1503 – Nostradamus is born in St. Remy, France
1799 – George Washington dies at age 67 at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia
1819 – Alabama is admitted to the union as the 22nd state
1897 – Margaret Madeline Chase Smith was born. She became the first woman elected to Congress in both the House and Senate. She represented the state of Maine.
1911 – Roald Amundsen becomes first explorer to reach the South Pole
1961 – The President’s Commission on the Status of Women is established to examine discrimination against women and ways to eliminate it
1972 – Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan beome the last men to walk on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission
1977 – “Saturday Night Fever” premieres in LA.
1985 – Wilma Mankiller becomes the first woman in modern history to lead a major Native American tribe when she took office as the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
2012 – Adam Lanza goes to Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut and kills 20 first-graders and six school employees before turning the gun on himself.
