TODAY INHISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1620

Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present- day Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1864

During the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their “March to the Sea” as they captured Savannah, Georgia.

1913

The first newspaper crossword puzzle, billed as a “Word- Cross Puzzle,” was published in the New York World.

1914

The U. S. government began requiring passport applicants to provide photographs of themselves.

1940

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald died in Hollywood, California, at age 44.

1942

The U. S. Supreme Court, in Williams v. North Carolina, ruled 6- 2that all states had to recognize divorces granted in Nevada.

1945

U. S. Army Gen. George S. Patton, 60, died in Heidelberg, Germany, 12days after being seriously injured in a car accident.

1968

Apollo 8was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.

1969

Vince Lombardi coached his last football game as his team, the Washington Redskins, lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 20- 10.

1988

270people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.

1991

Eleven of the 12former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the death of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

2012

The National Rifle Association said guns and police officers were needed in all American schools to stop the next killer “waiting in the wings,” taking a no- retreat stance in the face of growing calls for gun control after the Newtown, Connecticut, shootings that claimed the lives of 26children and school staff.