Today in history, Dec 12th!

Some of the great historical events that happened today in history, on December 12th!

Today in history facts are from various sites including, but not limited too: the History Channel, The New York Times, WHG Historynet.com, HistoryOrb.com, and On This Day blogs from my blogroll.

http://hankeringforhistory.com/2012/12/12/today-in-history-dec-12th/

1745	John Jay, statesman and the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, was born in New York City.
1753	George Washington, the adjutant of Virginia, delivers an ultimatum to the French forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain’s claim to the entire Ohio River valley.
1770	The British soldiers responsible for the “Boston Massacre” are acquitted on murder charges.
1787	Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1862	The Union loses its first ship to a torpedo, USS Cairo, in the Yazoo River.
1863	Orders are given in Richmond, Virginia, that no more supplies from the Union should be received by Federal prisoners.
1870	Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first black congressman.
1897	“The Katzenjammer Kids,” the pioneering comic strip by Rudolph Dirks, debuted in the New York Journal.
1901	Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio transmission in St. John’s Newfoundland.
1914	The New York Stock Exchange re-opened for the first time since July 30. The market had shut down when World War I broke out.
1915	Singer Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, N.J.
1917	Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town outside Omaha, Neb.
1925	The first motel, the Motel Inn, opened, in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
1927	Communists forces seize Canton, China.
1930	The Spanish Civil War begins as rebels take a border town.
1930	The last Allied troops withdraw from the Saar region in Germany.
1931	Under pressure from the Communists in Canton, Chiang Kai-shek resigns as president of the Nanking Government but remains the head of the Nationalist government that holds nominal rule over most of China.
1943	The German Army launches Operation Winter Tempest, the relief of the Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad.
1947	The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor.
1956	The United Nations calls for immediate Soviet withdrawal from Hungary.
1964	Three Buddhist leaders begin a hunger strike to protest the government in Saigon.
1967	The United States ends the airlift of 6,500 men in Vietnam.
1975	Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to trying to kill President Gerald R. Ford.
1995	Willie Brown beats incumbent mayor Frank Jordon to become the first African-American mayor of San Francisco.
1998	The House Judiciary Committee approved a fourth article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton and submitted the case to the full House.
2003	Keiko, the killer whale made famous by the “Free Willy” movies, died in a Norwegian fjord.
2009	Houston became the largest U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor, with voters handing a solid victory to City Controller Annise Parker.