TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT Dec. 4, 1942

During World War II, U.S. bombers struck the Italian mainland for the first time with a raid on Naples. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1619

A group of settlers from Bristol, England, arrived at Berkeley Hundred in presentday Charles City County, Virginia, where they held a service thanking God for their safe arrival.

1783

Gen. George Washington bade farewell to his Continental Army officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.

1918

President Woodrow Wilson left Washington on a trip to France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference.

1945

The Senate approved U.S. participation in the United Nations by a vote of 65-7.

1956

Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins gathered for the first and only time for a jam session at Sun Records in Memphis.

1965

The United States launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Cmdr. James A. Lovell aboard on a two-week mission.

1967

Actor-comedian Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in “The Wizard of Oz,” died in New York at age 72.