TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, DEC. 1, the 335th day of 2017. There are 30 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1942, during World War II, nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect in the United States; the goal was not primarily to save gas, but to reduce wear on tires and conserve rubber, which was desperately needed for the war effort.
In 1824, the presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a deadlock developed between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. (Adams ended up the winner.)
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sent his Second Annual Message to Congress, in which he called for the abolition of slavery, and went on to say, “Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves.”
In 1921, the Navy flew the first nonrigid dirigible to use helium; the C-7 traveled from Hampton Roads, Va., to Washington, D.C.
In 1934, Soviet official Sergei M. Kirov, an associate of Josef Stalin, was assassinated in Leningrad, resulting in a massive purge.
In 1941, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito approved waging war against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands after his government rejected U.S. demands contained in the Hull Note.
In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus; the incident sparked a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks.
In 1965, an airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland.
In 1973, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, died in Tel Aviv at age 87.
In 1989, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
In 1990, British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel between their countries finally met after knocking out a passage in a service tunnel. In 1992, a judge in Mineola, N.Y., sentenced Amy Fisher to 5 to 15 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounding her lover’s wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco. (Fisher served seven years.) In 1997, a 14-year-old boy opened fire on a prayer circle at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky., killing three fellow students and wounding five; the shooter is serving a life sentence.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former CIA director Stansfield Turner is 94. Actordirector Woody Allen is 82. World Golf Hall of Famer Lee Trevino and singer Dianne Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) are 78. Country musician Casey Van Beek (The Tractors) is 75. Television producer David Salzman is 74. Rock singer-musician Eric Bloom (Blue Oyster Cult) and rock musician John Densmore (The Doors) are 73. Actresssinger Bette Midler is 72. Singer Gilbert O’Sullivan is 71. Former child actor Keith Thibodeaux (TV: “I Love Lucy”) is 67. Actor Treat Williams is 66. Country singer Kim Richey is 61. Actress Charlene Tilton is 59. Actress-model Carol Alt is 57. Actor Jeremy Northam is 56. Actress Katherine LaNasa and producer-director Andrew Adamson are 51. Actor Nestor Carbonell is 50. Actress Golden Brooks and actress-comedian Sarah Silverman are 47. Actor Ron Melendez and contemporary Christian singer Bart Millard are 45. Actor-writerproducer David Hornsby and singer Sarah Masen are 42. Rock musician Brad Delson (Linkin Park) and actor Nate Torrence are 40. Rock/Christian music singer-songwriter Mat Kearney is 39. Rock musician Mika Fineo (Filter) is 36. Actor Riz Ahmed (Film: “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”) is 35. Actor Charles Michael Davis is 33. R&B singeractress Janelle Monae is 32. Actresses Ashley Monique Clark and Zoe Kravitz, and pop-rock-rap singer Tyler Joseph (Twenty One Pilots) are 29. Pop singer Nico Sereba (Nico & Vinz) is 27. Actor Jackson Nicoll is 14.