http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Dec 10, 1898: Treaty of Paris ends Spanish-American War
In France, the Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire.
The Spanish-American War had its origins in the rebellion against Spanish rule that began in Cuba in 1895. The repressive measures that Spain took to suppress the guerrilla war, such as herding Cuba's rural population into disease-ridden garrison towns, were graphically portrayed in U.S. newspapers and enflamed public opinion. In January 1898, violence in Havana led U.S. authorities to order the battleship USS Maine to the city's port to protect American citizens. On February 15, a massive explosion of unknown origin sank the Maine in Havana harbor, killing 260 of the 400 American crewmembers aboard. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March, without much evidence, that the ship was blown up by a mine, but it did not directly place the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible, however, and called for a declaration of war.
In April, the U.S. Congress prepared for war, adopting joint congressional resolutions demanding a Spanish withdrawal from Cuba and authorizing President William McKinley to use force. On April 23, President McKinley asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain. The next day, Spain issued a declaration of war. The United States declared war on April 25. On May 1, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet at Manila Bay in the first battle of the Spanish-American War. Dewey's decisive victory cleared the way for the U.S. occupation of Manila in August and the eventual transfer of the Philippines from Spanish to American control.
On the other side of the world, a Spanish fleet docked in Cuba's Santiago harbor in May after racing across the Atlantic from Spain. A superior U.S. naval force arrived soon after and blockaded the harbor entrance. In June, the U.S. Army Fifth Corps landed in Cuba with the aim of marching to Santiago and launching a coordinated land and sea assault on the Spanish stronghold. Included among the U.S. ground troops were the Theodore Roosevelt-led "Rough Riders," a collection of western cowboys and eastern blue bloods officially known as the First U.S. Voluntary Cavalry. On July 1, the Americans won the Battle of San Juan Hill, and the next day they began a siege of Santiago. On July 3, the Spanish fleet was destroyed off Santiago by U.S. warships under Admiral William Sampson, and on July 17 the Spanish surrendered the city--and thus Cuba--to the Americans. In Puerto Rico, Spanish forces likewise crumbled in the face of superior U.S. forces, and on August 12 an armistice was signed between Spain and the United States, ending the brief and one-sided conflict.
On December 10, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Spanish-American War. The once-proud Spanish empire was virtually dissolved as the United States took over much of Spain's overseas holdings. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States, the Philippines were bought for $20 million, and Cuba became a U.S. protectorate. Philippine insurgents who fought against Spanish rule during the war immediately turned their guns against the new occupiers, and 10 times more U.S. troops died suppressing the Philippines than in defeating Spain.
Dec 10, 1920: Wilson awarded Nobel Peace Prize
On this day in 1920, the Nobel Prize for Peace is awarded to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson for his work in ending the First World War and creating the League of Nations. Although Wilson could not attend the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, the U.S. Ambassador to Norway, Albert Schmedeman, delivered a telegram from Wilson to the Nobel Committee.
Wilson's involvement in devising a plan to prevent future international conflict began in January 1918 when he laid out his "Fourteen Points." The plan addressed specific territorial issues in Europe, equal trade conditions, arms reduction and national sovereignty for former colonies of Europe's weakening empires, but the primary thrust of his policy was to create an international organization that would arbitrate peaceful solutions to conflicts between nations. Wilson's Fourteen Points not only laid the foundation for the peace agreement signed by France, Britain and Germany at the end of World War I, but also formed the basis for American foreign policy in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Although the League of Nations never materialized, largely due to the fact that it was never ratified by the U.S. Congress, it formed the blueprint for the United Nations, which was established after the Second World War.
When Wilson learned of his win, he was a lame-duck president battling the residual effects of a paralyzing stroke he suffered in October 1919; he was therefore unable to accept his award in person. (The stroke occurred in the midst of an arduous cross-country tour to ask the American electorate to pressure a reluctant Congress to ratify the Versailles peace treaty and the League of Nations.) In his telegram to the Nobel Committee, Wilson said he was grateful and "moved" by the recognition of his work for the cause of peace but emphasized the need for further efforts to "rid [mankind] of the unspeakable horror of war." Wilson did not live to see the United Nations take shape in place of his League of Nations. He died at age 68 in February 1924.
