TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Dec. 27, 1979

Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1831

Naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a round-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

1904

James Barrie’s play “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” opened at the Duke of York’s Theater in London.

1945

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were formally established.

1947

The original version of the puppet character Howdy Doody made his TV debut on NBC’s “Puppet Playhouse.”

1949

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed an act recognizing Indonesia’s sovereignty after more than three centuries of Dutch rule.

1968

Apollo 8 and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific.

1970

The musical play “Hello, Dolly!” closed on Broadway after a run of 2,844 performances.

1981

Composer and bandleader Hoagy Carmichael died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 82.

1985

Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; 19 victims were killed, plus four attackers who were slain by police and security personnel. American naturalist Dian Fossey, 53, who had studied gorillas in the wild in Rwanda, was found hacked to death.

1995

Israeli jeeps sped out of the West Bank town of Ramallah, capping a seven-week pullout giving Yasser Arafat control over 90 percent of the West Bank’s one million Palestinian residents and one-third of its land.