December 19 ...

In 1154 Henry II became King of England. In 1562 the Battle of Dreux was fought between the Huguenots and the Catholics, beginning the French Wars of Religion. In 1732 Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac. In 1776 Thomas Paine published his first American Crisis essay. In 1777 General George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, PA, to camp for the winter. In 1842 Hawaii's independence was recognized by the US. In 1903 the Williamsburg Bridge, which was the first major suspension bridge in the US opened in New York City. In 1957 Meredith Wilson's The Music Man opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City, running for 1,375 shows. In 1959 Walter Williams died in Houston, TX, at the age of 117. He was said to be the last surviving veteran of the Civil War. In 1972 Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings. In 1974 Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the US. In 1984 Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997. In 1986 the Soviet Union announced it had freed dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile, and pardoned his wife, Yelena Bonner. In 1989 US troops invaded Panama to overthrow the regime of General Noriega. In 1998 President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the US House of Representatives. In 2000 the UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless they closed all terrorist training camps and surrender US embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden. In 2004 Time magazine named President Bush its Person of the Year for the second time.