Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include women`s suffrage leader Mary Livermore in 1820; novelist Eleanor Porter ('Pollyanna') in 1868; trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden in 1895; actor Ralph Richardson in 1902; Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in 1906; French dramatist Jean Genet, a pioneer in the theater of the absurd, in 1910; singer Edith Piaf in 1915; and actors Cicely Tyson in 1933 (age 72), Tim Reid in 1944 (age 61), Robert Urich in 1946, Jennifer Beals in 1963 (age 42) and Alyssa Milano in 1972 (age 33).

In 1958, the U.S. satellite Atlas transmitted the first radio voice broadcast from space, a 58-word recorded Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower.

In 1984, the United States formally withdrew from UNESCO in a effort to force reform of the U.N. cultural organization`s budget and alleged Third World bias.

In 1998, President Clinton became only the second U.S. president to be impeached when the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The allegations stemmed from the actions he took to conceal his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He eventually was acquitted.

In 2002, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Iraq it was risking war by lying and refusing to cooperate on the issue of weapons of mass destruction.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include author and decorator Elsie de Wolfe (Lady Mendl) in 1865; industrialist Harvey Firestone in 1868; philosopher Susanne K. Langer in 1895; actress Irene Dunne in 1898; nuclear physicist Robert Van de Graaff in 1901; movie director George Roy Hill in 1922 (age 83); actor John Hillerman in 1932 (age 73); psychic Uri Geller in 1946 (age 59); and actors Jenny Agutter in 1952 (age 53) and Kiefer Sutherland in 1966 (age 39).

In 1956, the Montgomery, Ala., public bus boycott officially ended but not until it had given a major boost to the civil rights struggle in the South. The boycott had been called in reaction to the Dec. 1, 1955, arrest of Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man.

In 1987, nearly 1,600 people died in the Philippines when a passenger ferry was struck by an oil tanker and sank. It was the century`s worst peacetime maritime disaster.

In 1989, the United States invaded Panama to oust Manuel Noriega and install the duly elected civilian government. Twenty-three U.S. troops were killed.

In 1991, Philippines prosecutors filed nine counts of graft against former first lady Imelda Marcos, charging she used bogus front companies to bilk millions of dollars from the nation.

In 1992, a former Cuban military pilot who defected to the United States in 1991 flew a small plane back to Cuba to bring his wife and two sons safely to Florida.

In 1995, 160 people were killed when an American Airlines 757 crashed into a mountain shortly before it was scheduled to land in Cali, Colombia.

Also in 1995, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II had sent letters to her son, Prince Charles, and his estranged wife, Princess Diana, urging them to seek a divorce as quickly as possible.

Also in 1998, a Houston woman gave birth to seven more babies after delivering the first infant 12 days earlier. They were the only known set of octuplets to be born alive in the United States. The smallest baby died a week later.

In 2002, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., resigned as Senate majority leader amid an intense furor growing from remarks that seemed to praise the 1948 segregationist presidential candidacy of Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C.

Also in 2004, the United Nations said sub-Saharan Africa, ravaged this year by drought, civil strife and swarms of crop-devouring locusts, faced a worsening food crisis.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include British statesman Benjamin Disraeli in 1804; Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1879; Austrian President Kurt Waldheim in 1918 (age 87); former talk show host Phil Donahue in 1935 (age 70); actress Jane Fonda in 1937 (age 68); rock musician Frank Zappa in 1940; Beach Boys guitarist Carl Wilson in 1946; actor Samuel L. Jackson in 1948 (age 57); editor Tina Brown in 1953 (age 52); tennis player Chris Evert in 1954 (age 51); comedian Ray Romano in 1957 (age 48); track athlete Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1960; and actor Andy Dick in 1966 (age 39).

In 1958, three months after a new French constitution was approved, Charles de Gaulle was elected the first president of the Fifth Republic by a sweeping majority of French voters.

In 1975, the notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal led a raid on a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna. German and Arab terrorists stormed in with machine guns, killed three people and took 63 others hostage, including 11 OPEC ministers.

In 1987, in a case that highlighted racial tensions, three young white men were convicted of manslaughter in an attack on a black man in New York`s predominantly white Howard Beach section.

In 1988, Pam Am Flight 103 exploded and crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing everyone aboard and 11 people on the ground for a total death toll of 270.

