Shimla, Dec. 22 Keekli Bureau
2010
U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the policy regarding the service of homosexuals in the military; it took effect the following year.
2001
British Islamist militant Richard Reid attempted—by trying to ignite explosives hidden in the soles of his high-top basketball shoes—to blow up an airplane on which he and some 200 other passengers were traveling; he was restrained by other passengers, and a U.S. court later sentenced him to life without parole.
1990
The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia was promulgated, granting such classic civil rights as freedom of speech, religion, information, and association, as well as guaranteeing the equality of nationalities.
1989
Nicolae Ceaușescu was ousted after 24 years of dictatorial rule in Romania.
1989
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was reopened, signifying the reunification of East and West Germany.
1965
The American movie Doctor Zhivago, David Lean’s adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel, had its world premiere; the hugely popular drama, which starred Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, became one of cinema’s highest-grossing films.
1941
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in Washington, D.C., to discuss World War II.
1856
Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. secretary of state from 1925 to 1929 who negotiated the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928—a multilateral agreement designed to prohibit war as an instrument of national policy—and won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1929, was born.
1481
The member states of the Swiss Confederation concluded the Diet of Stans, an agreement whereby civil war was averted.
1216
The Dominican order was sanctioned by Pope Honorius III.
