27 Dec History: This Date

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Events, deaths, births, of 27 DEC
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On a December 27:
2000 Leanne, 7, and her elderly and sickly mother, Pat, 15, are kidnapped from the koala quarters of the San Francisco Zoo. They are in danger of starving, because it is unlikely that the kidnappers will be able to find the 1 kg of tender young eucalyptus leaves that each koala requires daily. Fortunately, in the early hours of the next day, the police receives an anonymous tip that enables them to rescue the two koalas, unhurt, but ravenous.

1996 FCC approves digital TV compromise
The US Federal Communications Commission approves an agreement setting standards for advanced digital television on this day in 1996. The television and computer industries had battled for nine years to agree on standards for digital TV picture display. The final accord supported a standard that did not specify the display format, but rather left it up to broadcasters to choose from a variety of formats, including extremely high-definition pictures or broadcasting several simultaneous shows in the old, lower-definition mode. Broadcasters in the nation's ten largest markets officially began broadcasting digital signals in November 1998. However, few people had yet purchased a high-definition television set capable of receiving the digital signal.

1995 El biólogo Antonio García-Bellido de Diego , el filólogo Emilio Alarcos Llorach y el químico Avelino Corma Canos son galardonados con los Premios Nacionales españoles de Investigación en las categorías Científica, Humanística y Técnica, respectivamente.

1990 Workplace video display regulation
San Francisco becomes the first city to adopt regulations regarding video display terminals in the workplace. A new law required workers to perform fifteen minutes of alternate work for every two hours spent at a video terminal. The measure was adopted in response to the vision problems and repetitive motion injuries sustained by thousands of workers in the 1980s. The measure gave companies with fifteen or more employees two years to provide antiglare screens and ergonomically correct furniture, or face a $500 per day fine.

1988 Bulgaria stops jamming Radio Free Europe after more than 3 decades
1984 Four Polish officers are tried for the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko.

1983 US Steel Corporation shrinks
US Steel announced that it would slash its steelmaking capacity by roughly 20 percent, as well as take a whopping $1.2 billion pre-tax write-off for the year. The write-off marked the biggest pre-tax charge in the steel industry, as US Steel nudged past Bethlehem Steel, who, earlier that year, had taken a $930 million write-off. Along with this rather ignominious distinction, US Steel's moves also brought a fresh round of lay-offs for 4,600 workers. All told, the plant closings and write-offs impacted 15,400 U.S Steel employees, as 10,800 workers who were previously laid-off had now permanently lost their jobs.

1979 Soviets take over in Afghanistan
      In an attempt to stabilize the turbulent political situation in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union sends 75'000 troops to enforce the installation of Babrak Karmal as the new leader of the nation. The new government and the imposing Soviet presence, however, had little success in putting down antigovernment rebels. Thus began nearly 10 years of an agonizing, destructive, and ultimately fruitless Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
      Ironically, Karmal overthrew and murdered another Afghan communist, Hafizullah Amin, to take power. Amin's government became unpopular and unstable after it attempted to install a harsh communist regime, declared one-party rule and abolished the Afghan constitution. Muslims in the nation rejected his rule and formed a rebel force, the Mujahideen. When it became apparent that Amin could not control the rebellion, Soviet troops intervened and put a puppet ruler, Karmal, into power. For the Soviets, political turbulence in this bordering nation, which was viewed by some officials as a potentially useful ally pursuing its interests in the Middle East, was unacceptable.
      The Soviet intervention cost Russia dearly. The seemingly endless civil war in Afghanistan resulted in thousands of Soviet dead and untold monetary costs. It also brought an abrupt end to the era of détente between the United States and the Soviet Union that began during the Nixon years. In response to the Soviet intervention, President Jimmy Carter withdrew the SALT II agreement from consideration by Congress. The treaty, which had been signed in June 1979, was designed to establish parity in nuclear delivery vehicles between the United States and the Soviet Union. Carter also halted grain shipments to the Soviet Union and ordered a US boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

1978 Spanish King ratifies democratic Constitution
Following its approval in a national referendum, King Juan Carlos ratifies Spain's first democratic constitution in nearly five decades. Juan Carlos was sworn in as the first ruling monarch of Spain in more than forty years on November 22, 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, the far-right dictator of Spain since 1936. Juan Carlos's grandfather was Alfonso XIII, the last ruling monarch of Spain, who was forced into exile after he refused to abdicate the throne after Spain was declared a republic. Juan Carlos, born in Italy in 1938, returned to Spain in 1955 under the invitation of Franco, and studied in Madrid before earning several commissions in the Spanish armed forces. In 1969, Franco named him his successor. However, after assuming power, King Juan Carlos I immediately begins dismantling Franco's system of dictatorial government, and over the next decade presides over a period of extensive democratization in Spain.

1974 FSLN seizes government hostages at a private Managua party

1972 New North Korean constitution comes into effect.
1972 Se organiza en Argentina el FREJULI (Frente Justicialista de Liberación) formado por el peronismo y otros partidos menores.

1969 US and North Vietnamese battle near Loc Ninh
In the fiercest battle in six weeks, US and North Vietnamese forces clash near Loc Ninh, about 130 km north of Saigon. Elements of the 1st Infantry Division reported killing 72 of 250 North Vietnamese soldiers in a daylong battle. Loc Ninh, a village of fewer than 10'000, was located at the northern limit of national Route 13, only a few kilometers from the Cambodian border. It was the site of several major battles between US and Communist forces. On 05 April 1972, as part of their Easter Offensive, North Vietnamese forces overtook Loc Ninh during their attempt to capture the An Loc provincial capital to the south.

