Today in Your History — December
A look at the people, events and popular culture that shaped our lives
AARP Members Only Access, December 2021
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PHOTO BY: Dick Clark Prod./Courtesy Everett Collection
Dec. 31: Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve debuts (1972)
Before the 1970s, New Year’s Eve had been a rather dull and old-fashioned affair, with bandleader Guy Lombardo ringing in the holiday with his annual radio and then TV broadcasts of “Auld Lang Syne” from 1929 through 1976. Then, in 1972, the “world’s oldest teenager,” Dick Clark, blew the dust off the holiday with the debut of his youth-focused concert celebration, called New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, which was broadcast from Times Square and from aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. “It was terribly boring to me,” Clark said of the Lombardo years in a 2003 interview. “I wanted to make New Year’s Eve a little more contemporary and exciting.” In that first year, performers included Al Green, Billy Preston, Helen Reddy and Blood, Sweat and Tears, with Three Dog Night serving as hosts. Clark would stay in the role through the 2011-12 broadcast, his final appearance before he died at the age of 82 in April 2012. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Nick Ut/AP Photo
Dec. 30: The U.S. stops its heavy bombing of North Vietnam (1972)
December 1972 marked a period of intense bombing against the North Vietnamese, known as Operation Linebacker II, in which airfields and supply depots in and around Hanoi and Haiphong were targeted by American B-52 bombers. After 12 days, on Dec. 30, President Richard Nixon announced the halting of bombings north of the 20th parallel, a move that surprised the media. As The New York Times reported that day, “It was unclear whether the impetus for the new round of negotiations had come from Hanoi, reeling under B-52 raids, or from Washington, which was possibly looking for an excuse to suspend the latest raids because of increasing foreign and domestic pressure.” The White House also announced that on Jan. 8, Henry Kissinger would resume his peace talks with Le Duc Tho in Paris, which ultimately led to a cease-fire agreement later that month. Tho and Kissinger were ultimately awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, but Tho declined the award, saying that Vietnam was not yet at peace and that the U.S. had violated the truce. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Dec. 29: Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” hits number one three months after his death in a plane crash (1973)
On Sept. 20, 1973, the music world lost one of its brightest young stars when the 30-year-old singer-songwriter Jim Croce died in a plane crash in Louisiana after his chartered flight hit a tree upon takeoff. His biggest hit, “Time in a Bottle,” had been released in 1972 on Croce’s first album, You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, and on Sept. 12, 1973, it was featured in the ABC Movie of the Week, She Lives, about a woman dying of cancer. After his untimely death only eight days later, the song was released as a single; its lyrics about mortality and wishing for more time had newfound relevance. “If I could save time in a bottle,” he sang, "The first thing that I’d like to do, is to save every day till eternity passes away just to spend them with you.” On Dec. 29, the song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it stayed for two weeks, becoming only the third posthumous number-one single at the time, following Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” and Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
Dec. 28: The Dallas Cowboys win a playoff game with their famous “Hail Mary” pass (1975)
The term “Hail Mary,” referring to a long-shot pass thrown out of a sense of desperation, had been tossed around since as early as the 1930s, but it really entered the American lexicon after a 1975 playoff game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings. With 24 seconds left in the game, the Cowboys were trailing 14-10 — they needed a miracle. Enter QB Roger Staubach, who heaved the ball 50 yards down the field. Wide receiver Drew Pearson caught the ball on the 5-yard line and ran it into the end zone for a game-winning touchdown. He was so excited that he threw the ball over the scoreboard and into the parking lot, earning a $150 fine (he never knew where the ball ended up). Later, during a post-game interview in the locker room, Staubach, a practicing Catholic, told reporters, “It was just a Hail Mary pass, a very, very lucky play. I closed my eyes and said a Hail Mary.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: CBS/Fotos International/Courtesy of Getty Images
Dec. 27: Knots Landing begins its 14-season run (1979)
