TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, Dec. 16, the 350th day of 2018. There are 15 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Dec. 16, 1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise attack against Allied forces through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg (the Allies were eventually able to turn the Germans back).

On this date:

■ In 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest tea taxes.

■ In 1905, the entertainment trade publication Variety came out with its first weekly issue.

■ In 1950, President Harry S. Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight “world conquest by Communist imperialism.”

■ In 1960, 134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City.

■ In 1976, the government halted its swine flu vaccination program following reports of paralysis apparently linked to the vaccine.

■ In 1980, Harland Sanders, founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain, died in Shelbyville, Kentucky, at age 90.

Thought for Today: “There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.”—Helen Keller, American author and lecturer (1880-1968).