DECEMBER 22
2001:English-born Richard Reid, a self-proclaimed al-Qaida operative,
attempts to ignite explosives in his shoes during an American Airlines
flight from Paris to Miami. He is stopped by flight attendants and other
passengers. Reid's shoe bomb plot led to heightened security measures in airports; he is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.
1864: After completing his march to the sea from Atlanta to the Georgia coast, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman sends a message to Abraham Lincoln,
presenting the president "as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah,
with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000
bales of cotton."
1989: Nicolae Ceausescu, who had ruled Romania for 24 years as
a hard-line Communist dictator, is ousted from power and flees from the
capital city of Bucharest with his wife, Elena. The Ceausescus were
captured almost immediately and tried by the revolutionary National
Salvation Front on Christmas Day. They were found guilty of genocide and
other crimes and were executed hours later.
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