TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Dec. 28, 1981

Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American “test-tube” baby, was born in Norfolk, Virginia.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1612

Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei observed the planet Neptune, but mistook it for a star.

1694

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

1832

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

1846

Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1908

A major earthquake followed by a tsunami devastated the Italian city of Messina, killing at least 70,000 people.

1945

Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.

1973

The book “Gulag Archipelago,” Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s expose of the Soviet prison system, was first published in Paris.

1987

The bodies of 14 relatives of Ronald Gene Simmons were found at his home near Dover, Arkansas, after Simmons shot and killed two other people in Russellville.

2008

A bomb-loaded SUV exploded at a military checkpoint in Afghanistan, claiming the lives of 14 school children in a heartbreaking flash captured by a U.S. security camera. The Detroit Lions completed an 0-16 season _ the NFL’s worst ever _ with a 31-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

2013

Iraqi troops detained a Sunni lawmaker, Ahmed al-Alwani, a prominent organizer of Sunni protests in Anbar, on terrorism charges for inciting violence against Shiites. Film, television and stage actor Joseph Ruskin, 89, died in Los Angeles.