Today’s highlight in history
On Dec. 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, conducted the first successful manned powered-airplane flights near Kitty Hawk, N.C., using their experimental craft, the Wright Flyer.
On this date
In 1777, France recognized American independence. In 1925, Col. William “Billy” Mitchell of Milwaukee was convicted at his court-martial in Washington of insubordination for accusing senior military officials of incompetence and criminal negligence; he was suspended from active duty.
In 1944, the U.S. War Department announced it was ending its policy of excluding people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.
In 1969, the U.S. Air Force closed its Project “Blue Book” by concluding there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
In 1969, an estimated 50 million TV viewers watched singer Tiny Tim marry his fiancée, Miss Vicky (Budinger), on NBC’s “Tonight Show.”
In 1975, Lynette Fromme was sentenced in Sacramento, Calif., to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President Gerald R. Ford. (Fromme was paroled in August 2009.)
In 1986, Eugene Hasenfus, the Marinette native convicted by Nicaragua for his part in running guns to the Contras, was pardoned, then released.
Ten years ago: Searchers on Mount Hood in Oregon found the body of missing climber Kelly James. (The bodies of two other climbers, Brian Hall and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, were never found.)
Five years ago: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died after more than a decade of iron rule; he was 69, according to official records, but some reports indicated he was 70.
One year ago: Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged that he sometimes used a personal, unsecured email account to conduct official business after he took office, a practice he called “entirely my mistake.”