1728 - Congregation Shearith Israel of New York purchases a lot on Mill Street in lower Manhattan to build New York's first synagogue. Construction is completed in 1730.
http://www.shearith-israel.org/folder/main_frames.html
    1734 - Birthday of William Floyd at Brookhaven, Long Island.  Signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of Congress.  Died at Westerville, NY, Aug 4, 1821
    1760 - Birthday of Deborah Sampson at Plymouth, MA. She spent her childhood as an indentured servant. In 1782, wishing to participate in the Revolutionary War, she disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Continental Army's 4th Massachusetts Regiment under the name Robert Shurtleff. She received both musket and sword wounds, but it was an attack of fever that unmasked her identity and led to her dismissal from the army in 1783. In 1802, Sampson became perhaps the first woman to lecture professionally in the US when she began giving public speeches on her experiences. Full military pension was provided for her heirs by an act of Congress in 1838. Deborah Sampson died Apr 29, 1827, at Sharon, MA.
    1777 - France recognized American independence.
    1777 - General George Washington, after losing several battles to superior forces, professional soldiers, well-equipped and fortified, re-groups his farmers and volunteer fighting force by retiring with them to Valley Forge, Pa., for the brutal cold winter. The war was not going well and officers worked their hardest to not only train the troops, but to halt them from deserting.
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/ft-was.htm#history
http://www.casayego.com/amrev/vforge/evforge.htm
http://www.jimfrizzell.com/valley_forge_washington_headquarters.htm
http://www.valleyforge.org/vfpark.asp
http://www.soupsong.com/rtripe.html
    1788 - Poet Robert Burns wrote his version of an old Scottish song to Mrs. Dunlap, the words for “Auld Lang Syne” (times gone by).  He sent a copy of his song to his publisher Mr. Johnson, who later published it.
http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/AuldLangSyne.5.html
    1790 - One of the wonders of the western hemisphere—the Aztec Calendar or Solar Stone—was found beneath the ground by workmen repairing Mexico City's Central Plaza. The centuries-old, intricately carved stone lift, 8 inches in diameter and weighing nearly 25 tons, proved to be a highly developed calendar monument to the sun. Believed to have been carved in the year 1479, this extraordinary time-counting basalt tablet originally stood in the Great Temple of the Aztecs. Buried along with other Aztec idols soon after the Spanish conquest in 1521, it remained hidden until 1790. Its 52-year cycle had regulated many Aztec ceremonies, including grisly human sacrifices to save the world from destruction by the gods.
    1791 - New York City traffic regulation creates the first one-way street.
    1797 - Scientist Joseph Henry was born at Albany, NY. One of his great discoveries was the principle of self-induction; the unit used in the measure of electrical inductance was named the Henry in his honor. In 1831, Henry constructed the first model of an electric telegraph with an audible signal. This formed the basis of nearly all later work on commercial wire telegraphy. In 1832, Henry was named professor of natural philosophy at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. Henry was involved in the planning of the Smithsonian Institution and became its first secretary in 1846. President Lincoln named Henry as one of the original 50 scientists to make up the National Academy of Sciences in 1863. He served as that organization's president from 1868 until his death May 13, 1878, at Washington, DC.
    1798 – The first impeachment trial against a U.S. senator, William Blount of Tennessee, begins.   An aggressive land speculator, Blount gradually acquired millions of acres in Tennessee and the trans-Appalachian west. His risky land investments left him in debt, and in the 1790s, he conspired with England to seize the Spanish-controlled Louisiana Territory in hopes of boosting western land prices. When the conspiracy was uncovered in 1797, he was expelled from the Senate, and became the first U.S. public official to face impeachment. Blount nevertheless remained popular in Tennessee, and served in the state senate during the last years of his life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blount
    1807 - Birthday of John Greenleaf Whittier, poet and abolitionist, at Haverhill, Essex County, MA. Whittier's books of poetry include “Legends of New England” and “Snowbound.”  Died at Hampton Falls, NH, Sept 7, 1892.
    1812 - U.S. forces attacked a friendly Lenape Indian village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.
    1821 - Kentucky was the first state to abolish imprisonment for debt. There were no bankruptcy laws, and prior to this, those individuals who got into debt would be sentenced to prison no matter the cause of the insolvency.
    1835 – A great fire leveled lower Manhattan.
    1846 - Ships under Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry capture Laguna de Terminos during Mexican War.
