Dickens’ Yuletide tale, “A Christmas Carol,” was first published in Britain. |
| 1907 |
A coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pa., killed 239 workers. |
| 1946 |
War broke out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks against the French. |
| 1972 |
Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings. |
| 1974 |
Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as vice president, replacing Gerald R. Ford, who became president when Richard M. Nixon resigned. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1984 |
Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. |
| 1986 |
The Soviet Union announced it had freed dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile and pardoned his wife, Yelena Bonner. |
| 1997 |
“Titanic,” the second highest-grossing movie of all-time, opened in American theaters. |
| 2000 |
The U.N. Security Council voted to impose broad sanctions on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers unless they closed terrorist training camps and surrendered U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden. |
| 2003 |
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi agreed to halt his nation’s drive to develop nuclear and chemical weapons. |
| 2005 |
Afghanistan’s first democratically elected parliament in more than three decades convened. |