In 1989, Kentuckian Larry Mahoney was convicted on 27 counts of manslaughter in 1988 collision with church bus. It was the nation`s deadliest drunken-driving accident.

In 1994, more than 40 people were injured when an incendiary device exploded on a crowded subway in lower Manhattan. Later that day, New York City police arrested one of the burn victims, saying the man had been carrying the firebomb when it went off.

In 1998, the shaky coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu collapsed when Israel`s parliament voted 81-30 to dissolve the government.

In 2002, President George W. Bush received a smallpox vaccination one week after setting in motion the first sweeping national vaccination program in the United States in three decades. Bush had voiced fears terrorists might use the virus as a biological weapon.

In 2003, the United States raised its terror alert level to 'high' from 'elevated' after an increase in terrorists` communications. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said threat of attack was perhaps greater than anytime since Sept. 11, 2001.

In 2004, President George Bush`s approval rating slipped 6 percent to 49 percent, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll said, making Bush the first incumbent president to have an approval rating below 50 percent one month after winning re-election.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include opera composer Giacomo Puccini in 1858; Philadelphia A`s manager Connie Mack, the 'Dean of Baseball,' in 1862; former first lady Claudia 'Lady Bird' Johnson in 1912 (age 93); TV game show host Gene Rayburn in 1917; actress Barbara Billingsley in 1922 (age 83); actor Hector Elizondo in 1936 (age 69); TV journalist Diane Sawyer in 1946 (age 59); Robin Gibb (age 56) and brother Maurice Gibb in 1949, members of the Bee Gees pop group; and actor Ralph Fiennes in 1962 (age 43).

In 1785, the American Continental Navy fleet was organized, consisting of two frigates, two brigs and three schooners. Sailors were paid $8 a month.

In 1894, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason by a military court-martial on flimsy evidence in a highly irregular trial and sentenced to life in prison for his alleged crime of passing military secrets to the Germans.

In 1971, the U.N. General Assembly chose Austrian diplomat Kurt Waldheim to lead the United Nations. Waldheim went on to serve two terms as head of the world body, leaving the post in 1982.

In 1984, 'subway vigilante' Bernard Goetz shot and wounded four would-be hold-up men on a New York City subway. He ended up serving eight months in prison for carrying an illegal weapon but was cleared of assault and attempted murder charges.

In 1986, political dissident and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Bonner, were allowed to return to Moscow after seven years of internal exile.

In 1989, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last hard-line communist holdout against East Bloc reforms, fell from power in the face of continuing massive demonstrations.

In 1992, all 158 people aboard a Libyan Boeing 727 died when the jetliner crashed, apparently following an in-air collision with a military plane.

In 2001, American Airlines passengers and attendants overpowered a man trying to light a match to detonate powerful explosives hidden in his sneakers on a flight from Paris to Miami.

In 2003, the White House urged Americans to be vigilant over the holidays but not to curtail travel or other plans because of the high-risk terrorist threat.

Also in 2004, the White House was reported to be seeking an investigation into allegations of widespread abuse of prisoners by the U.S. military.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollion, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone, in 1790; Mormon church founder Joseph Smith in 1805; poet Harriet Monroe, founder of Poetry magazine, in 1860; Manhattan restaurateur Vincent Sardi Sr. in 1885; British film executive J. Arthur Rank in 1888; actor James Gregory in 1911; former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1918 (age 87); actor Harry Guardino in 1925; Japanese Emperor Akihito in 1933 (age 72); marathon runner Bill Rodgers in 1947 (age 58); and actors Susan Lucci in 1950 (age 55) and Corey Haim in 1972 (age 33).

In 1620, construction began of the first permanent European settlement in New England, one week after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth harbor in present day Massachusetts.

In 1783, Gen. George Washington resigned his commission with the U.S. Army and retired to Mount Vernon, Va. He became the nation`s first president in 1789.

In 1948, former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo of Japan and six other Japanese war leaders were hanged in Tokyo under sentence of the Allied War Crimes Commission.

In 1987, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yaeger landed the experimental aircraft Voyager at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. It completed a record nine-day, 25,012-mile global flight without refueling.

In 1992, the first U.S. casualties of the U.S.-led relief operation in Somalia occurred when a vehicle hit a land mine near the city of Badera, killing one civilian and injuring three others.

In 1994, major league baseball team owners declared an impasse in their negotiations with the players` association and unilaterally imposed a salary cap the players had rejected.

