December 12
Today in America's Present Past
1745 | SCOTUS: Chief Justice John Jay was born.
1787 | Statehood: Pennsylvania granted statehood.
1805 | Entrepreneur Henry Wells was born.
1862 | Civil War: The Battle of Dumfries, Virginia
1874 | POTUS: Republican President Grant hosts the first monarch to visit the U.S., Hawaiian King David Kalakaua.
1881 | Entrepreneur Harry Warner was born.
1882 | Abolitionist and lawyer Robert Morris died.
1899 | George F Bryant patented the wooden golf tee.
1906 | Civil Rights: Oscar Straus became the first Jewish US cabinet member, appointed by Republican President Roosevelt.
1915 | Entertainer Frank Sinatra was born.
1922 | WWII Aviation Ace Arthur R. Hawkins was born.
1922 | Entrepreneur John Wanamaker died.
1923 | Entertainer Bob Barker was born.
1937 | Japanese aircraft shell and sink US gunboat Panay on Yangtze River in China.
1939 | Actor Douglas Fairbanks died.
1940 | Entertainer Dionne Warwick was born.
1946 | John D. Rockefeller Jr. gifts the U.N. six Manhattan blocks as a gift for its headquarters.
1953 | Aviator Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A plane.
1963 | Frank Sinatra, Jr. returned by kidnappers after paid a $240,000 ransom demanded.
1966 | Film: “A Man for All Seasons” debuted.
1972 | Film: “The Poseidon Adventure” debuted.
1977 | Film: “Saturday Night Fever” debuted.
1988 | Film: “Rainman” debuted.
1999 | Novelist Joseph Heller died.
2000 | SCOTUS: In the matter of Bush v Gore, the Court concluded in favor of Bush.
2008 | Actor Charles Van Johnson died.