Today in history

On Dec. 28, 1612, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei observed the planet Neptune, but mistook it for a star. (Neptune wasn’t officially discovered until 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle.)

In 1694 Queen Mary II of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.

In 1832 John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Andrew Jackson.

In 1856 Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, was born Thomas Woodrow Wilson in Staunton, Va.

In 1897 the play “Cyrano de Bergerac,” by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris.

In 1917 the New York Evening Mail published a facetious — as well as fictitious — essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America.

In 1932 novelist Manuel Puig was born in General Villegas, Argentina.

In 1937 composer Maurice Ravel died in Paris; he was 62.

In 1944 the musical “On the Town” opened on Broadway.

In 1945 Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.

In 1981 Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.

In 1982 Nevell Johnson Jr., a black man, was mortally wounded by a police officer in a Miami video arcade, setting off three days of race-related disturbances that left another man dead.

In 1983 Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson drowned in Marina del Rey, Calif.; he was 39.