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Today is Sunday, December 18th, the 352nd day of 2022. There are 13 days left in the year.
Today’s historical highlights:
On December 18, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump on two counts, sending his case to the Senate for trial; the articles of impeachment accused him of abusing his presidency to investigate rival Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election, and then Obstructing congressional investigations. (It was the first of two impeachment trials in which the Senate acquitted Trump.)
On this date:
In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery was proclaimed by Secretary of State William Seward.
In 1892, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker had its public premiere in St. Petersburg, Russia; although it is now considered a classic, it received generally negative reviews from critics.
In 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, prohibiting the “making, selling, or transporting intoxicated liquor,” and sent it to the states for ratification.
In 1940, Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (Operation Barbarossa was launched in June 1941.)
In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the government’s wartime evacuation of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast, while ruling that Japanese-Americans of “professed loyalty” could not continue to be detained.
In 1957, the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, the Shipport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, was put into operation. (It was decommissioned in 1982.)
In 1958, the world’s first communication satellite SCORE (Orbital Relay Equipment Signal Communication), nicknamed “Chatter Box”, was launched by the United States using an Atlas rocket.
In 1969, the House of Lords joined the House of Commons to make permanent the 1965 ban on the death penalty for murder.
In 1992, Kim Young-sam was elected South Korea’s first civilian president in three decades.
In 2003, two federal appeals courts ruled that the U.S. military cannot hold prisoners indefinitely without a lawyer or a U.S. court.
In 2011, the last heavily armed U.S. troops left Iraq and entered Kuwait in darkness during the final hours of the nine-year war. Vaclav Havel, the 75-year-old dissident playwright who became Czechoslovakia’s first democratically elected president, has died in northern Czechoslovakia.
In 2020, the U.S. added a second COVID-19 vaccine to its arsenal, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized an emergency launch of a vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health; from Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech Vaccines have already been distributed.
Ten years ago: Classes resume in Newtown, Connecticut, with the exception of Sandy Hook Elementary School, where the massacre occurred four days earlier. Two bank robbers made a daring escape from a high-rise prison in downtown Chicago by using makeshift ropes to narrow down 17 stories. (Kenneth Conley and Jose Banks were later recaptured.) Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel becomes the first freshman to be named college football player of the year by The Associated Press .
Five years ago: An Amtrak train traveling on a faster route for the first time blew off an overpass south of Seattle, spilling parts of its carriage on the highway below; three people died and dozens were injured. (Investigators found the train traveling at 80 mph in a 30-mph zone.) A fire and power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest, forced 1,500 people to travel just days before the start of the Christmas rush. Multiple flights were canceled; airlines said some grounded passengers would have to wait days for available seats on flights. The No. 8 and No. 24 jerseys retired by the Los Angeles Lakers are the jersey numbers worn by Kobe Bryant, the scoring leader in team history.
One year ago: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says all people reported missing in Kentucky after tornadoes ripped through the state a week ago have been found; more than 90 deaths confirmed in five states, including 81 in Kentucky . Countries across Europe are beginning to reintroduce tougher measures to stem a new wave of COVID-19 infections caused by a highly transmissible omicron variant, with the Netherlands spearheading a nationwide lockdown. Due to the recent proliferation of omicron variants, “Saturday Night Live” aired without a live audience, with a limited cast and crew.
Today’s birthday: Rock musician Keith Richards turns 79. Writer-director Alan Rudolph is 79. Filmmaker and director Steven Spielberg is 76. Blues artist Rod Piazza turns 75. Film director Gillian Armstrong is 72. Film critic Leonard Maldin is 72 years old. Rock musician Elliot Easton is 69. Comedian Ron White is 66. R&B singer Angie Stone is 61. Actor Brad Pitt is 59 years old. Professional wrestler turned actor “Stone Cold” Steve Austin is 58. Actor Sean Christian is 57 years old. Actor Rachel Griffith is 54. Singer Alejandro Sanz is 54. Actor Casper Van Dien is 54 years old. Country/rapper Cowboy Troy is 52 years old. International Tennis Hall of Famer Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is 51 years old. DJ Lethal (Limp Bizkit) is 50 years old. Pop singer Sia is 47 years old. Singer Randy Houser is 46 years old. Actor Josh Dallas is 44 years old. Actor Katie Holmes is 44 years old. Actor Ravi Patel is 44 years old. Singer Christina Aguilera is 42 years old. Actor Ashley Benson is 33 years old. NHL defenseman Victor Hedman is 32 years old. Actor and singer Bridgit Mendler is 30. MLB outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. is 25. Electronic pop singer Billie Eilish is 21 years old. Actor Isabella Crovetti is 18 years old.
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