04 Dec History: This Date

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Events, deaths, births, of 04 DEC
[For Dec 04 Julian go to Gregorian date: 1582~1699: Dec 14 — 1700s: Dec 15 — 1800s: Dec 16 — 1900~2099: Dec 17]

ALTERNATE SITES ALL FOR 031204 ANY DAY OF THE YEAR IN HISTORY ART “4” DEC 04

On a December 04:
2002 Total eclipse of the sun of 2m04s, visible in South Africa, Indian Ocean, Australia. It starts at 05:54 UT just north of Egito Praia, Angola, passes through Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and, at 06:27 UT, leaves Mozambique at Xai-Xai, crosses the Indian Ocean and reaches Australia near Ceduna at 09:10 UT (19:40 local), where totality lasts only 32 seconds, and, at 09:12 UT end in the Outback, at sunset.
2000 In a pair of legal setbacks for Al Gore, a Florida state judge refused to overturn George W. Bush's certified presidential election victory in Florida and the US Supreme Court set aside a ruling that had allowed manual recounts.
2000 PepsiCo agrees to pay $13.4 billion to acquire Quaker Oats.
2000 “If you know that a cashier has given you too much change, how likely are you to keep the money: very likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely, or very unlikely?'' is the question asked in a recent Zogby poll of 1004 US adults, whose results are released today. The answers are: very or somewhat likely (13%), somewhat unlikely (11%), very unlikely (75%), not sure (1%). 29% of those aged 18-29 answered very or somewhat likely. What the poll does not know is how many of the answers are truthful.
2000 European Union farm ministers approved a six-month ban on animal products in fodder, part of an extraordinary plan to stem growing panic over mad cow disease. — Prohibición del uso de harinas cárnicas por parte de la Unión Europea como medida para frenar el mal de las "vacas locas" (encefalopatía espongiforme bovina).
1997 Los gobiernos de la Unión Europea acuerdan en Bruselas la prohibición total de la publicidad del tabaco y su patrocinio por las empresas tabaqueras.
1995 Mario Molina, Sherwood F. Rowland y Paul Crutzen son premiados por el Programa de la ONU para el Medio Ambiente (UNEP) por su contribución a la protección de la capa de ozono.
1995 El escritor y periodista Manuel Vázquez Montalbán es galardonado con el Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas, por el conjunto de su obra.

1992 Bush orders US troops to Somalia.
      US President George H. Bush orders 28'000 US soldiers to Somalia, a war-torn East African nation where rival warlords were preventing the distribution of humanitarian aid to thousands of starving Somalis. In a military mission he described as "God's work," Bush said that America must act to save more than a million Somali lives, but reassured Americans that "this operation is not open-ended" and that "we will not stay one day longer than is absolutely necessary." Unfortunately, America's humanitarian troops became embroiled in Somalia's political conflict, and the controversial mission stretched on for 15 months before being abruptly called off by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
      In 1992, clan-based civil-war fighting and one of the worst African droughts of the century created famine conditions that threatened one-fourth of Somalia's population with starvation. In August 1992, the United Nations began a peacekeeping mission to the country to ensure the distribution of food and medical aid, but it was largely unsuccessful. With U.N. troops unable to control Somalia's warring factions, security deteriorating, and thousands of tons of food stranded in portside warehouses, President Bush ordered a large US military force to the area on December 4, 1992. Five days later, the first US Marines landed in the first phase of "Operation Restore Hope."
      With the aid of US military troops and forces from other nations, the U.N. succeeded in distributing desperately needed food to many starving Somalis. However, with factional fighting continuing unabated, and the U.N. without an effective agenda to resolve the political strife, there seemed no clear end in sight to Operation Restore Hope when President Bill Clinton took office in January 1993.
      Like his predecessor, Clinton was anxious to bring the Americans home, and in May the mission was formally handed back to the United Nations. By June 1993, only 4200 US soldiers remained. However, on 05 June 1993, 24 Pakistani U.N. peacekeepers inspecting a weapons storage site were ambushed and massacred by Somalia soldiers under the warlord General Mohammed Aidid. US and U.N. forces subsequently began an extensive search for the elusive strongman, and in August, 400 elite US troops from Delta Force and the US Rangers arrived on a mission to capture Aidid. Two months later, on 03 and 04 October 1993, 18 of these soldiers were killed and 84 wounded during a disastrous assault on Mogadishu's Olympia Hotel in search of Aidid. The bloody battle, which lasted 17 hours, was the most violent US combat firefight since Vietnam. As many as 1,000 Somalis were killed. Three days later, with Aidid still at large, President Clinton cut his losses and ordered a total US withdrawal. On 25 March 1994, the last US troops left Somalia, leaving 20'000 U.N. soldiers behind to facilitate "nation-building" in the divided country. The U.N. troops departed in 1995 and political strife and clan-based fighting continued in Somalia into the 21st century.

1991 Muslim Shiites release Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, the last and longest held of the Western hostages in Lebanon, after nearly seven years in captivity
1991 El Tribunal Supremo de Perú exculpa al ex presidente Alan García Pérez del cargo de enriquecimiento ilícito, por falta de pruebas.
1991 Pan American World Airways ceased operations (however, a new, smaller version of Pan Am was later formed.)
1990 Due to Persian Gulf crisis gasoline hits $1.60 per gallon price in NYC
1990 Iraq announces it will release all 3300 Soviet hostages
1990 Se concede el Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas a Juan Navarro Baldeweg.

