1999. Seattle residents celebrate a quiet New Year’s Eve after millenium festivities at the Space Needle are cancelled due to threats of terrorism.

December 30

1999. Former Beatle George Harrison is stabbed by an intruder in his mansion near London. Though seriously injured, Harrison was able to detain the assailant with help from his wife until authorities arrive.

December 29

1975. A bomb explodes at the main terminal of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people. Eighty others are wounded. Following the terrorist act, no group stepped forward to claim responsibility and no one was ever convicted of the crime.

December 28

1999. The city of Seattle cancels its highly anticipated millenium New Year's Eve celebration at the Space Needle, after threats of terrorism. The decision came after an Algerian man, Ahmed Ressam, was charged with transporting bomb-making material into Washington from Canada. Ressam had a motel reservation near the Space Needle.

December 27

1999. Hijackers take control of an Indian Airlines jet. One passenger was killed before the rest were freed after a week-long standoff in Afghanistan. The hijackers' monetary demands were not met, but they gained the release of three Islamic militants held as prisoners in India.

December 26

1996. Six-year-old beauty contestant JonBenet Ramsey is found murdered in the basement of her Colorado home. The mystery remains unsolved. Click here for more on the JonBenet Ramsey case.

December 25

1868. President Andrew Johnson grants a full pardon to Confederate rebels who fought against the Union in the Civil War. Historians point to this last act in office as Johnson's attempt at ending the sectional bitterness that divided the nation and resulted in the Civil War.

December 24

1969. Notorious bank robber Willie “The Actor” Sutton is released from Attica State Prison after serving 17 years. Sutton had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list after multiple prison escapes before being sent to Attica. Also known by the name "Slick Willie" because of his ingenious disguises and dapper appearance, Sutton's love of expensive suits led to his eventual capture in 1952 after the FBI distributed his pictures to tailors around the country.

December 23

1997. A Denver jury convicts Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his part in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. He was later sentenced to life in prison.

December 22

1984. Bernhard Goetz shoots four black teenagers in a New York City subway. Goetz was acquitted of attempted murder after claiming that he was defending himself from a robbery, but he served an eight-month jail sentence for weapons possession. He was also found guilty of inflicting emotional distress in a civil suit and ordered to pay $43 million to one of the teenagers paralyzed during the attack.

December 21

1954. Dr. Sam Sheppard is convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of his wife Marilyn. Sheppard, the inspiration for “The Fugitive,” was later acquitted in a retrial. Click here for more on the Sheppard case.

1988. A terrorist bomb explodes, killing 270 people aboard Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Two Libyan operatives, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, were indicted for the bombing and tried in an international court in the Netherlands. Without enough evidence to suggest that he was a knowing accomplice, Fhimah was acquitted of all charges, while al-Megrahi, who was directly linked to the suitcase that carried the explosives, received life in prison.

December 20

1860. South Carolina is the first state to secede from the Union prior to the Civil War. Following President Lincoln's election into office with no votes from states below the Mason-Dixon line, and after years of political debates with the North on the issue of slavery and high tariffs imposed on imported goods, the Southern states decide to break from the Union.

1999. The Vermont Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples have the same rights as heterosexual married couples. Three gay couples filed the suit in 1997 after being denied marriage licenses. Considered a leader in laws protecting gay rights, Vermont has passed laws prohibiting discrimination against gays in employment, housing, and public accommodations and hate crimes against homosexuals.

December 19

1998. President William Jefferson Clinton becomes the second U.S. President to be impeached by the House of Representatives. He was later acquitted by the Senate. The articles of impeachment charged Clinton with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice during the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

December 18

1865. Slavery is abolished when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. The law went into effect almost three years after President Abraham Lincoln signed off the Emancipation Proclamation.

December 17

1975. Lynette "Squeeky" Fromme is sentenced to life in prison for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford. A follower of Charles Manson, Fromme plotted the assassination as a bizarre means of getting the convicted Manson back into court. If she was caught and tried, Manson would testify on her behalf and use the opportunity to explain his views and gain his release for the Sharon Tate murder. Fromme's attempt on President Ford's life failed when her gun misfired, and Manson never testified for her.

1979. Black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie is beaten to death after a police chase in Miami. Four white police officers were later acquitted of the crime. The officers claimed that McDuffie died when his motorcycle crashed during the high-speed police chase; the coroner's report suggested otherwise. Finally, one of the officers confessed that he and the others beat McDuffie to death. Outraged citizens of the predominantly black town of Dade County protested the officers' acquittal.