    1861 - The Stonewall Brigade began to dismantle Dam No. 5 of the C&O Canal on the Potomac River, seven miles upriver from Williamsport, MD.   Destroying Dam No. 5 would effectively dry up the C&O Canal, cutting off the supply of Pennsylvania coal to factories and steamships in the Washington area.  The canal was also used to transport Union troops and military supplies. If Jackson could successfully breach the dam, he could throw a wrench into the Northern military machine and cause an energy crisis in the enemy capital for at least the winter.  He was not successful.  
http://www.13thmass.org/1861/index.html
  1862 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant lashes out at cotton speculators when he expels all Jews from his department in the west. At the time, Grant was trying to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Grant's army now effectively controlled much of the territory in western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and parts of Kentucky and Arkansas. As in other parts of the South, Grant was dealing with thousands of escaped slaves. John Eaton, a chaplain, devised a program through which the freed slaves picked cotton from abandoned fields and received part of the proceeds when it was sold by the government. Grant also had to deal with numerous speculators who followed his army in search of cotton. Cotton supplies were very short in the North, and these speculators could buy bales in the captured territories and sell it quickly for a good profit. In December, Grant's father arrived for a visit with two friends from Cincinnati. Grant soon realized that the friends, who were Jews, were speculators hoping to gain access to captured cotton. Grant was furious and fired off his notorious Order No. 11: "The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours from receipt of this order." The fallout from his action was swift. Among 30 Jewish families expelled from Paducah, Kentucky, was Cesar Kaskel, who rallied support in Congress against the order. Shortly after the uproar, President Lincoln ordered Grant to rescind the order. Grant later admitted to his wife that the criticism of his hasty action was well deserved. As Julia Grant put it, the general had "no right to make an order against any special sect."
    1874 - Birthday of W.L. MacKenzie, former Canadian prime minister, at Berlin, Ontario. He served 21 years, the longest term of any prime minister in the English-speaking world. Died at Kingsmere, July 22, 1950
    1884 - A three week blizzard of snow began at Portland, OR. A record December total of 34 inches was received.
    1889 - Rosemary "Silver Dollar" Tabor, the second daughter of Horace and Elizabeth "Baby Doe" Tabor, is born. The Tabors were one of Colorado's wealthiest families of the time. Silver's mother, Elizabeth Doe, came west from Wisconsin with her husband, Harvey, in 1877.  The couple hoped to make a fortune in the booming gold and silver mines of Colorado. Harvey Doe proved to be an inept and lazy miner, though, so Elizabeth divorced him and moved to the mining town of Leadville in 1881, where she performed on the stage and was nicknamed "Baby Doe" by admiring miners. During a chance encounter, Baby Doe won the affections of Horace Tabor, an emigrant from Vermont who made millions in the silver mines. Although Tabor was a married man, he moved Baby Doe into an elegant hotel in Denver and began a not-so-secret affair that scandalized the Colorado gentry. Ignoring the wagging tongues, Tabor divorced his wife and married the beautiful Baby Doe, who was nearly a quarter-century younger than he. For a time, the couple lived a life of extraordinary opulence and pleasure, and Baby Doe had two daughters nicknamed "Lillie" and "Silver Dollar," the latter in recognition of the source of the family's wealth. During the early 1890s, the good times started to slow as some of Tabor's investments went sour and his mines began to decline. The fatal blow came in 1893, when the U.S. Congress repealed the Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which had kept silver prices high through government investment. Without these large purchases of silver by the U.S treasury, prices plummeted and Tabor's once valuable mines were suddenly nearly worthless. In a matter of months, Tabor was bankrupt and the family was reduced to living on the modest income he earned as Denver's postmaster. When Tabor died in 1899 of appendicitis, Baby Doe and her young daughters were left penniless, and moved back to Chicago to live with relatives. Eventually, Baby Doe left Lillie in Chicago and returned to Leadville with Silver Dollar. The decision was disastrous: mired in poverty, Baby Doe and Silver eked out a threadbare existence, living in a small shack near one of the worthless silver mines they inherited from Horace Tabor. As Silver grew older, she drank heavily and used drugs. She moved to Chicago, where she was murdered in 1925 at 36 years old. Baby Doe survived for another decade, an impoverished recluse who used old gunny sacks for shoes and doctored herself with turpentine and lard. During a severe blizzard that hit Leadville for several days in February 1935, Baby Doe--who had once been one of the richest people on earth--died cold and alone at 81 years old.
    1892 - First issue of “Vogue” is published.
    1894 – Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler was born in, where else, Boston.  Fielder died in 1979.