1984 General Motors announced that it is stopping production of diesel engines. The GM diesels were trouble prone.
1983 US jet fighters strike Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon
1983 El médico Jaime Lusinchi es elegido presidente de la República de Venezuela.
1981 US President Reagan allows CIA to engage in domestic counter-intelligence
1981 According to South Africa, Ciskei gains independence (in fact a puppet state whereto relegate Blacks). Not recognized as an independent country outside South Africa
1978 La Comunidad Económica Europea (CEE) adopta un nuevo Sistema Monetario Europeo (SME), del que sólo el Reino Unido se mantiene al margen.
1978 San Francisco got its first female mayor as city Supervisor Dianne Feinstein was named to replace the assassinated George Moscone.
1976 “President for Life” Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who had seized power in the Central African Republic in 1965, now declares it to be the Central African Empire, and crowns himself emperor. He would be ousted in a bloodless coup aided by the French, on 20 September 1979.
1972 Un golpe de Estado en Honduras dirigido por el comandante en jefe de las Fuerzas Armadas Oswaldo López Arellano derroca al presidente Ramón Ernesto Cruz Ucles.
1971 General Motors recalls 6'700'000 vehicles vulnerable to motor mount failure. It is the largest voluntary safety recall in the industry's history.
1971 El cardenal Vicente Enrique y Tarancón es nombrado arzobispo de Madrid.
1965 The US launches Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Cmdr. James A. Lovell aboard. — una permanencia récord en órbita (13 días, 18 horas y 35 minutos).
1963 El democristiano Aldo Moro, en calidad de Primer Ministro de Italia, forma un gabinete de coalición entre cuatro partidos.
1961 Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse's Le Bateau upside down for 47 days
1961 Tanganyika becomes the 104th member of the UN
1959 Peking pardons Pu Yi, ex-emperor of China and of the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo.
1958 Dahomey (Benin), Ivory Coast become autonomous within French Community
1956 Las tropas franco-británicas empiezan a evacuar Port Said.
1954 José Ángel Valente obtiene el premio Adonais de poesía.
1952 Killer fogs begin in London England. “Smog" becomes a word
1952 members of the Congress of Industrial Organizations chose United Auto Workers chief William Reuther to be their new president.
1950 The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants.

1945 Senate approves US participation in United Nations
      In an overwhelming vote of 65 to 7, the US Senate approves full US participation in the United Nations. The United Nations had officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, when its charter was ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and a majority of other signatories. Senate approval meant the US could join most of the world's nations in the international organization, which aimed to arbitrate differences between countries and stem military aggression.
      In approving US participation in the United Nations, the Senate argued fiercely on a number of issues. Some senators proposed a resolution designed to force the president to receive congressional consent before approving US troops for any U.N. peacekeeping forces. This resolution was defeated. The Senate also defeated a proposal by Senator Robert Taft that the United States urge its U.N. representatives to seek "immediate action" on arms control and possible prohibition of weapons such as atomic bombs.
      The Senate action marked a tremendous change in the US attitude toward international organizations. In the post-World War I period, the Senate acted to block US participation in the newly established League of Nations. With the horrors of World War II as a backdrop, however, the Senate and the American people seemed willing to place some degree of trust in an even more powerful organization, the United Nations.
      The United Nations provided a forum for some of the most dramatic episodes in Cold War history. In 1950, the Security Council, prodded by the United States and with the Russian delegation absent, approved a peacekeeping force for Korea. This was the first time a UN peacekeeping force was committed to an armed conflict. The U.N. also allowed world leaders to observe each other as never before, as in the 1961 incident when Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev presented an unforgettable spectacle by taking off one of his shoes and pounding his table with it for emphasis during a U.N. debate.

1945 La agrupación sindical estadounidense CIO acusa al presidente Harry S. Truman de favorecer una política salarial en beneficio de los industriales.

1942 1st US citizenship granted to an alien on foreign soil (James Hoey)
1942 US President F. D. Roosevelt orders the termination of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression.
1942 US bombers struck Italian mainland for 1st time in WW II as they raid Naples.
1941 Operation Taifun (Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on 02 October 1941, as a prelude to taking Moscow, is halted because of freezing temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft.
1941 Japanese attack fleet continues sailing undetected towards Pearl Harbor.

1941 US carrier sails away from Pearl Harbor, not knowing how lucky it is.
The US aircraft carrier Lexington departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to deliver aircraft to Midway Island. Because of this mission, the Lexington inadvertently avoided the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 07 December. It was later to play a pivotal role in the Japanese defeat at Midway. Other US ships were not as lucky. Japanese carrier-based planes attacked the bulk of the US Pacific fleet moored in Pearl Harbor, sinking or severely damaging nineteen naval vessels, including eight battleships.

1933 FDR creates Federal Alcohol Control Administration
1931 El presidente de El Salvador, Arturo Araujo, es derrocado y sustituido por un directorio militar.
1930 En una carta dirigida a la escuela técnica superior de Zurich, el físico austriaco Wolfgang Pauli predice la existencia del "neutrón" (que más tarde recibirá el nombre de neutrino).
1926 Inauguración oficial de la Bauhaus, nueva escuela de arquitectura de Dessau, en Alemania.
1920 Concesión del Premio Nobel de la Paz a Thomas Woodrow Wilson, presidente de Estados Unidos.
1919 Pancho Villa, que mantiene la insurrección agraria en México, es capturado en Morelos por tropas de Venustiano Carranza.
1918 Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) proclaimed
1918 France cancels trade treaties in order to compete in the postwar economic battles.

