TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, DEC. 4, the 338th day of 2017. There are 27 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY: On this date in 1942, during World War II, U.S. bombers struck the Italian mainland for the first time with a raid on Naples. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression.
In 1619, a group of settlers from Bristol, England, arrived at Berkeley Hundred in present-day Charles City County, Va., where they held a service thanking God for their safe arrival.
In 1783, Gen. George Washington bade farewell to his Continental Army officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
In 1867, the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, also known as The Grange, was founded in Washington, D.C., to promote the interests of farmers.
In 1945, the Senate approved U.S. participation in the United Nations by a vote of 65-7.
In 1956, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins gathered for the first and only time for a jam session at Sun Records in Memphis.
In 1965, the United States launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Cmdr. James A. Lovell aboard on a two-week mission. While Gemini 7 was in orbit, its sister ship, Gemini 6A, was launched on Dec. 15 on a one-day mission; the two spacecraft were able to rendezvous within a foot of each other.
In 1984, a five-day hijack drama began as four armed men seized a Kuwaiti
airliner en route to Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran, where the hijackers killed American passenger Charles Hegna. A second American, William Stanford, was also killed during the siege.
In 1991, Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest held of the Western hostages in Lebanon, was released after nearly seven years in captivity. The original Pan American World Airways ceased operations.
In 1996, the Mars Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral and began speeding toward the red planet on a 310 million-mile odyssey. It arrived on Mars in July 1997.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Game show host Wink Martindale is 84. Pop singer Freddy Cannon is 81. Actor-producer Max Baer Jr. is 80. Actress Gemma Jones and rock musician Bob Mosley (Moby Grape) are 75. Singer-musician Chris Hillman is 73. Musician Terry Woods (The Pogues) is 70. Rock singer Southside Johnny Lyon is 69. Actor Jeff Bridges is 68. Rock musician Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Rossington Collins Band) and actress Patricia Wettig are 66. Actor Tony Todd is 63. Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson and country musician Brian Prout (Diamond Rio) are 62. Rock musician Bob Griffin (The BoDeans) is 58. Rock singer Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge) is 55. Actresses Marisa Tomei and Chelsea Noble are 53. Actorcomedian Fred Armisen is 51. Actor Kevin Sussman is 47. Actress-model Tyra Banks is 44. Country singer Lila McCann is 36. Actress Lindsay Felton is 33. Actor Orlando Brown is 30. Actress Scarlett Estevez (TV: “Lucifer”) is 10.