    1895 - George Loomis Brownell of Worcester, MA, patented a paper twine machine. It twisted strips or ribbons of paper into cord that was as strong as any known steel.
    1895 - Anti-Saloon League of America is formed in Washington, D.C.
    1896 – Schenley Park Casino, Pittsburgh, the first multi-purpose arena in North America with the technology to create an artificial ice surface, is destroyed in a fire.
    1901 - Birthday of Janet G. Travell, first woman physician to hold the post of personal physician to the President of the United States (John F. Kennedy).  Travell was called upon by the personal orthopedic surgeon of Senator John F. Kennedy to assist with back pain treatments. Kennedy suffered from terrible pain resulting from invasive back surgeries related to injuries sustained during World War II. When Kennedy was elected president in 1960, he appointed her as his personal physician. She continued to serve as Personal Physician to the President following the assassination with his successor Lyndon Johnson. She continued through Johnson's re-election, but decided to leave the White House in 1965. She was a specialist in the study and treatment of musculoskeletal pain. She was firm believer in rocking chairs as mild muscular exercisers and believed that every person should choose their particular chair to fit their bodies.  At the age of 95, Travell died of heart failure at her home in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1997.
    1903 - Birthday of bandleader Ray Noble, Brighton, England
http://www.nobello.com/ray.htm
    1903 - American author Erskine Caldwell was born in Caldwell, GA. He authored unadorned novels and stories, “Tobacco Road”, “God's Little Acre”, about rural poor of the American South mixed with violence and sex in grotesque tragicomedy.  He is particularly esteemed in France and the former Soviet Union. He struggled with censorship more than any other writer in his time. He died in Paradise Valley, Arizona on April 11, 1987.
http://www.libs.uga.edu/gawriters/caldwell.html
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/caldwell.htm
http://www.newnan.com/ec/
    1903 – Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle shop operators from Dayton, OH, inventors and aviation pioneers, after three years of experimentation with kites and gliders, achieved the first documented successful powered and controlled flights of an airplane. The plane, which weighed 745 pounds with a four-cylinder, 12-horsepower engine, was launched from a monorail after a 35-to-40 foot run. It remained aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Three subsequent flights took place that day, of which the longest covered 852 feet in 59 seconds. The average speed was 31 miles per hour. Some historians respect the claim of Gustave Whitehead, who is said to have made four flights, one of which covered a distance of 1.5 miles, in his airplane “No. 21” on August 14, 1901, near Bridgeport. The Wright Brothers promoted their launching with press on hand and the event has been celebrated every year at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, NC, with wreaths, flyover and other observances, regardless of weather.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/dec17.html
    1904 – Birthday of artist Paul Cadmus in NYC.  Well-respected homosexual painter, best known for his paintings and drawings of nude male figures. His works combined elements of eroticism and social critique to produce a style often called magic realism. His notorious erotic painting, “The Fleet's In!”launched his career as a full-time artist. Died 1999.
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/cadmus_paul.html
http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/cadmus/cadmus.htm
http://www.davidsutherland.com/films_cadmus.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0915829681/inktomi-bkasin-20/104-3547695-1517507
    1908 - Birthday of Willard Frank Libby at Grand Valley, CO. American educator, chemist, atomic scientist and Nobel Prize winner. He was the inventor of the carbon-14 “atomic clock” method for dating ancient and prehistoric plant and animal remains and minerals. Died at Los Angeles, CA, Sept 8, 1980.
( lower half of: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/dec17.html )
    1910 - Band Leader/Trombone player Sy Oliver’s birthday, born Melvin James "Sy" Oliver at Battle Creek, MI. 
http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/micro/437/64.html
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/oliver_sy/bio.jhtml
http://trumpetjazz.netfirms.com/Artists/Sy_Oliver.html
    1913 – The founder of Baskin-Robbins, Burt Baskin, was born in Streator, IL.  He founded the company with his brother-in-law, Irv Robbins in 1946.
    1920 - The first orphanage founded by the Church of God opened in Cleveland, Tennessee. Its establishment was the result of the vision and efforts of Church of God pioneer, A.J. Tomlinson.
    1920 – The American league allowed spitballers to continue to use while banning it for newcomers.
    1924 - A severe ice storm struck central Illinois. It coated the ground with nearly two inches of glaze at Springfield. The storm caused 21 million dollars damage along with much hardship. Ice was on the trees until the 4th of January, and electricity was not restored until January 10th.
    1924 – The first diesel electric locomotive in the U.S. enters service in The Bronx.
