ON DECEMBER 29 ...

In 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in England.

In 1800 Charles Goodyear, inventor of the vulcanization process that made possible the commercial use of rubber, was born in New Haven, Conn.

In 1808 the 17th U.S. president, Andrew Johnson, was born in Raleigh, N.C.

In 1845 Texas was admitted as the 28th state.

In 1851 the first American Young Men’s Christian Association was organized, in

In 1890 the Wounded Knee massacre took place in South Dakota as about 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them.

In 1936 actress Mary Tyler Moore was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In 1940, during World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

In 1967 Hyundai Motor Co. was founded in Seoul, South Korea.

In 1975 a bomb exploded in the main terminal of New

York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people.

In 1989 playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country’s Federal Assembly, becoming the first nonCommunist to attain the post in more than four decades.

In 1992 a St. Charles couple, David and Sharon Schoo, were arrested at O’Hare airport after returning from a nine-day Acapulco vacation and charged with leaving their two young daughters at home alone. (The girls later were adopted by another couple.)

In 1996 war-weary guerrilla and government leaders in Guatemala signed an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict.

In 1998 Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.

In 2004 President George W. Bush assembled a fournation coalition to organize humanitarian relief for Asia and said the U.S. would help bankroll long-term rebuilding in the region leveled by a massive earthquake and tsunamis. Also in 2004 militants launched coordinated car bombings and battle security forces in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; at least 10 militants were killed in the attack.

In 2014 the Chicago Bears fired general manager Phil Emery and head coach Marc Trestman after a 5-11 season.