Chicago Daily Tribune

ON DECEMBER 15 ...

In 1791 the Bill of Rights went into effect following ratification by Virginia.

In 1890 Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, South Dakota, during a fracas with Indian police.

In 1916 the French defeated the Germans in the World War I Battle of Verdun.

In 1939 the motion picture “Gone With the Wind” had its world premiere in Atlanta.

In 1966 movie producer Walt Disney died in Los Angeles; he was 65.

In 1989 a popular uprising began that resulted in the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

In 2001 the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy, was reopened to the public after a $27 million realignment that had dragged on for more than a decade.

In 2005 millions of Iraqis turned out to choose a parliament in a mostly peaceful election.

In 2013 about 4,500 mourners attended the funeral of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela, who was buried in Qunu, his rural home village in Eastern Cape province.

In 2015 Chicago firefighter Daniel Capuano, 42, died while fighting a fire at a South Side warehouse; the 15-year veteran was survived by his wife and three children. Also in 2016 Wheaton College students protested after officials at the evangelical Christian school placed a tenured professor on administrative leave after she donned a traditional headscarf to show solidarity with Muslims and posted on Facebook that “we worship the same God.”