DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Saturday, Dec. 4, the 338th day of 2021. There are 27 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1783: Gen. George Washington bade farewell to his Continental Army officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
1918: President Woodrow Wilson left Washington on a trip to France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference.
1942: During World War II, U.S. bombers struck the Italian mainland for the first time with a raid on Naples. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression.
1954: The first Burger King stand was opened in Miami by James Mclamore and David Edgerton.
1965: The United States launched
Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Cmdr. James A. Lovell aboard on a two-week mission. (While Gemini 7 was in orbit, its sister ship, Gemini 6A, was launched on Dec. 15 on a one-day mission; the two spacecraft were able to rendezvous within a foot of each other.)
1967: Actor-comedian Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in “The Wizard of Oz,” died in New York at age 72.
1978: San Francisco got its first female mayor as City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein was named to replace the assassinated George Moscone.
1980: The bodies of four American churchwomen slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. (Five Salvadoran national guardsmen were later convicted of murdering nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel, and lay worker Jean Donovan.)
1986: Both houses of Congress moved to establish special committees to conduct their own investigations of the Iran-contra affair.
1992: President George H.W. Bush ordered American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia, threatening military action against warlords and gangs who were blocking food for starving millions.
2000: In a pair of legal setbacks for Al Gore, a Florida state judge refused to overturn George W. Bush’s certified victory in Florida and the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a ruling that had allowed manual recounts.
2018: Long lines of people wound through the Capitol Rotunda to view the casket of former President George H.W. Bush; former Sen. Bob Dole steadied himself out of his wheelchair to salute his old friend and one-time rival.
Game show host Wink Martindale is 88. Actor-producer-director Max Baer Jr. (“The Beverly Hillbillies”) is 84. Bassist Bob Mosley of Moby Grape is 79. Singer-bassist Chris Hillman (The Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers) is 77. Singer Southside Johnny Lyon of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes is 73. Actor Jeff Bridges is 72. Guitarist Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rossington Collins Band) is 70. Actor Patricia Wettig is 70. Drummer Brian Prout of Diamond Rio is 66. Actor Marisa Tomei is 57. Rapper Jay-z is 52. Actor Kevin Sussman (“Ugly Betty”) is 51. Model Tyra Banks is 48. Actor Lindsay Felton (“Caitlin’s Way”) is 37. Actor Orlando Brown (“That’s So Raven”) is 34.