During the 1979 fall television season, CBS prime-time soap Dallas was firmly entrenched in the top 10, with viewership steadily on the rise. Could CBS strike (black) gold twice? On Dec. 27, the network premiered its new spin-off series, Knots Landing, which saw the Ewing family’s black sheep of a son, Gary (Ted Shackelford), move with his wife, Valene (Joan Van Ark), to a California cul-de-sac, which they shared with three other couples. “Will they stay? Can Gary stay off the sauce? Will they be joined by their tough, embittered 17-year-old daughter (Gary and Val were once very young lovers)?” asked John J. O’Connor in The New York Times. “Stay tuned for endless developments. That’s the point. Incidentally, Knots Landing is being scheduled against ABC-TV’s Soap, affording students of television a rare opportunity to watch a ratings battle between an authentic form and its outlandish parody.” Unsurprisingly, the show was a runaway smash, and its over-the-top story lines — kidnappings, blackmail, illegal adoption rings, serial killers, strip croquet — kept it on the air for 344 episodes and 14 seasons. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Dec. 26: The Exorcist premieres (1973)
With its head-spinning, spider-walking, projectile-vomiting lead, The Exorcist is often hailed as one of the scariest movies ever made. It might seem like the ultimate Halloween release, but it actually hit theaters on the day after Christmas 1973. The winter weather didn’t deter moviegoers: As The New York Times reported, “That New York phenomenon, the longlonglonglonglong movie line, was carried to new lengths in recent weeks after William Friedkin’s Christmas offering, The Exorcist, opened on Dec. 26 at Cinema I. This time, people stood like sheep in the rain, cold and sleet for up to four hours to see the chilling film about a 12-year-old girl going to the devil.” Once inside — after going so far as to light bonfires on the street to stay warm — audience members were known to have fainted, vomited or fled to the lobby, and there were even reported miscarriages and heart attacks. Some theaters started handing out barf bags, and a psychiatric journal reported instances of “cinematic neurosis” following screenings. Despite the controversy (or perhaps because of it), The Exorcist became the first horror film to be nominated for the Oscar for best picture, winning two awards for best adapted screenplay and best sound. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Vitaly Armand/AFP via Getty Images
Dec. 25: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (1991)
On Dec. 25, 1991, the West received a Christmas gift that it had been asking Santa for during the entire Cold War: the end of the Soviet Union. So how did it happen? The writing had been on the wall for a while for Mikhail Gorbachev, whose reforms had pushed hard-line Communists to stage a failed coup in August 1991. By early December, the heads of state of the Soviet Union’s constituent republics signed on to form the new Commonwealth of Independent States, thus rendering the U.S.S.R. obsolete. On Christmas Day, Gorbachev called President George H.W. Bush to thank him for the hard work they had done together and to ask for Western support and then, at 7 p.m., he delivered a powerful resignation speech from the Kremlin. He touted the accomplishments of reformers and the dismantling of the old totalitarian system, saying, “I am leaving my post with apprehension, but also with hope, with faith in you, your wisdom and force of spirit. We are the heirs of a great civilization and its rebirth into a new, modern and dignified life now depends on one and all.” The Soviet hammer and sickle flag over the Kremlin was lowered, to be replaced within a half-hour by its new red, white and blue flag — a symbol of the new Russia. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Dec. 24: Apollo 8 broadcasts live to Earth (1968)
With the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy and the ongoing trauma of the Vietnam War, 1968 proved to be one of the most challenging years in American history. Bringing a much-needed dose of positivity at its end, the Apollo 8 mission blasted off on Dec. 21, and on Christmas Eve, astronauts William Anders, Frank Borman and James Lovell Jr. became the first humans to enter lunar orbit. The trio broadcast live back down to Earth to an expected billion people (or about a quarter of the world’s population) — which would be the largest audience in human history. With NASA only instructing them to do “something appropriate,” the astronauts showed pictures of Earth and the surface of the Moon, and Lovell mused, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.” They then took turns reading from the book of Genesis. As Lovell later recalled, “The first 10 verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world’s religions, not just the Christian religion. There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that, and so that’s how it came to pass.” They signed off with Borman saying, “And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.” The next morning, once the crew successfully began their journey homeward and reconnected with mission control, they announced, “Roger, please be informed, there is a Santa Claus.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Harry Cabluck, File/AP Photo