1918 US President Wilson leaves for Versailles peace conference
President Woodrow Wilson departs Washington, D.C., on the first European trip by a US president. After nine days at sea aboard the S.S. George Washington, Wilson arrives at Brest, France, and travels by land to Versailles where he heads the American delegation to the peace conference seeking an official end to World War I. Although the president's political opponents criticize his European visit as a sign of his egotism, Wilson works tirelessly during the proceedings to orchestrate an agreement that would encourage a lasting peace in Europe. Also during the stay, Wilson advocates the establishment of the League of Nations, an international organization that would seek diplomatic solutions to future conflicts. However, at Versailles, the majority of Wilson's fourteen peace principles are opposed by the other victorious Allies, and the final treaty, calling for stiff war reparations from the former Central Powers, is regarded with increasing bitterness in Germany. In 1920, President Woodrow Wilson is awarded the Nobel Peace Price for his peace efforts in Europe.

1917 Finlandia se declara Estado independiente.

1916 Somerset Maugham sails for Pago Pago
      W. Somerset Maugham departs on a voyage to Pago Pago. Characters he meets on the voyage, including a prostitute and a missionary, inspire the story Miss Thompson, which is published in his 1923 story collection, The Trebling of a Leaf. The story becomes the play Rain, which is filmed three times, once starring Gloria Swanson, once with Joan Crawford, and once with Rita Hayworth.
      Somerset Maugham was born at the British embassy in Paris on 25 January 1874. Both his father and his grandfather were lawyers, and his brother later became Lord Chancellor of England. Maugham was unsuited to the law profession, however, due to his pronounced stammer and extreme shyness, exacerbated by the death of his parents when he was 10. Maugham chose medicine instead of law. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth, describes his experiences working in London's slums. Maugham took up writing full time but did not turn out another successful novel for more than 10 years. He did, however, become an immensely popular playwright. By 1908, he had four successful plays running in London at once, which brought him great financial success.
      During World War I, Maugham worked as a secret agent. He later wrote about his experiences in Ashendon (1928), a collection of short stories. His portrayal of a suave, sophisticated spy influenced his friend Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. In 1915, Maugham published Of Human Bondage (1915), a semi-autobiographical account of a young medical student's artistic awakening. In 1917, he married the mother of his 18-month-old daughter, but during their 10-year marriage he carried on a long affair with an American man, with whom he later shared an elaborate villa in the south of France.
      In 1919, Maugham published The Moon and Sixpence, featuring an unconventional artist based on Paul Gauguin. He denied that the writer portrayed in his 1930 novel, Cakes and Ale, was based on Thomas Hardy, but many saw striking similarities between the two. His 1944 novel, The Razor's Edge, about an American war veteran, was also successful. Maugham also continued to write plays, short stories, and critical essays. He died on 16 December 1965 in Nice, France.

1915 Automobile tycoon Henry Ford sails for Europe from Hoboken, NJ, aboard the Ford Peace Ship. He intends to end World War I. He would fail.
1915 Ku Klux Klan receives charter from Fulton County GA
1914 The first Seaplane Unit formed by the German Navy comes into existence and begins operations from Zeebrugge, Belgium.
1906 El Antonio Aguilar y Correa marqués de Vega de Armijo es nombrado presidente del Gobierno español.
1905 Dimite en Reino Unido el gobierno de Arthur James earl Balfour.

1900 France will not plan invasion of England.
The French National Assembly rejects nationalist General Auguste Mercier's proposal to plan an invasion of England. It was Mercier who in 1894 had been responsible for initiating the outrageous Dreyfus affair.
C'est le Général Auguste Mercier (1833-1921), ministre de la guerre dans les cabinets Casimir-Périer (1893-1894) et Dupuy (1894-1895) qui fit condamner le capitaine Albert Dreyfus (1859-1935) pour espionnage, à la déportation à vie le 14 octobre 1894. Dreyfus est déporté à l'île du Diable à Cayenne. Après le J'accuse de Zola, le jugement est cassé en 1899 et Dreyfus est réintégré le 13 juillet 1906. Le Général Mercier, anti-dreyfusard, resta toujours sur ses positions au nom de la chose jugée et du respect de l'honneur de l'Armée.

1899 56th US Congress (1899-1901) convenes
1890 El bacteriólogo alemán Emil von Behring y su colega japonés Shibasaburo Kitasato publican un importante artículo sobre la seroterapia como tratamiento contra la difteria.
1888 El inventor e industrial estadounidense George Eastman patenta la cámara Kodak, que puso la fotografía al alcance del gran público.
1875 William Marcy "Boss" Tweed (NYC-Tammany Hall) escapes from jail and flees out of the country.

1872 Mary Celeste found mysteriously abandoned at sea.
The Dei Gratia, a small British brig under Captain David Morehouse, spots the Mary Celeste, a US vessel, sailing erratically but at full sail near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. On 07 November, the brigantine Mary Celeste sailed from New York harbor for Genoa, Italy, carrying Captain Briggs, his wife and two-year-old daughter, a crew of seven, and a cargo of some 1,700 barrels of alcohol. After sighting the vessel, Morehouse and his men board the ship to find it abandoned, with its sails slightly damaged, several feet of water in the hold, and the lifeboat and navigational instruments missing. However, the ship is in good order, the cargo intact, and reserves of food and water remain on board. The last entry in the captain's log shows that the Mary Celeste had been nine days and 1100 km away from where the ship was found by the Dei Gratia. Captain Briggs, his family, and the crew of the vessel are never found, and the reasons for the abandonment of the Mary Celeste have never been fully determined.

