On this Day...

On this day Decemeber 9th:

1793:  Noah Webster establishes New York's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva.

1907:  Christmas seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Del., post office. The proceeds went to fight tuberculosis.

1941:  China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.

1941: Hitler orders U.S. ships torpedoed  

1965: "A Charlie Brown Christmas," premieres  

1975:  President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.

1984:  6 day hijack of Kuwaiti jet ends

1985:  Phoenix Arizona, gets 3 inches of snow.

1992:   United States Marines arrive in Mogadishu, Somalia, to spearhead a multinational force aimed at restoring order in the conflict-ridden country.  Over the next 23 months, Somalia’s civil war killed some 50,000 people; another 300,000 died of starvation as United Nations peacekeeping forces struggled in vain to restore order and provide relief amid the chaos of war.

1992:  Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (They divorced in 1996.)

2000:  The United States Supreme Court voted, 5 to 4, to stop the vote counting in Florida, ending Vice President Al Gore's presidential hopes.

2003:  Unseasonably low temperatures in Tehran, Iran, lead to the deaths of at least 40 people. Rarely do such large groups die at the same time.