TODAY IN HISTORY

1791: The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, went into effect following ratification by Virginia.

1890: Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, S.D., during a confrontation with Indian police. 1944: A single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, a major in the U.S. Army Air Forces, disappeared over the English Channel

while en route to Paris. 1961: Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death by an Israeli court for crimes against humanity. (Eichmann was hanged 5½ months later.)

1966: Movie producer Walt Disney died in Los Angeles at age 65. 1967: The Silver Bridge between Gallipolis, Ohio, and Point Pleasant, W.Va., collapsed into the Ohio River, killing 46 people.

1971: The Secret Service appointed its first five female special agents. 1974: The horror spoof “Young Frankenstein,” starring Gene Wilder and directed by Mel Brooks, was released by 20th Century Fox.

1978: President Jimmy Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year’s Day and sever official relations with Taiwan. 1989: A popular uprising began in Romania that resulted in the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

2000: The long-troubled Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine was closed for good.

2001: With a crash and a large dust cloud, a 50foot tall section of steel: the last standing piece of the World Trade Center’s facade: was brought down in New York.

2013: Nelson Mandela was laid to rest in his childhood hometown, ending a 10-day mourning period for South Africa’s first black president.

2009: World leaders formally opened a U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen. The Washington, D.C., City Council voted to legalize same-sex marriage. Boeing’s new 787 “Dreamliner” jet went on its long-delayed first test flight, lifting off from Paine Field in Everett, Wash. Evangelist Oral Roberts died in Newport Beach, Calif., at age 91.

2014: A 16-hour hostage siege began in Sydney, Australia, as an Iranian-born self-styled Muslim cleric took 17 hostages at a cafe; police ended up storming the cafe, resulting in the deaths of the gunman and two of his captives.

2018: President Donald Trump said Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke would be leaving the administration at year’s end; Zinke was facing federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest. Fearing that the incoming administration of Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro could restrict same-sex marriage, about 40 gay couples were married in downtown Sao Paulo.