Dec 10, 1778: John Jay is elected president of the Continental Congress
On this day in 1778, John Jay, the former chief justice of the New York Supreme Court, is elected president of the Continental Congress. Jay, who graduated from King's College (now Columbia University) at the age of 19, was a prominent figure in New York state politics from an early age. While Jay opposed British interference in the colonies, he was against complete independence from Great Britain.
Jay was elected to the First Continental Congress in 1774 as a representative from New York, where he published a paper entitled Address to the People of Great Britain, in which he promoted a peaceful resolution with Great Britain instead of independence. Jay was reelected to the Second Continental Congress in 1775 but, upholding his opposition to complete independence from Great Britain, he resigned in 1776 rather than sign the Declaration of Independence.
Upon his return to New York, Jay helped draft the state's constitution before his election as the state's first chief justice in 1777. Despite his early misgivings about independence, Jay served as president of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779 and in 1782 signed the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain. He contributed to the The Federalist Papers, part of the successful campaign waged by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to win ratification for the Constitution in 1788 and 1789. Soon after, President George Washington appointed Jay as the first chief justice of the United States. In 1794, Jay negotiated his eponymous treaty with Britain to settle ongoing military and commercial disputes between the two nations. Although extremely unpopular with Jefferson's Republicans, the Jay Treaty was ratified: Jay, however, resigned from the Supreme Court during the uproar over its passing. Still drawn to public service, Jay served as governor of New York from 1797 to 1801, when he retired from public life.
Dec 10, 1950: Bunche receives Nobel Peace Prize
For his peace mediation during the first Arab-Israeli war, American diplomat Ralph Joseph Bunche receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Bunche was the first African American to win the prestigious award.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1904, he entered the field of U.S. diplomacy while serving in the Office of Strategic Services and the State Department during the 1940s. In 1947, he was appointed to the United Nations and served as an aide on the U.N. Palestine Commission, a special committee formed to seek an end to the crisis over Israel's movement toward independence. When the chief U.N. mediator between Israel and its Arab opponents died in early 1949, Bunche was thrust into a leading role in the process and proved instrumental in the successful negotiation of a cease-fire between the warring parties.
After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Bunche continued his important role at the U.N. and was noted for his expertise on colonial affairs and race relations. He died in 1971.
Dec 10, 1917: Red Cross is awarded Nobel Peace Prize
After three years of war, during which there had been no Nobel Peace Prize awarded, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the 1917 prize to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
From the outbreak of World War I, the Nobel Committee had decided not to award its annual peace prize, stating officially that there had been no worthy candidates nominated. In January 1917, however, Professor Louis Renault, a prominent lawyer, past winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (in 1906, for his role in the extension of the Geneva Convention to include maritime warfare), and current president of the French Red Cross, nominated the ICRC for that year s prize. Renault worked closely with the secretary of the Nobel committee, Ragnvald Moe, during the pre-nomination process. In addition, the government of Switzerland had separately nominated the ICRC, whose operatives were based in Geneva.
In their nominations, both Renault and the Swiss lauded the Red Cross for its establishment of the International Prisoner-of-War Agency, which worked to provide relief to soldiers captured by enemy forces and provide communication between the prisoners and their families. They also praised its efforts to transport wounded soldiers to their home countries via neutral Switzerland. Hundreds of Red Cross volunteers worked in Geneva and in the field during the war, directing inquiries to military commandants and hospital officials alike in order to find information about prisoners and the wounded and sending more than 800,000 communiquÉs to soldiers families by June 1917.
