This Week in History: Dec. 11-17

Dec 11- 1913: Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is recovered by Italian authorities in Florence, two years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. 1972: Apollo 17’s lunar module lands on the moon with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt aboard; the 11th and 12th (and to date, the last two) men to walk on the lunar surface. 1980: President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating a $1.6 billion “Superfund” for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps. 2008: Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrest financier Bernard Madoff, the mastermind behind the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. The former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and forfeited over $17 billion he had defrauded from thousands of investors. He was sentenced to 150 years in prison and died of kidney disease in 2021. 2017: Saudi Arabia reverses a 35-year policy that banned movie theaters in the country, paving the way for AMC Entertainment to open a theater in Riyadh’s financial district in April 2018, screening Marvel’s “Black Panther.”

Dec 12- 1792: Ludwig van Beethoven has his first lesson in music composition. The instructor? Franz Joseph Hayden (who was apparently a very good teacher!) 1870: Joseph Rainey of South Carolina is sworn into the House of Representatives, the first African American congressman. 1946: The United Nations accepts a donation of $8.5 million from John D. Rockefeller Jr. to purchase land for its headquarters in Manhattan. 1980: American businessman Armand Hammer pays more than $5.1 million at an auction for a notebook kept by Leonardo da Vinci. The 72-page treasure was auctioned again in 1994, purchased by Microsoft founder Bill Gates for nearly $31 million! 2010: The inflatable roof of the Minneapolis Metrodome collapses under the weight of one-and-a-half feet of snow, forcing the NFL to move the already rescheduled game between the Vikings and Giants to Detroit’s Ford Field.

Dec 13- 1636: The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. Recognized as the founding of the National Guard. 2000: In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to end further recounts of disputed ballots in Florida, Vice President Al Gore concedes the presidential election to Governor George W. Bush, concluding one of the closest elections in US history. 2001: The Pentagon releases a captured videotape of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden saying the death and destruction of the September 11 attacks exceeded his “most optimistic” expectations. 2003: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured by US forces hiding near his hometown of Tikrit. 2007: Major League Baseball releases the Mitchell Report, listing the names of 89 players suspected of using anabolic steroids or human growth hormone in violation of league rules.

Dec 14- 1799: The first US president, George Washington, dies at his home in Mount Vernon, VA at the age of 67. 1947: The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, FL. 1999: Cartoonist Charles Schulz, the beloved creator of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts comic strip, announces his retirement. 2012: A gunman with a semi-automatic rifle kills 20 first-graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.

Dec 15- 1791: The Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the US Constitution) is ratified when the Virginia Legislature approves the amendments. 1939: The epic Civil War movie “Gone with the Wind” premieres in Atlanta, GA. The classic film would receive the Best Picture Academy Award in 1940. 1970: The Soviet Union’s Venera 7 becomes the first spacecraft to land on another planet when it touches down on the surface of Venus. 2000: The last operating reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine is shutdown. 2001: A 50-foot tall section of steel, the last standing piece of the World Trade Center in New York City, is brought down, while on the same day, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is reopened after 11 years spent stabilizing the structure.

Dec 16- 1773: Led by co-founders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, members of the Sons of Liberty protest group disguised themselves as “Indians” and staged the “Boston Tea Party,” throwing bales of British tea into Boston Harbor to protest the new taxes approved by Parliament. 1811: Two large earthquakes strike the (then) sparsely populated area around New Madrid, MO. While the death toll remains unknown, the quakes forever altered the topography along the banks of the Mississippi River. 1937: Convicts Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt an escape from the federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. While authorities believe the two men drowned in the treacherous waters surrounding the island, their bodies were never found and they were never seen again. 1944: German troops launched a surprise counteroffensive against Allied forces along the Ardennes Forest area in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. The six-week battle, a decisive victory for the Allies, became known as the “Battle of the Bulge,” a term coined by American war correspondent Larry Newman. 1980: Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder and iconic symbol of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), dies in Louisville, KY of pneumonia at the age of 90.

Dec 17- 1777: France formally recognizes the United States (after Ambassador Ben Franklin and some military victories against the vaunted British Army convinced them that the colonists could prevail in their war for independence!). 1849: The first “bowler hat,” designed by London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler, is delivered to James Lock & Co. for a customer seeking a hat that would not be knocked off by tree branches whilst on horseback. 1903: Pilot Orville Wright is carried aloft in the first sustained motorized aircraft flight in history at 10:35 EST near Kitty Hawk, NC. 1989: American television viewers are introduced to “The Simpsons” when the first episode of the popular animated series airs on Fox TV. It is currently in its 36th season, the longest-running animated television series in US history!