On This Day, Dec. 12: Stolen 'Mona Lisa' discovered in Italy

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- In this date in history:

In 1870, Joseph Hayne Rainey of South Carolina was sworn in as the first African American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1901, Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1913, two years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was recovered in a Florence, Italy, hotel room.

In 1917, the Rev. Edward J. Flanagan, a 31-year-old Irish priest, opened the doors to Boys Town, a home for troubled and neglected children in Omaha. He lived by the adage, "There is no such thing as a bad boy."

In 1975, Sara Jane Moore said she willfully tried to kill U.S. President Gerald Ford. She was sentenced to life in prison but released Dec. 31, 2007.

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

In 1980, a U.S. oil tycoon spent $5 million at auction for a notebook written by Leonardo da Vinci. The 36 pages of notes featured "remarkably illegible right-to-left writing" and was "illustrated with marginal sketches of a technical nature."

In 1985, the crash of Arrow Air Flight 1285, a military charter, on takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland, killed all 256 people aboard, including 248 U.S. soldiers.

In 2003, Paul Martin became Canada's 21st prime minister, succeeding Jean Chretien.

File Photo by Grace Chiu/UPI

In 2005, Gibran Tueni, an anti-Syrian member of the Lebanese Parliament and head of a leading Lebanon newspaper, was killed in an explosion that tore through his armored car outside Beirut.

In 2006, a Baghdad suicide bomber, luring unemployed Iraqis to his truck with promises of work, killed at least 70 people and injured more than 220 others.

In 2012, South Korean authorities said North Korea, defying international warnings and a U.N. resolution, fired a long-range test rocket.

In 2013, North Korea announced the execution of Jang Song Thaek, an uncle of leader Kim Jong Un, for trying to overthrow the government. Jang, until recently, had been considered one of the most powerful figures in the country.

In 2015, Saudis elected women to municipal councils for the first time in Saudi Arabian history.

In 2016, newly elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte admitted he personally killed drug suspects while mayor of Davao City, prompting human rights activists to call for an investigation.