DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Monday, Dec. 6, the 340th day of 2021. There are 25 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1790: Congress moved to Philadelphia from New York.
1865: The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, was ratified as Georgia became the 27th state to endorse it.
1889: The Mark Twain novel “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” was first published in England under the title “A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur” (it was published in the U.S. under its more familiar name four days later).
1907: The worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurred as 362 men and boys died in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia.
1917: Some 2,000 people were killed when an explosives-laden French cargo ship, the Mont Blanc, collided with the Norwegian vessel Imo at the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, setting off a blast that devastated the Canadian city. Finland declared its independence from Russia.
1922: The Anglo-irish Treaty, which established the Irish Free State, came into force one year to the day after it was signed in London.
1957: America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV3 rose about four feet off a Cape Canaveral launch pad before crashing down and exploding.
1962: 37 coal miners were killed in an explosion at the Robena No. 3 Mine operated by U.S. Steel in Carmichaels, Pennsylvania.
1969: A free concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Alameda County, California, was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a Hell’s Angel.
1973: House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew.
1989: 14 women were shot to death at the University of Montreal’s school of engineering by a man who then took his own life.
1998: In Venezuela, former Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, who had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier, was elected president.
2007: President George W. Bush announced a plan to freeze interest rates on subprime mortgages held by hundreds of thousands of homeowners.
Country singer Helen Cornelius is 80. Actor James Naughton (“Hostages,” “Planet of the Apes”) is 76. Singer Frank Beverly of Maze is 75. Actor
Jobeth Williams is 73. Actor Tom Hulce is 68. Actor Kin Shriner is 68. Talk show host Wil Shriner is 68. Drummer Rick Buckler of The Jam is 66. Singer Tish Hinojosa is 66. Country singer Bill Lloyd of Foster and Lloyd is 66. Comedian Steven Wright is 66. Guitarist Peter Buck of R.E.M. is 65. Drummer
David Lovering of The Pixies is 60. Guitarist Ben Watt of Everything But the Girl is 59. Actor Janine Turner (“Strong Medicine,” “Northern Exposure”) is 59. Director
Judd Apatow (“The 40-Year-old Virgin,” “Knocked Up”) is 54. Keyboardist
Ulf “Buddha” Ekberg of Ace of Base is 51. Actor Lindsay Price (“Splitting Up Together”) is 45. Actor Ashley Madekwe (“Revenge,” “Salem”) is 40.