1968 First men to orbit the Moon return to Earth
Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, returns safely to earth after a historic six-day journey. On December 21, Apollo 8 was launched by a three-stage Saturn 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders aboard. On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around the moon, the first human spacecraft ever to do so. During Apollo 8's ten lunar orbits, television images were sent back to earth and spectacular photos were taken of the moon and the earth from the spacecraft. The three astronauts were the first human beings to observe a complete view of the earth's sphere and also the first to see the dark side of the moon. On Christmas morning, Apollo 8 left the moon's orbit and began the journey back to earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.

1968 The US agrees to sell F-4 Phantom jets to Israel.

1966 US and South Vietnam attack Viet Cong stronghold
A United States and South Vietnamese joint-service operation takes place against one of the best-fortified Viet Cong strongholds, located in the U Minh Forest in the Mekong Delta, 200 km southwest of Saigon. US warplanes dropped bombs and napalm on the forest in preparation for the assault. Then, 6000 South Vietnamese troops attacked Viet Cong positions in the forest. The US Navy also participated in the operation--on December 29, the US destroyer Herbert J. Thomas shelled suspected Viet Cong positions in the same area for seven hours. The operation ended on December 31, with 104 Viet Cong reported killed and 18 captured. The operation was considered a success in weakening the communist strength in the U Minh Forest.

1956 Segregation on buses in Tallahassee, Florida is outlawed.
1951 The US Postal Service in Cincinnati, Ohio, puts into service a Crosley right-hand-drive car designed specifically for mail delivery. The driver is on the mailbox-side of the car,
1950 The United States and Spain resume full diplomatic relations for the first time since the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
1949 Queen Juliana (Netherlands) grants sovereignty to United States of Indonesia. — en el marco de una unión económica entre el archipiélago y la antigua metrópoli.
1947 The new Italian constitution is promulgated.

1945 Entran en vigor los Acuerdos de Bretton Woods sobre la creación de un mecanismo de crédito internacional regulado por el Fondo Monetario Internacional.

1945 Korea divided.
      In the aftermath of World War II, foreign ministers from the former Allied nations of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain agree to divide Korea into two separate occupation zones and govern the nation for five years. The country is split along the 38th parallel, with Soviet forces occupying the northern zone, and Americans stationed to the south. Korea's history dates back over four thousand years and from the fourteenth century until its formal annexation by Japan in 1910, the Yi dynasty ruled over the nation.
      During World War II, the Allies promised independence to Korea, and in 1948 self-rule was granted with the establishment of two separate regimes in North and South Korea. On June 25, 1950, Democratic South Korea was attacked by Communist North Korea. US and South Korean forces fought a desperate resistance until a large US-led U.N. military force was sent to Korea. Within two weeks, U.N. forces were in complete control of South Korea, and on October 7 the US-led force crossed the 38th parallel into the North, ignoring China's threat to enter the war if the allied force failed to honor the 1945 division of Korea. Over the next eight weeks, invading U.N. forces crush the North Korean opposition as they push to the Yalu River and Manchurian border.
      However, at the end of November, true to their threat, several hundred thousand Chinese Communist troops pour over the border into North Korea in an overwhelming show of force, and U.N. troops begin a desperate retreat out of North Korea, at a cost of nearly 100,000 Americans killed, wounded, or missing in action. Chinese forces overrun South Korea, and by the beginning of 1951 have captured Seoul, the capital of South Korea. US-led forces under General Douglas MacArthur recapture Seoul by March, and by mid-1951 have pushed as far north as the 38th parallel, reestablishing the 1945 division of Korea that still exists today, despite the three bloody years of the Korean War.

1944 General George S. Patton's Third Army, spearheaded by the 4th Armored Division, relieves the surrounded city of Bastogne in Belgium. -- L’offensive avait débuté le 16 par une attaque surprise des forces de la Werhmacht. Ce jour est celui de la levée du siège de Bastogne. Mais Hitler ne veut pas s’avouer vaincu et épuisera ses dernières forces en une pénible guerre d’usure.
1943 France transfers most of her powers in Lebanon to Lebanese government

1943 US rail strike averted by threat of government take-over.
The threat of a paralyzing railroad strike loomed over the United States during the 1943 holiday season. President Franklin Roosevelt stepped in to serve as a negotiator, imploring the rail unions to give America a "Christmas present" and settle the smoldering wage dispute. But, as Christmas came and went, only two of the five railroad brotherhoods agreed to let Roosevelt arbitrate the situation. So, on December 27, just three days before the scheduled walk-out, the President shelved his nice-guy rhetoric and seized the railroads. Lest the move look too aggressive, Roosevelt assured that the railroads would only be temporarily placed under the "supervision" of the War Department; he also pledged that the situation would not alter daily rail operations. The gambit worked, as officials for the recalcitrant brotherhoods made an eleventh-hour decision to avert the strike.

1942 Nazis form brigade of Soviet traitor POWs
      The German military begins enlisting Soviet POWs in the battle against Russia. General Andrei Vlasov, a captured Soviet war hero turned anticommunist, was made commander of the renegade Soviet troops.
      Vlasov had been a military man since 1919, when, at age 19, he was drafted into the new "Red" Army to fight in the Russian Civil War. After joining the Communist Party in 1930, he became a Soviet military adviser to China's Chiang Kai-shek. Returning to Russia in 1939, Vlasov was given the 4th Armored Corps to command. He distinguished himself in the defense of Kiev and Moscow against the German invaders, even winning the Order of Lenin in 1941, and later the Order of the Red Banner as commanding general of the 20th Army.
      Then came the defense of Leningrad in 1942. The Germans were overwhelming the Soviet forces at the front, and Stalin would not allow Vlasov to retreat to a more favorable position. His army was battered, and he was taken prisoner by the Germans along with many of his men. Back in Germany, Vlasov became disgusted with Stalin and communist ideology, which he had come to believe was a more sinister threat to the world than Nazism. He began broadcasting anti-Soviet propaganda and formed--with Nazi permission, of course--the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. Its goal: to overthrow Joseph Stalin and defeat communism.
      The German "Smolensk Committee" began persuading more and more captured Russians, Ukrainians, Cossacks, and other Soviet anti-Stalinists to join the German war effort. These now-pro-German Soviets were finally formed into a 50'000-man army, the Russian Liberation division, and fought toward the end of the war, with Vlasov at their command. Tens of thousands ending up turning back against the Germans, then finally surrendering to the Americans--rather than the advancing Soviets--when the German cause was lost. The Americans, under secret terms of the Yalta Agreement signed in February, repatriated all captured Soviet soldiers--even against their will. Vlasov was among those returned to Stalin. He was hanged, along with his comrades in arms.