Dec. 23: Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris makes the “Immaculate Reception” (1972)
Let’s set the scene for one of the NFL’s most memorable moments: It was 1972, the Pittsburgh Steelers had qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 1947, and they trailed 7-6 with 22 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw lobbed the ball toward halfback Frenchy Fuqua and then — depending on whom you ask — it either hit Fuqua (which would have ended the play) or Raiders safety Jack Tatum (which would have left the ball in play). It bounced back seven yards, into the arms of rookie fullback Franco Harris, who raced it 42 yards down the field, securing a 13-7 victory with five seconds left on the clock. Later, as broadcaster Myron Cope was at the news station preparing his commentary, a woman called in to suggest calling the play the “Immaculate Reception,” and it stuck. In 2019, 80 experts selected by the Associated Press and the NFL chose the play as the greatest in league history, with Grant Gordon writing for NFL.com, “The controversy, the drama, the sheer amazement of the play has kept its legend alive all these years later.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Evan Vucci/AP Photo
Dec. 22: President Obama signs legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (2010)
When it debuted in 1993, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy officially ended the ban on homosexuals in the military that had been in place since World War II, but it did little to curb discrimination in the ranks, with gay and lesbian service members forced into secrecy to keep their jobs. By 2010, the policy was, to put it mildly, wearing out its welcome, and by Dec. 18, the House and the Senate both voted to repeal DADT, despite a Republican filibuster. “It is time to close this chapter in our history,” President Obama said in a statement. “It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed. It is time to allow gay and lesbian Americans to serve their country openly.” On Dec. 22, Obama officially signed the repeal, saying, “We are not a nation that says ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ We are a nation that says ‘out of many, we are one.’” Nine months later, on Sept. 20, 2011, DADT finally went the way of the dodo, and LGBTQ service members could proudly and openly serve their country. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Han Myung-Gu/WireImage/Getty Images
Dec. 21: The South Korean song “Gangnam Style” becomes the first YouTube video to reach 1 billion views (2012)
Even if you know nothing else about Korean music, chances are that you’ve heard of the rapper Psy and his world-conquering song “Gangnam Style.” It’s a satire about the ultra-wealthy in Seoul’s fanciest neighborhood, but you don’t need to speak a word of Korean to enjoy its gloriously goofy music video, which spawned its infamous galloping horse dance. The single rocketed to global stardom, and on Dec. 21, 2012, “Gangnam Style” became the first video in YouTube history to pass 1 billion views. “When I perform ‘Gangnam Style’ all around the world, I feel happy and sorry at the same time because people have no idea what I’m talking about!” Psy told MTV News. “They’re just waiting for the sexy ladies to come out! But I came to the conclusion that maybe people have their own lyrics for the song, which probably only made it more popular.” As of this December, the video has more than 4.2 billion views, though it’s fallen back to number 11 on the most-watched YouTube videos of all time list. The new number 1? Yet another extremely catchy earworm song from South Korea: “Baby Shark,” which boasts an astonishing 9.8 billion views. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Mel Finkelstein/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Dec. 20: Gloria Steinem previews Ms. as an insert in New York magazine (1971)
Before it officially launched in 1972 as a standalone publication, the groundbreaking feminist magazine Ms. appeared as an insert in the Dec. 20, 1971, issue of New York, where founder Gloria Steinem had published her wildly popular column, The City Politic. In his editor’s letter, Clay Felker introduced Ms. as follows: “The central 40 pages of this issue… consist of a preview issue of Ms., a national magazine edited totally by women, among them Gloria Steinem of our own staff. It is devoted to women — not as role players, but as full human beings.” In a 2011 oral history of Ms. for New York, cofounding editor Nancy Newhouse recalled that Steinem and Felker had had “knockdown arguments” about what would appear on the first cover. He preferred a photograph of a man and a woman, back-to-back, both tied to a pole, but she won out with an illustration of a modern version of the blue-skinned, many-armed Hindu goddess Kali, created by artist Miriam Wosk. With tears streaming down her face, red high heels on her feet and a baby in her womb, the woman juggles driving, cooking, cleaning, ironing and more. The preview issue, which featured a cover story on “the housewife’s moment of truth” and articles on abortion and “de-sexing” the English language, sold out its 300,000 copies nationwide in eight days and attracted 26,000 subscription orders and more than 20,000 letters from readers. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Susan Walsh/AP Photo