1870 Amadeo I de Saboya, hijo de Víctor Manuel II de Italia, acepta oficialmente su designación para ocupar el trono de España.
1867 Grange organized to protect farm interests in the US.
1864 Romanian Jews are forbidden to practice law
1864 Engagement at Waynesborough, Georgia
1863 Seven solid days of bombardment end at Charleston, S.C. The Union fired 1307 rounds.
1862 Winchester, Va., falls into Union hands, resulting in the capture of 145 Southern soldiers.
1862 Fighting at Cane Hill, Arkansas
1861 Queen Victoria of Britain forbids the export of gunpowder, firearms and all materials for their production.
1861 The US Senate, voting 36 to 0, expels Senator John C. Brekinridge of Kentucky because of his joining the Confederate Army.
1860 President James Buchanan delivers State of the Union report to Congress
1839 Whig party holds its first national presidential nominating convention, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in which the delegates, influenced by maneuvers to eliminate Henry Clay, nominate William Henry Harrison (09 Feb 1773 – 04 Apr 1841) for president (he would be overwhelmingly elected and, on 04 March 1841, take office and contract pneumonia from which he would die one month later).[Erroneously listed as 1836 in many online “Today in History” sites].
1833 American Anti-Slavery Society organizes
1816 James Monroe, Va, elected 5th US president, defeating Federalist Rufus King
1812 Peter Gaillard of Lancaster, Pa patents a horse-drawn mower
1808 Napoleón I, sin perder una batalla, logra la capitulación de Madrid y provoca la huida de las tropas españolas hacia el sur, en el contexto de la Guerra de la Independencia Española.
1783 General Washington bids his officers farewell at Fraunce's Tavern, New York NY
1682 1st General Assembly in Pennsylvania (Chester)
1680 Hen in Rome lays an egg imprinted with comet not seen until Dec 16th
1674 French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette erected a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan, in present_day Illinois. His log cabin became the first building of a settlement that afterward grew to become the city of Chicago.
1619 America's 2nd Thanksgiving Day (Va) [First was in San Elizario, Texas]
1563 Council of Trent holds last session, after 18 years
1489 Battle of Baza--Spanish army captures Baza from the Moors
1154 Adrian IV, 54, is elected to the papacy. Born Nicholas Breakspear, near St. Albans, England, he was the only Englishman ever elevated to the office of pope.

TO THE TOP

Deaths which occurred on a December 04:
2002 Mustafa Sabah, 35, when Israeli helicopters fired three missiles at the guard house he was manning at a Palestinian Authority compound in Gaza City, blasting a hole through the concrete structure. The Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee said that Sabah assembled the bombs that destroyed three Israeli Merkava-3 tanks since February 2002. Seven tank crew members were killed. The Israeli army modified the tanks to deal with this new threat.
2000 Medusa sloth, 18, of thirst and starvation since 17 November, by supervisor Tim French who thought she was pregnant (false) and that pregnant sloths hibernate and don't need food or water (false). Sloths are an endangered species. French would resign 11 days later.
1994 Julio Ramón Ribeyro, escritor peruano.
1980 Francisco Sá Carneiro, Primer Ministro de Portugal, su ministro de Defensa, Adelino Amaro da Costa, y otras cinco personas.mueren a causa de un sabotaje en el avión en que viajaban.
1979 Mueren once personas durante el concierto del grupo The Who, en Cincinnati (Estados Unidos).
1976 Benjamin Britten, 63, leading British composer of the mid-20th century, whose operas are considered the finest English operas since those of Henry Purcell in the 17th century..
1974: 191 Moslem pilgrims as Dutch DC-8 charter crashes in Sri Lanka