    1925 - Birthday of drummer Walter Bolden, Hartford, CT.  Died February 19, 2002.
http://www.jazztimes.com/JazzNews/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&
articleid=516
http://www.jazzvalley.com/musician/walter.bolden
    1925 - Colonel William "Billy" Mitchell was court-martial for insubordination. Mitchell was a US Army general who is regarded as the father of the US Air Force.  He served in the U.S. Army during World War I and by the conflict's end, commanded all American air combat units in that country.  At the time what would become the Air Force was part of the Army. After the war, he was appointed deputy director of the Air Service and began advocating increased investment in air power, believing that this would prove vital in future wars. He argued particularly for the ability of bombers to sink battleships and organized a series of bombing runs against stationary ships designed to test the idea.It was President Coolidge himself who ordered Mitchell's court-martial under charges of insubordination under the 96th Article of War ("conduct of a nature to bring discredit on the military service"). The trial lasted seven weeks, most of which was devoted to a discussion of Mitchell's concept of airpower. The verdict of guilty was a foregone conclusion, and Mitchell was sentenced to be suspended from rank, command, and duty, with a forfeiture of all pay and allowances for five years. President Coolidge, in an uncharacteristic fit of generosity, later reduced this to forfeiture of half his pay and allowances.
Billy Mitchell refused the offer and resigned on February 1, 1926. All through the court-martial proceedings, Mitchell had the staunch support of "Hap" Arnold and such officers as Carl Spaatz, Herbert Dargue, Robert Olds, William Gillmore, Horace Hickam, and others. Each put his career on the line for Mitchell even though they knew he would be convicted. After the trial, Arnold was exiled to become commanding officer of the 16th Observation Squadron, Fort Riley, Kan. The assignment was intended to be the end of his career. Mitchell continued to campaign in speeches and articles. "Hap" Arnold, for his part, soldiered on, his leadership qualities inevitably propelling him to the top, regardless of residual resentment about his unflagging support for Mitchell. More important than Arnold's loyalty, however, was his comprehension of Mitchell's fascination with technology. Early in his tour as Army Air Corps Chief, Arnold began soliciting the ideas and the company of the top scientists in the country. Eventually, he enlisted the assistance of such stellar names as Theodore von Kármán, Hugh L. Dryden, Frank Wattendorf, Hsue-shen Tsien, Vladimir K. Zworykin, and many others for the Scientific Advisory Group, later transformed into the Scientific Advisory Board. These men and others created first "Where We Stand" and then "Toward New Horizons," studies that addressed state-of-the-art technology and put forth a blueprint for the development of the postwar Air Force. It is important to note that neither Mitchell nor Arnold had the scientific competence to write such reports; they had, instead, the far more vital ability to see that the reports were needed, recognize who could produce them, and sympathetically enlist their support. The officers Arnold picked to work with the scientists were equally well chosen, among them such men as James H. Doolittle, Donald L. Putt, and Laurence C. Craigie. They knew the importance of science and of scientists. Again, in the spirit of Billy Mitchell, Arnold picked promising young officers who understood the requirements of technology and saw that they were given a track to top positions. Doing so cost him friends. Comrades who had served with him, and who were now passed over, resented his choices. But Arnold knew he was not running a popularity contest; he was building an independent Air Force. Mitchell received many honors following his death in 1936, including a commission by President Franklin Roosevelt as a Major General. He is also the only individual after whom a type of American military aircraft, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, is named.
    1926 - Ben Pollack and His Californians records "He’s the Last Word." In the late 1950's, my friends and I hung out at his Dixieland pizza joint on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, where he would play the drums. Sandy Nelson said he got his "boom-chick-a-boom" here, or perhaps it was the burlesque house drummer, which is the real truth.
    1929 – Columnist and presidential speechwriter, William Safire was born in NYC.  He was perhaps best known as a long-time syndicated political columnist for the New York Times and the author of "On Language" in the New York Times Magazine, a column on popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics from its inception.  Too bad he passed in 2009…he’d have a field day today!
    1930 – Penthouse founder and publisher Bob Guccione was born Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione in Brooklyn.  He died in 2010.
    1932 - Birthday of sax player Sonny “Red” Kyner, Detroit, MI
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/reviews/r1100_096.htm
    1933 - Birthday of bass player Walter Booker, Jr., Prairie View, TX, died 1982.
    1933 - The Chicago Bears of the Western Division won the National Football League's first championship game, defeating the New York Giants of the Eastern Division, 23-21. The Bears scored the winning touchdown on a pass and lateral play begun by Bronko Nagurski. The purse was divided, with 60 percent going to the players, 15 percent to each club, and 10 percent to the league. Shares for individual players were $210 for the Bears and $140 for the Giants.
http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/artists/walter_booker.html
    1935 – The flight of the first DC-3.
