TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6, the 340th day of 2017. There are 25 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY: On this date in 1917, some 2,000 people were killed when an explosivesladen French cargo ship, the Mont Blanc, collided with the Norwegian vessel Imo at the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, setting off a blast that devastated the Canadian city.
In 1790, Congress moved to Philadelphia from New York.
In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, was ratified as Georgia became the 27th state to endorse it.
In 1907, the worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurred as 362 men and boys died in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, W.Va.
In 1922, the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which established the Irish Free State, came into force one year to the day after it was signed in London.
In 1942, comedian Fred Allen premiered “Allen’s Alley,” a recurring sketch on his CBS radio show spoofing small-town America.
In 1947, Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Harry S. Truman.
In 1957, America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV3 rose about four feet off a Cape Canaveral launch pad before crashing down and exploding. In 1967, three days after the first human heart transplant took place in South Africa, a surgical team at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., led by Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz, transplanted the heart of a brain-dead two-day-old baby boy into an 19-day-old infant who died six hours later.
In 1982, 11 soldiers and six civilians were killed when an Irish National Liberation Army bomb exploded at a pub in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland.
In 1989, 14 women were shot to death at the University of Montreal’s school of engineering by a man who then took his own life.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Comedy performer David Ossman is 81. Country singer Helen Cornelius is 76. Rhythmand-blues singer Frankie Beverly (Maze) is 71. Actress JoBeth Williams is 69. Actors Tom Hulce, Wil Shriner and Kin Shriner are 64. Rock musician Rick Buckler (The Jam), comedian Steven Wright, country singer Bill Lloyd and singer Tish Hinojosa are 62. Rock musician Peter Buck (R.E.M.) is 61. Rock musician David Lovering (Pixies) is 56. Actress Janine Turner and rock musician Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl) are 55. Writer-director Judd Apatow is 50. Writer-director Craig Brewer is 46. Actress Nora Kirkpatrick is 33. Tennis player CoCo Vandeweghe is 26. NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel is 25.