TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, DEC. 10, the 344th day of 2018. There are 21 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, saying he accepted it “with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.”
In 1817, Mississippi was admitted as the 20th state of the Union.
In 1869, women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory.
In 1898, a treaty was signed in Paris officially ending the Spanish-American War.
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to mediate an end to the RussoJapanese War.
In 1931, Jane Addams became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; the co-recipient was Nicholas Murray Butler.
In 1967, singer Otis Redding, 26, and six others were killed when their plane crashed into Wisconsin’s Lake Monona; one passenger, Ben Cauley, survived.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev concluded three days of summit talks in Washington. Violinist Jascha Heifetz died in Los Angeles at age 86.
In 1994, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize, pledging to pursue their mission of healing the anguished Middle East. In 1995, the first group of U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in former Yugoslavia.
In 1996, South African President Nelson
Mandela signed the country’s new constitution into law during a ceremony in Sharpeville.
In 2005, former Senator Eugene McCarthy died in Washington, D.C., at age 89; actor-comedian Richard Pryor died in Encino, Calif., at age 65.
In 2007, suspended NFL star Michael Vick was sentenced by a federal judge in Richmond, Va., to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed. Vick served 19 months at Leavenworth. Former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis and stop waging war on the environment.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Tommy Kirk, actress Fionnula Flanagan, pop singer Chad Stuart (Chad and Jeremy) and rhythm-and-blues singer Ralph Tavares are 77. Actress-singer Gloria Loring and pop-funk musician Walter “Clyde” Orange (The Commodores) are 72. Country singer Johnny Rodriguez is 67. Actress Susan Dey is 66. Jazz musician Paul Hardcastle is 61. Actor John York (TV: “General Hospital”) is 60. Actor-director Kenneth Branagh is 58. Actress Nia Peeples is 57. TV chef Bobby Flay is 54. Rock singer-musician J Mascis is 53. Rock musician Scot Alexander (Dishwalla) is 47. Actresscomedian Arden Myrin is 45. Rock musician Meg White (The White Stripes) is 44. Actress Emmanuelle Chriqui is 43. Actor Gavin Houston is 41. Actor Alano Miller is 39. Violinist Sarah Chang is 38. Rock musician Noah Harmon (Airborne Toxic Event) is 37. Actor Patrick John Flueger is 35. Country singer Meghan Linsey and actress Raven-Symone are 33.