Dec. 19: President Bill Clinton is impeached by the House of Representatives (1998)
On Dec. 19, 1998, Bill Clinton had the dubious honor of becoming only the second president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868. Earlier that year, Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky became the focus of independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation. Largely along party lines, the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment: one for perjury for lying to a federal grand jury about his relationship with Lewinsky, another for obstruction of justice. Clinton was ultimately acquitted by the Senate the following year, and the scandal failed to put a dent in his approval ratings: In fact, in mid-December, they hit a high of 71 percent, an increase of about 10 percent since just before the scandal broke in January. If you forgot about all the ins and outs and political machinations of the impeachment and trial, you can always catch up with this year’s limited series Impeachment: American Crime Story, on the FX network, starring Beanie Feldstein as Lewinsky and Clive Owen as Clinton. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Moviestore Collection Ltd/Alamy
Dec. 18: The highest-grossing film of all time, Avatar, is released (2009)
You have to hand it to director James Cameron: He truly knows how to make a blockbuster. After spending 15 weeks at number 1, Titanic raked in more than $2 billion at the global box office, becoming the highest-grossing film in history. How would Cameron top himself for the follow-up? It took a long time to find out! For 12 years, he worked on TV series and documentaries, before finally releasing his eco-minded sci-fi fantasia, Avatar, on Dec. 18, 2009. In her review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis described the film, which is set in the lush paradise of an inhabited moon called Pandora, as “created to conquer hearts, minds, history books and box-office records.” With a reported $210 million budget, it was a pricey gamble, and it paid off: Avatar overtook Titanic as the highest-grossing film of all time, a title it held until the 2019 release of Avengers: Endgame. And then, in a surprise twist, Avatar had a late-breaking resurgence, when a Chinese rerelease this spring pushed it back to the top of the list, with a new global box office take of more than $2.8 billion. It remains to be seen if Cameron will strike gold twice (or three times or …) when he returns to the world of the blue Na’vi for four sequels, the first of which is set for release next December. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Douglas Kirkland/Corbis via Getty Images
Dec. 17: The first episode of The Simpsons airs on Fox (1989)
Still going strong after more than three decades, the Simpsons family first appeared in animated shorts on the Fox network’s variety program The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. And then, in 1989, the fledgling network took a chance on creator Matt Groening’s clan by giving them their own half-hour series, which aired its first episode, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire,” on Dec. 17. The holiday special may look a little different from more polished future episodes, and some of the voices are still clearly in the workshopping phase, but there’s plenty to love about the sweet-natured pilot: Homer takes a job as a department store Santa after Marge has to spend their holiday savings to remove Bart’s new tattoo. Homer and Bart end up coming home from the dog races with a losing greyhound, Santa’s Little Helper, who instantly becomes a much-beloved member of the family. The show, on the other hand, wasn’t as much of an instant hit. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Bruce Bailey called them “the most moronic middle-class family since the beginning of time. But, hey, that’s what makes them so extra special.” Nevertheless, by the end of Season 1, The Simpsons was on its way to cementing its status as a pop-cultural powerhouse, becoming the first Fox show to finish in the Top 30 and picking up its first of an eventual 35 Emmy wins and counting. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: SGranitz/WireImage/Getty Images
Dec. 16: Larry King Live ends its 25-year run on CNN (2010)
