SUNDAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, Dec. 14, the 348th day of 2014. There are 17 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On Dec. 14, 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.

On this date:

In 1799, the first president of the United States, George Washington, died at his Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67.

In 1819, Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.

In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team became the first men to reach the South Pole.

In1939, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.

In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N.’s headquarters in New York.

In1962, the U.S. spaceprobe Mariner 2 passed Venus at a distance of just over 21,000 miles, transmitting information about the planet.

In 1981, Israel annexed the Golan Heights, which it had seized from Syria in 1967.

In 2012, a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then committed suicide as police arrived.

Ten years ago: The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the fifth time since June 2004.

Five years ago: President Obama implored top bankers to help keep the fragile recovery from faltering by boosting lending to small businesses and getting behind an overhaul of financial regulation.

One year ago: Bells tolled 26 times in Newtown, Connecticut, to honor the dead on the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook school massacre.