On This Day Archive for December 2008

December 31, 1955: General Motors is first American corporation to attain $1 billion dollars in profit

for December 31, 2008

From the January 4, 1956 issue of The Christian Science Monitor
Economic Growth is Top 1955 Story
Reports from all over the world indicate that the biggest business-news story of 1955 was worldwide economic progress.  There are soft spots, to be sure, everywhere in national economies.  But the year 1955 saw a general trend upward in mankind’s [...]

December 30, 2006: Saddam Hussein, deposed Iraqi president, is executed

for December 30, 2008

From the January 2, 2007 issue of The Christian Science Monitor
Era ends as Saddam Hussein is put to death

The deposed Iraqi dictator was executed Saturday morning

Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who got his start in politics as an assassin and who never lost that brutal approach as he led Iraq for more than 30 [...]

December 29, 1989: Vaclav Havel is elected Czechoslovakia’s first non-Communist president in over four decades

for December 29, 2008

December 29, 1989, Friday
Czechoslovaks Tackle Tasks of Democracy

After calm takeover, nation chooses president and begins purge of communist bureaucracyPRAGUETHE Velvet Revolution is coming to a close. The next steps will come harder. Czechs overthrew their Communist dictatorship without violence, without even any broken windows. Joyful celebrations greeted the removal of repressive Communist Party chief Miklos [...]

December 25, 1991: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union

for December 25, 2008

Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA)December 26, 1991, ThursdayFare Well Reformer, Mikhail Sergeyevich …A dominant figure in world history in curtailing oppressive communist rule across Europe and ending the 70-year cold war, the first Soviet president sparked fires of reform that later overran his visionMOSCOWWITH sadness, anger, and flashes of defiance, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ends a [...]

December 24, 1968: The crew of the Apollo 8 orbits around the moon, a manned voyage of many firsts, including the first human beings to see the far side of the moon

for December 24, 2008

December 24, 1968
Snapping earth’s bands
Mark Dec. 21, 1968 in the history books: On that day three American astronauts took off for the moon, 240,000 miles away.
Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders not only opened a new chapter in the unending history of makind.  They literally broke the bands that for millenia had [...]

December 23, 1913: The Federal Reserve is created with the signing of the Federal Reserve Act by President Woodrow Wilson

for December 23, 2008

December 24, 1913
Naming the Federal Reserve Board

Having aided materially in shaping the basic principles of the new United States banking and currency law, President Wilson is now confronted by the grave duty of naming the superior officials who will give it effect.  This choice he will make while on his coming deserved vacation in [...]

December 22, 1989: The Brandenburg Gate reopens, ending the physical division between East and West Germany

for December 22, 2008

December 26, 1989, Tuesday
Berliners Rejoice At Open Gate
German leaders emphasize peace, as crowds cheer the breaching of the 28-year-old wallEAST BERLINTO the merry accompaniment of an accordion, a jubilant crowd of East Berliners sang their way through the Brandenburg Gate last Friday.
”Such a day, such a wonderful day as today,” they sang. ”Such a day, [...]

December 17, 1998: Summit held to seek peace in Congo by 53-nation Organization of African Unity

for December 17, 2008

December 17, 1998, Thursday
Africa’s 7-nation, 4-month war and how to tell
who’s winning
Summit today seeks peace in Congo. Key is cohesion of two multi-nation coalitions.GOMA, CONGOFour months ago, an officer and a couple of soldiers from the Congolese Army drove up to the radio station in this eastern Congolese town and proclaimed the beginning of a [...]

December 14, 2003: The US announces the capture of Saddam Hussein

for December 14, 2008

from the December 15, 2003 edition

BOOSTING MORALE: Soldiers of the US Army’s 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit congratulated one another on the capture of Saddam Hussein Sunday.
EFREM LUKATSKY/AP

How much will it matter?
Saddam Hussein’s capture may not end attacks by insurgents.
But for a day, Iraqis celebrate.
BAGHDAD – The streets of Baghdad erupted with celebratory gunfire [...]

December 13, 1996: Kofi Annan of Ghana is elected the new UN secretary-general

for December 13, 2008

From the December 12, 1996 issue
UN’s Delicate Waltz With Washington
The process of choosing a new United Nations secretary-general is taking place in the aftershock of America’s veto of Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s bid for a second term. Like a real earthquake’s detritus, the American action has left political and diplomatic rubble scattered all over the landscape.
The [...]