BIBLE VERSE

On This Day in:

1620 – The 'Mayflower', and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, setting the stage for what would eventually be celebrated as the traditional “first Thanksgiving” the following year.

1849 – The first ice-skating club in America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.

1879 – Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a revised happy ending after the original ending received negative reviews.

1898 – Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

1909 – McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S.

1913 – Arthur Wynne published a new 'word-cross' puzzle in the 'New York World' in England. The name was later changed to 'crossword.'

1914 – Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appeared in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy. The film was entitled 'Tillie’s Punctured Romance'.

1925 – Eisenstein's film 'Battleship Potemkin' was first shown in Moscow.

1937 – Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.'

1944 – Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II.

1945 – U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.

1948 – The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence, sparking a series of violent skirmishes between loyalists and separatists.

1951 – Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1958 – Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.

1968 – Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.

1971 – The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general.

1978 – Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.

1981 – Cincinnati defeated Bradley 75-73 in seven overtimes. The game was the longest collegiate basketball game in the history of NCAA Division I competition.

1988 – 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack.

1990 – In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline.

1991 – Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

1995 – The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.

1996 – After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.

1998 – Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections. It was the signal to the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government.

1998 – A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents to long prison terms for attempting to organize an opposition party. A third man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 22, 1998.

1998 – The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved. The disease has been all but eradicated in much of the world.

2001 – The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel.

2002 – Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

— Romans 12:12 (ESV)