TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Thursday, Dec. 1, the 336th day of 2016. There are 30 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History On Dec. 1, 1941, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito approved waging war against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands after his government rejected U.S. demands contained in the Hull Note. British-born journalist and broadcaster Alistair Cooke became a naturalized American citizen.
On this date
• In 1824, the presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a deadlock developed between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. (Adams ended up the winner.)
• In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sent his Second Annual Message to Congress, in which he called for the abolition of slavery, and went on to say, “Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves.”
• In 1866, Welsh surveyor Sir George Everest (EEV’-rihst), 79, whose name had been conferred upon the mountain in Nepal by the Royal Geographical Society over his objections, died in London.
• In 1921, the Navy flew the first non-rigid dirigible to use helium; the C-7 traveled from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to Washington, D.C.
In 1934, Soviet communist official Sergei M. Kirov, an associate of Josef Stalin, was assassinated in Leningrad, resulting in a massive purge.
• In 1942, nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect in the United States.
• In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus; the incident sparked a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks.
• In 1965, an airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland.
• In 1969, the U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.
• In 1973, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, died in Tel Aviv at age 87.
• In 1989, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.
• In 1990, British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel between their countries finally met after knocking out a passage in a service tunnel.
Ten years ago Felipe Calderon (fay-LEE’-pay kahl-duh-ROHN’) took the oath of office as Mexico’s president amid catcalls and brawling lawmakers, a chaotic start to a term in which he pledged to heal a country divided by his narrow victory. Officials reported that Typhoon Durian had killed as many as 200 people when it tore through the eastern Philippines (the storm was eventually blamed for some 1,400 deaths).