1941 Japan bombs Manila even though it was declared an "open city"
1941 Tire and rubber rationing starts in the US, due to shortages caused by World War II.
1939 1st American skimobiles (North Conway, NH)
1935 A causa de la crisis ministerial en Ecuador, Federico Páez proclama la dictadura militar tras la dimisión de Antonio Pons Campuzano.
1933 Josef Stalin calls tensions with Japan a grave danger.
1927 Stalin's faction wins All-Union Congress in USSR, Trotsky expelled.
1923 La Cruz Roja Internacional organiza una colecta para Alemania.
1923 Fracasa en Tokio un atentado contra el príncipe Hirohito.

1918 La Pologne récupère la Poszanie
      Cette province polonaise est l’un des piliers de la Pologne historique, elle constitue la majeure partie de la Grande-Pologne et est l’une des principautés qui constituèrent au XIVème siècle le royaume unifié. Sa capitale, Gniezno, siège du primat catholique, sera supplantée par Poznan.
      Lors du premier partage de la Pologne, en 1772, les districts septentrionaux sont attribués à la Prusse, qui annexe l’ensemble de la province en 1793 (second partage de la Pologne). En 1807, la province est incorporée dans le grand-duché de Varsovie ; mais, en 1815, elle retombe sous la domination prussienne. Jusqu’à 1840, la Poznanie jouit d’une large autonomie (assemblée provinciale, gouverneur polonais : le prince Radziwill). Après 1840, la Prusse établit des colons allemands, reprenant la politique de Frédéric II, et supprime l’égalité des langues.
      En 1848, la province s’insurge contre la Prusse, mais l’échec du soulèvement provoque un renforcement de la germanisation. Ce sera désormais la politique du gouvernement de Berlin jusqu’en 1914. À l’époque du Kulturkampf, l’allemand devient la seule langue enseignée ; après 1900, même le catéchisme est enseigné dans cette langue, d’où la grève scolaire de 1903.
      En même temps, le gouvernement prussien tente d’exproprier les Polonais au profit des colons allemands (lois de 1886, 1904 et 1908) et dépense dans ce but 1,3 million de mark-or. Les résultats sont médiocres : en 1910, 61 p. 100 des habitants sont toujours polonais et, selon les autorités elles-mêmes, la conscience nationale polonaise est de plus en plus forte.
      Aussi les Polonais secouent-ils la domination allemande le 27 décembre 1918. Néanmoins, certains districts frontaliers seront laissés à l’Allemagne par le traité de Versailles. Durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l’Allemagne nazie annexe toute la Poznanie (Gau de Wartheland), qui redevient entièrement polonaise en 1945.

1915 In Ohio, iron and steel workers go on strike for an eight-hour day and higher wages.

1913 Leader of Calumet strike is shot in the back and shipped off to Chicago.
      On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, 1913, strikers and their families began arriving at the Italian Hall, a two-storey brick building, just over a block from Calumet's fire station. At one end of the building a single set of double doors opened onto a straight flight of stairs to the social rooms on the upper floor. By two o'clock, over 175 adults and 500 children had crowded inside to seek relief from the stresses of the five-month-old miners' strike against the owners of the Calumet & Hecla (C & H) copper mine. They sang carols and the children queued to see Santa Claus, who had modest gifts for each of them. When, around half past four as the party began to disperse, there was a cry of `Fire!' and the panic-striker families ran desperately for the stairs.
      A few escaped, but once one fell, a wall of human bodies dammed the staircase as the terrified people continued to pour down the stairs. Those at the bottom died first, crushed to death by the weight of their brothers, sisters, friends and union comrades. When rescuers arrived, the corpses were so tightly packed that they had to lift them like rubble from the top. A temporary morgue was set up in the village hall and, having been stripped for the coroner's examination, the seventy-four bodies, sixty of them aged between two and sixteen, were laid out, as if sleeping.
      By noon the next day, the shell-shocked communities of the Keewenaw peninsula had raised $25'000 for the families, with many opponents of the strike donating to the relief fund. But there was anger as well as grief on the striking miners' side. The president of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), Charles Moyer, declared that the union would bury its own dead and take no aid from people who so recently had denounced the strikers as `undesirables'. Fifty of the victims were Finns and the local socialist Finnish language paper, Tyomies (`The Worker'), blamed the catastrophe on an unidentified intruder from a company-sponsored vigilante group, the Citizen's Alliance, who had played a cruel hoax but had got out before the crush began. A few union members even suggested that other Alliance men had held the doors, ensuring the lethal crush on the stairs. In the desperate hours immediately after the tragedy, the awful accident was reinterpreted as cold-blooded mass murder.
      The reaction of the Citizens' Alliance was direct. An official delegation of five men went to Moyer's hotel room in Hancock that same day. They subsequently claimed that Moyer, with some reservations, agreed to accept Alliance donations to the relief funds and to dampen down the rumours surrounding the recent tragedy. Shortly thereafter, an `unofficial' mob ran the union leader out of town. With a gunshot fleshwound in his back, Moyer was bundled onto a Chicago-bound train and told firmly that, if he set foot in the region again, he would be lynched. In the short term, the mob's action proved a mistake since it drew national attention to the dispute at a time when the Italian Hall disaster evoked sympathy, for the strikers. Cinemas across America showed newsreel footage of the children's mass funerals with captions spreading the rumor that a man wearing a Citizens' Alliance button had triggered the stampede.