With his trademark suspenders, owlish glasses and hunched shoulders, broadcast veteran Larry King became a CNN fixture for 25 years with his namesake chat show, Larry King Live. Over the course of 6,120 episodes, the Peabody Award winner —who died in January —interviewed presidents and pop stars, Hollywood legends and foreign dictators. Before he handed over his CNN time slot to Piers Morgan, King was honored with a final star-studded send-off on Dec. 16, 2010, that included a message from President Barack Obama, a performance by Tony Bennett and a proclamation of Larry King Day by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, plus guest appearances by the likes of Bill Maher, Regis Philbin, Ryan Seacrest, Barbara Walters and more. Fred Armisen, who played King on Saturday Night Live, interviewed the legend as himself. “Larry, what is the most interesting thing about me?” Armisen, as King, asked. “The most interesting thing about you,” King responded, “is you’re a little whacko.” At the end of the hour, King signed off on a sentimental note by saying, “I don’t know what to say, except to you, my audience, thank you. And instead of ‘goodbye,’ how about ‘so long’?” The final night’s episode attracted some 2.24 million viewers, and it turned out that King’s return to the network didn’t take “so long” after all: Two days after his show went dark, CNN aired his pretaped special on the war on cancer. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Dec. 15: Walt Disney dies (1966)
Walt Disney was one of the most undeniably fertile creative minds of the 20th century — so prolific, in fact, that it might be difficult to imagine he was able to achieve all that he did in only 65 short years. On Dec. 15, 1966, the legend (and lifelong smoker) died of complications from lung cancer just 10 days after his 65th birthday. In his obituary, New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther wrote, “The popular image of Walt Disney as a shy and benign miracle man who performed varied feats of movie magic to entertain young and old does not do justice nor honor to this remarkable cinema artist and tycoon who rightly achieved an eminence as great as that of any star in Hollywood.” If Disney was remembered for a life that inspired wonder, perhaps it’s appropriate that his death also got imaginations running wild. Almost immediately upon his passing, urban legends began sprouting up suggesting that Walt’s body was being cryogenically frozen and that he would be thawed and revived at some later date. “We don’t have him in an ice cube tray in the freezer,” his grand-niece Abigail told CBS Sunday Morning in 2016. “No. Not frozen. Was at the funeral. Remember it well. No. Not frozen.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: CBW/Alamy
Dec. 14: The Clash releases London Calling (1979)
London, 1979. Margaret Thatcher had recently become prime minister, drug use was rampant, unemployment was on the rise and racial tensions were reaching a boiling point. At the end of a generation-redefining year and the start of a tumultuous new decade, the Clash released their appropriately revolutionary third album, London Calling. Though they had come up in the punk scene, the Clash filled their sonically audacious masterwork with far-ranging influences that included ska, reggae, rockabilly, R&B and jazz, as well as politically charged lyrics that referenced everything from the Spanish Civil War to nuclear meltdowns and Montgomery Clift. The album went on to be hailed as one of the best of all time, appearing at number 8 on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums list in 2003 and falling slightly to 16 in the 2020 reranking. In his A-plus review, American rock critic Robert Christgau wrote, “Warm, angry, and thoughtful, confident, melodic, and hard-rocking, this is the best double-LP since Exile on Main Street. And it’s selling for about $7.50.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: MAURICIO LIMA/AFP via Getty Images
Dec. 13: Saddam Hussein is captured near Tikrit (2003)
In one of the defining moments of the Iraq War, former dictator and war criminal Saddam Hussein was finally captured on the night of Dec. 13, 2003, after being on the run for nine months following the start of the U.S.-led invasion. Thanks to tips from a tribal clan insider with close connections to the Hussein family, 600 American soldiers raided a farm outside of his hometown of Tikrit and found him hiding at the bottom of an 8-foot-deep hole. “He was caught like a rat,” Maj. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno told reporters. Bearded, unkempt and dirty, the deposed dictator was hiding with a knife, a pistol and a suitcase stuffed with $750,000 American dollars — though he offered no resistance and was described as “very disoriented” as he was taken into custody. It brought an end to an ongoing cat-and-mouse game that had seen Hussein moving around between as many as 30 secret hideouts, sometimes staying at each for only a few hours. The trial started in October 2005 and ended in November 2006, when he was ultimately convicted of crimes against humanity. Hussein was executed by hanging on Dec. 30, 2006. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Lee Celano/WireImage/Getty Images
Dec. 12: Winona Ryder is arrested for shoplifting (2001)
