This Week in History

DECEMBER 18

Bridget Carson Scala was born.

Cindy Gold was born.

Irene Rocha was born.

Kelly O’Connor was born.

1956 – Japan was admitted to the United Nations.

2000 – George W. Bush received 271 votes in the delayed Electoral College balloting.

DECEMBER 19

Erin Nuszer was born.

Barbara Lev was born.

Jim Morton was born.

Brian Beehler was born.

1998 – President Bill Clinton was impeached on two counts by the House.

2003 – Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya announced that his country would discontinue

development of weapons of mass destruction.

DECEMBER 20

Sarah McVeigh was born.

Regina Courtney was born.

John F. Kimball was born.

Lou Romas was born.

Peggy McCloskey Mullen was born.

1803 – The United States purchased the Louisiana territory from France for $15 million.

1860 – South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.

DECEMBER 21

Tana Drysdale Hickey was born.

Kim Mullen Maher was born.

1988 – A terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.

December 22

Emma Wresch was born.

Rita Regan was born.

Alex Venier was born.

1864 – During the Civil War, Union general William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln saying, “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”

2010 – President Obama officially repealed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy.

December 23

Paul Thomas was born.

1823 – The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (“Twas the night before Christmas”), written by either Clement C. Moore or Maj. Henry Livingston, Jr., was published in the Troy Sentinel of New York.

December 24

Ryan Atwood was born.

Elizabeth Gardner was born.

Steve Feuer was born.

1814 – The War of 1812 between America and Britain ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.