1899 Carry Nation attacks her first saloon.
     After moving to Medicine Lodge, Kansas, Carry Amelia (Moore) Nation was outraged that the Kansas "dry" laws were not being enforced. For several years she was an outspoken camapaigner of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, of which she and Mrs. Wesley Chain, wife of the Baptist minister, organized a chapter in Medicine Lodge during the 1890's. But she finally decided that words were not enough.
     So, on this afternoon, after a day of prayer, Carry Nation, 53, and Mrs. Cain put on their best dresses and bonnets and start out. Men, women and children promptly fall in behind the crusaders to see what is going to happen, and when they reach Mort Strong's saloon, they are surrounded by more than 200 persons. As Carry starts to go inside, armed with no more than an umbrella, the town constable steps up and says, "I wish I could take you off the streets. “ — "Yes," she replied, "you want to take, me a woman whose heart is breaking to see the ruin of these men, the desolate homes and broken laws — and you, a constable, oath-bound to close this man's unlawful business!"
      Carry steps forward, pushes aside the swinging doors and strides into the saloon. She has gone no farther than the front room when Strong hurries from the bar, takes her by the shoulders, turns her around and regardless of her shrieks, pushes her back into the street. With tears streaming from her eyes, Carry Nation continues alternately to sing and hurl curses at the saloon keeper, and Mrs. Cain and half dozen other women joined in the song. Their shrill voices carry over town, and soon the crowd about the saloon numbers some 500. Some encourage her, while others shout defiance.
      After several more unsuccessful attempts to enter the saloon, Mrs. Nation starts off toward home, singing. Behind her come Mrs. Cain, and an ever increasing stream of women. At Carry's home, throughout the remainder of the afternoon, the excited women sing, pray and rejoice over the downfall of the saloon, while a crowd hangs about outside and called for more action.
      That evening, there is great excitement throughout town and finally the rumor is passed about that Strong has horse-whipped a woman. Finally, about midnight, the mayor and several councilmen go in a body to Strong's place and express surprise and indignation at finding beer and whisky on the premises. They sternly tell Strong that he must leave town at once or take the consequences. He leaves the next morning, and Carry Nation rejoices that are were only six saloons remaining in her town.
     Carry Nation would go on to on similar rampages in Wichita and Topeka, and in other cities in Iowa and Illinois as well. She would go armed with a bag of rocks and, starting on 21 January 1901, with her trade-mark hatchet.
     After her rather brief "hatchetation" period, which brought her national notoriety, she continued to rail against not only alcohol, but also fraternal orders, tobacco, foreign foods, corsets, skirts of improper length, and mildly pornographic art of the sort found in some barrooms of the time. She was also an advocate of woman suffrage. Despite her campaign, the enactment in 1919 of national prohibition was largely the result of the efforts of more conventional reformers, who had been reluctant to support her. She died on 9 June 1911.
     NATION ONLINE: her 1904 autobiography, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation

1887 Start of Sherlock Holmes' The Adventure of The Blue Carbuncle
1874 Alfonso XII, rey de España, accede al trono español gracias al golpe de Estado que protagoniza el general Martínez Campos.
1870 El general Juan Prim y Prats, presidente del Gobierno español, sufre un atentado en Madrid y fallece tres días después a causa de las heridas de bala recibidas.
1867 Ontario and Québec legislatures hold 1st meeting.

1864 Reb Army of Tennessee retreats, defeated.
      General John Bell Hood's broken and defeated Confederate Army of Tennessee finishes crossing the Tennessee River, retreating into Mississippi. The last half of 1864 was a disaster for the army. In May, Union General William T. Sherman began his drive on Atlanta from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Confederate army was commanded then by Joseph Johnston, who responded to Sherman's flanking maneuvers by retreating slightly each time. From May to July, Johnston slowly backed into Atlanta, exchanging territory for time. When the troops reached Atlanta, Confederate President Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston with the offensive minded Hood.
      Hood immediately attacked Sherman three times in late July, losing each time. His offensive capabilities spent, Hood endured a monthlong siege of Atlanta. In early September, Hood was finally forced to relinquish the city to Sherman. Hood hung around to try cutting into Sherman's supply lines but then retreated into Alabama. In November, Hood tried to draw Sherman from the deep South by moving towards Nashville, Tennessee. In response, Sherman dispatched part of his army back to Tennessee while taking the rest on his devastating march across Georgia, during which the Yankees destroyed nearly everything in their path.
      Hood moved north and fought two battles that were disastrous for the Confederates. At Franklin on 30 November 1864, Confederate attacks on entrenched Union soldiers resulted in ghastly Confederate casualties and the loss of six of the army's finest generals. On 15 and 16 December 1864, the Confederates were crushed by the Yankees in front of Nashville. The dwindling numbers of participating soldiers tell the sad story of the Rebel army. In May, some 65'000 Confederates faced Sherman in northern Georgia. On 20 September, after Atlanta fell, Hood's force numbered 40'403. After crossing the Tennessee River, Hood reported 18'708 officers and enlisted men, a figure that another Confederate general, Pierre Beauregard, thought was significantly inflated. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was no longer a viable fighting force.

