TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Dec. 14, 2020

The Electoral College decisively confirmed Joe Biden as the nation’s next president, ratifying his November victory in a stateby-state repudiation of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede he had lost; electors gave Biden 306 votes to Trump’s 232.

ON THIS DATE 1964

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, ruled that Congress was within its authority to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against racial discrimination by private businesses (in this case, a motel that refused to cater to Blacks).

2012

A gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown then took his own life as police arrived; the 20-year-old had also fatally shot his mother at their home before carrying out the attack on the school.