On this day, Dec. 23

1783 George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Va.

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.

1941 During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.

1948 Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.

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-year-old Ronald Herrick and implanted it in Herrick’s twin brother, Richard.

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, non-refueled 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.)

2016 The United States allowed the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation” of international law; the decision to abstain from the council’s 14-0 vote was one of the biggest American rebukes of its longstanding ally in recent memory.

2022 Winter weather blanketed the U.S. as a massive storm sent temperatures crashing and created whiteout conditions. More than 200 million people — about 60% of the U.S. population — were under some form of weather advisory or warning.

Today’s birthdays: Actor Ronnie Schell, 92. Former Emperor Akihito, of Japan, 90. Actor-comedian Harry Shearer, 80. U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark (ret.), 79. Actor Susan Lucci, 77. Actor Joan Severance, 65. Singer Terry Weeks, 60. Rock singer Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), 59. The former first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, 56. Actor Estella Warren, 45. Actor Elvy Yost, 36. Actor Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, 33. Actor Spencer Daniels, 31. Actor Caleb Foote, 30.