Also on this date
In 1890,
Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, South Dakota, during a confrontation with Indian police.
In 1944,
the U.S. Senate approved the promotions of Henry H. Arnold, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur and George C. Marshall to the five-star rank of General of the Army and the nominations of William D. Leahy, Ernest J. King and Chester W. Nimitz as Admirals of the Fleet.
In 1965,
two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6A and Gemini 7, maneuvered toward each other while in orbit, at one point coming as close as one foot.
In 1978,
President Jimmy Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year’s Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.
In 1989,
a popular uprising began in Romania that resulted in the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
In 2001,
with a crash and a large dust cloud, a 50-foot tall section of steel — the last standing piece of the World Trade Center’s facade — was brought down in New York.
In 2012,
a day after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, President Barack Obama declared that “every parent in America has a heart heavy with hurt” and said it was time to “take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this.”
In 2016,
a federal jury in Charleston, South Carolina, convicted Dylann Roof of slaughtering nine Black church members who had welcomed him to their Bible study.
In 2013,
Nelson Mandela was laid to rest in his childhood hometown, ending a 10-day mourning period for South Africa’s first Black president.
Ten years ago:
Time magazine named Mark Zuckerberg, the 26year-old co-founder and CEO of Facebook, its Person of the Year.
Five years ago:
In a major policy change, Secretary of State John Kerry accepted Russia’s longstanding demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s future be determined by his own people.
One year ago:
The Hallmark Channel said it would reinstate commercials for a wedding-planning website featuring same-sex couples; the network had pulled the ads following a complaint from a conservative group.