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.
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 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, Ala., city bus; the incident sparked a yearlong 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.
Ten years ago: 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.)
Five years ago: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi during a visit to Myanmar.
One year ago: President Barack Obama told a U.N. climate conference that parts of the global warming deal being negotiated in Paris should be legally binding on the countries that signed on, setting up a potential fight with Republicans at home.