December 16

1985. Mafia chief Paul Castellano is shot to death outside a New York City restaurant, leaving his alleged killer, John Gotti, as head of the Gambino crime family. It is believed that Castellano's execution was ordered by Gotti and other Mafia families who believed that Castellano planned to leak information about the Gambino family to the FBI.

December 15

1791. The Bill of Rights becomes law after it is officially ratified by Virginia. Also recognized as the first 10 Amendments of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights is adopted to prevent tyranny by a central government and to grant civil rights and immunity to individual citizens.

1890. Indian Chief Sitting Bull is killed after resisting arrest by Native American Police. A respected warrior and leader, Sitting Bull led countless military campaigns against other tribes, white gold prospectors and even the United States government to protect the land and hunting grounds of the Sioux Nation in South Dakota.

1948. Former State Department official Alger Hiss is indicted by a federal grand jury on perjury charges. When summoned by the House Un-American Activities Committee, Hiss claimed not to know Whittaker Chambers, a magazine editor who insisted that Hiss was a communist spy. But when the two men finally met, Hiss identified Chambers as George Croxley, a man he knew professionally from years before. Richard Nixon, then a Senator from California, used this "conflict" of information to his aid his prosecution of Hiss.

1961. Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death for war crimes committed during the Holocaust. A Nazi Lieutenant Colonel during World War II, Eichmann orchestrated the transportation of millions of European Jews from their homes in the ghettoes to Nazi concentration camps. After the war, he escaped to Argentina where he lived until Israeli agents kidnapped and took him back to Israel to stand trial for crimes against Jewish people.

December 14

1999. Algerian Ahmed Ressam is arrested for transporting nitroglycerin from Canada in the trunk of his car. He is later convicted of planning to bomb Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium New Year’s celebration.

December 13

1990. First-degree murder charges are dropped against Dr. Jack Kevorkian in the assisted suicide of Janet Adkins, an Alzheimer's patient, because there were no Michigan laws pertaining to suicide at the time.

2000. Democratic nominee Al Gore concedes the Presidential election for the second and final time after a month-long legal battle with Republican George W. Bush. For full Decision 2000 coverage, click here.

December 12

1988. Mike Tyson is sued by New York nightclub patron Sandra Miller for allegedly assaulting and propositioning her. A civil court found Tyson guilty of battery, but fined him only $100.

2000. The Florida Supreme Court rules that 25,000 disputed absentee votes will be counted in the presidential election. The U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Florida Supreme Court, and ordered a stop to vote recounts, and effectively making George W. Bush the winner. For full coverage of Decision 2000, click here.

December 11

1964. Soul singer Sam Cooke is shot to death by a hotel manager, Bertha Franklin, in Los Angeles. Franklin claimed that Cooke became belligerent after a white woman in his room fled the hotel following a dispute and alleged rape. Cooke allegedly stormed into Franklin's apartment convinced that she was hiding the girl. Franklin shot Cooke in the chest and bludgeoned him with a stick after he hit her.

1980. President Jimmy Carter signs a bill into law, creating a “Superfund” to pay for cleanup of hazardous materials. The fund was born following public outcry over New York's Love Canal, where hundreds of families were displaced in 1978 from a neighborhood built over an abandoned hazardous waste site. The law made polluters of toxic sites liable for payment of the cleanup.

1985. The Unabomber’s first victim is killed as a package explodes inside a Sacramento computer store. Over the course of 17 years, three victims were killed by exploding packages sent by the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, and many more were badly maimed. Despite the investigative efforts of an FBI Unabomber task force, Kaczynski's brother was the key to his capture by turning him in. Kaczynski was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences.

2000. The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on whether Florida vote recounts should continue in the presidential election. George W. Bush's lawyers argued that the Florida High Court overstepped its bounds by ordering a manual recount. Al Gore's lawyers argued that the U.S. Supreme Court had no reason to intervene in the state court contest. For full coverage of Decision 2000, click here.

December 10

2000. Attorneys for presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush file briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in their legal battle over manual recounts in Florida. For full coverage of Decision 2000, click here.

December 9

1997. Actor Christian Slater is sentenced to 90 days in jail after a plea bargain involving assault and drug charges. The star of "Heathers" and "Broken Arrow" was arrested earlier in August by Los Angeles police and charged with assault, battery and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

1998. A Michigan judge orders Dr. Jack Kevorkian to stand trial for murder after viewing a tape of a “60 Minutes” episode, in which Kevorkian injected lethal drugs into Thomas Youk, a patient suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. During Kevorkian's fifth euthanasia trial, he was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison.

