TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2018 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

1872 - The Mary Celeste is found abandoned, with its cargo intact, but no sign of its crew or passengers.

1791 - Britain’s Observer newspaper was first published.

1953 - Oil is discovered in Exmouth Gulf off the coast of Western Australia.

1977 - Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Empire, crowned himself emperor in a ceremony believed to have cost more than $100 million. He was deposed 2 years later.

1979 - For the second time, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to urge Iran to free American hostages that had been taken on November 4.

1984 - A five-day hijack drama began as four men seized a Kuwaiti airliner en route to Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran. Two American passengers were killed by the hijackers.

1987 - Cuban inmates at a federal prison in Atlanta freed their 89 hostages, peacefully ending an 11-day uprising.

1988 - The government of Argentina announced that hundreds of heavily armed soldiers had ended a four-day military revolt.

1990 - Iraq promised to release 3300 Soviet citizens it was holding.

1991 - Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson was released after nearly seven years in captivity in Lebanon.

1991 - Pan American World Airways ceased operations.

1993 - The Angolan government and its UNITA guerrilla foes formally adopted terms for a truce. The conflict was killing an estimated 1000 people per day.

1994 - Bosnian Serbs released 53 out of about 400 UN peacekeepers they were holding as insurance against further NATO airstrikes.