Today is Friday, December 9, the 343rd day of 2022. There are 22 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Dec. 9, 2014, US Senate investigators concluded the United States had brutalized scores of terror suspects with interrogation tactics that turned secret CIA prisons into chambers of suffering and did nothing to make Americans safer after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
On this date:
In 1854, Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” was published in England.
In 1911, an explosion inside the Cross Mountain coal mine near Briceville, Tennessee, killed 84 workers. (Five were rescued.)
In 1917, British forces captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks.
In 1965, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the first animated TV special featuring characters from the “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, premiered on CBS.
In 1987, the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, began as riots broke out in Gaza and spread to the West Bank, triggering a strong Israeli response.
In 1990, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa (lek vah-WEN’-sah) won Poland’s presidential runoff by a landslide.
In 1992, Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple’s divorce became final in August 1996.)
In 2000, the US Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt in the Florida vote count on which Al Gore pinned his best hopes of winning the White House.
In 2006, a fire broke out at a Moscow drug treatment hospital, killing 46 women trapped by barred windows and a locked gate.
In 2011, the European Union said 26 of its 27 member countries were open to joining a new treaty tying their finances together to solve the euro crisis; Britain remained opposed.
In 2013, scientists revealed that NASA’s Curiosity rover had uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars.
In 2020, commercial flights with Boeing 737 Max jetliners resumed for the first time since they were grounded worldwide nearly two years earlier following two deadly accidents; Brazil’s Gol Airlines became the first in the world to return the planes to its active fleet.
Ten years ago:
U.S. special forces rescued an American doctor captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan; a Navy SEAL, Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas D. Checque, was killed during the rescue of Dr. Dilip Joseph. Same-sex couples in Washington state began exchanging vows just after midnight under a new state law allowing gay marriage. Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera, 43, and six others were killed in a plane crash in northern Mexico.
Five years ago:
After more than three years of combat operations, Iraq announced that the fight against the Islamic State group was over, and that Iraq’s security forces had driven the extremists from all of the territory they once held. Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield became the sixth Sooner to win college football’s Heisman Trophy.
One year ago:
A jury in Chicago convicted former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett on charges he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself and then lied to Chicago police about it. (Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail; he was allowed to go free after six days while he appealed the conviction.) A federal appeals court ruled against an effort by former President Donald Trump to shield documents from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Starbucks workers at a store in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize, a first for the 50-year-old coffee retailer in the U.S. A federal jury in Arkansas convicted former reality TV star Josh Duggar of downloading and possessing child pornography. (Duggar would be sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.) Al Unser, one of only four drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 four times, died following years of health issues; he was 82. Provocative Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmueller died in Rome at 93.
Today’s Birthdays:
Actor Dame Judi Dench is 88. Actor Beau Bridges is 81. Football Hall of Famer Dick Butkus is 80. Actor Michael Nouri is 77. Former Sen. Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., is 75. World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite is 73. Singer Joan Armatrading is 72. Actor Michael Dorn is 70. Actor John Malkovich is 69. Country singer Sylvia is 66. Singer Donny Osmond is 65. Rock musician Nick Seymour (Crowded House) is 64. Comedian Mario Cantone is 63. Actor David Anthony Higgins is 61. Actor Joe Lando is 61. Actor Felicity Huffman is 60. Empress Masako of Japan is 59. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is 56. Rock singer-musician Thomas Flowers (Oleander) is 55. Rock musician Brian Bell (Weezer) is 54. Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wallflowers) is 53. TV personality-businessperson Lori Greiner (TV: “Shark Tank”) is 53. Actor Allison Smith is 53. Songwriter and former “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi (dee-oh-GWAHR’-dee) is 52. Country singer David Kersh is 52. Actor Reiko (RAY’-koh) Aylesworth is 50. Rock musician Tre Cool (Green Day) is 50. Rapper Canibus is 48. Actor Kevin Daniels is 46. Actor-writer-director Mark Duplass is 46. Rock singer Imogen Heap is 45. Actor Jesse Metcalfe is 44. Actor Simon Helberg is 42. Actor Jolene Purdy is 39. Actor Joshua Sasse is 35. Actor Ashleigh Brewer is 32. Olympic gold and silver medal gymnast McKayla Maroney is 27. Olympic silver medal gymnast MyKayla Skinner is 26.
Image credits: The Library of Congress
