Today in history
Today is Tuesday, Dec. 13, the 348th day of 2016. There are 18 days left in the year.
On this date in the SCV: In 1940, The Signal reported that the alertness of the sheriff and highway forces and their efficient radio communication system was given credit for the capture of two tough young bandits who slugged and robbed a San Fernando citizen, stole his new Oldsmobile sedan and fled north on U.S. 99. Luck also entered into the picture, for the bandits picked up two hitchhiking soldiers who compelled them to let them out of the car at Castaic, from where they called Sub Station 6 and gave officers information. A little while later CHP officers Meyers and Moore nabbed the fugitives on the Ridge Route and hauled them back to Newhall, where Chief of Police Mueller of San Fernando was plenty glad to see them.
Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 13, 1981, authorities in Poland imposed martial law in a crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. (Martial law formally ended in 1983.)
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush held highlevel talks at the Pentagon, after which he said he would “not be rushed” into a decision on a strategy change for Iraq.
Five years ago: Early sound recordings by Alexander Graham Bell that were packed away at the Smithsonian Institution for more than a century were played publicly for the first time using new technology that read the sound with light and a 3D camera. (In one recording, a man recites part of Hamlet’s Soliloquy; on another, a voice recites the numbers 1 through 6.) In the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, ex-assistant coach Jerry Sandusky waived a preliminary hearing on the charges, which he denied. (Sandusky was later convicted of abusing several boys, some on campus.) In Liege, Belgium, six people were killed when a 33-yearold man threw grenades and fired on a crowd of people in the city’s main square before committing suicide. In Florence, Italy, a man opened fire in an outdoor market, killing two vendors from Senegal, then critically wounding three other Senegalese immigrants before killing himself.
One year ago: Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front collapsed in French regional elections, failing to take a single region after dominating the first round of voting. A bomb in a market killed at least 22 Shiites in Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region. Pope Francis called on humanity not to let sadness prevail because of the many forms of violence afflicting the world.
On this date: In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sighted present-day New Zealand. In 1769, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire received its charter.