1969 Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, Black Panthers murdered in their sleep by police.
      Fred Hampton, 21, Illinois chairman of the Black Panther Party (BPP), is shot and killed along with Mark Clark, 22, during an early morning police raid of the BPP's Illinois state headquarters in Chicago. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by African-American civil rights activists Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. In contrast to the non-violent approach advocated by civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panther Party argued that armed resistance was the only means of achieving African-American liberation.
      In 1968, Fred Hampton assumed the Illinois state leadership of the BPP shortly after graduating from high school in suburban Maywood, Illinois. Hampton and the Chicago Panthers, who openly possessed firearms, immediately fell under the close scrutiny of the Chicago Police Department and COINTELPRO, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "counter-intelligence" division created by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in 1967 to monitor radical domestic organizations. Along with wiretaps of Hampton's home, COINTELPRO helped plant a FBI informant, William O'Neal, into a key position in the Chicago Panther organization. O'Neal was instrumental in disrupting Hampton's efforts to bring the Blackstone Rangers, a Chicago street gang, into the BPP.
      In 1969, O'Neal provided the FBI with detailed information about the BPP Illinois State headquarters in Chicago. The Cook County State Attorney's office used that information when it raided the headquarters on December 4, killing Hampton and Clark and wounding several party members. The police maintain that a gunfight occurred during the raid, but out of seventy bullet holes in the headquarters, only one round came from the Panthers. The next day, the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union demanded an investigation of the BPP charge that Hampton had been murdered in his bed, but none of the police officers or FBI agents involved were ever brought up on charges.
Cover-up by the US (in)justice system, protecting the murderers
     As they lie sleeping in their Chicago, Illinois, apartment, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are gunned down by 14 police officers. Nearly a hundred bullets had been fired in what police described as a fierce gun battle with members of the Black Panther Party. However, ballistics experts later determined that only one of those bullets came from the Panthers' side. In addition, the "bullet holes" in the front door of the apartment, which police pointed to as evidence that the Panthers had been shooting from within the apartment, were actually nail holes created by police in an attempt to cover up the attack. Four other Black Panthers were wounded in the raid, as well as two police officers.
      The raid, which had been led by Cook County State Attorney Edward Hanrahan, was only one of many attempts by the government to weaken the Black Power movement. Under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI had been battling civil rights activists and other minority leaders for years with their Cointelpro program, whose purpose, according to one FBI document, was to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist hate type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership and supporters. “ Although the FBI was not responsible for leading this particular raid, a federal grand jury indicated that the bureau played a significant role in the events leading up to the raid; Hanrahan had utilized information provided by FBI informant William O'Neal, who was third in command of the Chicago Panthers, to plan his attack. There was also a conscious effort by the FBI to use "aggressive and imaginary tactics" to prevent the "rise of a 'messiah' who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement. “ They apparently considered Fred Hampton, an outspoken, charismatic activist who was chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, to be such a potential leader.
      Hampton became involved in the civil rights struggle at a very early age: At 15, he organized a chapter of the NAACP at his high school, and he became chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party before he was 20. Many other leaders of the Panthers, such as Huey Newton, Assata Shakur, and Bobby Seale, spent time in jail on charges based on little or no evidence. Although most media coverage of the Black Panthers focused on their violent rhetoric and the fact that they carried arms, the Panthers were involved in many nonviolent community-organizing activities. They provided food and medical care to the needy, preached political empowerment, crusaded against police brutality, and started a school. As Fred Hampton himself said shortly before his death, "There have been many attacks made upon the Black Panther Party, so we feel it's best to be an armed propaganda unit. But the basic thing is to educate. “
NRA please note: having gun is no protection against government abuse.
     Unfortunately for Hampton and the other Panthers targeted by the FBI, being armed did not help to protect against governmental repression. In fact, it may have even made matters worse by aiding the FBI in legitimizing their aggressive tactics. Despite the evidence provided by ballistics experts showing that police had fired 99 percent of the bullets and had falsified the report on the incident, the first federal grand jury did not indict anyone involved in the raid. Furthermore, even though a subsequent grand jury did indict all the police officers involved, the charges were dismissed. Survivors of the attack and relatives of Hampton and Clark filed a $47.7 million suit against Hanrahan and 28 other officials in 1970. After an 18-month trial, which did not take place until 1977, all charges were dismissed. However, two years later, the US Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Government had obstructed justice by withholding information and reinstated the case against 24 of the defendants. The relatives and survivors finally won their case in 1979.

1967 Some US and South Vietnamese soldiers and 235 Viet Cong
Elements of the US mobile riverine force and 400 South Vietnamese in armored personnel carriers surround and attack communist forces in the Mekong Delta. During the battle, 235 of the 300-member Viet Cong battalion were killed.
The mobile riverine force was an Army-Navy task force made up of the US 9th Infantry Division (primarily the 2nd Brigade and associated support troops) and the US Navy's Task Force 117. This force was often combined with units from the South Vietnamese 7th and 21st Infantry Divisions and the South Vietnamese Marine Corps. The mobile riverine concept called for Army troops to operate with Navy gunboats and troop carrier boats in the Mekong Delta. This gave the force the capability to travel 150 miles in 24 hours and launch combat operations with its 5000-man force within 30 minutes after anchoring. The mobile riverine force was activated in June 1967. It conducted operations throughout the Delta until the responsibility for this mission was transferred to the South Vietnamese forces in April 1971, as part of the "Vietnamization" program.

1966 29 Viet Cong who attack Tan Son Nhut airport
A Viet Cong unit penetrates the 21-km defense perimeter around Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airport and shells the field for over four hours. South Vietnamese and US security guards finally drove off the attackers, killing 18 of them in the process. One US RF-101 reconnaissance jet was badly damaged in the attack. The guerrillas returned that same night and resumed the attack, but security guards again repelled them, killing 11 more Viet Cong during the second battle.

1960 Luis Astrana Marín, escritor español.
1956 Alexandr Rodchenko, Russian painter and photographer born on 23 December 1891. — more with links to images.
1951 Some 500 in superheated gases rolling down Mount Catarman (Phillippines)
1951 Pedro Salinas, poeta y dramaturgo español.

1943 Work Projects Administration (WPA) is ended
By 1943, the Depression is over as the economy is stimulated by WW II. With the unemployment rolls fast emptying, President Franklin Roosevelt closes the Work Projects Administration (WPA). It was of one of the government's most ambitious public works programs. Inaugurated as part of Roosevelt's New Deal legislation in 1935 as the Works Progress Administration (the name changed to Works Projects Administration in 1939), the WPA was charged with the task of creating jobs for workers idled by the Depression. Fueled by $11 billion of the government's money, the program set Americans to work on an array of projects, including the construction of one million kilometers of road and 125'000 public buildings. The WPA also focused its attention on employing the country's creative workers, serving as an umbrella for federal programs that set writers, actors, and artists to work on various public arts projects. Before being shut down in 1943, the WPA helped create jobs for roughly 8.5 million people.

1939 Day 5 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland. [Talvisodan 5. päivä]
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory.