Today marks the 20th anniversary of one of the stranger scandals in recent Hollywood history, when two-time Oscar nominee Winona Ryder was arrested at the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue with more than $5,500 worth of stolen designer clothes. The Beetlejuice star claimed that she believed her account was left open and that she would be charged later for whatever she had taken, but a jury ultimately didn’t buy the story: In November 2002, she was found guilty of felony grand theft and vandalism. In the year between her arrest and her conviction, Ryder was a bit of a pop culture punch line, appearing frequently in tabloid and entertainment news shows. She ultimately reemerged into the spotlight when she hosted the Saturday Night Live season finale in May 2002, during which she joked in the monologue: “You know, people have been acting a little strange around here — there’s a lot of locking of doors and shifty eyes and a lot of frisking!” In 2007, she finally addressed the arrest in a more serious manner in a Vogue cover story, in which blamed the incident on a painkiller addiction. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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Dec. 11: The Libertarian Party is formed (1971)
America’s third largest political party can trace its roots to a house in Colorado Springs, where 50 years ago today a group of activists tried to reframe the country’s political spectrum. Earlier in 1971, activist David Nolan and his friends had been angered by a number of President Nixon’s political actions, such as continuing the Vietnam War, instituting wage and price controls and removing the country from the gold standard. Influenced by Ayn Rand, Nolan — who worked as a writer in advertising and public relations — argued that Americans should ignore the old conservative-liberal binary and instead come together to support greater civil liberties and fewer restrictions on capitalism. He and his friends began by sending letters to like-minded people across the country with the goal of starting a new party if they received 100 positive responses. After a wave of support, they convened on Dec. 11 at the house of Luke Zell to officially form the Libertarian Party. In the 1972 presidential election, the party nominated philosopher John Hospers and radio producer Tonie Nathan; although the ticket only received 3,671 votes, one “faithless elector” from Virginia cast his vote for the Libertarians, making Nathan the first female in American history to receive an electoral vote. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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Dec. 10: “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is released in the U.S. (1984)
Can music heal an ailing world? Maybe not. But can it raise a lot of money? Most definitely. Inspired by a series of BBC reports on the famine in Ethiopia, Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and Ultravox front man Midge Ure joined forces to write a single for charity, and then they started ringing up their famous musician friends, including U2’s Bono, Spandau Ballet, George Michael, Boy George, Sting, Phil Collins, Bananarama and many, many more. Credited as Band Aid, the supergroup recorded the single in one whirlwind day, Nov. 25, 1984, at Sarm West Studios; they released it in the United Kingdom on Dec. 3 and in the United States a week later. The holiday ditty has been dismissed as patronizing, demeaning, colonial and worse, but no matter what you think of the lyrics, it was a blunt (and wildly successful) fundraising instrument, designed, as Ure said, to “touch people’s heartstrings and to loosen the purse strings.” The plan worked: Geldof had hoped to raise 70,000 pounds for famine relief, and by the end of 1985, proceeds reached 8 million pounds. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Mirrorpix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Dec. 9: Buckingham Palace announces the official split of Charles and Diana (1992)
Rumors of a royal split had dogged the Prince and Princess of Wales since at least the late 1980s, but it wasn’t until Dec. 9, 1992, that Buckingham Palace made the separation official. On that day, Prime Minister John Major stood in front of members of the House of Commons and said, in a nationally televised address, that the decision had “been reached amicably and they [would] both continue to participate fully in the upbringing of their children.” The prepared statement clarified that Charles and Diana would not divorce and that they’d later rule separately as king and queen. But, as William E. Schmidt wrote in The New York Times, “The arrangement poses difficult questions about how, exactly, the monarchy will function in the future, with the Prince and Princess leading separate lives, inside separate palaces, surrounded by separate and potentially rival courts.” He continued: “Even trickier, will the royal couple be able to date other people?” Of course, we know what happened next. Their divorce was later finalized in August 1996, and Diana lost the title of “Her Royal Highness.” If you need a refresher course, options include TV series The Crown, the film Spencer and the Broadway musical Diana. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Paul Goresh/Popperfoto via Getty Images
Dec. 8: John Lennon is killed (1980)
