Today in history

On Dec. 23, 1783,

George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Va.

In 1788

Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government; about twothirds of the area became the District of Columbia.

In 1805

Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was born in Sharon, Vt.

In 1823

the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Moore was published in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel.

In 1867

businesswoman and philanthropist Sarah Breedlove Walker, considered to be the first black female millionaire, was born near Delta, La.

In 1893

the Engelbert Humperdinck opera “Haensel und Gretel” was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.

In 1928

the National Broadcasting Co. set up a permanent, coast-to-coast network.

In 1941

during World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.

In 1948

former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.

In 1968

82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.

In 1972

the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second touchdown catch by Franco Harris that was dubbed the “immaculate reception.”

In 1986

the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first nonstop, non-refueled, round-theworld flight as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

In 1987

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. (She was recaptured two days later.)

In 1989

ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were captured while trying to flee the country.

In 1994

Bosnian Serbs and the Muslim-led government agreed to a weeklong truce beginning the next day as they worked on details of a 4-month cease-fire.

In 1995

a fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children’s school. Also in 1995 the charred bodies of 16 members of a doomsday cult, the Order of the Solar Temple, were found outside Grenoble, France. (The same cult lost 53 members in 1994 in ritual killings in Switzerland and Canada.)

In 1997

a jury in Denver convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, declining to find him guilty of murder.

In 1998

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat freed Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin from house arrest, a move denounced by Israel.

In 2001

Israel barred Yasser Arafat from making his annual Christmas Eve visit to Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. Also in 2001 Time magazine named New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani its person of the year.