Chicago Daily Tribune
ON DECEMBER 20 ...
In 1790 the first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, R.I.
In 1803 the Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans.
In 1860 South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.
In1864 Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Ga ., as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his “March to the Sea.”
In 1946 the Frank Capra film “It’s A Wonderful Life” had a preview showing for charity at New York City’s Globe Theatre, a day before its official world premiere.
In 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.
In 1971 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was sworn in as president of Pakistan, returning that nation to civilian rule for the first time since 1958.
In 1976 Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley died of a heart attack in his doctor’s office; hewas 74.
In 1987 more than 3,000 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island.
In 1989 the United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.
In 1993 real estate developer Donald Trump married Marla Maple sin a brief ceremony in the grand ballroom of Trump’s Plaza Hotel in New York. ( The couple later divorced.)
In 1995 an American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, slammed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard. Also in 1995, in Bosnia- Herzegovina, NATO began its peacekeeping mission, taking over from the United Nations.
In 1998 Nkem Chukwu gave birth in Houston to five girls and two boys, 12 days after giving birth to another child, a girl. (However, the tiniest of the octuplets died a week later.)
In 1999 the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples.
In 2001 Argentine President Fernando de la Rua resigned, hours after his economy minister, following two days of anti-government unrest that left about two dozen people dead and more than 200 injured.
In 2002 Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks. Also in 2002 the nation’s 10 biggest brokerages agreed to pay $1.44 billion and fundamentally change the way they did business to settle allegations they had misled investors by hyping certain companies’ stocks.
In 2005 a federal judge ruled “intelligent design” could not be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district.
In 2014 a gunman killed two New York City police officers in what officials called an “assassination” before turning the gun on himself.
In 2015 at least 91 people were killed or went missing and 33 buildings were buried after a massive landslide of construction waste swept through an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
In 2016 The U.S. Census Bureau released data showing that Illinois lost more residents— 37,508 — in 2016 than any other state, putting the state’s population at its lowest in at least a decade.