December 14
1799 - George Washington, the first president of the United States, died at age 67 at his Mount Vernon, Virginia home.
1819 - Alabama became the 22nd state.
1861 - Prince Albert, husband of Britain's Queen Victoria, died in London at age 42.
1911 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating an expedition being led by Robert F. Scott.
1939 - The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
1946 - The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City.
1964 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, ruled that Congress was within its authority to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against racial discrimination by private businesses (in this case, a motel that refused to cater to Blacks).
1967 - DNA is synthesized for the first time.
1981 - Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights.
1985 - Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
1993 - A Colorado judge struck down as unconstitutional the state's voter-approved ban on gay rights laws.
2000 - The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.
2005 - President George W. Bush defended his decision to wage the Iraq war, even as he acknowledged that “much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong.”
2006 - South Korea's Ban Ki-moon was sworn in as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations.
2008 - An Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad; Bush was not hit.
2012 - Adam Lanza, age 20, forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 26 people. The victims included 20 children between the ages of six and seven.
2016 - Yahoo said it believed hackers had stolen data from more than one billion user accounts in Aug. 2013 (in Oct. 2017, Yahoo raised that figure to 3 billion).
2020 - The Electoral College decisively confirmed Joe Biden as the nation's next president, ratifying his November victory in a state-by-state repudiation of President Donald Trump's refusal to concede he had lost; electors gave Biden 306 votes to Trump's 232; a divided Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump's lawsuit seeking to overturn his loss in the battleground state about an hour before the Electoral College cast Wisconsin's 10 votes for Biden.
Birthdays
27 - Mariam Musa (reality star)
29 - Tori Kelly (singer)
33 - Vanessa Hudgens (actress)
42 - Sophie Monk (actress)
45 - Tammy Blanchard (actress)
46 - KaDee Strickland (actress)
49 - Miranda Hart (actress/comedian)
50 - Michaela Watkins (actress/comedian)
52 - Natascha McElhone (actress)
52 - Archie Kao (actor)
56 - Nancy Valen (actress)
58 - Cynthia Gibb (actress)
65 - T.K. Carter (actor/comedian)
73 - Dee Wallace (actor)
75 - Jane Birkin (actress/singer)
87 - Hal Williams (actor)
90 - Abbe Lane (actress/singer)
=============================================
Today in Sports History - December 14
1915 - Jack Johnson became the first black world heavyweight boxing champion.
1947 - The Cleveland Browns defeat the New York Yankees in the AAFC Championship Game.
1952 - The Brooklyn Dodgers signed pitcher Sandy Koufax.
1982 - Marcel Dionne (Los Angeles Kings) scored his 500th goal.
1984 - Howard Cosell retired from the NFL's Monday Night Football.
1985 - Former New York Yankees outfielder Roger Maris, who’d hit 61 home runs during the 1961 season, died in Houston at age 51.
1986 - Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins) set an NFL record with his seventh 400-yard passing game.
1988 - After having started the season at 0-17, the Miami Heat won their first game in franchise history, beating the Los Angeles Clippers 89-88.
1991 - Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard wins the Heisman Trophy.
1992 - Lennox Lewis is awarded the WBC heavyweight championship after Riddick Bowe refuses to fight him.
1996 - Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel wins the Heisman Trophy.
1997 - Mike Gartner (Phoenix Coyotes) became only the fifth player in NHL history to score 700 career goals. The other 700 goal scorers were Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito and Marcel Dionne.
1997 - Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) ran for more than 100 yards for his 13th consecutive game.
1998 - Jerry Rice (San Francisco 49ers) caught a pass in a game against the Detroit Lions. It was his 191st consecutive game with a reception.
1998 - Texas running back Ricky Williams wins the Heisman Trophy.
2009 - Alabama running back Mark Ingram wins the Heisman Trophy.
2019 - LSU quarterback Joe Burrow wins the Heisman Trophy and receives the highest-percentage of first-place votes (90.7%) in the award's history.
2020 - The owner of the Cleveland Indians said the team would drop the name it had used since 1915; he said it was "no longer acceptable in our world." (The team would still be known as the Indians in 2021, with the new name, the "Guardians" taking effect after that season.)
