December 12 ...

In 1787 Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the US Constitution. In 1800 Washington, DC, was established as the capital of the United States. In 1821 novelist Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, France. In 1863 painter Edvard Munch was born in Adalsbruk, Norway. In 1870 Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black lawmaker sworn into the US House of Representatives. In 1897 The Katzenjammer Kids, the pioneering comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks, made its debut in the New York Journal. In 1900 Charles M. Schwab formed the United States Steel Corporation. In 1913 authorities in Florence, Italy, announced that the Mona Lisa, stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911, had been recovered. In 1915 singer Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, NJ. In 1917 Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town outside Omaha, NE. In 1925 the first motel -- the Motel Inn -- opened in San Luis Obispo, CA. In 1937 a Japanese aircraft sank the US gunboat Panay on China's Yangtze River. (Japan apologized, and paid $2.2 million in reparations.) In 1943 guitarist Dickey Betts was born in West Palm Beach, FL. In 1947 the United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor. In 1963 Kenya gained its independence from Britain. In 1965 Chicago Bears rookie halfback Gale Sayers scored six touchdowns against the the San Francisco 49ers on a muddy surface at Wrigley Field, tying the all-time NFL record; the Bears won, 61-20. For the game, Sayers had 9 carries for 113 yards, two receptions for 89 yards, and three punt returns for 134 yards. He scored touchdowns by running, receiving, and punt return -- three ways in all -- which has only been done 6 times in NFL history; Sayers was responsible for three, or half, of those feats. In 1975 Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to a charge of trying to kill President Ford in San Francisco the previous September. In 1983 car bombs were set off by Shiite terrorists in front of the French and US embassies in Kuwait City, killing five and wounding 86. In 2000 the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reverse the Florida Supreme Court decision calling for recounts in the state's contested presidential election, ending Vice President Al Gore's chance at overturning the results, making Gov. George W. Bush the president-elect.