On December 14, 1911, Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to reach the South Pole, beating his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott. Amundsen's original plan was to be the first man to the North Pole, and he was about to embark in 1909 when he learned that the American Robert Peary had achieved the feat. Amundsen completed his preparations and in June 1910 sailed instead for Antarctica. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza kills 20 first graders and six school employees at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before turning a gun on himself. Earlier that day, he killed his mother at the home they shared. At the time, it was the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. On December 14, 1977, Saturday Night Fever debuts in American theatres. The story of a Brooklyn teen with exceptional dance moves propels John Travolta to superstardom, and get the disco era moving full steam in America. Its soundtrack also elevates British pop singers The Bee Gees to kings of disco. Ironically, Barry Gibb told the BBC in 2008 that he walked out of the premier of the movie at the 30 minute mark, and never watched the entire movie.
On December 15, 17491, Virginia becomes the 10th state to ratify the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The Bill of Rights is now the law of the land. Congress approved 12 amendments in September 1789. Of the two amendments not ratified, the first concerned the population system of representation, while the second prohibited laws varying the payment of congressional members from taking effect until an election intervened. The first of these two amendments was never ratified, while the second was finally ratified more than 200 years later, in 1992. On December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake) chief and holy man to the Sioux tribe, is killed by Indian police at the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota. Sitting Bull has led the resistance against white control of the Indian population for many years. His refusal to lead the Sioux into their designated reservation was a direct cause of the Battle of Little Bighorn. Faced with mass starvation among his people, Sitting Bull finally surrendered in 1883. Believed to be the leader of a spiritual uprising in 1890, Indian police entered the reservation at dawn on the 15th, intending to quietly arrest him. But a crowd gathered and someone fired a shot that hit one of the Indian police; they retaliated by shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head. The great chief was killed instantly. Before the ensuing gunfight ended, twelve other Indians were dead and three were wounded. On December 15, 1944, a plane carrying legendary bandleader Glenn Miller disappears over the English Channel. Miller became one of the brightest stars in American music history in the late 30's. An undistinguished musician himself, it was his talent as an arranger and bandleader that gave the Glenn Miller Orchestra several iconic hits, including "In The Mood", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", and "Moonlight Serenade." Miller accepted a commission as a captain in the Army Air Corps in 1942, forming a 50-piece dance band and playing hundreds of shows for the troops in England. He was on his way to France for a performance for American troops that had recently helped to liberate Paris when his plane disappeared. No trace was ever found, and his official military status remains Missing In Action.
On December 16, 1773, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships at anchor in Boston Harbor and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor. The midnight raid, which will come to be known as the "Boston Tea Party," was not a protest against high taxes, as historical lore suggests, but against a forced monopoly. The British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773 was designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders. But many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny. On December 16, 1944, the German launch the winter offensive in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium that will soon be known as The Battle of the Bulge. The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers and 5 tank divisions into the initial assault, concentrating on an 80-mile poorly protected stretch of hilly, woody forest. They also caused chaos by using squads of English speaking commandos to infiltrate the lines and disrupt communications. The battle raged for three weeks, resulting in some of the worst American casualties of the war; roughly 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded. Near the town of Malmedy, SS soldiers murdered 72 captured American soldiers. The US also suffered its second-largest surrender of troops of the war: More than 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry Division capitulated at one time at Schnee Eifel. The Americans would not surpress the offensive until better weather enabled American aircraft to bomb and strafe German positions. On December 16, 1960, two airplanes collide in snowy weather over New York City. A United DC8 inbound to Idlewild Airport (now JFK) from Chicago had been directed into a holding pattern due to the weather. But the pilot miscalculated his position and collided with a TWA Super Constellation inbound to LaGuardia from Dayton, Ohio. The 128 people aboard the two planes are killed, and the wreckage of the United jet fell tinto the middle of a Brooklyn neighborhood, narrowly missing a school but hitting an apartment building and a church. Six people on the ground are killed, and the resulting fires take 3 days to bring under control. The wreckage of the TWA aircraft fell onto a military airfield on Staten Island with no further casualties. The incident remains the only mid-air collision to have ever occurred over a major US city.
On December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight. On December 17, 1991, Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation, announces that the Soviet Union will officially cease to exist on or before New Year’s Eve. For many of its citizens, the Soviet Union had already disintegrated. The various Russian republics had already declared their independence; in a few days they would meet and form the Commonwealth of Independent States. Soviet Premier Mikhael Gorbachev’s power was steadily ebbing: a coup attempt the previous August had already nearly toppled him. On December 17, 1989, the relatively new Fox Broadcasting Network premiers The Simpsons, an animated prime time series satirizing life in suburban America. The Simpsons first appeared as a series of short films on Fox's The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. With iconic characters and a floating timeline (the show deals with current topics although, in typical animated fashion, the characters never age), The Simpsons has become the longest-running scripted television series of all time, currently in its 31st season.