1799 - George Washington, the first president of the United States, died at age 67 at his Mount Vernon, Virginia home.
1819 - Alabama became the 22nd state.
1861 - Prince Albert, husband of Britain's Queen Victoria, died in London at age 42.
1911 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating an expedition being led by Robert F. Scott.
1939 - The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
1946 - The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City.
1964 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, ruled that Congress was within its authority to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against racial discrimination by private businesses (in this case, a motel that refused to cater to Blacks).
1967 - DNA is synthesized for the first time.
1981 - Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights.
1985 - Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
1993 - A Colorado judge struck down as unconstitutional the state's voter-approved ban on gay rights laws.
2000 - The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.
2005 - President George W. Bush defended his decision to wage the Iraq war, even as he acknowledged that “much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong.”
2006 - South Korea's Ban Ki-moon was sworn in as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations.
2008 - An Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad; Bush was not hit.
2012 - Adam Lanza, age 20, forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 26 people. The victims included 20 children between the ages of six and seven.
2016 - Yahoo said it believed hackers had stolen data from more than one billion user accounts in Aug. 2013 (in Oct. 2017, Yahoo raised that figure to 3 billion).
2020 - The Electoral College decisively confirmed Joe Biden as the nation's next president, ratifying his November victory in a state-by-state repudiation of President Donald Trump's refusal to concede he had lost; electors gave Biden 306 votes to Trump's 232; a divided Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump's lawsuit seeking to overturn his loss in the battleground state about an hour before the Electoral College cast Wisconsin's 10 votes for Biden.
Birthdays
27 - Mariam Musa (reality star)
29 - Tori Kelly (singer)
33 - Vanessa Hudgens (actress)
42 - Sophie Monk (actress)
45 - Tammy Blanchard (actress)
46 - KaDee Strickland (actress)
49 - Miranda Hart (actress/comedian)
50 - Michaela Watkins (actress/comedian)
52 - Natascha McElhone (actress)
52 - Archie Kao (actor)
56 - Nancy Valen (actress)
58 - Cynthia Gibb (actress)
65 - T.K. Carter (actor/comedian)
73 - Dee Wallace (actor)
75 - Jane Birkin (actress/singer)
87 - Hal Williams (actor)
90 - Abbe Lane (actress/singer)
=============================================
Today in Sports History - December 14
1915 - Jack Johnson became the first black world heavyweight boxing champion.
1947 - The Cleveland Browns defeat the New York Yankees in the AAFC Championship Game.
1952 - The Brooklyn Dodgers signed pitcher Sandy Koufax.
1982 - Marcel Dionne (Los Angeles Kings) scored his 500th goal.
1984 - Howard Cosell retired from the NFL's Monday Night Football.
1985 - Former New York Yankees outfielder Roger Maris, who’d hit 61 home runs during the 1961 season, died in Houston at age 51.
1986 - Dan Marino (Miami Dolphins) set an NFL record with his seventh 400-yard passing game.
1988 - After having started the season at 0-17, the Miami Heat won their first game in franchise history, beating the Los Angeles Clippers 89-88.
1991 - Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard wins the Heisman Trophy.
1992 - Lennox Lewis is awarded the WBC heavyweight championship after Riddick Bowe refuses to fight him.
1996 - Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel wins the Heisman Trophy.
1997 - Mike Gartner (Phoenix Coyotes) became only the fifth player in NHL history to score 700 career goals. The other 700 goal scorers were Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito and Marcel Dionne.
1997 - Barry Sanders (Detroit Lions) ran for more than 100 yards for his 13th consecutive game.
1998 - Jerry Rice (San Francisco 49ers) caught a pass in a game against the Detroit Lions. It was his 191st consecutive game with a reception.
1998 - Texas running back Ricky Williams wins the Heisman Trophy.
2009 - Alabama running back Mark Ingram wins the Heisman Trophy.
2019 - LSU quarterback Joe Burrow wins the Heisman Trophy and receives the highest-percentage of first-place votes (90.7%) in the award's history.
2020 - The owner of the Cleveland Indians said the team would drop the name it had used since 1915; he said it was "no longer acceptable in our world." (The team would still be known as the Indians in 2021, with the new name, the "Guardians" taking effect after that season.)
