DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Wednesday, Dec. 22, the 356th day of 2021. There are nine days left in the year.
On this date in:
1894: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-semitism. (Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.)
1937: The first center tube of the Lincoln Tunnel connecting New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River was opened to traffic. (The second tube opened in 1945, the third in 1957.)
1941: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1944: During the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C. Mcauliffe rejected a German demand for surrender, writing “Nuts!” in his official reply.
1984: New York City resident Bernhard Goetzshot and wounded four youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him.
1989: Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe’s hard-line Communist rulers, was toppled from power in a popular uprising.
1990: Lech Walesa took the oath of office as Poland’s first popularly elected president.
1991: The body of Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage slain by his terrorist captors, was recovered after it had been dumped along a highway in Lebanon.
1992: A Libyan Boeing 727 jetliner crashed after a midair collision with a MIG fighter, killing all 157 aboard the jetliner, and both crew members of the fighter jet.
2001: Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers. (Reid is serving a life sentence in federal prison.)
2003: A federal judge ruled the Pentagon couldn’t enforce mandatory anthrax vaccinations for military personnel.
2008: Five Muslim immigrants accused of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were convicted of conspiracy in Camden, New Jersey. (Four were later sentenced to life in prison; one received a 33-year sentence.)
2010: President Barack Obama signed a law allowing gays for the first time in history to serve openly in America’s military, repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Actor Hector Elizondo is 85. Country singer and actor Red Steagall is 83. TV anchor Diane Sawyer is 76. Guitarist
Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick is 73. Actor
Bernnadette Stanis (“Good Times”) is 68. Rapper Luther Campbell (2 Live Crew) is 61. Guitarist Chuck Mead (BR549) is 61. Actor
Ralph Fiennes is 59. Actor Lauralee Bell (“The Young and the Restless”) is 53. Country singer Lori Mckenna is 53. Actor
Heather Donahue (“The Blair Witch Project”) is 48. Actor Chris Carmack (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “The O.C.”) is 41. Actor Harry Ford (“Code Black”) is 39. Actor Greg Finley (TV’S “The Flash”) is 37. Singer Jordin Sparks (“American Idol”) is 32. Singer Meghan Trainor is 28.