Imatra: the Commander-in-Chief criticizes the senior command in the Isthmus for being too quick in withdrawing the covering force.

Soviet troops advance with tank support at Suulajärvi, Nurmijärvi and Valkjärvi.

Kiviniemi: the enemy attacks the bridgehead.

The Soviet 118th Regiment supported by battery fire and a tank battalion attempts to break through on the Saunajärvi-Alasjärvi isthmus, but is beaten back.

Some of the foreign diplomats in Helsinki are beginning to leave the country.

Finland's Ambassador in Washington, Hjalmar Procopé conveys to the United States Government Prime Minister Ryti's request for a 60 million dollar loan to Finland.

1934 Lamb, mathematician.
1907 Nathaniel Sichel, German artist born on 08 January 1843.
1856 Lodewyk Tielemans, Belgian artist born in 1826.
1886 Johann Georg Meyer (von Bremen), German painter born on 28 October 1813. — The Letter (1873, 65x49cm)
1876 Michael Neher, German artist born on 31 March 1798.
1867 Mme Sophie (Frémiet) Rude, French artist born on 20 June 1797. — more with links to images.

1864 Rebs and mostly Yanks at Waynesboro
      Eight days of cavalry clashes in Georgia come to an end when Union General Judson Kilpatrick and Confederate General Joseph Wheeler skirmish for a final time at Waynesboro. Although the Rebels inflicted more than three times as many casualties as the Yankees, the campaign was considered a success by the Union because it screened Wheeler from the main Union force as it marched to Savannah, Georgia, on Sherman's famous "March to the Sea."
      Union General William T. Sherman marched his army across Georgia in November and December of 1862, destroying nearly everything in his path. Sherman sent Kilpatrick to Waynesboro in the hope that the Union cavalry could threaten nearby Augusta, Georgia, and divert Confederate attention from Sherman's true goal, Savannah. Beginning on 27 November 27, Wheeler pursued Kilpatrick between Waynesboro and Millen, the site of a Confederate prison that Kilpatrick hoped to liberate. During the campaign, Wheeler pecked at Kilpatrick's force and nearly captured the Union commander in an early morning raid.
      The last of the fighting came in Waynesboro. With Sherman's army safely past, Kilpatrick evacuated the area. Wheeler killed or wounded 830 Yankee troopers and lost only 240 of his own. Kilpatrick found the prison near Millen evacuated, but the campaign had achieved the true Union objective: Sherman marched unmolested to the sea.

1849 Johannes-Ludvig Camradt, Danish painter born on 20 September 1779. — Vase of Flowers
1798 Luigi Galvani, científico y médico italiano.
1792 Antonio Ponz y Piquer, tratadista de arte español.
1732 John Gay, 47, poet. GAY ONLINE: The Beggar's Opera, The Beggar's Opera, The Beggar's Opera.
1697 Jan de Bray, Dutch painter born in 1626 — MORE ON DE BRAY AT ART “4” DECEMBER with links to images.
1679 Thomas Hobbes, English mathematician, but mostly philosopher and political theorist, best known for his publications on individual security and the social contract. — HOBBES ONLINE: De Cive -- The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic -- Leviathan . Hobbes was born on 05 April 1588.
1642 Armand Jean Duplessis de Richelieu, cardenal y ministro de Estado francés.
1603 Marten de Vos, Flemish Mannerist painter born in 1532. — MORE ON DE VOS AT ART “4” DECEMBER with links to images.
1594 Fray Domingo de Salazar, religioso español.

1576 Georg Joachim Rheticus, 62, Austrian-born astronomer and mathematician who was among the first to adopt and spread the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus, of which he wrote in his views in his De libris revolutionum . . . Nic. Copernici . . . narratio prima . . . (1540). He was born Georg Joachim de Porris (or von Lauchen "of the Leeks") on 16 February 1514. For the last 40 years of his life, Rheticus worked on his great treatise, which was completed and published after his death by his pupil Valentin Otto as Opus Palatinum de triangulis (1596). It contains tables of values for the trigonometric functions (of an arc or angle) computed in intervals of 10 seconds of arc and calculated to 10 decimal places.

1131 Abu ol-Fath 'Omar ebn Ebrahim ol-Khayyami (Omar Khayyam), 83. ^top^
Born on 18 May 1048, he was a Persian poet, mathematician, and astronomer, renowned in his own country and time for his scientific achievements. Philosophy, jurisprudence, history, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy are among the subjects mastered by this brilliant man. Unfortunately, few of his prose writings survive; these include a few brief tracts on metaphysics and a treatise on Euclid. He is known to English-speaking readers for his roba'iyat ("quatrains") in the version The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, published in 1859 by Edward FitzGerald (born on 31 March 1809). KHAYYAM ONLINE: in later editions: The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, The Rubáiyát.

0771 Carloman, 20, in 768 he had inherited the eastern part the lands of his father, Pépin III le Bref. Upon Carloman's death, his older brother Charlemagne annexes that territory to his western part and becomes sole ruler of the Franks, and would go on by 800 to become emperor of practically all the Christian lands of western Europe, with the exception of the Kingdom of Asturias in Spain, southern Italy, and the British Isles,.

Births which occurred on a December 04:
1996 Electric Vehicle One, the first modern electric car to be mass-produced, rolls off the GM assembly line. It is offered to users in Los Angeles. It takes between three and twelve hours to charge and can travel 100 to 150 km between charges.
1995 JavaScript is announced by Netscape, Sun, and two dozen other vendors. JavaScript helps transform ordinary, brochure-like Web sites into dynamic applications. JavaScript was designed to let developers rapidly create Java applications. Netscape included JavaScript in its Web authoring tool, making it quicker and easier to create interactive Web pages.

