In 1642 astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy. In 1790 President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address. Starting with President Thomas Jefferson, all subsequent presidents sent written messages until President Woodrow Wilson in his first term convened Congress in 1913 to hear his address. In 1815 though the War of 1812 had officially ended on December 24, 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, the Battle of New Orleans began -- the news of the signing had not reached British troops in time to prevent their attack on New Orleans. US forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British. In 1877 Crazy Horse (Tashunca-uitco) and his warriors fought their final battle against the US Cavalry in Montana. In 1889 the tabulating machine was patented by Dr. Herman Hollerith. His firm, Tabulating Machine Company, later became International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). In 1900 President William McKinley placed Alaska under military rule. In 1916 during World War I, the final withdrawal of Allied troops from Gallipoli took place. In 1918 President Wilson announced his Fourteen Points as the basis for peace upon the end of World War I. In 1935 Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, MS. In 1959 Charles De Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic. In 1962 Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was exhibited in America for the first time at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The next day the exhibit opened to the public. In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty." In 1973 secret peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed near Paris, France; also on this day, the trial of seven men accused of bugging Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, DC, opened. In 1975 Ella Grasso became the governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to become a governor of a state without a husband preceding her in the governor's chair. In 1976 Chinese premier Chou Enlai died at the age of 78. In 1982 AT&T settled the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against it by agreeing to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies. In 1987 the Dow Jones industrial average closed over the 2000 mark for the first time at 2,002.25. In 1998 Ramzi Yousef was sentenced to life in prison for his role of mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing in New York; also on this day, scientists announced that they had discovered that galaxies were accelerating and moving apart and at faster speeds than previously thought. In 2011 a shooting at a Casas Adobes, AZ, grocery store killed 6 people and wounded 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).
Source:
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