This was not the first time, nor the last, that the Red Cross would be honored by the Nobel Committee for its humanitarian work. Its founder, Henry Dunant of Switzerland, was awarded the first-ever peace prize in 1901; the Red Cross organization would go on to claim the prize twice more by the end of the century, in 1944 and 1963.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
741 - Zacharias becomes Pope
1041 - Michael IV, Paphlagonicus, Byzantium Emperor dies of results of dropsy. His wife Empress Zoe elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
1294 - Pope Coelestinus V becomes Pope (until Dec 13th)
1508 - League of the kingdom signed (covenant against Venice)
1520 - Martin Luther publicly burned papal edict demands he recant
1582 - France begins use of Gregorian calendar
1652 - Sea battle at Dungeness: lt-admiral Maarten Tromp beats English fleet
1672 - NY Gov Lovelace announces monthly mail service between NY & Boston
1684 - Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
1688 - King James II flees London
1690 - Mass Bay becomes 1st American colonial goverment to borrow money
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies army draws into Manchester
1799 - Metric system established in France
1810 - Tom Cribb (GB) beats Tom Molineaus (US-Negro) in 1st interracial boxing championship (40 rounds)
1816 - Dutch regain Sumatra
1817 - Mississippi admitted as 20th state
1831 - "Spirit of the Times" begins publishing (weekly horse racing sheet)
1836 - Emory College (now Emory University) is chartered in Oxford, Georgia.
1864 - General Shermans armies reach Savannah & 12 day siege begins
Physicist & Mathematician Isaac NewtonPhysicist & Mathematician Isaac Newton 1868 - The first traffic lights are installed outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
1869 - Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
1869 - The first American chapter of Kappa Sigma is founded at the University of Virginia.
1882 - John Brahms' "Gesang der the Parzen" premieres
1887 - Austria-Hungary, Italy and Great Britain sign Balkan military treaty
1896 - 1st intercollegiate basketball game (Wesleyan beats Yale 4-3)
1896 - Alfred Jarry's "Ubu Roi" premieres in Paris
1898 - Spanish-American War ends; US acquires Philippines, PR & Guam
1898 - The first western pilgrims were welcomed at The House of `Abdu'lláh Páshá
1899 - -15] British "Black Week" due to nederlagen in South Africa
1899 - Battle at Storm Berge South Africa - Boers vs British army
1899 - Frank Wedekind's "Der Kammersang" premieres in Berlin
1899 - The Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
1901 - 1st Nobel Peace Prizes (to Jean Henri Dunant, Frederic Passy)
1901 - First Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Wilhelm Röntgen for his discovery of X-rays
Physicist and Nobel Laureate Wilhelm RöntgenPhysicist and Nobel Laureate Wilhelm Röntgen 1902 - Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.
1903 - Nobel for physics awarded to Pierre and Marie Curie
1904 - King Peter I of Serbia named nationalist regime
1904 - Founding of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity.
1906 - Pres Theodore Roosevelt (1st American) awarded Nobel Peace Prize
1907 - Ruyard Kipling receives Nobel prize for literature
1907 - The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals who have been vivisected.
1910 - Johannes van der Waals wins Nobel Prize for physics
1911 - Calbraith Rogers completes 1st crossing of US by airplane (84 days)
1911 - Tobias Asser given Nobel prize for peace
1913 - Kamerlingh Onnes receives Nobel prize for physics
1914 - French government returns to Paris
1918 - John A Heyder becomes president of baseball's National League
1919 - NL votes to ban the spitball's use by all new pitchers
1919 - NY, Boston, & Chicago, oppose AL resolution accusing Ban Johnson of overstepping his duties
Physicist/Nobel Laureate Johannes van der WaalsPhysicist/Nobel Laureate Johannes van der Waals 1919 - Nobel peace prize awarded to US president Wilson
1922 - Nobel prizes awarded to Fridtjof Nansen, Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein
1922 - Pete Henry makes longest known NFL drop-kicked field goal, 45 yards
1923 - Polish government of Grabski forms
1924 - Aggrement reached on permanent rotation of World Series with each league, getting games 1, 2, 6, 7 in alternating years