1987 The IBM computer operating system OS/2 ^top^
IBM ships the first version of its multitasking operating system, OS/2, on this day in 1987. IBM had developed the system as a way to free itself of MS-DOS, which Microsoft had designed and still owned: Microsoft would code OS/2 to IBM's design specifications. Far from freeing IBM from Microsoft's domination, OS/2 almost accelerated the process. IBM initially developed the program to run on the 286 processor, not the more powerful 386, which contributed to the system's failure to catch on with many businesses. Meanwhile, early versions of Windows continued to gain ground, and with the launch of Windows 3.0 in 1990, Microsoft quickly became the leader in operating systems.

1979 Los baños de Argel, de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, tiene su estreno mundial, en el teatro María Guerrero de Madrid.
1959 Los fantasmas de mi cerebro, obra teatral de José María Gironella, representada por Enrique Diosdado y Amelia de la Torre,. se estrena en Barcelona.
1952 The Grumman XS2F-1 makes its first flight.
1947 A Streetcar Named Desire, play by Tennessee William, premieres on Broadway starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy. — A Streetcar Named Desire, obra teatral de Tennessee Williams, se estrena en Nueva York.
1938 Andre Marrou US Libertarian Presidential candidate (1992)
1932 Roh Tae Woo Taegu South Korea, President South Korea (1988- )
1929 Doña Bárbara, de Rómulo Gallegos , se publica.
1928 Cántico, del poeta Jorge Guillén, se publica.
1927 Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, escritor español.
1927 William Labov, US linguist, author of The Social Stratification of English in New York City (1966), The Study of Non-Standard English (1969), Sociolinguistic Patterns (1972), Language in the Inner City (1972), What is a Linguistic Fact? (1975), Il Continuo e il Discreto nel Linguaggio (1977).
1923 Charles Keating district attorney (Los Angeles CA)
1908 AD Hershey US, biologist, worked with bacteriophages (Nobel 1969)
1903 Cornell Woolrich US, writer (El Angel Nego)
1898 Xavier Zubiri Apalategui, filósofo español.
1892 Francisco Franco Bahamonde, general who started the Spanish Civil War and winning it became caudillo (dictator) of Spain (1936-1985).
1886 Bieberbach, mathematician.
1883 Felice Casorati, Italian painter, sculptor, and printmaker, who died on 01 March 1963. — more
1875 Johann Hendrik van Mastenbroek, Dutch painter who died in 1945.
1875 Rainer Maria Rilke Germany, poet (Duino Elegies) — Rainer María Rilke, escritor austriaco.

1867 The Grange, farmer's organization ^top^
      Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Grange, which became a powerful political force among western farmers. Though he grew up in Boston, Kelley decided in his early twenties that he wanted to become a farmer. In 1849, he booked passage on a steamboat for St. Paul, Minnesota. Though the Minnesota area was dominated more by the Indian trade than farming, Kelley shrewdly saw that the future of the region lay in agriculture, and he proved to be a skilled and progressive farmer. Kelley gained local fame for boldly experimenting with new crops, installing an elaborate irrigation system, and buying one of the first mechanical reapers in the state. His attempts at scientific farming and a series of columns he wrote for national newspapers brought him national recognition-in 1864, he won a prestigious clerking position under the federal commissioner of agriculture in Washington, D.C.
      While on a tour of southern farms in 1866, Kelley was struck by the warm reception he received from his fellow Masons in the South, despite the otherwise pervasive dislike of northerners left over from the Civil War. Determined to develop a national organization to unify farmers, he returned to Washington and gathered a group of like-minded friends. In 1867, these men became the founders of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, better known as the Grange.
      Although the Grange, like the Masons, began primarily as a social organization designed to provide educational and recreational opportunities for farmers, it evolved into a major political force. Farmers who gathered at local Grange Halls often voiced similar complaints about the high rates charged by warehouses and railroads to handle their grain, and they began to organize for state and federal controls over these pivotal economic issues. The Grange smartly recognized the importance of including women, who often proved to be the organization's most dedicated members.
      The Grange's political activism resulted in a flurry of legislation that became known as the "Granger Laws," which were not very effective in solving the farmers' problems with the railroads and warehouses but did provide a crucial precedent for state and federal regulation of private enterprise for the "public interest. “ The Laws were passed in five mid-western states. In decades to come, politicians took a cue from the Granger Laws and created controls over many big business industries, from meatpacking to drug making, on the grounds that governmental regulations were essential to protect the interests of all the people, not just farmers. The Grange also played a key role in creating the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, which called for the first federal regulation of railroads to control unfair shipping rates.

