DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Tuesday, Dec. 28, the 362nd day of 2021. There are three days left in the year.
On this date in:
1612: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei observed the planet Neptune, but mistook it for a star. (Neptune wasn’t officially discovered until 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle.)
1832: John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down because of differences with President Andrew Jackson.
1895: The Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, held the first public showing of their movies in Paris.
1908: A major earthquake followed by a tsunami devastated the Italian city of Messina, killing at least 70,000 people.
1945: Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.
1972: Kim Il Sung, the premier of North Korea, was named the country’s president under a new constitution.
1973: The Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon.
1975: The “Hail Mary pass” entered the football lexicon as Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach tossed the ball to Drew Pearson for an improbable 50yard touchdown with 24 seconds left to help the Cowboys come back to edge the Minnesota Vikings 17-14.
1981: Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American “test-tube” baby, was born in Norfolk, Virginia.
1991: Nine people died in a crush of people trying to get into a rap celebrity basketball game at City College in New York.
2007: Pakistani opposition leader
Benazir Bhutto was laid to rest as the country’s army tried to quell a frenzy of rioting in the wake of her assassination.
2014: The war in Afghanistan, fought for 13 bloody years and still raging, came to a formal end with a quiet flag-lowering ceremony in Kabul that marked the transition of the fighting from U.s.-led combat troops to the country’s own security forces.
2015: A grand jury in Cleveland declined to indict a white rookie police officer in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, a Black youngster who was shot while playing with what turned out to be a pellet gun.
Five years ago: Film star Debbie Reynolds, who lit up the screen in “Singin’ in the Rain” and other Hollywood classics, died at age 84 a day after losing her daughter, Carrie Fisher, who was 60.
Actor Maggie Smith (“Harry Potter”) is 87. Actor Denzel Washington is 67.
TV personality Gayle King (“CBS This Morning”) is 67. Political commentator Ana Navarro (“The View”) is 50. Comedian Seth Meyers (“Late Night With Seth Meyers”) is 48. Actor Brendan Hines (“Suits,” “Lie To Me”) is 45. Actor Joe Manganiello (“True Blood”) is 45. Actor Vanessa Ferlito (“NCIS: New Orleans”) is 44. Singer John Legend is 43. Actor Andre Holland (“Selma”) is 42. Actor Sienna Miller is 40. Actor Beau Garrett (“The Good Doctor”) is 39. Actor Thomas Dekker (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” “Heroes”) is 34. Actor Mackenzie Rosman (“7th Heaven”) is 32.