Historical Events
1965 – William Eckert is unanimously elected commissioner of baseball
1970 – Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse
1973 – US President Richard Nixon tells AP “…people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook”
1974 – Union of Banana Exporting Countries (UPEB) forms
1984 – Islanders score 20 assists against Rangers
1989 – Student demonstration in Prague put down by riot police, leading to an uprising (the Velvet Revolution) that will topple the communist government on Dec. 29
Famous Birthdays
1685 – Pierre Gaultier, French-Canadian trader and explorer (d. 1749)
1878 – Grace Abbott, Grand Island Neb, social worker (US Children Bureau)
1925 – Libby Newman, painter/printmaker/curator
1961 – Merete Van Kemp, Danish actress (Grace-Dallas, Princess Daisy)
1965 – Rob Koll, Bellefonte PA, 163 lbs/74 kg freestyle wrestler (Olymp-96)
1966 – Jeff Nelson, pitcher (NY Yankees), born in Baltimore, Maryland
Famous Deaths
375 – Valentinian I “The Great”, Roman Co-Emperor and Ruler of Western Roman Empire (336-75), dies at 54
1856 – William Knyvett, British singer and composer, dies at 77
1905 – Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and son of Leopold I, dies at 68
1936 – Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Austrian contralto (b. 1861)
1995 – Edward LeBone Molotlegi, chief of the Bafokeng, dies at 66
2013 – Doris Lessing, Iranian novelist and Nobel laureate (Adore, Memoirs of a Survivor, Golden Notebook), dies at 94