On this date:
In 1776, George Washington's retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
In 1854, Pope Pius the Ninth proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1863, President Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South.
In 1886, the American Federation of Labor was founded in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1914, "Watch Your Step," the first musical revue to feature a score composed entirely by Irving Berlin, opened in New York.
In 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists pressed their attacks.
In 1978, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir died in Jerusalem at age 80.
In 1980, rock star John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan.
In 1987, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
In 1993, President Clinton signed into US law the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Ten years ago: Communist leaders in Czechoslovakia offered to surrender their control over the government and accept a minority role in a coalition Cabinet.
Five years ago: Bosnian Serbs released dozens of hostage peacekeepers, but continued to detain about 300 others. In Los Angeles, 12 alternate jurors were chosen for the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
One year ago: Struggling to stave off impeachment, President Clinton's defenders forcefully pleaded his case before the House Judiciary Committee. The Supreme Court ruled that police cannot search people and their cars after merely ticketing them for routine traffic violations. San Francisco and several suburbs suffered a power blackout; it was more than seven hours before electricity was fully restored.
"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime."
-- Ernest Hemingway, American author (1899-1961).