December 8

1963. Nineteen-year-old Frank Sinatra Jr. is kidnapped from a Lake Tahoe casino. He was later returned unharmed after his famous crooner father pays a $240,000 ransom. Three men, Barry Keenan, Joseph Amsler and John Irwin, were arrested and received life imprisonment for the crime. Their sentences were later reduced.

1980. John Lennon is shot and killed outside The Dakota, his New York City apartment. Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

1999. A Memphis jury agrees with the family of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a wrongful death suit, which said that the civil rights leader was murdered by a conspiracy, not a lone gunman.

December 7

1787. Delaware is the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. It took almost three years of public and political bickering before all 13 states of the Union ratified the Constitution. Rhode Island, the last state to ratify the document, initially rejected the Constitution, but eventually approved it when other states threatened to classify and treat the small state as a foreign government.

1982. Convicted murderer Charlie Brooks became the first U.S. prisoner executed by lethal injection in Texas. Since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the ban on capital punishment in 1977, Texas has lead all states with the death penalty in the number of inmates executed. The sole method of execution in Texas is lethal injection.

1993. Colin Ferguson opens fire on a Long Island Railroad car, killing 6 people and injuring 19 others. During his trial, Ferguson fired his attorneys, who wanted him to enter an insanity plea, and represented himself. His defense was that a white man stole his gun and shot the victims while he slept on the train. Ferguson was convicted and sentenced to multiple life terms.

December 6

1999. Seventh-grader Seth Trickey opens fire at an Oklahoma middle school, wounding four students. Described as popular, the middle schooler had little in common with the Columbine High School shooters who authorities claim influenced his actions. He was convicted of assault and recommended for clinical counseling.

December 5

1933. The 21st Amendment is ratified, ending prohibition. The sale and importation of alcohol had been illegal for 13 years after the passing of the 18th Amendment, the Prohibition Amendment, in 1919. The 21st Amendment is the only amendment adopted to repeal an earlier amendment.

December 4

1996. Jonathan Schmitz is sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Scott Amedure following their appearance on "The Jenny Jones Show" in a segment about same-sex secret crushes. Schmitz shot and killed Amedure, his unemployed gay neighbor, three days after the latter confessed on national television to having sexual fantasies about Schmitz. For more on the case, click here.

2000. The U.S. Supreme Court vacates a Florida Supreme Court order extending the deadline for the state's election certification and commands Florida's high court to reconsider it's ruling. For full coverage of Decision 2000, click here.

December 3

1990. Dr. Jack Kevorkian is charged with first-degree murder for assisting in the suicide of Alzheimer's patient Janet Adkins. The charge was later dismissed when a judge ruled that Michigan had no laws against assisted suicide. During a trial in 1998 in which he was convicted, Kevorkian publicly acknowledged having helped at least 130 people die by euthanasia. His appeal was denied in November 2001.

1999. Actor Jason Priestly is arrested for drunk driving in California after crashing his Porsche. The former "Beverly Hills 90210" star pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor driving under the influence. He received three years probation and was ordered to spend five days at a rehab center.

December 2

1859. Abolitionist John Brown is hanged for murder and treason after leading an anti-slavery attack on the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry. The son of a strict Calvinist father who deemed slavery a sin against God, Brown attacked pro-slavery homesteads, and liberated and led slaves into Canada. His execution set off a chain of events that led to the Civil War.

1954. The Senate censures Wisconsin Republican Joseph McCarthy for his overzealous campaign to rid the country of communism. An undistinguished senator since his election to the in 1946, McCarthy came into the national limelight in 1950 when he gave a speech charging that communists had infiltrated the State Department. He later went on to head the Senate Permanent Investigation Subcommittee where he used his authority to further his public hunt for alleged communist plots and sympathizers.

December 1

1955. Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus. Her defiance sparked the beginning of the year-long boycott of the Montgomery public transportation system, and threw a local minister and one of the boycott's organizers, Martin Luther King, Jr., into the national spotlight. Parks, who was convicted and ordered to pay a fine, later received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

1997. Michael Carneal, 14, goes on a shooting rampage at Heath High School in Kentucky, killing three students and injuring five others. Carneal, who admitted to the crime, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 25 years.

2000. The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in George W. Bush’s appeal of a Florida Supreme Court ruling to allow the manual recount of disputed votes from the presidential election. The court later ruled that the recount of votes must stop, effectively ending the election and making Bush the winner. For full election coverage, click here.

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