On this date:
In 1776, the British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War.
In 1893, Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung was born in Hunan province.
In 1917, during World War One, the US government took over operation of the nation's railroads.
In 1941, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress.
In 1944, in the World War Two Battle of the Bulge, the embattled US 101st Airborne Division was relieved by units of the Fourth Armored Division.
In 1944, Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago.
In 1972, the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1974, comedian Jack Benny died in Los Angeles at age 80.
In 1975, the Soviet Union inaugurated the world's first supersonic transport service with a flight of its Tupolev-144 airliner from Moscow to Alma-Ata.
In 1996, six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. (To date, the slaying remains unsolved.)
Ten years ago: Romanian television broadcast videotape showing ousted President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, at their secret trial as well as footage of the former leader's body following his execution. That same day, a provisional government took control of Romania.
Five years ago: French commandos stormed a hijacked Air France jetliner on the ground in Marseille, killing four Algerian hijackers and freeing 170 hostages.
One year ago: President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, urged Congress to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving nationwide to .08 percent.
"Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good."
-- President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933).