Today in history

On Dec. 9, 1608, poet John Milton was born in London.

In 1854 Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” was published in England.

In 1912 future House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill was born in Cambridge, Mass.

In 1940 British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.

In 1941 China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.

In 1942 the Aram Khachaturian ballet “Gayane,” featuring the surging “Saber Dance,” was first performed by the Kirov Ballet.

In 1958 the anti-Communist John Birch Society was formed in Indianapolis.

In 1965

Nikolai Podgorny replaced Anastas Mikoyan as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

In 1975 President Gerald Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.

In 1992 Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation.

In 1993 the Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.

In 2000 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt in the Florida vote count on which Al Gore pinned his best hopes of winning the White House.

In 2002 United Airlines filed the biggest bankruptcy in aviation history after losing $4 billion in the previous two years. In 2003 the owners of a Rhode Island nightclub and the tour manager for the rock band Great White were indicted on charges related to a fire the previous February that killed 100 people.

In 2004 Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was constitutional.

In 2008 Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on allegations of widespread political corruption.

In 2012 Latin singer and reality star Jenni Rivera died in a plane crash that killed six others in northern Mexico; she was 43.

In 2014 the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the results of its investigation into CIA interrogations of terror suspects, including the extensive use of torture, in the years following the attacks of 9⁄11.