    1936 - Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, Candace’s dad, and dummy Charlie McCarthy, first appear on TV.
    1938 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.
    1939 - Birthday of pianist James Booker, New Orleans, LA
http://offbeat.com/booker/discography.html
http://www.zultimate1.com/music/blues/j_blues_bands/james_booker.htm
http://www.thejukejoint.com/jamesbooker.html
    1939 - Birthday of Eddie Kendricks, lead singer of The Temptations, Union Springs, Al
http://www.thetemptations.com/eddiekendricks.htm
http://www.alamhof.org/kendrick.htm
    1940 - United States President Franklin Roosevelt outlined his plan for "lend-leasing" arms and equipment to Britain during World War II.
    1941 - Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel was relieved of his command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet as part of a shake-up of officers in the wake of the Pearl Harbor disaster. Admiral Kimmel had enjoyed a successful military career, beginning in 1915 as an aide to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He served admirably on battleships in World War I, winning command of several in the interwar period. At the outbreak of World War II, Kimmel had already attained the rank of rear admiral and was commanding the cruiser forces at Pearl Harbor. In January 1941, he was promoted to commander of the Pacific Fleet, replacing James Richardson, who FDR relieved of duty after Richardson objected to basing the fleet at Pearl Harbor. If Kimmel had a weakness, it was that he was a creature of habit, of routine. He knew only what had been done before, and lacked imagination and insight regarding the unprecedented. So, even as word was out that Japan was likely to make a first strike against the United States as the negotiations in Washington floundered, Kimmel took no extraordinary actions at Pearl Harbor. In fact, he believed that a sneak attack was more likely at Wake Island or Midway Island, and requested from Lieutenant General Walter Short, Commander of the Army at Pearl Harbor, extra antiaircraft artillery for support there (none could be spared). Kimmel's predictability was extremely easy to read by Japanese military observers and made his fleet highly vulnerable. As a result, Kimmel was held accountable, to a certain degree, for the absolute devastation wrought on December 7. Although he had no more reason than anyone else to believe Pearl Harbor was a possible Japanese target, a scapegoat had to be found to appease public outrage. He avoided a probable court-martial when he requested early retirement. When “Admiral Kimmel's Story,”an "as told to" autobiography, was published in 1955, Kimmel made it plain that he believed FDR sacrificed him-and his career-to take suspicion off himself; Kimmel believed Roosevelt knew Pearl Harbor was going to be bombed, although no evidence has ever been adduced to support his allegation. The only intelligence at the time talked about a possible invasion of Indochina. There was speculation that Wake Island in Midway might be a target, but it was thought at the time the Japanese were more interested in the China mainland and its surrounding countries, their century old enemies.
    1943 - All Chinese are again permitted to become citizens of the United States with the repealing of the Act of 1882 and the introduction of the Magnuson Act.
    1944 - COWAN, RICHARD ELLER, Medal of Honor.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company M, 23d Infantry, 2d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Krinkelter Wald, Belgium, 17 December 1944. Entered service at: Wichita, Kans. Birth: Lincoln, Nebr. G.O. No.: 48, 23 June 1945. Citation: He was a heavy machine-gunner in a section attached to Company I in the vicinity of Krinkelter Wald, Belgium, 17 December 1944, when that company was attacked by a numerically superior force of German infantry and tanks. The first 6 waves of hostile infantrymen were repulsed with heavy casualties, but a seventh drive with tanks killed or wounded all but 3 of his section, leaving Pvt. Cowan to man his gun, supported by only 15 to 20 riflemen of Company I. He maintained his position, holding off the Germans until the rest of the shattered force had set up a new line along a firebreak. Then, unaided, he moved his machinegun and ammunition to the second position. At the approach of a Royal Tiger tank, he held his fire until about 80 enemy infantrymen supporting the tank appeared at a distance of about 150 yards. His first burst killed or wounded about half of these infantrymen. His position was rocked by an 88mm. shell when the tank opened fire, but he continued to man his gun, pouring deadly fire into the Germans when they again advanced. He was barely missed by another shell. Fire from three machineguns and innumerable small arms struck all about him; an enemy rocket shook him badly, but did not drive him from his gun. Infiltration by the enemy had by this time made the position untenable, and the order was given to withdraw. Pvt. Cowan was the last man to leave, voluntarily covering the withdrawal of his remaining comrades. His heroic actions were entirely responsible for allowing the remaining men to retire successfully from the scene of their last-ditch stand.