In 1995, more than 500 people, including entire families, were killed in Mandi Dabwali, India, when fire engulfed a tent set up for a school ceremony.

In 1997, Terry Nichols, the second defendant in the Oklahoma City bombing trial, was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter -- but not first-degree murder -- by a federal jury in Denver.

In 2003, a jury recommended life in prison without parole for Lee Malvo, the teenager convicted of taking part in the deadly month-long sniper attacks in the Washington area that killed 10 a year earlier. Malvo was 17 at the time of the attacks.

Also in 2003, the first case of mad cow disease was reported in the United States when a Holstein in Washington state tested positive for the deadly ailment.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include English King John I in 1167; American diplomat Silas Deane in 1737; physician and chemist Benjamin Rush in 1745; frontiersman Christopher 'Kit' Carson in 1809; English physicist and inventor James Prescott Joule in 1818; film director Michael Curtiz ('Casablanca') in 1888; composer Harry Warren ('Lullaby of Broadway,' 'Chattanooga Choo Choo') in 1893; industrialist Howard Hughes in 1905; actress Ava Gardner in 1922; author/director Nicholas Meyer in 1945 (age 60); actor Diedrich Bader ('The Drew Carey Show') in 1966 (age 39); and pop singer Ricky Martin in 1971 (age 34).

In 1906, Reginald A. Fessenden, a Canadian-born radio inventor, broadcast the first musical program, accompanying on violin a female singer`s 'O Holy Night,' from Brant Rock, Mass. He discovered the superheterodyne principle, the basis for all modern radio receivers.

In 1992, President Bush issued Christmas Eve pardons to former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger and five others snared in the Reagan administration`s Iran-Contra scandal.

In 1994, Islamic militants hijacked an Air France Airbus. The hijacking ended two days later when the plane was stormed by French paramilitary commandos in Marseille, who killed the four militants.

In 1997, a French court convicted the international terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal of the 1975 killings of three men in Paris and sentenced him to life in prison.

In 2002, North Korea warned of an 'uncontrollable catastrophe' if the United States failed to agree to negotiations on nuclear-related issues.

In 2003, nine nations imposed bans on U.S. beef imports after the United States` first documented case of mad cow disease was reported in Washington state.

Also in 2003, Air France canceled six Paris to Los Angeles flights, at the United States` request. U.S. officials reportedly believed some passengers on the flights could have ties to terrorists.

In 2004, gunmen opened fire on a bus in northern Honduras, killing at least 23 and wounding 16. Authorities suspected a noted Central American youth gang.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include British mathematician, physicist and astronomer Isaac Newton in 1642; American Red Cross founder Clara Barton in 1821; French painter Maurice Utrillo in 1883; jazz pioneer Edward 'Kid' Ory in 1886; hotelier Conrad Hilton in 1887; English author Rebecca West in 1892; Robert 'Believe It or Not' Ripley in 1893; actor Humphrey Bogart in 1899; jazz bandleader Cab Calloway in 1907; Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1918; TV writer Rod Serling in 1924; singers Jimmy Buffett in 1946 (age 59) and Barbara Mandrell in 1948 (age 57); actors Gary Sandy in 1945 (age 60) and Sissy Spacek in 1949 (age 56); singer Annie Lennox in 1954 (age 51); and comedian Norm McDonald in 1962 (age 43).

In about 3 B.C., according to Christian belief, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Calendar miscalculations of the time make it impossible to be certain of the year.

In 1818, the first known Christmas carol was sung at Oberndorf, Austria. It was 'Silent Night, Holy Night,' composed by organist Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr.

In 1986, the hijackers of an Iraqi Airways Boeing 737 en route from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, exploded grenades, causing a fiery crash in Saudi Arabia. Sixty-seven of the 107 people aboard died.

In 1989, ex-Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife and second-in-command, Elena, were executed. The United States officially recognized the new Romanian government.

In 2000, President Clinton offered a Middle East peace plan that, among other things, included proposals for Israel to give up sovereignty over the Temple Mount and for Palestinians to surrender right of refugees to return to Israel.

In 2003, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf survived a second assassination attempt in a little over a week, but 14 others were killed and 40 injured in the suicide attack.

In 2004, a frail but determined Pope John Paul II delivered his traditional Christmas sermon in Rome`s St. Peter`s Square, calling for peace and prosperity.

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