Do you remember what you were doing when you heard that John Lennon had been murdered? It was a defining moment in pop-culture history that saw one of the century’s greatest songwriters cut down in his prime at only 40 years old. On the evening of Dec. 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a former security guard who had been living in Hawaii, waited outside of Lennon’s apartment building, the Dakota, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and asked the singer to autograph his copy of the Double Fantasy album. Then, just before 11 p.m., Chapman returned and shot Lennon in the back as he was entering the doorway with Yoko Ono. When the police arrived, the 25-year-old killer was waiting out front, calmly reading a copy of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, in which he had scrawled “This is my statement.” Chapman later pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. At the sentencing hearing, he read a passage ending with the line that gave the book its title: “That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Heritage Space/Heritage Images via Getty Images
Dec. 7: Apollo 17, the last moon-landing mission, is launched (1972)
Just a little under three and a half years after Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon, in July 1969, NASA launched the final lunar landing mission, Apollo 17, on Dec. 7, 1972. The 12-day mission broke several records, including longest space walk and largest samples brought back from the moon, weighing in at 243.4 pounds of rock and soil. When the mission returned to Earth, President Richard Nixon had one of the lunar samples broken up into tiny “goodwill moon rocks,” which were distributed to 135 countries and 50 states. The crew included Cmdr. Eugene A. Cernan, lunar module pilot and geologist Harrison H. Schmitt, command module pilot Ronald E. Evans and a quintet of pocket mice, which the astronauts dubbed Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum and Phooey. It was on this mission that the famous “Blue Marble” photograph of Earth was taken, and it was the first image ever captured of the entire round planet — previous astronauts had seen Earth shrouded in shadows. Because the picture is in the public domain, you see it everywhere, though it’s still not known which of the three astronauts snapped the iconic shot. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Classic Media/Photofest
Dec. 6: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer premieres (1964)
An annual holiday tradition was born on this day in 1964 with the premiere of the stop-motion animated classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which was based on the 1939 Montgomery Ward ad campaign and the 1949 Gene Autry holiday standard of the same name. Starting off with Santa Claus and the heroic little reindeer whose nose shone so bright, the fanciful TV movie spun off in fantastical new directions, with a cast of characters that included a narrator named Sam the Snowman (voiced by Burl Ives); Hermey, an elf who wants to be a dentist; Yukon Cornelius, the prospector; and an Island of Misfit Toys, ruled over by the winged lion, King Moonracer. Creators Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass would come to define an entire era of Christmas specials with their stop-motion hits, including The Little Drummer Boy (1968), Frosty the Snowman (1969), Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970) and Jack Frost (1979). Rudolph now ranks as the longest-running special in American television history, having aired every year since 1964, and in 2014 the United States Postal Service honored the film’s 50th anniversary with a series of stamps. Because if you don’t have a luminous red honker to get your packages where they’re going on a foggy Christmas Eve, a USPS Forever stamp might be the next best thing. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Stephen Jaffe/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Dec. 5: Madeleine Albright is nominated to be the first female secretary of state (1996)
On Dec. 5, 1996, President Bill Clinton nominated Madeleine Albright to be the first woman to hold the office of secretary of state. She had come a long way since moving to the United States with her family from Czechoslovakia in 1948. Albright had worked for a fellow Eastern Bloc emigree, Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s national security adviser, before becoming an international affairs professor at Georgetown University and later ambassador to the United Nations in 1993. “By virtue of her life and accomplishments, Madeleine Albright embodies the best of America,” Clinton said, during the 1996 nomination announcement. “It says something about our country, and about our new secretary of state designate, that a young girl raised in the shadow of Nazi aggression in Czechoslovakia can rise to the highest diplomatic office in America.” Albright responded by quipping to her predecessor, Warren Christopher, “I hope my heels fill your shoes.” The Senate voted unanimously to confirm her nomination in 1997, and though she was the first female in the office, she wasn’t the last: She was succeeded in the position by Condoleezza Rice (2005-09) and Hillary Clinton (2009-13). —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Dec. 4: The Montreux Casino burns to the ground during a Frank Zappa set, inspiring the song “Smoke on the Water” (1971)
