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UPI Almanac for Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017

On Dec. 14, 2012, a gunman killed 27 people, including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then killed himself.

By United Press International
Mourners gather near a memorial filled with flowers, stuffed toys and candles at the entrance to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., following a shooting December 14, 2012. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Mourners gather near a memorial filled with flowers, stuffed toys and candles at the entrance to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., following a shooting December 14, 2012. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Today is Thursday, Dec. 14, the 348th day of 2017 with 17 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter, Mars and Venus. The evening stars are Mercury and Uranus.

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include French astrologer and prophet Nostradamus in 1503; British King George VI in 1895; World War II U.S. air ace Jimmy Doolittle in 1896; former U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, R-Maine, in 1897; horror novelist Shirley Jackson in 1916; country singer Charlie Rich in 1932; actor Lee Remick in 1935; actor Patty Duke in 1946; actor Dee Wallace in 1948 (age 69); football Hall of Fame member Ernie Davis in 1939; tennis Hall of Fame member Stan Smith in 1946 (age 71); former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 1947 (age 70); actor Miranda Hart in 1972 (age 45); actor Jackson Rathbone in 1984 (age 33); actor Vanessa Hudgens in 1988 (age 29); actor Joshua Rush in 2001 (age 16).


On this date in history:

In 1287, more than 50,000 people died in a flood caused by the collapse of the Zuider Zee dike in the Netherlands.

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In 1799, George Washington, war for independence military leader and first president of the United States, died at his Mount Vernon home in Virginia.

In 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state in the United States.

In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole. The world would have to wait until March 7, 1912 before learning of Amundsen's triumphant feat.

In 1972, Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan re-entered the lunar lander -- the last man to walk on the moon.

In 1988, the United States announced the start of a "substantive dialogue" with the Palestine Liberation Organization for the first time.

In 1989, Andrei Sakharov, father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner for defending human rights, died at age 68.

In 1995, the signing of a peace treaty at a ceremony in Paris officially ended a four-year civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a "myth" and called for Israel to be moved to Europe or North America.

In 2006, the official British police investigation into the 1997 death of Princess Diana in a Paris car crash concluded that it was an accident and no conspiracy or foul play was involved.

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In 2012, a gunman killed 27 people, including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then killed himself. Police said the black-clad attacker, Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother before going to the school.

In 2013, actor Peter O'Toole, whose major films included Lawrence of Arabia, died in London after a long illness. He was 81.

In 2016, Amazon completed the first successful commercial delivery of a package by drone, in Cambridgeshire, England.


A thought for the day: "A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking." -- Jerry Seinfeld

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