Today In History
Today is Saturday, Dec. 23, the 357th day of 2023. There are eight days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Dec. 23, 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.
ON THIS DATE
› 1783: George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
› 1788: Maryland passed an act to cede an area “not exceeding 10 miles square” for the seat of the national government; about two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
› 1823: The poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” was published in the Troy (New York) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” was later attributed to Clement C. Moore.
› 1913: The Federal Reserve System was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act.
› 1954: The first successful human kidney transplant took place at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston as a surgical team removed a kidney from 23-yearold Ronald Herrick and implanted it in Herrick’s twin brother, Richard.
› 1968: Eighty-two crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
› 1972: A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Nicaragua; the disaster claimed some 5,000 lives.
› 1986: The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first nonstop, nonrefueled round-the-world flight as it returned safely to Edwards Air Force Base in California.
› 1997: A federal jury in Denver convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, declining to find him guilty of murder. (Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)
› 2003: A jury in Chesapeake, Virginia, sentenced teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo to life in prison, sparing him the death penalty.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Actor Ronnie Schell is
92. Former Emperor Akihito of Japan is 90. Rock musician Jorma Kaukonen is 83. Actor-comedian Harry Shearer is 80. U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark (ret.) is 79. Actor Susan Lucci is 77. Singer-musician Adrian Belew is 74. Rock musician Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) is
67. Actor Joan Severance is 65. Singer Terry Weeks is 60. Rock singer Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) is 59. The former first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is 56. Rock musician Jamie Murphy is 48. Jazz musician Irvin Mayfield is 46. Actor Estella Warren is 45. Actor Elvy Yost is 36. Actor Anna Maria Perez de Tagle is 33. Actor Spencer Daniels is 31. Actor Caleb Foote is 30.