DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Saturday, Dec. 18, the 352nd day of 2021. There are 13 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1787: New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1865: The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect by Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1892: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker” publicly premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia; although now considered a classic, it received a generally negative reception from critics.
1917: Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” and sent it to the states for ratification.
1940: Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (Operation Barbarossa was launched in June 1941.)
1944: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the government’s wartime evacuation of people of Japanese descent from the West Coast while at the same time ruling that “concededly loyal” Americans of Japanese ancestry could not continue to be detained.
1956: Japan was admitted to the United Nations.
1957: The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States, went on line. (It was taken out of service in 1982.)
1958: The world’s first communications satellite, SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment), nicknamed “Chatterbox,” was launched by the United States aboard an Atlas rocket.
2000: The Electoral College cast its ballots, with President-elect George W. Bush receiving the expected 271; Al Gore, however, received 266, one fewer than expected, because of a District of Columbia Democrat who’d left her ballot blank to protest the district’s lack of representation in Congress.
2003: Two federal appeals courts ruled the U.S. military could not indefinitely hold prisoners without access to lawyers or American courts.
2019: The U.S. House impeached President Donald Trump on two charges, sending his case to the Senate for trial; the articles of impeachment accused him of abusing the power of the presidency to investigate rival Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election and then obstructing Congress’ investigation. (The trial would end in acquittal by the Senate.)
Guitarist Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones is 78. Director Steven Spielberg is 75. Movie critic Leonard Maltin is 71. Guitarist Elliot Easton of The Cars is 68. Actor Ray Liotta is 67. Comedian
Ron White is 65. Actor
Brad Pitt is 58. Wrestleractor Stone Cold Steve Austin is 57. Actor
Shawn Christian (“Days of Our Lives”) is 56. Actor
Rachel Griffiths (“Brothers and Sisters,” “Six Feet Under”) is 53. Singer Alejandro Sanz is 53. Country singer Cowboy Troy is 51. DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit is 49. Singer Sia is 46. Country singer Randy Houser is 45. Actor Josh Dallas (“Once Upon a Time”) is 43. Actor Katie Holmes (“Dawson’s Creek”) is 43. Singer Christina Aguilera is 41. Singer Billie
Eilish is 20.