HISTORY

Highlight: In 1944, during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe rejected a German demand for surrender, writing “Nuts!” in his official reply.

In 1775, Esek Hopkins was appointed the commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Maj. Gen. William Sherman said in a message to President Abraham Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah.”

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 1910, a fire lasting more than 26 hours broke out at the Chicago Union Stock Yards; 21 firefighters were killed in the collapse of a burning building.

In 1937, the first, center tube of the Lincoln Tunnel connecting New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River was opened to traffic. (The second tube opened in 1945, the third in 1957.)

In 1944, former silent film comedian Harry Langdon (once considered a rival to Charles Chaplin) died in Los Angeles at age 60.

In 1968, Julie Nixon married David Eisenhower in a private ceremony in New York.

In 1977, three dozen people were killed when a 250-foot-high grain elevator at the Continental Grain Company plant in Westwego, Louisiana, exploded.

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

In 1989, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe’s hard-line Communist rulers, was toppled from power in a popular uprising. Playwright Samuel Beckett died in Paris at age 83.

In 1992, a Libyan Boeing 727 jetliner crashed after a midair collision with a MiG fighter, killing all 157 aboard the jetliner, and both crew members of the fighter jet.

In 2001, Richard 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. (Reid is serving a life sentence in federal prison.)

Ten years ago: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, stung by criticism that he’d been insensitive to the needs of troops and their families, offered an impassioned defense, saying when he would meet wounded soldiers or relatives of those killed in battle, “their grief is something I feel to my core.”

Five years ago: Assailants gunned down the mother, aunt and siblings of a Mexican marine who was killed in a raid that took out one of Mexico’s most powerful cartel leaders.

One year ago: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian oligarch who’d crossed President Vladimir Putin and ended up in jail for 10 years, told a press conference in Berlin that he planned to devote his life to securing the release of the country’s political prisoners.

BIRTHDAYS

Former House Speaker Jim Wright is 92. Baseball Hall of Famer Steve Carlton is 70. Former ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer is 69. Baseball All-Star Steve Garvey is 66. Country singer Lori McKenna is 46. Actor Chris Carmack is 34. Actor Logan Huffman is 25. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jordin Sparks is 25. Pop singer Meghan Trainor is 21.