This Day in History

In Alaska

• Photos

• In 1919, the trading store of the Sons of Norway in Petersburg was destroyed by fire.

• In 1939, every house in Barrow was quarantined due to a measles epidemic.

• In 1939, the population of Juneau was reported at 5,748. (In 1930, it was 4,043.)

• In 1939, 15 cows arrived in Anchorage by air. They were the first of 45 cows being brought in by the Matanuska Valley Cooperative Association.

• In 1944, the first serious wreck on the Alaska Railroad occurred 45 miles from Fairbanks and sent 11 to the hospital.

In the nation

• In 1775, a Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies.

• In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

• In 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with President Franklin Roosevelt.

• In 1944, during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replied "Nuts!" when the Germans demanded that the Americans surrender.

• In 1963, an official 30-day mourning period following the assassination of President Kennedy came to an end.

• In 1984, New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him.

• In 1993, singer Michael Jackson, fighting back against child molestation allegations, issued a video statement in which he said he was "totally innocent of any wrongdoing."

• In 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.

In the world

• In 1894, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. (Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.)

• In 1989, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe's hard-line Communist rulers, was toppled from power in a popular uprising.

• In 1991, the body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was found dumped along a highway in Lebanon.

• In 1998, a third Chinese dissident (Qin Yongmin) was sentenced to prison for trying to organize an opposition party. (Qin remains in prison.)