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SATURDAY
Associated Press
Dec. 19 is the 354th day of 2020. There are 12 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Dec. 19, 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached by the Republican-controlled House for perjury and obstruction of justice (he was subsequently acquitted by the Senate).
On this date:
In 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter.
In 1843, "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens, was first published in England.
In 1915, legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf was born in Paris. German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer, who discovered the pathological condition of dementia, died in Breslau (now Wroclaw), Poland, at age 51.
In 1946, war broke out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks against the French.
In 1960, fire broke out on the hangar deck of the nearly completed aircraft carrier USS Constellation at the New York Naval Shipyard; 50 civilian workers were killed.
In 1972, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, winding up the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.
In 1974, Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States in the U.S. Senate chamber by Chief Justice Warren Burger with President Gerald R. Ford looking on.
In 1975, John Paul Stevens was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2001, the fires that had burned beneath the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City for the previous three months were declared extinguished except for a few scattered hot spots.
In 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell declared Iraq in "material breach" of a U.N. disarmament resolution.
In 2003, design plans were unveiled for the signature skyscraper -- a 1,776-foot glass tower -- at the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
In 2008, citing imminent danger to the national economy, President George W. Bush ordered an emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry.
Ten years ago: The body of an American tourist, Kristine Luken, 44, was found near a road outside Jerusalem. (A Palestinian man was later sentenced by an Israeli court to life in prison for stabbing Luken.) Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko won re-election. In a game that came to be known as the "Miracle at the New Meadowlands," Philadelphia's DeSean Jackson returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown as time expired in the Eagles' 38-31 comeback win over the New York Giants.
Five years ago: Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton debated in Manchester, N.H., where they engaged in a pointed but polite discussion of national security, Americans' heightened terrorism fears and the economy. Conductor Kurt Masur, 88, died in Greenwich, Conn. Spain's Mireia Lalaguna Royo was named the winner of the Miss World 2015 competition in a Chinese island resort, an event dogged by controversy over China's refusal to allow Canada's entrant to attend.
One year ago: Congress headed home for the holidays without a plan or timeline in place for President Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate; Republicans resisted Democratic demands for new witness testimony. The evangelical Christian magazine Christianity Today said in an editorial that President Donald Trump should be removed from office; the editorial urged believers not to "continue to brush off Mr. Trump's immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency." The House gave Trump an overwhelming bipartisan victory on trade, approving a bill putting in place the terms of the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Karl Fontenot, who spent 35 years in prison in a murder case featured in the book and TV series "The Innocent Man," was released from an Oklahoma prison; a federal judge had written that newly discovered evidence provided "solid proof" of his "probable innocence."
Today's Birthdays: Actor Elaine Joyce is 77. Actor Tim Reid is 76. Paleontologist Richard E. Leakey is 76. Musician John McEuen is 75. Singer Janie Fricke is 73. Jazz musician Lenny White is 71. Actor Jennifer Beals is 57. Actor Robert MacNaughton is 54. Magician Criss Angel is 53. Rock musician Klaus Eichstadt (Ugly Kid Joe) is 53. Actor Ken Marino is 52. Actor Elvis Nolasco is 52. Actor Derek Webster is 52. Actor Kristy Swanson is 51. Model Tyson Beckford is 50. Actor Amy Locane is 49. Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp is 48. Actor Rosa Blasi is 48. Actor Alyssa Milano is 48. Actor Tara Summers is 41. Actor Jake Gyllenhaal is 40. Actor Marla Sokoloff is 40. Rapper Lady Sovereign is 35. Journalist Ronan Farrow is 33. Actor Nik Dodani is 27.
SUNDAY
Associated Press
Dec. 20 is the 355th day of 2020. There are 11 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Dec. 20, 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.
On this date:
In 1790, the first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, R.I.
In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States.
In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union as all 169 delegates to a special convention in Charleston voted in favor of separation.
In 1864, Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Ga., as Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman nearly completed his "March to the Sea."
In 1924, Adolf Hitler was released from prison after serving nine months for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.
In 1963, the Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays.
In 1978, former White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman was released from prison after serving 18 months for his role in the Watergate cover-up.
In 1987, more than 4,300 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island.
In 1995, an American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, slammed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO began its peacekeeping mission, taking over from the United Nations.
In 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded heterosexual couples.
In 2005, a federal judge ruled that "intelligent design" could not be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, delivering a stinging attack on the Dover Area School Board.
In 2017, Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, died in Rome at the age of 86; his failure to stop child molesters in the priesthood had triggered a crisis in American Catholicism.
Ten years ago: In the biggest anti-terrorist sweep in Britain in nearly two years, police arrested a dozen men accused of plotting a large-scale terror attack on targets inside the United Kingdom. Former Mexican presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos was freed more than seven months after his kidnapping by suspected leftist rebels. "Barney Miller" actor Steve Landesberg, 74, died in Los Angeles.
Five years ago: A strong showing by a pair of upstart parties in Spain's general election upended the country's traditional two-party system, with the ruling center-right Popular Party winning the most votes but falling far short of a parliamentary majority. Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach of the Philippines was crowned Miss Universe at the pageant in Las Vegas (in a bizarre finale, first-time host Steve Harvey mistakenly identified first-runner up Ariadna Gutierrez Arevalo of Colombia as the winner before correcting himself and apologizing for the error). Tony Award-winning actress Patricia Elliott, 77, died in New York.
One year ago: President Donald Trump signed a Defense Authorization Act that included Space Force, the first new military service in more than 70 years. Police in Iowa said they had charged a woman with attempted murder after she told police that she intentionally ran over a 14-year-old girl because she believed the teenager was Mexican; she was also accused of driving over a curb to hit a 12-year-old Black boy. (Both children survived; the suspect, Nicole Poole, was ruled incompetent for trial.)
Today's Birthdays: Original Mouseketeer Tommy Cole (TV: "The Mickey Mouse Club") is 79. Rhythm and blues singer-musician Walter "Wolfman" Washington is 77. Rock musician-music producer Bobby Colomby is 76. Rock musician Peter Criss is 75. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is 74. Psychic/illusionist Uri Geller is 74. Producer Dick Wolf ("Law & Order") is 74. Rock musician Alan Parsons is 72. Actor Jenny Agutter is 68. Actor Michael Badalucco is 66. Actor Blanche Baker is 64. Rock singer Billy Bragg is 63. Rock singer-musician Mike Watt (The Secondmen, Minutemen, fIREHOSE) is 63. Country singer Kris Tyler is 56. Rock singer Chris Robinson is 54. Actor Nicole deBoer is 50. Movie director Todd Phillips is 50. Singer David Cook ("American Idol") is 38. Actor Jonah Hill is 37. Actor Bob Morley is 36. Singer JoJo is 30. Actor Colin Woodell is 29.