    1944 - LOPEZ, JOSE M., Medal of Honor.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, 23d Infantry, 2d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Krinkelt, Belgium, 17 December 1944. Entered service at: Brownsville, Tex. Birth: Mission, Tex. G.O. No.: 47, 18 June 1945. Citation: On his own initiative, he carried his heavy machinegun from Company K's right flank to its left, in order to protect that flank which was in danger of being overrun by advancing enemy infantry supported by tanks. Occupying a shallow hole offering no protection above his waist, he cut down a group of 10 Germans. Ignoring enemy fire from an advancing tank, he held his position and cut down 25 more enemy infantry attempting to turn his flank. Glancing to his right, he saw a large number of infantry swarming in from the front. Although dazed and shaken from enemy artillery fire which had crashed into the ground only a few yards away, he realized that his position soon would be outflanked. Again, alone, he carried his machinegun to a position to the right rear of the sector; enemy tanks and infantry were forcing a withdrawal. Blown over backward by the concussion of enemy fire, he immediately reset his gun and continued his fire. Single-handed he held off the German horde until he was satisfied his company had effected its retirement. Again he loaded his gun on his back and in a hail of small arms fire he ran to a point where a few of his comrades were attempting to set up another defense against the onrushing enemy. He fired from this position until his ammunition was exhausted. Still carrying his gun, he fell back with his small group to Krinkelt. Sgt. Lopez's gallantry and intrepidity, on seemingly suicidal missions in which he killed at least 100 of the enemy, were almost solely responsible for allowing Company K to avoid being enveloped, to withdraw successfully and to give other forces coming up in support time to build a line which repelled the enemy drive.
    1944 - Japanese-Americans were released from detention camps. US Army announced the end of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.  U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issued Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that, effective January 2, 1945, Japanese American "evacuees" from the West Coast could return to their homes. By June, more than 110,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to remote internment camps built by the U.S. military in scattered locations around the country. For the next two and a half years, many of these Japanese Americans endured extremely difficult living conditions and poor treatment by their military guards. During the course of World War II, 10 Americans were convicted of spying for Japan, but not one of them was of Japanese ancestry.   http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/non-flash/justice_postwar.html
    1944 - U.S. destroyers sink in storm off Philippines, 790 killed
    1944 – In the Battle of the Bulge – Malmedy massacre – the US 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
     1946 - Top Hits
“Ole Buttermilk Sky” - The Kay Kyser Orchestra (vocal: Mike Douglas & The Campus Kids)
“White Christmas” - Bing Crosby
“The Whole World is Singing My Song” - The Les Brown Orchestra (vocal: Doris Day)
“Divorce Me C.O.D.” - Merle Travis
    1946 - President Harry S. Truman received the first coin bearing the likeness of an African-American, the 50 cent commemorative honoring Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute. It was authorized on August 7, 1946. The obverse showed the head of Washington and the reverse a stylized Hall of Fame, under which were the words “From Slave Cabin to Hall of Fame.” Centered under this wording was a slave cabin, to the left of which was the inscription, “In God We Trust,” and to the right, “Franklin County, VA.” Around the rim was the inscription “Booker T. Washington Birthplace Memorial---Liberty”. The coin was designed by Isaac Scott Hathaway.
    1947 - New York struck by a blizzard, resulting with 27" of snow.
http://manhattan.about.com/library/weekly/aa010101a.htm
http://www-nsidc.colorado.edu/snow/shovel.html
    1947 – The first flight of the B-47 bomber.
    1948 - Vowing to not “subvert” his music, Stan Kenton breaks up his band, New York City ( he came back in 1950 with his biggest band yet: http://home.hiwaay.net/~crispen/kenton/biography.html )
    1953 – The FCC approved RCA's black and white - compatible color TV specifications.
    1954 - Top Hits
“Mr. Sandman” - The Chordettes
“Count Your Blessings” - Eddie Fisher
“Let Me Go, Lover!” - Teresa Brewer
“More and More” - Webb Pierce
    1954 – The first fully automated railroad freight yard opened in Gary, Indiana.
    1955 - Carl Perkins wrote "Blue Suede Shoes", which he was recording, less than 48 hours later, at the Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. The song became one of the first records to have simultaneous popularity on rock, country and rhythm & blues charts.
    1955 - While their hit "Only You" was still at #2, the Platters' "The Great Pretender" enters the Billboard R&B chart at #13. I had all their records at 13 years old.
