Today in history

On Dec. 14, 1503, astrologer and physician Nostradamus was born in Saint-Remy, France.

In 1799 the first president of the States, George Washington, died at Vernon, Va., home; he was 67.

In 1819 Alabama 22nd state.

joined

the

Union

In 1861 Prince Albert, husband of Victoria, died in London; he was 42.

United his Mt.

as

the Queen

In 1936 the comedy “You Can’t Take It With You” by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart opened on Broadway.

In 1939 the Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.

In 1962 the U.S. space probe Mariner 2 approached Venus, transmitting information about the planet.

In 1981 Israel annexed the Golan Heights, which it had seized from Syria in 1967. In 1985 Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

In 1986 the experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, nonrefueled flight around the world.

In 1989 Nobel Peace laureate Andrei Sakharov died in Moscow; he was 68.

In 1993 a Colorado judge struck down as unconstitutional the state’s voter-approved ban on gay rights laws.

In 1995 Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia signed the Bosnian peace treaty in Paris.

In 2003 a weary, disheveled Saddam Hussein was displayed on television screens worldwide, a day after his capture by U.S. troops.