TODAY IN HISTORY
the TODAY366th and IS final SATURDAY,day of 2016. DEC. 31, TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1946, President Harry S Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II. In 1775, during the Revolutionary War, the British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery was killed. In 1879, Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric incandescent light in Menlo Park, N.J. In 1904, New York’s Times Square saw its first New Year’s Eve celebration, with an estimated 200,000 people in attendance. In 1951, the Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.
In 1969, Joseph A. Yablonski, an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America, was shot to death with his wife and daughter in their Clarksville, Pa., home by hit men acting at the orders of UMWA president Tony Boyle.
In 1972, Major League baseball player Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when a plane he was traveling on to bring relief supplies to earthquakedevastated Nicaragua crashed shortly after takeoff from Puerto Rico.
In 1978, Taiwanese diplomats struck their colors for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, D.C., marking the end of diplomatic relations with the United States.
In 1985, singer Rick Nelson, 45, and six other people were killed when fire broke out aboard a DC-3 that was taking the group to a New Year’s Eve performance in Dallas.
In 1986, 97 people were killed when fire broke out in the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Three hotel workers later pleaded guilty in connection with the blaze.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: TV producer George Schlatter is 87. Actor Sir Anthony Hopkins is 79. Actor Tim Considine (TV: “My Three Sons”) is 76. Actress Sarah Miles is 75. Rock musician Andy Summers is 74. Actor Sir Ben Kingsley is 73. Producerdirector Taylor Hackford is 72. Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg is 70. Actor Tim Matheson and pop singer Burton Cummings are 69. Actress Bebe Neuwirth is 58. Actor Val Kilmer and singer Paul Westerberg are 57. Actor Don Diamont and rock musician Ric Ivanisevich (Oleander) are 54. Olympic gold medal gymnast Gabby Douglas is 21.