TODAY IN HISTORY

On Dec. 14, 2012, a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle killed 20 firstgraders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, then committed suicide as police arrived; the 20year-old had also fatally shot his mother at their home before carrying out the attack on the school.

Also on this date

In 1799,

the first president of the United States, George Washington, died at his Mount Vernon, Virginia, home at age 67.

In 1911,

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first men to reach the South Pole, beating out a British expedition led by Robert F. Scott.

In 1916,

President Woodrow Wilson vetoed an immigration measure aimed at preventing “undesirables” and anyone born in the “Asiatic Barred Zone” from entering the U.S. (Congress overrode Wilson’s veto in February 1917.)

In 1964,

the U.S. Supreme Court, in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, ruled that Congress was within its authority to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against racial discrimination by private businesses (in this case, a motel that refused to cater to Black people).

In 1981,

Israel annexed the Golan Heights, which it had seized from Syria in 1967.

In 1988,

President Ronald Reagan authorized the U.S. to enter into a “substantive dialogue” with the Palestine Liberation Organization, after chairman Yasser Arafat said he was renouncing “all forms of terrorism.”

In 2006,

a British police inquiry concluded that the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, in a 1997 Paris car crash were a “tragic accident,” and that allegations of a murder conspiracy were unfounded.

In 2016,

Yahoo said it believed hackers had stolen data from more than one billion user accounts in August 2013 (in October 2017, Yahoo raised that figure to 3 billion).

Ten years ago:

The White House insisted the implementation of President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law would not be affected by a negative federal court ruling, and the Justice Department said it would appeal.

Five years ago:

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that Pete Rose, serving a lifetime ban for betting on baseball, would continue to be banned from working in the sport.

One year ago:

The bat that Babe Ruth used to hit his 500th home run was sold at auction for more than $1 million.

REUTERS Police personnel lead children from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 kids, on Dec. 14, 2012.