HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY

Today’s highlight:

On Dec. 16, 1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise attack against Allied forces through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg.

On this date:

1773: The Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest tea taxes.

1905: The entertainment trade publication Variety came out with its first weekly issue.

1950: President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight “world conquest by Communist imperialism.”

1960: One hundred thirtyfour people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City.

1976: The government halted its swine flu vaccination program following reports of paralysis apparently linked to the vaccine.

1980: Harland Sanders, founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain, died at age 90.

1982: Environmental Protection Agency head Anne M. Gorsuch became the first Cabinet-level officer to be cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to submit documents requested by a congressional committee.

1985: At services in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, offered condolences to families of 248 soldiers killed in a plane crash in Newfoundland.

1991: The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.

2012: President Barack Obama visited Newtown, Connecticut, the scene of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre; after meeting privately with victims’ families, the president told an evening vigil he would use “whatever power” he had to prevent future shootings.