1924 - Willem Einthoven awarded Nobel for medicine
1925 - George Bernard Shaw awarded Nobel
1926 - 1st radio broadcast in the Sprinfield area (WCBS)
1926 - 2nd part of Hitler's Mein Kampf published
1927 - Grand Ole Opry makes its 1st radio broadcast, in Nashville, TN
1929 - Bradman scores 225 in 2nd inn of Test Cricket trial after 124 in 1st
1931 - Jane Addams (1st US woman) named co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
1931 - Manuel Azaña becomes premier/Niceto Zamora president of Spain
1932 - King Rama VII (Prajadhipok) grants Thailand a constitution
1934 - Fascist dictator of Latvia Ulmanis begins building concentration camp
Social Worker and Nobel Laureate Jane AddamsSocial Worker and Nobel Laureate Jane Addams 1934 - NFL adopts player waiver rule; applies after 6th game of season
1934 - Saint-Adelbert cooperation formed by Catholic elite
1935 - A's sell Jimmie Foxx to the Red Sox for $150,000
1935 - White Sox sell Al Simmons to the Tigers for $75,000
1936 - Stockholm: physicist PBJ Debije receives Nobel prize for chemistry
1936 - Britain replaces King Edward VIII stamp series with King George VI
1936 - Edward VIII signs Instrument of Abdication, giving up British throne to marry Wallis Simpson
1938 - 26th CFL Grey Cup: Toronto Argonauts defeats Winn Blue Bombers, 30-7
1938 - Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen teacher, Rinzai line, enters Zen priesthood
1939 - Green Bay Packers win NFL championship, beat NY Giants 27-0
1939 - KNVB celebrates 50th anniversary
1940 - British anti-offensive in Libya (Sidi Barrani)
1941 - British battleship Prince of Wales sinks off Singapore
1941 - Japanese troops landed on northern Luzon in the Philippines
1941 - Japanese troops overrun Guam
Duchess of Windsor Wallis SimpsonDuchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson 1942 - Hitler names Mussert "leader of Netherland people"
1942 - North Africa: 5th German panzer army forms under col-gen von Arnim
1943 - British 8th Army (1st Canadian Infantry Division) occupies Orsogna/Ortona Italy
1944 - 9 Dutch citizens hanged by nazis
1944 - German counter attack at Dillingen bridgehead on the Saar
1945 - Aust Services lose 3rd Victory Test Cricket to India by 6 wkts
1945 - Preston Tucker reveals plan to produce the Torpedo, a new 150 MPH car
1947 - USSR & Czechoslovakia sign trade agreement
1948 - UN General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1950 - Ralph J Bunche (1st black American) presented Nobel Peace Prize
1952 - Izhak Ben-Zvi elected 2nd president of Israel
1952 - WSLS TV channel 10 in Roanoke, VA (NBC) begins broadcasting
1952 - Yitchak Ben-Zvi elected 2nd president of Israel
1953 - "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" opens at Imperial NYC for 229 perfs
1953 - KOMO TV channel 4 in Seattle, WA (ABC) begins broadcasting
1953 - WSTV (now WTOV) TV channel 9 in Steubenville-Wheeling, OH (CBS) begins
Chemist & Peace Activist Linus PaulingChemist & Peace Activist Linus Pauling 1954 - Linus Pauling wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1954 - Albert Schweitzer receives Nobel Peace Prize
1954 - Philadelphia Phillies purchase Connie Mack Stadium
1956 - Establishment of MPLA in Angola
1958 - 1st domestic (NY-Miami) passenger jet flight-National 707 flew 111
1958 - U of Pitts agrees to buy Forbes Field from the Pirates
1961 - Houston Oiler Billy Cannon gains record 373 yards against Titans
1961 - US performs nuclear test at Carlsbad New Mexico (underground)
1961 - USSR & Albania break diplomatic relations
1962 - Hunters Point (SF) jitney ends service after 50 years
1963 - 6 year old Donny Osmond singing debut on Andy Williams Show
1963 - Zanzibar becomes independent within British Commonwealth
1964 - Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Dr Martin Luther King Jr
1965 - "Yearling" opens at Alvin Theater NYC for 3 performances
1965 - Dutch ends economic boycott of Rhodesia
Clergyman and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr.Clergyman and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr. 1965 - Test Cricket debut of Doug Walters v England at the Gabba
1966 - Israeli Shmuel Yosef Agnon wins Nobel Prize for literature
1966 - Nobel for chemistry awarded to Robert S Mulliken
1968 - Joe Frazier beats Oscar Bonavena in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1968 - Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", occurs in Tokyo.