On the night of Dec. 4, 1971, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention took to the stage at the historic Montreux Casino in the Swiss lakeside town, and in about an hour and a half, disaster struck. As they were playing “King Kong,” a fan fired a flare gun at the ceiling, and the building burned to the ground. Amazingly, there were no fatalities, thanks to quick thinking from a roadie who smashed a plateglass window to allow audience members out more quickly. In the crowd that night were members of the British rock band Deep Purple, who turned the blaze into one of their signature songs, “Smoke on the Water” :
We all came out to Montreux/ On the Lake Geneva shoreline/
To make records with a mobile/ We didn’t have much time./
Frank Zappa and the Mothers/ Were at the best place around/
But some stupid with a flare gun/ Burned the place to the ground./
Smoke on the water/ A fire in the sky/ Smoke on the water
A bootleg recording of that night and the announcement of the fire was later released in 1992 as the Zappa album Swiss Cheese/Fire!
—Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann/Getty Images
Dec. 3: Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant (1967)
On this day in 1967, South African cardiac surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant, when his team of 20 doctors replaced the heart of grocer Louis Washkansky with a donor organ taken from a woman who had been fatally injured in a car accident. The 55-year-old Washkansky had diabetes and incurable heart disease, and Barnard told him he could either await certain death or take a risk with a transplant. As the surgeon later wrote, “For a dying man it is not a difficult decision because he knows he is at the end. If a lion chases you to the bank of a river filled with crocodiles, you will leap into the water convinced you have a chance to swim to the other side. But you would never accept such odds if there were no lion.” (A very South African metaphor, if we do say so.) Unfortunately, the patient died 18 days later, after he contracted double pneumonia from anti-rejection drugs, but the surgery forever changed the medical field. Later in life, after rheumatoid arthritis caused him to have to retire from surgery, Barnard took up writing and even penned a thriller about (what else?) organ transplants. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: James Nielsen/Getty Images
Dec. 2: Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (2001)
Few financial collapses have rocked the American economic world more than the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Houston-based energy giant Enron on Dec. 2, 2001. The corporation’s $63.4 billion in assets made it the largest bankruptcy in history — a dubious record that it held for only a year, until WorldComm’s $107 billion bankruptcy in 2002. Enron executives were indicted and convicted on charges of conspiracy and fraud, new legislation was born out of the scandal and the accounting industry faced renewed scrutiny, when it was revealed that the company had used deceitful practices to mask their shrinking profits. The scandal was also an unexpected boon for culture: It yielded the book The Smartest Guys in the Room, and the Oscar-nominated spin-off documentary, the made-for-TV movie The Crooked E: Unshredded Truth About Enron and, most improbably, an avant-garde West End and Broadway play by young British playwright Lucy Prebble, who is now an executive producer and writer for HBO’s Succession.
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PHOTO BY: Underwood Archives/Getty Images
Dec. 1: Rosa Parks is arrested for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery bus (1955)
Dec. 1, 1955 marked one of the most instantly famous and consequential moments of the civil rights movement — if not of the 20th century as a whole. On that day, Rosa Parks sat down on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus on her way home from work, and when the driver demanded that she give up her seat to a white passenger, she refused and was arrested for violating city laws. “I did not get on the bus to get arrested,” Parks later reflected in a 1994 book. “I got on the bus to go home.” Parks had been active in the local chapter of the NAACP, and her simple act of civil disobedience was like a spark that lit the flame that would eventually lead to desegregation. Soon, the Black community of Montgomery was organizing a 381-day boycott of the bus company, and in 1956, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that stated that segregation of public buses was unconstitutional. In her 1992 autobiography, Rosa Parks slightly complicated the narrative that history has written about her over the years: “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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