1862 Union General William Rosecrans' army begins moving slowly toward Murfreesboro.

1846 Doniphan's Thousand take El Paso del Norte from Mexicans.
      The rag-tag army of volunteers known as Doniphan's Thousand, led by Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, wins a major victory in the war with Mexico with the occupation of El Paso. Born in Kentucky in 1808, Doniphan moved to Missouri in 1830 to practice law. But the tall redheaded man was not satisfied with fighting only courtroom battles, and he volunteered as a brigadier general in the Missouri militia.
      When war between Mexico and the US erupted in 1846, the men of the 1st Missouri Mounted Volunteers elected Doniphan their colonel, and marched south to join General Stephen Kearny's army in New Mexico. Since they were not professional military men, Doniphan's troops cared little for the traditional spit-and-polish of the regular troops, and reportedly looked more like tramps than soldiers. Likewise, Doniphan was a casual officer who led more by example than by strict discipline. Nonetheless, Doniphan's Thousand proved to be a surprisingly effective force in the war with Mexico.
      In December, Doniphan led 500 of his men and a large wagon train of supplies south to join General John E. Wool in his planned invasion of the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Before he had a chance to meet up with Wool's larger force near the city of Chihuahua, Doniphan encountered an army of 1200 Mexican soldiers about 50 km north of El Paso del Norte, the Mexican city now called Ciudad Juares, on the south bank of the Rio Grande (El Paso, Texas, on the northern bank, did not yet exist). Although his opponents had twice the number of soldiers, Doniphan led his men to victory, and with the path to El Paso now largely undefended was able to occupy the city two days later.
      When nearing the Mexican border, Doniphan learned that General Wool's forces had broken off their invasion of Chihuahua because the army's wheeled vehicles had proved unworkable in the desert landscape. But rather than turn back, Doniphan reassembled his army to its full force of about 1000 men and was allowed to proceed with the invasion unassisted. Once again grossly outnumbered--the Mexican army was four times the size of Doniphan's--the Missouri troops were still able to quickly break through the defensive lines and occupy Chihuahua City.
      By mid-summer 1847, Doniphan's victorious army reached the Gulf Coast, where they were picked up by ships and taken to New Orleans for discharge. By then, the focus of the battle had shifted to General Winfield Scott's campaign to take Mexico City. In September of that year, Scott's troops ended the war by successfully occupying Mexico City, and for the first time in US history an American flag flew over a foreign capital. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed early in 1848, gave the US the vast western territory stretching from Texas to the Pacific and north to Oregon

1845 Ether 1st used in childbirth in US, Jefferson GA

1831 Darwin sails off on 5-year exploration. British naturalist Charles Darwin sets out from Plymouth, England, aboard the HMS Beagle, on a five-year surveying expedition of the southern Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Visiting such diverse places as Brazil, the Galapagos Islands, and New Zealand, Darwin acquires an intimate knowledge of the flora, fauna, wildlife, and geology of many lands. This information proves invaluable in the development of his theory of evolution, first put forth in his groundbreaking scientific work of 1859, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Darwin's theory of natural selection argues that species are the result of a gradual biological evolution of living organisms in which nature encourages, through natural selection, those species best suited to their environments to propagate future descendants. The Origin of Species is the first significant work on the theory of evolution, and is greeted with great interest in the scientific world, although it is also violently attacked because it contradicts the account of creation given in the Bible. Nevertheless, the work, unquestionably one of the most important in the history of science, eventually succeeds in gaining acceptance from almost all biologists. The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life would be published in England on 24 November 1859. Darwin's theory of natural selection argues that species are the result of a gradual biological evolution of living organisms in which nature encourages, through natural selection, those species best suited to their environments to propagate future descendants. The first printing of 1250 copies sells out in a single day. By 1872, it would have run through six editions, and become one of the most influential books of modern times. Darwin, the privileged and well-connected son of a successful English doctor, had been interested in botany and natural sciences since his boyhood, despite the discouragement of his early teachers. At Cambridge, he found professors and scientists with similar interests and with their help began participating in scientific voyages. He traveled around South America for five years as an unpaid botanist on the HMS Beagle. By the time Darwin returned, he had developed an outstanding reputation as a field researcher and scientific writer, based on his many papers and letters dispatched from South America and the Galapagos Islands, which were read at meetings of prominent scientific societies in London. Darwin began publishing studies of zoology and geology as soon as he returned from his voyage. Fearing the fate of other scientists, like Copernicus and Galileo, who had published radical scientific theories, Darwin held off publishing his theory of natural selection for years. He secretly developed his theory during two decades of surreptitious research following his trip on the Beagle. Meanwhile, he married and had seven children. He finally published Origin of Species after another scientist began publishing papers with similar ideas. His book laid the groundwork for modern botany, cellular biology, and genetics. He died in 1882. Darwin, who was influenced by the work of French naturalist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, and later by English scientist Alfred Russel Wallace, acquired most of the evidence for his theory during a five-year surveying expedition aboard the HMS Beagle during the 1830s. Visiting such diverse places as Brazil, the Galapagos Islands, and New Zealand, Darwin acquired an intimate knowledge of the flora, fauna, wildlife, and geology of many lands. This information, along with his experiments with variation and interbreeding after returning to England, proved invaluable in the development of his theory of natural selection. His On the Origin of Species is the first significant work on the theory of evolution, and is greeted with great interest in the scientific world, although it is also violently attacked because it contradicts the account of creation given in the Bible. Nevertheless, the work, unquestionably one of the most important in the history of science, eventually succeeds in gaining acceptance from almost all biologists. Darwin, the privileged and well-connected son of a successful English doctor, had been interested in botany and natural sciences since his boyhood, despite the discouragement of his early teachers. At Cambridge, he found professors and scientists with similar interests and with their help began participating in scientific voyages, including the HMS Beagle's trip. By the time Darwin returned, he had developed an outstanding reputation as a field researcher and scientific writer, based on his many papers and letters dispatched from South America and the Galapagos Islands, which were read at meetings of prominent scientific societies in London. Darwin began publishing studies of zoology and geology as soon as he returned from his voyage, while also secretly working on his radical theory of evolution. Knowing that scientists who had published radical theories before had been ostracized or worse, Darwin held off on publishing his theory of natural selection for nearly two decades. Meanwhile, he married and had seven children. He finally published On the Origin of Species after another scientist began publishing papers with similar ideas. His book laid the groundwork for modern botany, cellular biology, and genetics. He died in 1882. DARWIN ONLINE:
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, With Observations on Their Habits The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants	On the Origin of Species On the Origin of Species On the Origin of Species (zipped PDF) On the Origin of Species (6th edition) The Voyage of the Beagle The Voyage of the Beagle The Descent of Man The Descent of Man	The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication) volume 1 , volume 2 The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (PDF) The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin volume I , volume II The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (in The Life and Letters...) More Letters of Charles Darwin volume I: , volume II

