Today is Sunday, Dec. 15, the 350th day of 2024. There are 16 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Dec. 15, 2016, a federal jury in Charleston, South Carolina, convicted Dylann Roof of killing nine Black church members who had welcomed him into their Bible study gathering.
Also on this date:
In 1791, the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, went into effect following ratification by Virginia.
In 1890, Hunkpapa Lakota Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, South Dakota, during a confrontation with Indian agency police.
In 1939, the Civil War motion picture epic “Gone with the Wind,” starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, had its world premiere in Atlanta.
In 1944, a single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, a major in the U.S. Army Air Forces, disappeared over the English Channel while en route to Paris.
In 1967, the Silver Bridge between Gallipolis (gal-ih-puh-LEES’), Ohio, and Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed into the Ohio River, killing 46 people.
In 2011, the flag used by U.S. forces in Iraq was lowered in a Baghdad airport ceremony, marking the formal end of a war that had left 110,000 Iraqis and 4,500 Americans dead.
In 2013, Nelson Mandela was laid to rest in his childhood hometown, ending a 10-day mourning period for South Africa’s first Black president.
Today’s Birthdays:
- Singer Cindy Birdsong (The Supremes) is 85.
- Rock musician Dave Clark (The Dave Clark Five) is 85.
- Baseball Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland is 80.
- Actor Don Johnson is 75.
- Film and theater director Julie Taymor is 72.
- Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is 70.
- Rock musician Paul Simonon (The Clash) is 69.
- Actor Adam Brody is 45.
- Actor Michelle Dockery is 43.
- Actor Charlie Cox is 42.
- Actor Camilla Luddington is 41.
- Rock musician and actor Alana Haim is 33.
- Actor Maude Apatow (AP’-ih-tow) is 27.