This Week in History

DECEMBER 4

1783 – George Washington delivered his farewell address to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City.

1993 – Rock musician and composer Frank Zappa died at age 52.

DECEMBER 5

Dan Guarino was born.

Mariela Kohler was born.

1791 – Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35.

1933 – The 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing prohibition, was ratified.

DECEMBER 6

Erin Blum was born

Tori Dresch was born.

Sophia Skeans was born.

Christine Harkins was born.

1884 – Construction of the Washington Monument was completed.

1973 – Gerald Ford was sworn in as vice president, replacing Spiro T. Agnew.

DECEMBER 7

Jessica Farrell was born.

1941 – The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

2002 – Iraq formally declared to the UN that it had no weapons of mass destruction.

DECEMBER 8

Mary Heslin Reed was born.

Rachel Bernstein was born.

1941 – The U.S. entered World War II

1980 – John Lennon, former member of the Beatles, was shot and killed in New York City by a deranged fan.

DECEMBER 9 

Mike Bottiglieri was born.

1965 – “A Charlie Brown Christmas” premiered.

1990 – Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland.

DECEMBER 10

Erin Halligan Farrow was born.

Laura Jean Nelson was born.

1817 – Mississippi became the 20th state in the United States.

2004 – A U.S. passenger jet landed in Vietnam, the first one to do so since the Vietnam War ended nearly three decades earlier.