1825 1st public railroad using steam locomotive completed in England
1788 Necker finit par convaincre le roi de France Louis XVI. Celui-ci décrète que le tiers état sera doublé lors des prochains Etats généraux. Les représentants de la noblesse sont inquiets : "Votre Majesté pourrait-elle sacrifier, humilier, sa brave, antique et respectable noblesse?"
1763 Los británicos devuelven Manila a los españoles con la firma del Tratado de paz de Fontainebleau.
1741 Prussian forces took Olmutz, Czechoslovakia
1726 St. John of the Cross, Spanish mystic and poet, is canonized.
1703 The Methuen Treaty was signed between Portugal and England, giving preference to the import of Portuguese wines into England.
1512 The laws of Burgos give New World natives legal protection against abuse and authorize Negro slavery.
1065 Sancho II es rey de Castilla tras la muerte de su padre Fernando I.
0418 [Etalius] begins his reign as Pope

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Deaths which occurred on a December 27:
2000 Antonio Rodríguez Valdivieso, pintor español. nacido en Granada en 1918. — MÁS SOBRE RODRIGUEZ EN ART “4” DECEMBER

1999: At least 79 killed by Eurostorm of the century, plus enormous material damage.

Photo: People walk through the storm devastated forest near Saales in the Vosges mountains, eastern France Monday 27 Dec 1999. Freak weekend gales left at least 79 people dead across Europe, many hit by falling trees and debris. France suffered the most with 44 victims.
La tempête du siècle (?)
Another powerful storm hits France as Western Europe struggles to recover from freak weekend gales that ripped trees from the ground, toppled walls and killed people. France bears the brunt of the devastation, and Paris officials call for the battered city to be declared a “natural disaster area.”
      Across France, 1.5 million homes remain without electricity. “This is an ecological disaster for Paris. Really, we'll need three years to reconstruct,” says Françoise de Panafieu, Paris' deputy mayor. Although weather conditions in Paris and much of the country were calm on Monday, another storm hit southwest France late in the evening with 130 km/h winds. All flights to Bordeaux, Toulouse and Biarritz were canceled and train traffic was suspended throughout the region.
     In Paris, tens of thousands of people returning to work today Monday after the Christmas holiday had to trample through streets strewn with debris, broken glass and uprooted trees. Traffic lights were bent, newspaper kiosks blown over and cultural monuments damaged. The storm toppled or damaged 60'000 trees in two forests on the city's outskirts and 2000 more along the city's streets. Slabs of roofing of the Notre Dame cathedral were blown off and a stained glass window at the Sainte-Chapelle was shattered by flying stonework.
     Worst hit among France's cultural monuments was the royal palace and park at Versailles, where the roof was damaged, windows were broken and 10'000 trees were ripped from the ground, including 200-year-old cedars planted around the time of the French Revolution. The National Fund for Historic Sites and Monuments estimated that it will take $62 million to $77 million to repair damaged cultural monuments.
     Paris Mayor Jean Tiberi said urgent repair work would be completed quickly, and predicted that millennium parties in the city, expected to draw millions of revelers, would not be disrupted. “The information we have right now shows everything will be normal," he said. “But of course we'll be attentive. “ He said security checks had been carried out on a line of Ferris wheels temporarily erected along the Champs-Elysees and that there had been no storm damage. Gusts of about 170 km/h tore roofs off buildings and knocked over huge cranes. It was Paris' worst storm in 50 years, officials said.
     The storms, which began before dawn Sunday 991226, wreaked havoc across Europe, disrupting travel by road, rail and air and stranding tens of thousands of holiday travelers. In Germany, 17 people died, most of them in Baden-Württemberg state across the Rhine from France. Fallen trees blocked roads and 1000 homes in Bavaria were without power.
     In neighboring Switzerland, at least 13 people were killed and several were injured, mostly by falling trees. Two of the victims were killed at a southern ski resort when a tree crashed into a lift cable and sent their gondola crashing to the ground. Thousands of homes, mostly in the mountainous Bernese Öberland region, remained without electricity Monday due to fallen trees.
     In northern Spain, a gust of wind knocked down a wall under construction at a truck stop, killing two workers. Three other people will killed in other accidents at two other construction sites. In Italy, several highways were closed and 7000 passengers were stranded at Milan's Malpensa airport.
     In Belgium, several rivers overflowed their banks. In Paris, light airplanes were flung around like cardboard on Sunday 991226. Chimney stacks were sent tumbling and even the awning of the famed Lido topless cabaret was torn from its support and propelled down the Champs-Elysées by the winds.

1997 Billy Wright, protestante y lealista paramilitar, objetivo pirncipal del IRA, es encontrado muerto en la cárcel norirlandesa de Maze, víctima de cinco disparos. — In Northern Ireland, Billy Wright was assassinated. He was imprisoned as a Protestant paramilitary leader.
1995 Boris Vladimirovich Gnedenko, mathematician.
1995 James Meade, científico británico.
1987 Rewi Alley, 90, NZ author, pro Chinese Communist, in Beijing
1985 Twenty persons killed by terrorists, 110 wounded, in attack on El Al at Rome and Vienna airports. US President Reagan blames Libyan leader Momar Qadhafi
1985 Dian Fossey, is found hacked to death at a research station in Rwanda. She was a US naturalist famous for studying gorillas in the wild
1979 President Hafizullah Amin of Afghanistan, Soviet puppet in office for 3 months (since the 14 September 1979 coup in which he murdered his predecessor puppet Noor Mohammad Taraki), is ousted and murdered in a coup backed by the Soviet Union, and replaced by Babrak Karmal, considered to be a more subservient puppet. Amin is the 3rd Afghan President in 20 months to be overthrown and murdered in a coup (the first one was killed in April 1978 in the “Saur Revolution” that brought the Marxists to power. He was Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, a non-Communist who had taken power in 1973 by overthrowing his cousin King Mohammad Zahir, abolishing the monarchy, and proclaiming himself the president of the Republic of Afghanistan in July 1973). The USSR moves massive troops into Afghanistan, intervening in what was until then a civil war between the Soviet puppet government and anti-Communist guerillas. The USSR will be stuck in Afghanistan for more than 10 years and ultimately defeated.

