ALMANAC

On Dec. 11, 1792,

France’s King Louis XVI went before the Convention to face charges of treason. (Louis was convicted, and executed the following month.)

In1816

Indiana became the 19th state.

In 1917

British Gen. Edmund Allenby entered Jerusalem two days after his forces expelled the Ottoman Turks.

In 1936

Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson; his brother, Prince Albert, became King George VI.

In1937

Italy withdrew from the League of Nations.

In1941

Germany and Italy declared war on the United States; the U.S. responded in kind.

In1972

Apollo 17’s lunar module landed on the moon with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt aboard; they became the last two men to date to step onto the lunar surface.

In 1980

President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating a $1.6 billion environmental “superfund” to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps. “Magnum P.I.,” starring Tom Selleck, premiered on CBS.

In1991

a jury in West Palm Beach, Florida, acquitted William Kennedy Smith of sexual assault and battery, rejecting the allegations of Patricia Bowman.

In1997

more than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth’s greenhouse gases.