TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, DEC. 4, the 338th day of 2019. There are 27 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1978, San Francisco got its first female mayor as City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein was named to replace the assassinated George Moscone.
In 1783, Gen. George Washington bade farewell to his Continental Army officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
In 1867, the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, also known as The Grange, was founded in Washington, D.C., to promote the interests of farmers.
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson left Washington on a trip to France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference.
In 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.
In 1954, the first Burger King stand was opened in Miami by James McLamore and David Edgerton.
In 1980, the bodies of four American churchwomen slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. (Five Salvadoran national guardsmen were later convicted of murdering nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel, and lay worker Jean Donovan.)
In 1986, both houses of Congress moved to establish special committees to conduct their own investigations of the Iran-Contra affair.
In 1995, the first NATO troops landed in the Balkans to begin setting up a peace mission that brought American soldiers into the middle of the Bosnian conflict.
In 1996, the Mars Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral and began speeding toward the red planet on a 310 million-mile odyssey. (It arrived on Mars in July 1997.)
In 2000, in a pair of legal setbacks for Al Gore, a Florida state judge refused to overturn George W. Bush’s certified victory in Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a ruling that had allowed manual recounts.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actress Gemma Jones and rock musician Bob Mosley (Moby Grape) are 77. Musician Terry Woods (The Pogues) is 72. Rock singer Southside Johnny Lyon is 71. Actor Jeff Bridges is 70. Rock musician Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd; the Rossington Collins Band) and actress Patricia Wettig are 68. Actor Tony Todd is 65. Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson and country musician Brian Prout (Diamond Rio) are 64. Rock musician Bob Griffin (formerly with The BoDeans) is 60. Rock singer Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge) is 57. Actresses Marisa Tomei and Chelsea Noble are 55. Actor-comedian Fred Armisen is 53. Rapper Jay-Z is 50. Actor Kevin Sussman is 49. Actress-model Tyra Banks is 46. Country singer Lila McCann is 38. Actress Lindsay Felton is 35.