    1955 - Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" is number one on both the Billboard Pop and Country & Western charts.
    1956 - The first African-American pilot on a scheduled passenger line was Perry H. Young of Orangeburg, SC.  He was hired as a flight crewman by New York Airways, New York City. He started regular passenger flights on February 1, 1957, as a copilot in a 12-passenger S-58 helicopter between New York International (now JFK International), La Guardia, and Newark, NJ, airports.
    1957 - Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock" enters the Billboard Pop chart for the first time, where it will reach #6. It will make the chart again in December 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1962.  The song was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal (1900–1967), and James Ross Boothe (1917–1976).  With “White Christmas” it is among the best-selling songs of all-time.
    1957 - The United States successfully launches the first Atlas ICBM at Cape Canaveral.
    1959 – “On the Beach”,the gripping post-nuclear war film starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, and Tony Perkins, premiered in New York.
    1962 - Top Hits
“Big Girls Don't Cry” - The Four Seasons
“Return to Sender” - Elvis Presley
“Bobby's Girl” - Marcie Blane
“Don't Let Me Cross Over” - Carl Butler & Pearl (Dee Jones)
    1962 - James Carroll at WWDC in Washington, DC, became the first disc jockey to broadcast a Beatles record on American airwaves. Carroll played "I Want to Hold Your Hand", which he had obtained from his stewardess girlfriend, who brought the single back from Britain. Due to listener demand, the song was played daily, every hour. Since it hadn't been released yet in the States, Capitol Records initially considered court action, but instead released the single earlier than planned.
    1963 - The US Congress passed the “Clean Air Act,” a sweeping set of laws passed to protect the nation from air pollution. This was the first legislation to place pollution controls on the automobile industry. It authorized $93 million in matching grants for state-funded air pollution prevention and control programs.
    1965 - In San Francisco, the fourth Acid Test took place at Muir Beach Lodge near Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County after being advertised for Stinson Beach. This was the largest one to date in terms of attendance.
    1965 – The Eighth Wonder of the World, the Astrodome opened in Houston with its first event, a Judy Garland and Supremes concert
    1966 -The Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" enters the Billboard Pop chart, where it will peak at #2 during its eleven week run.
    1966 - In San Francisco, Benefit for Legalization of Marijuana (LEMAR) at California Hall. Country Joe and the Fish entertained.
    1966 - The Four Tops' "Standing in the Shadows of Love" enters the Billboard Hot 100. During a ten week stay, the tune will peak at #6. It also reaches #2 on the R&B chart.
    1966 - Death & Rebirth of the Haight-Ashbury (Hairy Henry & Fyllis busted). Home of the anarchist Bound Together Books Collective .
http://www.cnsproductions.com/cocaine.html
http://dmoz.org/Society/Politics/Anarchism/Bookstores/
    1969 - USAF closes Project Blue Book, concluding no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
http://www.jagat.com/joel/socks.html
http://www.roswell-online.com/clipart/ufoclip1.htm
    1969 - The soprano-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim married the lovely Miss Vickie on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show on this date before a huge viewing audience. The NBC-TV program earned the second-highest, all-time audience rating; second only to Neil Armstrong's walking on the moon. The unlikely couple later divorced in 1977, but not before Miss Vickie gave birth to daughter Tulip.
    1969 - Chicago Transit Authority earned a gold record for the group of the same name, who would later become simply "Chicago". The album's release by Columbia Records marked the first time an artist's debut LP was a double record.
    1970 - Top Hits
“The Tears of a Clown” - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
“One Less Bell to Answer” - The 5th Dimension
“My Sweet Lord/Isn't It a Pity” - George Harrison
“Endlessly” - Sonny James
    1975 – Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme sentenced to life for attempt on President Ford's life
    1976 - The Ted Turner-owned WTCG-TV, Atlanta, Georgia, changed its call letters to WTBS, and was unlinked via satellite, making it the first commercial television station to cover the entire United States. WTBS began on only four cable systems, available in 24,000 homes.
    1977 - Elvis Costello & the Attractions appear on NBC-TV "Saturday Night Live" in place of the Sex Pistols, who can't get a visa to enter the country. Producer Lorne Michaels refuses to allow Costello to perform "Radio, Radio" (because of the song's criticism of the broadcasting industry), but a few measures into "Less than Zero," Costello halts his group & goes into "Radio, Radio." He will never be invited back.