1970 - North American Soccer League awards NY & Toronto franchises
1971 - West German union chancellor W Burns receives Nobel prize of peace
1971 - William H Rehnquist confirmed as Supreme Court justice
1972 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1973 - 1st time since 1885, tennis has 2 top males (S Smith & J Connors)
1974 - European Economic Community calls for a European Parliament
1974 - Helios 1 launched by US, Germany; later makes closest flyby of Sun
1974 - Space probe Helios 1 launched
1975 - Andrei Sakharov's wife Yelena Bonner, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize
1975 - Terry Funk beats Jack Brisco in Miami Beach, to become NWA champ
1976 - Wings release triple album "Wings Over America"
1977 - Soyuz 26 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station
1978 - "Platinum" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 33 performances
1978 - 67th Davis Cup: USA beats Great Britain in Rancho Mirage (4-1)
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem BeginIsraeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin 1978 - In Oslo, Menachem Begin & Anwar Sadat accept 1978 Nobel Peace Prize
1978 - Islanders ends 15 game undefeated streak (12-0-3) to Canadians
1979 - Piet Dankert appointed as chairman of European Parliament
1980 - Soyuz T-3 returns to Earth
1980 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1981 - -13] El Salvador army kills 900
1981 - Jules Feiffer's "Grownups" premieres in NYC
1981 - The United Nations General Assembly approves Pakistan's proposal for establishing nuclear free-zone in South Asia.
1982 - Heavyweight Michael Doakes KOs Mike Weaver in 1:03 in Las Vegas
1982 - Soyuz T-5 returns to Earth, 211 days after take-off
1983 - 58th Australian Womens Tennis: M Navratilova beats K Jordan (62 76)
1983 - Danuta Walesa, wife of Lech Walesa, accepts his Nobel Peace Prize
1983 - Last NFL game at Shea Stadium; Steelers beat NY Jets 34-7
1983 - Raul Alfonsin inaugurated as Argentina's 1st civilian president
1984 - 1st "planet" outside our solar system discovered
1984 - South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received his Nobel Peace Prize
1984 - WNSY-AM in Newport News VA returns from WGH
1985 - Bill to balance the federal budget passed by Congress
1985 - Junta leaders Videla & Massera sentenced in Buenos Aires
1986 - Atlanta Hawk Dominique Wilkins scores 57 points vs Chicago Bulls
1986 - France performs nuclear test
Author Elie WieselAuthor Elie Wiesel 1986 - Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepts 1986 Nobel Peace Prize
1987 - "Nightline" is seen in USSR for 1st time
1988 - Washington Capitals 1st NHL scoreless tie, vs Mont Canadiens
1989 - President Gustav Husak of Czechoslovakia, resigns
1990 - Hindu-Muslim rebellion in Hyderabad-Aligargh India, 140 die
1990 - Soyuz TM-10 lands
1990 - Space Shuttle STS 35 (Columbia 11) lands
1991 - "Crucible" opens at Belasco Theater NYC for 32 performances
1991 - IM Pei receives $5 million for design of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
1991 - Jackie Martling walks off of Howard Stern show for 1 day
1991 - Howard Spira sentenced to 2½ years in prison for trying to extort money from Yankees owner George Steinbrenner
1992 - "My Favorite Year" opens at Vivian Beaumont Theater NYC for 37 perfs
1992 - NHL awards franchises to Mimai & Anaheim (for 1994-95)
1992 - NY Yankees sign free agent pitcher Jimmy Key
1992 - Orlanda Magic scores 14 3-pointers (2 shy of record)
New York Yankees Owner George SteinbrennerNew York Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner 1993 - Dow Jones hits record 3740.67
1994 - 60th Heisman Trophy Award: Rashaan Salaam, Colorado (RB)
1994 - European Campaign against Racism "All different, All equal" begins
1994 - Nobel prize awarded to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres & Yasser Arafat
1995 - 1st meeting of NBA expansion teams, Raptors beat Grizzlies 93-81
1995 - Kelly Robbins & Tammie Green wins LPGA Diner's Club Golf Matches
1995 - Michael Slater scores 219 v Sri Lanka at the WACA
1995 - Muralitharan takes 2-224 in Australian innings of 5-617
1995 - Ricky Ponting makes 96 on Test Cricket debut (Aust v Sri Lanka, WACA)
1995 - Worst snowstorm in Buffalo history, 37.9" in 24 hours (Starting Dec 9 at 7 PM, breaks previous record of 25.3" in 1982
1996 - Rwandan Genocide: Military advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Maurice Baril recommends that the UN multi-national forces in Zaire stand down.