1978 Mohammed ben Brahim Boukharouba "Houari Boumédienne", 51 ans
      Boumédiène est né le 23 aoûn 1927, il étudia à l'Institut islamique de Constantine, en Algérie, puis à l'université al-Azhar du Caire, en Égypte. Ayant adhéré très jeune au Parti du peuple algérien (PPA) de Messali Hadj, il participa à l'insurrection du 1er novembre 1954 contre la domination française et fut l'un des premiers membres du Front de libération nationale (FLN). Devenu l'un des chefs de la rébellion, plus jeune colonel du FLN en 1957, il fut nommé, en 1960, chef d'état-major de l'Armée de libération nationale hors de l'Algérie.
      Après les accords d'Évian, en mars 1962, et l'indépendance algérienne de 1963, Boumédiène soutint la candidature à la présidence du nouvel État d'Ahmed Ben Bella dont il devint ministre de la Défense. Nommé vice-président du Conseil révolutionnaire l'année suivante, il évinça Ben Bella de la présidence, en juin 1965.
      Boumédiène gouverna autoritairement l'État algérien jusqu'en 1976. L'opposition politique du Mouvement démocratique du renouveau algérien fut rapidement réduite au silence. Boumédiène, qui s'était opposé à la politique d'autogestion de Ben Bella, nationalisa les compagnies pétrolières en 1966 puis de nombreuses sociétés privées dont les capitaux étaient pour l'essentiel détenus par les Français. Soucieux d'affirmer l'indépendance économique du pays, il mena une politique d'industrialisation massive, fondée notamment sur les exportations d'hydrocarbures. Une politique de réforme agraire compléta l'industrialisation, qui ne rencontra pas cependant le même succès.
      Boumédiène développa également le système d'enseignement, s'appuyant sur les coopérants français tout en procédant à l'arabisation de l'éducation nationale. Il développa des liens étroits avec le bloc communiste sans rompre, toutefois, avec l'Occident. Il donna également à l'Algérie une place importante au sein du tiers-monde, se faisant l'ardent défenseur d'un "nouvel ordre économique international", après la Conférence des pays non-alignés en 1973.
      En 1976, une nouvelle Constitution algérienne fut votée et approuvée par référendum. Elle faisait de l'Algérie une "démocratie socialiste", mais l'Islam demeurait religion officielle, et consacrait le rôle dirigeant du parti. Élu président pour un mandat de six ans, Houari Boumédiène mourut en décembre 1978. Chadli Ben Djedid lui succéda.

1972 Lester B Pearson (L) 14th Canadian PM (Nobel 1956)
1959 Alfonso Reyes, escritor mexicano.
1958 Fray Gregorio Arcila Robledo, historiador y lingüista colombiano.
1950 Max Beckmann, German Expressionist painter born on 12 February 1884, one of the founders of what we now call modern art. — MORE ON BECKMANN AT ART “4” DECEMBER — LINKS — Selbstbildnis als Krankenpfleger — Self Portrait in Olive and Brown — Christ with a Women Taken in Adultery — Family — Dancing Badden Badden — Tux — Man and Women — Umberto — Afternoon — Argonaux — The Acrobats — 27 etchings at FAMSF
1946 Pedro Mata Domínguez, novelista español.
1943 Curtis Veeder, engineer, inventor of the modern automotive tachometer and odometer,
1940 Louis Hayet, French artist born on 29 August 1864.
1939 Some 20'000, in magnitude 8 quake (Erzincam Turkey)

1939 Day 28 of Winter War: USSR aggression against Finland. [Talvisodan 28. päivä]
More deaths due to Stalin's desire to grab Finnish territory. Eastern Isthmus: the Finnish counteroffensive at Taipale pushes the Russians back from Kelja around midday. The Russians lose 2000 men in the fighting at Lake Suvanto while 516 Finnish soldiers are killed. Northern Finland: at Hulkonniemi in Suomussalmi, troops of the Finnish 9th Division launch their decisive assault to destroy the enemy's 163rd Division. The Russians are forced to withdraw from Suomussalmi. Colonel Siilasvuo receives word that the entire Russian 44th Division is concentrated along the Raate road. Ladoga Karelia: combat detachments of IV Army Corps commanded by Major-General Hägglund launch a broad counteroffensive which lays the basis for January's 'motti' battles. In Lieksa, the Finnish troops attacking in the region of Kivivaara reach the Russian border and take up defensive positions. Finland's civil defense chief urges the public to make greater use of camouflage and other forms of protection: cars should be painted white and people should also carry with them white camouflage clothing. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin expresses his appreciation to Otto Wille Kuusinen and his puppet 'Finnish People's Government' for their 60th birthday greetings, and wishes them victory in their struggle. In a radio lecture, Professor V.A. Koskenniemi likens Finland's fight to the struggle of the ancient Greeks against the great powers of the ancient world.

