TODAY IN HISTORY: A Visit from St. Nicholas

In 1823, the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” more commonly known as “The Night Before Christmas,” by Clement C. Moore was published anonymously in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel.

In 1893, the Engelbert Humperdinck opera “Haensel und Gretel” was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.

In 1900, “One Two Three Four — is it snowing where you are Mr. Thiessen? If it is, telegraph back to me.” Canadian Reginald Fessenden spoke these first words ever transmitted by radio from a site on Cobb Island in the middle of the Potomac River near Washington. A kilometre away, Mr. Thiessen, his assistant, quickly reported by Morse code that it was snowing, and he could hear Fessenden’s voice.

In 1918 Pte. Thomas Ricketts of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment became the youngest soldier ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery in battle. The 17-year-old was decorated for running through enemy fire to get vital ammunition during the Allied advance through Belgium during the recently-ended First World War.

In 1948, former Japanese dictator Hideki Tojo and six colleagues were hanged for war crimes.

In 1962, The Beach Boys guiding force, Brian Wilson, had a nervous breakdown aboard a plane en route to a concert in Texas.

In 1970, Canadian folksinger Joni Mitchell was awarded her first gold record for the album “Ladies of the Canyon,” which included “Big Yellow Taxi.”

In 1981, 16-year-old Barbara Stoppel was murdered in the Winnipeg doughnut shop where she worked. Thomas Sophonow was tried three times, and convicted twice, before being cleared of the stillunsolved killing.

In 1985, two teenage fans of “Judas Priest,” after listening to the band’s “Stained Class” album for six hours, took a shotgun to a churchyard in Sparks, Nev., and shot themselves. Raymond Belknap died immediately and the other youth, James Vance, was wounded. Vance died Nov., 29, 1988, after lapsing into a coma while in hospital for treatment of depression. A drug overdose was blamed. The estate and parents of the young men filed suit against “Judas Priest,” seeking $6.2 million in damages. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 1990, ruling there were no subliminal messages on the “Judas Priest” album, as the plaintiffs had claimed.

In 1990, the Slovenian republic voted to separate from Yugoslavia.

In 1997 Terry Nichols was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 in which 168 people were killed. He was later sentenced to life in prison.

In 2000, actor/comedian Billy Barty died at age 76.

In 2003, a jury in Chesapeake, Va., sentenced Washington-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo to life in prison, sparing the teenager the death penalty.

In 2008, 2,100 support workers at Canada Post, members of PSAC, accepted a deal ending a more than month-long strike.

In 2014, after eight days of deliberations, a jury found Luka Rocco Magnotta guilty of first-degree murder and four other counts in the 2012 killing and dismemberment of Chinese engineering student Jun Lin. Magnotta was also found guilty of criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament, mailing obscene and indecent material, committing an indignity to a body, and publishing obscene materials. (In February 2015, Magnotta formally withdrew the appeal of his conviction.)