 | Friday, December 22nd The 356th day of 2006. There are 9 days left in the year. |
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Today's Highlights in History | |||
 See a larger version of this front page. | On Dec. 22, 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln from Georgia, saying, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."
(Go to article.)
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 | On December 22, 1906, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about Secretary of State Elihu Root. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.) | ||
On this date in: |
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| 1775 | A Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies. |
| 1807 | Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe. |
| 1894 | French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. He was eventually vindicated. |
| 1941 | British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. |
| 1944 | During the Battle of the Bulge, Germany demanded the surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium; Brigadier Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replied: ''Nuts!'' |
| 1984 | New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him. |
| 1989 | Playwright Samuel Beckett died in Paris at age 83. |
| 1989 | Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe's hard-line Communist rulers, was toppled from power in a popular uprising. |
| 1990 | Lech Walesa took the oath of office as Poland's first popularly elected president. |
| 1991 | The body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found dumped along a highway in Lebanon. |
| 2000 | Pop singer Madonna and film director Guy Ritchie were married in Scotland. |
| 2001 | Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers. |
| 2002 | Rock musician Joe Strummer (The Clash) died at age 50. |
| 2005 | New York transit workers ended their three-day strike without a new contract. |
| 2005 | Astronomers announced the discovery of two more rings encircling the planet Uranus. |
| Current Birthdays |
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| Diane Sawyer turns 61 years old today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AP Photo/Tina Fineberg Broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer (''Good Morning America'') turns 61
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Historic Birthdays |
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| Dame Peggy Ashcroft | |
12/22/1907 - 6/14/1991 English actress (Go to obit.) |
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James Oglethorpe 12/22/1696 - 6/30/1785 English founder of the British colony of Georgia |
| 91 |
Jean Henri Fabre 12/22/1823 - 10/11/1915 French entomologist |
| 87 |
Thomas Higginson 12/22/1823 - 5/9/1911 American abolitionist |
| 80 |
Frank Kellogg 12/22/1856 - 12/21/1937 American secretary of state |
| 65 |
Giacomo Puccini 12/22/1858 - 11/29/1924 Italian composer |
| 67 |
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti 12/22/1876 - 12/2/1944 Italian-born French novelist, poet, and dramatist; founded Futurist artistic movement |
| 82 |
Giacomo Manzu 12/22/1908 - 1/17/1991 Italian sculptor |
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SOURCE: The Associated Press
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