1775 – First official US flag raised (Grand Union Flag) aboard naval vessel USS Alfred.
1835 – First US mutual fire insurance company issues first policy (Rhode Island)
1883 – 48th US Congress (1883-85) convenes.
1911 – Willis Carrier presents his influential “Rational Psychometric Formulae” on air conditioning to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
1923 – First Congressional open session broadcast via radio (Washington, D.C.)
1931 – Alka Seltzer goes on sale.
1946 – US government asks UN to order dictator Francisco Franco out of Spain.
1947 – Tennessee Williams’ “Streetcar Named Desire” premieres in NYC.
1948 – 1st US woman army officer not in medical corps sworn in.
1950 – Paul Harvey begins his national radio broadcast.
1953 – President Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy for saying communists are in the Republican Party.
1961 – George Blanda of Houston Oilers kicks 55-yard field goal.
1967 – Final run of “20th Century Limited” famed NY-Chicago luxury train.
1971 – US President Richard Nixon commutes Jimmy Hoffa’s jail term.
1982 – 77 degrees, highest December temperature ever recorded in Cleveland, Ohio.
1988 – NY Lotto pays $45 million to twelve winners (#s are 1-8-13-18-28-48)
1989 – Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H.W. Bush, declare the Cold War over.
1999 – Worcester cold storage and warehouse fire in Worcester, Massachusetts claims lives of 6 firefighters.
2015 – US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announces all combat roles in US armed forces will be opened to women.
2016 – US army decides it will not allow an oil pipeline to be built in North Dakota, after months of protests by The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
2017 – First pizza party in space held by astronauts of the International Space Station.
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