TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS TUESDAY, DEC. 11, the 345th day of 2018. There are 20 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1972, Apollo 17’s lunar module landed on the moon with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt aboard; they became the last two men to date to step onto the lunar surface.
In 1792, France’s King Louis XVI went before the Convention to face charges of treason. (Louis was convicted and executed the following month.) In 1816, Indiana became the 19th state. In 1910, French inventor Georges Claude publicly displayed his first neon lamp, consisting of two 38-foot-long tubes, at the Paris Expo.
In 1917, British Gen. Edmund Allenby entered Jerusalem two days after his forces expelled the Ottoman Turks.
In 1936, Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson; his brother, Prince Albert, became King George VI.
In 1937, Italy withdrew from the League of Nations.
In 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States; the U.S. responded in kind.
In 1961, a U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon — the first direct American military support for South Vietnam’s battle against Communist guerrillas.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating a $1.6 billion environmental “superfund” to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps. “Magnum P.I.,” starring Tom Selleck, premiered on CBS.
In 1991, a jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., acquitted William Kennedy Smith of sexual assault and battery, rejecting the allegations of Patricia Bowman.
In 1997, more than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth’s greenhouse gases.
In 2001, in the first criminal indictment stemming from 9/11, federal prosecutors charged Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, with conspiring to murder thousands in the suicide hijackings. (Moussaoui pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2005 and was sentenced to life in prison.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Jean-Louis Trintignant is 88. Actress Rita Moreno is 87. Pop singer David Gates (Bread) and actress Donna Mills are 78. Former Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is 77. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is 75. Singer Brenda Lee and actress Lynda Day George are 74. Music producer Tony Brown is 72. Actress Teri Garr is 71. Movie director Susan Seidelman is 67. Actress Bess Armstrong is 65. Singer Jermaine Jackson is 64. Rock musician Mike Mesaros (The Smithereens) is 61. Rock musician Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) is 60. Rock musician Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones) is 57. Actor Ben Browder is 56. Singer-musician Justin Currie (Del Amitri) and rock musician David Schools (Hard Working Americans, Gov’t Mule, Widespread Panic) are 54. Actor Gary Dourdan is 52. Actress-comedian Mo’Nique is 51. Actor Max Martini is 49. Rapper-actor Mos Def is 45. Actor Rider Strong is 39. Actress Xosha Roquemore is 34. Actress Karla Souza is 32. Actress Hailee Steinfeld is 22.