TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, DEC. 23, the 358th day of 2016. There are eight days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1941, during World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.
In 1788, Maryland passed an act to cede an area “not exceeding ten miles square” for the seat of the national government; about two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
In 1823, the poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” was published in the Troy (New York) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” was later attributed to Clement C. Moore.
In 1893, the Engelbert Humperdinck opera “Haensel und Gretel” was first performed in Weimar, Germany.
In 1913, the Federal Reserve System was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act.
In 1928, the National Broadcasting Company set up a permanent, coastto-coast network.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt restored the civil rights of about 1,500 people who’d been jailed for opposing World War I.
In 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.
In 1954, the first successful human kidney transplant took place at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston as a surgical team removed a kidney from 23-year-old Ronald Herrick and implanted it in Herrick’s twin brother, Richard.
In 1968, 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
In 1975, Richard S. Welch, the Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Athens, was shot and killed outside his home by the militant group November 17.
In 1986, the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, non-refueled roundthe-world flight as it returned safely to Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 1991, fire destroyed a house in Corsicana, Texas, killing three young children; their father, Cameron Todd Willingham, was convicted of starting the blaze and was executed in 2004, although some experts raised questions about whether the fire had been deliberately set.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Ronnie Schell is 85. Emperor Akihito of Japan is 83. Pro and College Football Hallof-Famer Paul Hornung is 81. Actor Frederic Forrest is 80. Rock musician Jorma Kaukonen is 76. Rock musician Ron Bushy is 75. Actor-comedian Harry Shearer is 73. U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark (ret.) is 72. Actress Susan Lucci is 70. Singer-musician Adrian Belew is 67. Rock musician Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) is 60. Actress Joan Severance is 58. Singer Terry Weeks is 53. Rock singer Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) is 52. The former first lady of France, Carla BruniSarkozy, is 49. Rock musician Jamie Murphy is 41. Jazz musician Irvin Mayfield is 39. Actress Estella Warren is 38. Actress Elvy Yost (TV: “The Catch”) is 29. Actress Anna Maria Perez de Tagle is 26. Actor Spencer Daniels is 24.