Today in History

Today is Sunday, Dec. 13, the 348th day of 2020. There are 18 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Dec. 13, 2000, Republican George W. Bush claimed the presidency a day after the U.S. Supreme Court shut down further recounts of disputed ballots in Florida; Democrat Al Gore conceded, delivering a call for national unity.

On this date:

In 1769, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire received its charter.

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.

In 1937, the Chinese city of Nanjing fell to Japanese forces during the Sino-Japanese War; what followed was a massacre of war prisoners, soldiers and citizens. (China maintains that up to 300,000 people were killed; Japanese nationalists say the death toll was far lower, and some maintain the massacre never happened.)

In 1977, Air Indiana Flight 216, a DC-3 carrying the University of Evansville basketball team on a flight to Nashville, crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 29 people on board.

In 1978, the Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation the following July.

In 1981, authorities in Poland imposed martial law in a crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. (Martial law formally ended in 1983.)

In 1993, the space shuttle Endeavour returned from its mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

In 2001, the Pentagon publicly released a captured videotape of Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaida leader said the deaths and destruction achieved by the September 11 attacks exceeded his "most optimistic" expectations.

In 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Boston archbishop because of the priest sex abuse scandal.

In 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit.

In 2007, Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report was released, identifying 85 names to differing degrees in connection with the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

In 2014, thousands of protesters marched in New York, Washington and other U.S. cities to call attention to the killing of unarmed Black men by white police officers who faced no criminal charges.

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul hit its first major legal roadblock as a federal judge in Richmond, Virginia, declared that the law's central requirement that nearly all Americans carry insurance was unconstitutional. Veteran U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, 69, died in Washington. A South Korean fishing boat sank near Antarctica, leaving 22 of the 42 crew members dead or missing.

Five years ago: Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front collapsed in French regional elections, failing to take a single region after dominating the first round of voting. A bomb in a market killed at least 22 Shiites in Pakistan's Kurram tribal region. Pope Francis called on humanity not to let sadness prevail because of the many forms of violence afflicting the world.

One year ago: The House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment accusing President Donald Trump of abuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress in the investigation that followed.

Today's Birthdays: Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is 100. Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 95. Actor Christopher Plummer is 91. Country singer Buck White is 90. Music/film producer Lou Adler is 87. Singer John Davidson is 79. Actor Kathy Garver (TV: "Family Affair") is 75. Singer Ted Nugent is 72. Rock musician Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is 72. Actor Robert Lindsay is 71. Country singer-musician Randy Owen is 71. Actor Wendie Malick is 70. Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is 70. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 67. Country singer John Anderson is 66. Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is 66. Singer-actor Morris Day is 64. Actor Steve Buscemi is 63. Actor Johnny Whitaker (TV: "Family Affair") is 61. Rock musician John Munson (Semisonic; Twilight Hours) is 58. Actor-reality TV star NeNe Leakes is 54. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 53. Actor Lusia Strus is 53. Actor Bart Johnson is 50. Actor Jeffrey Pierce is 49. TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos is 46. Rock singer-musician Thomas Delonge is 45. Actor James Kyson Lee is 45. Actor Kimee Balmilero (TV: "Hawaii Five-0") is 41. Actor Chelsea Hertford is 39. Rock singer Amy Lee (Evanescence) is 39. Actor Michael Socha is 33. Actor Marcel Spears (TV: "The Mayor") is 32. Singer Taylor Swift is 31. Actor Maisy Stella is 17.