2006 - One million Lebanese opposition supporters gather in downtown Beirut, calling for the government to resign.
2012 - Google begins selling US$99 laptops
2012 - 11 people are killed and 23 are injured after a bus falls into a roadside pond in Minquan County, China
2012 - 9 people are killed and 32 are wounded after a bus falls of a 300 meter cliff in Columbia
2012 - Norwegian Magnus Carlsen breaks Garry Kasparov’s 13-year Elo rating record1520 - Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict. The papacy demanded that he recant or face excommunication. Luther refused and was formally expelled from the church in January 1521. 1768 - The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in London by George III. Joshua Reynolds was its first president. 1817 - Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th American state. 1830 - Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, MA. Only seven of her works were published while she was alive. 1845 - British civil engineer Robert Thompson patented the first pneumatic tires. 1851 - American librarian Melvil Dewey was born. He created the "Dewey Decimal Classification" system. 1869 - Women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory. 1898 - A treaty was signed in Paris that officially ended the Spanish-American War. Also, Cuba became independent of Spain. 1901 - The first Nobel prizes were awarded. 1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. 1931 - Jane Addams became a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, she was the first American woman to do so. 1939 - The National Football League's attendance exeeded 1 million in a season for the first time. 1941 - Japan invaded the Philippines. 1941 - The Royal Naval battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Malaya. 1948 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights. 1950 - Dr. Ralph J. Bunche was presented the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first African-American to receive the award. Bunche was awarded the prize for his efforts in mediation between Israel and neighboring Arab states. 1953 - Hugh Hefner published the first "Playboy" magazine with an investment of $7,600. 1958 - The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. when 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami on a National Airlines Boeing 707. 1962 - Frank Gifford (New York Giants) was on the cover of "Sports Illustrated." 1964 - In Oslo, Norway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest person to receive the award. 1980 - South Carolina Representative John W. Jenretter resigned to avoid being expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives following his conviction on charges to the FBI's Abscam investigation. 1982 - The Law of the Sea Convention was signed by 118 countries in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 23 nations and the U.S. were excluded. 1983 - Raul Alfonsin was inaugurated as Argentina's first civilian president after nearly eight years of military rule. 1984 - South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize. 1990 - The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Norplant, a long-acting contraceptive implant. 1991 - The play Revival "The Crucible" opened. 1992 - Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called "unwelcome and offensive" actions toward women. However, he refused to resign. 1993 - The crew of the space shuttle Endeavor deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth's orbit. 1994 - Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ, was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber. 1994 - Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize. They pledged to pursue their mission of healing the Middle East. 1995 - The first U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in the former Yugoslavia. 1996 - South Africa's President Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country's transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy. 1998 - Six astronauts opened the doors to the new international space station 250 miles above the Earth's surface. 1998 - The Palestinian leadership scrapped constitutional clauses that rejected Israel's existence. 1999 - After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later pled guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped. 2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contibutions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674) 2003 - The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts. 2007 - Cristina Fernandez was sworn in as Argentina's first elected female president.
1817 Mississippi became the 20th state in the United States. 1869 The territory of Wyoming authorized women to vote and hold office. 1901 The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. 1948 The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights. 1950 Dr. Ralph Bunche became the first black to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. 1964 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., received the Nobel Peace Prize. 1999 Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested and charged with stealing classified information. 2004 A U.S. passenger jet landed in Vietnam, the first one to do so since the Vietnam War ended nearly three decades earlier.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/dec10.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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