Today in history

On Dec. 17, 1967, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, 59, disappeared while swimming in the ocean off Cheviot Beach in Victoria state; despite an extensive search, his body was never found (Holt was succeeded as premier by John McEwen).

In 1777, France recognized American independence.

In 1865, Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, known as the “Unfinished” because only two movements had been completed, was first performed publicly in Vienna 37 years after the composer’s death.

In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, conducted the first successful manned powered-airplane flights near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, using their experimental craft, the Wright Flyer.

In 1944, the U.S. War Department announced it was ending its policy of excluding people of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.

In 1957, the United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in separate ceremonies. (After approval by the legislative bodies of the leaders’ respective countries, the treaty came into force on Jan. 1, 1994.)

In 2011, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il died after more than a decade of iron rule; he was 69, according to official records, but some reports indicated he was 70.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush, addressing a Rotary Club meeting, tried to reassure an edgy public that the economy was “pretty good” despite the mix of a failing housing market, a national credit crunch and surging energy costs. Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a measure making New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty in more than

40 years. NBC announced that Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien were planning to return to their late-night shows in early

2008, even as a writers’ strike continued.

Five years ago: Newtown, Connecticut, began laying its dead to rest, holding funerals for two 6-year-old boys, the first of the 20 children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. A pair of NASA spacecraft, named Ebb and Flow, were deliberately crashed into a mountain near the moon’s north pole, ending a mission that peered into the lunar interior. Longtime U.S. senator and World War II hero Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, died in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 88.

One year ago: Three-yearold Acen King was fatally shot in a road-rage incident in Little Rock while riding in a car with his grandmother; a suspect faces a first-degree murder charge.