1865 Edith Cavell, English nurse who tended to friend and foe alike during World War I.
1843 Manila paper (made from sails, canvas and rope) patented, Massachusetts

1835 Samuel Butler, English author and painter English novelist, essayist, and critic whose satire Erewhon (1872) foreshadowed the collapse of the Victorian illusion of eternal progress. The Way of All Flesh (1903), his autobiographical novel, is generally considered his masterpiece. Also he was an amateur painter and musician. In 1865 his Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ , as Given by the Four Evangelists, Critically Examined appeared anonymously. For a few years he studied painting and tried to convince himself that this was his vocation. Until 1876 he exhibited occasionally at the Royal Academy. Later he tried his hand at musical composition, publishing Gavottes, Minuets, Fugues and Other Short Pieces for the Piano (1885), and Narcissus, a comic cantata in the style of Handel in 1888; Ulysses: An Oratorio appeared in 1904. “I have never," he said, "written on any subject unless I believed that the authorities on it were hopelessly wrong"; hence his assault on the citadels of orthodox Darwinism and orthodox Christianity; hence, later, his attempt to prove that the Odyssey was written in Sicily by a woman (The Authoress of the Odyssey, 1897); and hence his new interpretation of Shakespeare's sonnets (Shakespeare's Sonnets Reconsidered, and in Part Rearranged, 1899). Erewhon (1872) was received by many as the best thing of its kind since Gulliver's Travels--that is to say, as a satire on contemporary life and thought conveyed by the time-honored convention of travel in an imaginary country. The opening chapters, based upon Butler's recollections of the upper Rangitoto Mountains in New Zealand, are in an excellent narrative style; and a description of the hollow statues at the top of the pass, vibrating in the wind with unearthly chords, makes a highly effective transition to the strange land beyond. The landscape and people of Erewhon are idealized from northern Italy; its institutions are partly utopian and partly satiric inversions of our own world. Butler's two main themes, religion and evolution, appear respectively in "The Musical Banks" (churches) and in chapters called "Some Erewhonian Trials" and "The Book of the Machines. “ The Erewhonians have long ago abolished machines as dangerous competitors in the struggle for existence, and by punishing disease as a crime they have produced a race of great physical beauty and strength. The Fair Haven (1873) is an ironical defense of Christianity, which under the guise of orthodox zeal undermines its miraculous foundations. Was Darwin to be proved a fraud? This was the suspicion that dawned upon Butler while writing Life and Habit (1878) and envenomed the series of evolutionary books that followed: Evolution, Old and New (1879), Unconscious Memory (1880), and Luck or Cunning (1887). Darwin had not really explained evolution at all, Butler reasoned, because he had not accounted for the variations on which natural selection worked. Where Darwin saw only chance, Butler saw the effort on the part of creatures to respond to felt needs. He conceived creatures as acquiring necessary habits (and organs to perform them) and transmitting these to their offspring as unconscious memories. He thus restored teleology to a world from which purpose had been excluded by Darwin, but instead of attributing the purpose to God he placed it within the creatures themselves as the life force. The Way of All Flesh, published in 1903, the year after Butler's death (18 June 1902), contains much of the quintessence of Butlerism. This largely autobiographical novel tells, with ruthless wit, realism, and lack of sentiment, the story of Butler's escape from the suffocating moral atmosphere of his home circle. In it, the character Ernest Pontifex stands for Butler's early self and Overton for his mature self; Theobald and Christina are his parents; Towneley and Alethea represent "nice" people who "love God" in Butler's special sense of having "good health, good looks, good sense, experience, and a fair balance of cash in hand. “ [Not to be confused with Samuel Butler (16120208–16800925), poet and satirist, famous as the author of Hudibras, the most memorable burlesque poem in the English language and the first English satire to make a notable and successful attack on ideas rather than on personalities.] 19th century BUTLER ONLINE:
The Way of All Flesh The Way of All Flesh The Way of All Flesh Erewhon Erewhon	Erewhon Revisited God the Known and God the Unknown God the Known and God the Unknown Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino	translator of Homer's: The Iliad The Iliad The Odyssey The Odyssey

1795 Thomas Carlyle Scotland , mathematician, but mostly essayist and historian (French Revolution) CARLYLE ONLINE:
Characteristics Early Kings of Norway Essay on Scott The Life of John Sterling Sartor Resartus	The French Revolution: A History History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great Inaugural Address at Edinburgh, April 2nd, 1866 On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History editor of Latter-Day Pamphlets	translator of Goethe's: The Sorrows of Werther The Sorrows of Young Werther Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

1780 La ciudad de Arauca (Colombia) es fundada por José Antonio Useche y el presbítero Juan Isidro Daboín.
1617 Evaristo Baschenis, Bergamo painter narrowly specialized almost exclusively in still-lives of stringed musical instruments. He died in 1677. — MORE ON BASCHENIS AT ART “4” DECEMBER with links to images.
1584 John Cotton, English-born Puritan clergyman in Mass Bay colony (The Way of the Church of Christ in New England)
1541 La ciudad de Santa Fe de Antioquía (Colombia) es fundada por el mariscal español Jorge Robledo, con el nombre de Antiochia.
1443 Giuliano della Rovere, future Pope Julius II (28 Nov 1503 – 20 Feb 1513), patron of Michelangelo, Bramante, Raphael

Holidays Mexico : Day of the Artisans / Tonga : Proclamation Day

Religious Observances Orth : Presentation of Mary in the Temple (11/21 OS) / RC : St Barbara, virgin/martyr / RC : St Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravenna/doctor / RC, Ang : John Damascene, priest/doctor / Santas Bárbara, patrona de los Artilleros, y Emérita; santos Anastasio, Bernardo, Dalmacio y Juan Damasceno.

DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN: soûlaud: navire submersible.

Thoughts for the day : “A closed mouth gathers no foot.”
“A closed fist gathers no cash.”
“A closed mind gathers no thought.”
“A closed eye gathers no dust.”
“A clothed mouse gathers no food.”
“Beauty is the promise of happiness.” — Stendahl (Henri Beyle), French author and critic (1783-1842).
“The promise of happiness is only skin deep and not to be trusted.”

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