Today’s highlight in history

Today is Saturday, Dec. 12, the 347th day of 2020.

On Dec. 12, 2000, George W.

Bush became president-elect as a divided U.S. Supreme

Court reversed a state court decision for recounts in

Florida’s contested election.

On this date

In 1870,

In 1913,

In 1917,

In 1974,

In 1977,

In 1985,

Joseph H. Rainey of

South Carolina became the first Black lawmaker sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives. authorities in Florence, Italy, announced that the “Mona Lisa,” stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911, had been recovered. during World War I, a train carrying some 1,000

French troops from the Italian front derailed while descending a steep hill in Modane; at least half of the soldiers were killed in France’s greatest rail disaster.

“The Godfather, Part

II” premiered in New York.

“Saturday Night

Fever,” starring John Travolta, premiered in New York. 248 American soldiers and eight crew members were killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed after takeoff from

Gander, Newfoundland.

In 1995,

In 2000,

In 2018, by three votes, the

Senate killed a constitutional amendment giving Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of desecration against Old Glory. the Marine Corps grounded all eight of its hightech MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft following a fiery crash in North Carolina that killed four Marines. (The Osprey program was revived in 2005.)

Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for President

Donald Trump, was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal Trump’s alleged sexual