1928 – Andrew Jackson elected 7th US President.
1834 – First US dental society organized (NY)
1883 – 48th US Congress (1883-85) convenes.
1923 – First Congressional open session broadcast via radio (Washington, D.C.)
1931 – Alka Seltzer goes on sale.
1944 – US 5th Armored division occupies Brandenburg Hurtgenwald.
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 – Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy for saying communists are in the Republican Party.
1967 – 1st human heart transplant performed in South Africa by Dr. Christian Barnard on Louis Washkansky.
1971 – US President Richard Nixon commutes Jimmy Hoffa’s jail term.
1979 – Christies auctions a thimble for a record $18,400.
1982 – 77 degrees F 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 resident Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H.W. Bush, declare the Cold War over.
1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
2007 – Devastating winter storms cause Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, closing 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days, resulting in at least eight deaths and billions of dollars of damage.
2014 – Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, resigns.
2015 – US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announces all combat roles in US armed forces will be open to women.