1937 Maurice Ravel, compositor francés.
1936 Leon Wyczolkowski, Polish artist born on 11 April 1852.
1915 Juan Menéndez Pidal, poeta y folclorista español.
1899 Henri Jacques Edouard Evenepoel, Belgian artist born on 04 October 1872.
1879 Jacob Thompson, British artist born on 28 August 1806.
1849 Jacques-Laurent Agasse, Swiss painter specialized in animals born on 24 March 1767. — LINKS — White Horse in Pasture — The Last Stage on the Portsmouth Road — Landing at Westminster Bridge — The Flower Seller — The Playground
1832 Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, filósofo alemán. [too much fried rich food?]
1805 Jean-Baptiste-Charles Claudot, French artist born in 1733.
1802 Jens Juel, Danish artist born on 12 May 1745. — LINKS — Jean-Armand Tronchin — Madame de Pragins — A Strom Brewing behind a Farmhouse in Zealand — A Noblewoman with her Son — A Running Boy
1795 Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo, líder independentista ecuatoriano.
1745 Johan Anton Richter, Swedish artist born in 1675, give or take 10 years. — Capriccio With Palazzo Vendramin Calergi, Venice
1703 Isaak van Nikkelen, Dutch artist born in 1635, give or take 5 years.
1641 Gotthardt Wedig, German artist born in 1583.
1631 Jan Symonszoon Pynas, Dutch artist born in 1583 or 1584. — LINKS — Historical Allegory — The Raising of Lazarus
1585 Pierre de Ronsard, poeta francés. RONSARD ONLINE: Oeuvres Complètes (Tome I) — Les Amours — Poésies Choisies.
1065 Fernando I, rey de Castilla y de León.
0418 Pope St. Zosimus, Pope. His 14-month pontificate served chiefly to reaffirm decrees against the Pelagians and other heresies and to allow churches below the rank of basilica to bless candles.

Births which occurred on a December 27:
1945 The International Monetary Fund.
1945 The World Bank for Reconstruction and Development, created by an ageement signed by 28 nations.
1936 Lee Salk doctor (CBS TV)
1930 Wilfrid Sheed England, writer (Boys of Winter, The Hack)
1929 Lucio Muñoz, pintor español nacido en Madrid y fallecido en su ciudad natal el 24 de mayo de 1998. — MÁS SOBRE MUÑOZ EN ART “4” DECEMBER
1926 Rodrigo Carazo Odio, político y economista costarricense.
1915 Cooper, mathematician.

1910 Le chronophone
Dans toutes les recherches sur la reproduction mécanique des sons, la véritable ambition était de reproduire la voix même des acteurs, en concordance avec leurs mouvements. Tout naturellement, on pensa d’abord au disque et à la synchronisation par un lien mécanique entre le projecteur et le phonographe.
Parmi les travaux les plus remarquables, ceux de Léon Gaumont, entrepris en 1900 et ayant abouti au Chronophone . Cet appareil fut présenté à l’Académie des sciences le 27 décembre 1910 par le professeur Arsène d’Arsonval, dont le " portrait parlant " déclara à ses collègues : " Le jour où le phonographe reproduira sans altération les diverses valeurs phoniques, la vie intégrale sera reconstituée [...]. C’est alors que nous serons vraiment immortels. “

1904 Peter Pan, play by James Barrie Peter Pan, by James Barrie, opens at the Duke of York's Theater in London. Barrie was born in 1860 and studied at the University of Edinburgh. He worked as a reporter for The Nottingham Journal for two years after college. He moved to London in 1885 and became a freelance writer. His first collection of sketches, Auld Licht Idylls, was published in 1888 and became a success, followed by an account of his days working in newspapers, called When a Man's Single. He published a collection of stories in 1889 and a bestselling novel, The Little Minister, in 1891. The Little Minister was dramatized in 1897, and Barrie shifted his focus from prose to drama, enjoying a series of successes. In 1904, he wrote Peter Pan. Although he wrote many other plays, few are still performed today, and none had the staying power of Peter Pan. He became president of the Society of Authors in 1928 and chancellor of the University of Edinburgh in 1930. Barrie died in London in 1937. BARRIE ONLINE:
Peter Pan Peter Pan Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens	The Little White Bird The Little White Bird	Margaret Ogilvy Margaret Ogilvy co-author of Jane Annie

1901 Marlene Dietrich, German-born singer and actress.
1896 Louis Bromfield Mansfield OH, novelist and essayist (Early Autumn, Pulitzer-1926). He died on 18 March 1956.
1883 Cyrus Eaton, Canadian-born US industrialist and philanthropist, who died on 09 May 1979.
1829 Hinton Helper, southern abolitionist who wrote The Impending Crisis.
1823 Sir Mackenzie Boswell, Canadian prime minister, who died on 19 December 1917.
1822 Louis Pasteur, Dole, France, bacteriologist (pasteurization, rabies vaccine). He died on 28 September 1895. -- Ce biologiste français a effectué de nombreuses recherches et on lui doit le vaccin contre la rage, la découverte de l'aseptie et de l'antiseptie et celle du rôle des bactéries dans la fermentation.
1806 Ramón Cabrera y Griño, militar carlista español.
1799 Serafín Estébanez Calderón, escritor español.
1747 Esteban de Arteaga, jesuita español.
1654 (Julian date = 06 Jan 1655 Gregorian) Jacob Bernoulli.
1586 Francisco de Moncada, político y escritor español.
1571 Johannes Kepler, mathematician, Worttemberg Germany, astronomer (elliptical orbits). He died on 15 November 1630.
1773 George Cayley England, founded science of aerodynamics

Holidays Australia, Channel Is, England, Nauru : Boxing Day / Bhutan : Day of 9 Evils / Indonesia : Independence Day (1949) / Namibia, South Africa : Family Day

Religious Observances RC, Luth, Ang : St John, apostle/evangelist

DICTIONNAIRE TICRANIEN: sensible: se dit d'une galerie de tir mal équipée.

Thoughts for the day : “The plural of spouse is spice. “ [and it's nice if they live in different hice]
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” — Albert Einstein [They ought to apply that to English spelling, among other things]

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