    1978 - Top Hits
“You Don't Bring Me Flowers” - Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond
“Too Much Heaven” - Bee Gees
“My Life” - Billy Joel
“The Gambler” - Kenny Rogers
    1979 - “House Calls” premiered on TV. This half-hour sitcom set in Kensington General Hospital starred Wayne Rogers as Dr. Charley Michaels and Lynn Redgrave as Ann Anderson, assistant administrator and Michaels's love interest. Also featured was David Wayne as flaky chief of surgery Dr. Amos Wetherby. After a dispute with the producers, Redgrave was dropped in 1982 and replaced by Sharon Gless as assistant Jane Jeffries.
    1984 - “Run-D.M.C.” went gold, the first Rap album to attract a mass audience, recorded by the rap group of the same name. Run-D.M.C's members were “Jam Master” Jason Mizell, Joseph “ Run” Simmons, and “MC” Darryle “D” McDaniels, all of New York City. The album was released by Profile Records in June, 1984, and Rap was the music of this generation.
    1984 - For the first time in 14 matches, John McEnroe and Peter Fleming lost a doubles tennis match in the Davis Cup competition. Anders Jarryd and Stefan Edberg lead the Swedish team to win the title, marking the worst defeat since 1973 for the United States team
    [relo-chron] 1986 - A federal jury in Las Vegas ruled that NBC falsely linked entertainer Wayne Newton to organized crime in 1980 and 1981 telecasts. Newton was awarded $19.2 million in defamation damages.
    1986 - Top Hits
“The Way It Is” - Bruce Hornsby & The Range
“Walk Like an Egyptian” - Bangles
“Everybody Have Fun Tonight” - Wang Chung
“Hell and High Water” - T. Graham Brown
    1986 - U.S. Congress forms an Iran-gate committee to investigate the Reagan Administration’s alleged trading of arms for hostages.
    1987 - A storm in the southwestern U.S. brought heavy rain and heavy snow to parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Charleston, NV was blanketed with 12 inches of snow. Lake Havasu City, AZ was drenched with 2.26 inches of rain.
    1989 - TV's animated family, “The Simpsons,” premiered as a half-hour weekly sitcom. The originator of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie is cartoonist Mall Groening. The Simpsons' inaugural episode was "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”. For the full story, go here:
http://freespace.virgin.net/lol.marcus/simpsons.htm
    1989 - Twenty-one cities from Kentucky to Pennsylvania reported record low temperatures for the date, including Columbus, OH with a reading of 12 degrees below zero. Heavy snow continued in the Colorado Rockies. Vail received 65 inches of snow between the 14th and the 18th of December. Steamboat Springs was buried under 74 inches, and reported a total of 108 inches of snow between the 10th and the 18th of the month.
    1991 – In the NBA's most lopsided game, Cleveland beats Miami 148-80.
    1994 - Remixed version of The Four Seasons' "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" re-enters the Billboard Hot 100, where it will stay for another 27 weeks, just as it did when it first charted in 1976. The combined run will establish a record for the longest total chart appearance in history. The song reached #1 the first time out and #14 during its second stay.
    2000 - San Francisco wide receiver Terrell Owens sets a new NFL single-game receiving record with 20 catches in the 49ers' 17-0 win over Chicago. Owens totaled 283 yards and a touchdown while topping Tom Fears' mark of 18 receptions which had stood since 1950.
    2000 - Jerry Rice played his last football game for the SF 49ers as they defeated the Chicago Bears 17-0.
    2002 - Thunderstorms preceding a strong cold front pushed into the U.S. Mississippi Valley, producing severe weather and tornadoes. Three people were killed in Missouri and Arkansas with more than 40 injuries
    2004 - President Bush signs the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004 which reorganizes intelligence agencies and creates position of national security director
    2006 - The Rolling Stones' “A Bigger Bang” tour re-captured the title of top-grossing tour ever from U2's Vertigo and was the top grossing tour of the year, according to numbers reported to Billboard Box score. The Stones took in about $437 million since the previous November.
    2012 - Outgoing U.S. Senator Jim DeMint is replaced by GOP Congressman Tim Scott, the first black senator from the South since 1881
    2013 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct Linda Ronstadt, Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, Nirvana, KISS, and Cat Stevens in 2014.    
    2014 - Green Day, Lou Reed and "Lean on Me" singer Bill Withers will lead a new class of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2015.  The Hall announced it will also welcome Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and make Ringo Starr the fourth ex-Beatle enshrined as an individual. Besides Reed, the class includes other posthumous inductees Paul Butterfield and Stevie Ray Vaughan.  The 30th annual induction ceremony will be held at Cleveland, Ohio's Public Hall on April 18, 2015.