TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 19.

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT

On Dec. 19, 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to camp for the winter.

ON THIS DATE

In 1813, British forces captured Fort Niagara during the War of 1812.

In 1843, “A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens, was first published in England.

In 1907, 239 workers died in a coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.

In 1932, the British Broadcasting Corp. began transmitting overseas with its Empire Service to Australia.

In 1946, war broke out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks against the French.

In 1957, Meredith Willson’s musical play “The Music Man” opened on Broadway.

In 1961, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., 73, suffered a debilitating stroke while in Palm Beach, Florida.

In 1974, Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States in the U.S. Senate chamber by Chief Justice Warren Burger with President Gerald R. Ford looking on.

In 1975, John Paul Stevens was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1997, a SilkAir Boeing 737300 plunged from the sky, crashing into an Indonesian river and killing all 104 people aboard. James Cameron’s epic film “Titanic” opened in U.S. theaters.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached by the Republican-controlled House for perjury and obstruction of justice (he was subsequently acquitted by the Senate).

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush signed legislation increasing fuelefficiency standards for vehicles and requiring wider use of ethanol. An explosion and fire at a chemical plant in Jacksonville, Florida, killed four workers. Rescuers found Frederick Dominguez and his three children, who had been lost in the mountains for three days during a snowstorm, alive in a northern California ravine.

Five years ago: Four State Department officials resigned under pressure, less than a day after a damning report blamed management failures for a lack of security at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, where militants killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Park Geun-hye, daughter of late South Korean President Park Chung-hee, was elected the country’s first female president. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was voted Associated Press coach of the year. Legal scholar and onetime Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork died in Arlington, Virginia, at age 85. One year ago: A Turkish policeman fatally shot Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov at a photo exhibit in Ankara. (The assailant was later killed in a police shootout.) A truck rammed into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people in an attack claimed by Islamic State (the suspected attacker was killed in a police shootout four days later).

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.” — From “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens (1812-1870) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS