Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Dec. 24. German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun launched the first surface-to-surface guided missile on this date in 1942. Von Braun later came to work for the United States after World War II, and in Feb. 1949, headed the team of scientists at the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico that fired the first rocket to reach outer space. The two-stage rocket was set in the nose of a German V2 missile. Advertisement It was on this date in 1990 that Iraq's Saddam Hussein reportedly threatened to attack Tel Aviv, Israel, if the U.S.-led Allies tried to retake Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. During "Operation Desert Storm," Hussein did in fact fire a few Scud missiles at Israel. The War of 1812 officially ended on this date in 1814 when representatives of the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent. Having been defeated for re-election the previous month, President Bush issued some very controversial Christmas Eve pardons on this date in 1992. He pardoned former Defense Secretary Weinberger and five others snared in the Reagan administration's Iran-Contra scandal of the late 1980s. It was on this date in 1997 that a French court convicted the international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal of the 1975 murders of three men in Paris. Carlos was sentenced to life in prison. Advertisement And the bells of St. Basil's Cathedral, on Red Square in Moscow, rang to celebrate Christmas on this date in 1990. It marked the first time the bells had rung since the death of Lenin. We now return you to the present, already in progress.
