On this day, Dec. 9
1911 An explosion inside the Cross Mountain coal mine near Briceville, Tenn., killed 84 workers.
1917 British forces captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks.
1965 “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the first animated TV special featuring characters from the “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, premiered on CBS.
1987 The first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, began as riots broke out in Gaza and spread to the West Bank, triggering a strong Israeli response.
1990 Solidarity founder Lech Walesa won Poland’s presidential runoff by a landslide.
1992 Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple’s divorce became final in August 1996.)
2012 Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera, 43, and six others were killed in a plane crash in northern Mexico.
2013 Scientists revealed that NASA’s Curiosity rover had uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars.
2014 U.S. Senate investigators concluded the United States had brutalized scores of terror suspects with interrogation tactics that turned secret CIA prisons into chambers of suffering and that it did nothing to make Americans safer after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
2020 Commercial flights with Boeing 737 Max jetliners resumed for the first time since they were grounded worldwide nearly two years earlier following two deadly accidents; Brazil’s Gol Airlines became the first in the world to return the planes to its active fleet.
2021 A jury in Chicago convicted former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett on charges he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself and then lied to Chicago police about it.
Today’s birthdays:
Actor Dame Judi Dench, 89. Actor Beau Bridges, 82. Actor Michael Nouri, 78. Former Sen. Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., 76. World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite, 74. Singer Joan Armatrading, 73. Actor Michael Dorn, 71. Actor John Malkovich, 70. Singer Donny Osmond, 66. Comedian Mario Cantone, 64. Actor David Anthony Higgins, 62. Actor Joe Lando, 62. Actor Felicity Huffman, 61. Empress Masako of Japan, 60. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., 57. Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wallflowers), 54. TV personality-businessperson Lori Greiner (TV: “Shark Tank”), 54. Actor Allison Smith, 54. Songwriter and former “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi, 53. Rock musician Tre Cool (Green Day), 51. Rapper Canibus, 49. Actor-writer-director Mark Duplass, 47. Olympic gold and silver medal gymnast McKayla Maroney, 28. Olympic silver medal gymnast MyKayla Skinner, 27.