ON DEC. 17 ...
In 1777, France recognized American independence.
In 1830 South American patriot Simon Bolivar died near Santa Marta, Colombia; he was 47.
In 1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, went on the first successful manned powered-airplane flights, near Kitty Hawk, N.C., using their experimental craft, the Wright Flyer. Also in 1903 novelist Erskine Caldwell (“Tobacco Road,” “God’s Little Acre”) was born in Coweta County, Ga.
In 1936 Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Flores, Buenos Aires in Argentina.
In 1944 the U.S. Army announced it was ending its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.
In 1957 the United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
In 1975 Lynette Fromme was sentenced in federal court in Sacramento to life in prison for trying to assassinate President Gerald Ford.
In 1979, in a case that aggravated racial tensions, Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, was fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami. (Four white police officers later were acquitted of charges stemming from McDuffie’s death.)
In 1981 members of the Red Brigades kidnapped Brig. Gen. James Dozier, the highest-ranking U.S. Army official in southern Europe, from his home in Verona, Italy. (Dozier was rescued 42 days later.)
In 1992 President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in separate ceremonies.
In 1994 North Korea shot down a U.S. Army helicopter which had strayed north of the demilitarized zone — the co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer David Hilemon, was killed; the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall, was captured and held for nearly two weeks.
In 1995 angry voters handed Russian President Boris Yeltsin a stinging rebuff as Communists and right-wing nationalists scored big wins in parliamentary elections on a platform of rolling back democratic reforms.
In 1999 President Bill Clinton signed a law letting millions of disabled Americans retain their government-funded health coverage when they take a job. Also in 1999 the U.N. Security Council ended a yearlong deadlock and voted to send weapons inspectors back to Iraq and consider suspending sanctions if Baghdad cooperated.
In 2000 President-elect George W. Bush named Stanford professor Condoleezza Rice his national security adviser and Texas Supreme Court Justice Alberto Gonzales to be White House counsel.
In 2003 former Illinois Gov. George Ryan was indicted on corruption charges in the federal Operation Safe Road investigation of his years as secretary of state. Also in 2003 the British government announced the first reported case of a person dying from the human form of mad cow disease after a blood transfusion from an infected donor.
In 2004 President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence-gathering in 50 years.
In 2011
Kim Jong Il, who ruled as leader of North Korea since 1994, died of a heart attack; he was 69.
In 2013
Alan Frazier, 51, a former vasectomy patient at the Urology Nevada medical group in Reno, used a 12-gauge shotgun to kill one doctor, wound another doctor and a patient before shooting himself to death. Also in 2013 Dr. Janet Rowley, a pioneer in cancer analysis whose breakthrough discoveries earned her the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the top U.S. honor for civilians, died in Chicago; she was 88.
In 2014 President Barack Obama announced plans to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and broaden business ties following the swap of several jailed spies and Cuba’s release of an American contractor. Also in 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment canceled the wide Christmas Day release of the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy “The Interview,” about an assassination attempt on the leader of North Korea, following threats of violence to moviegoers from anonymous hackers who had broken into the company’s computer systems.
In 2015 disbarred former Illinois attorney Donnie Rudd was arrested in Sugar Land, Texas, on charges he killed his wife, 19-year-old Noreen Kumeta Rudd, in 1973 in Barrington Hills; the woman was thought to have died in a car crash but authorities said her husband staged the accident.