World/nation trivia: The week of Dec. 15-21

Dec. 15:

1791, the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, went into effect following ratification by Virginia.

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.

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.

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.

Dec. 16:

1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea into Boston Harbor to protest tea taxes.

1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise attack against Allied forces through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium and Luxembourg.

2000, President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first African American secretary of state.

Dec. 17:

1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, conducted the first successful manned, powered airplane flights near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, using their experimental craft, the Wright Flyer.

1933, in the inaugural NFL championship football game, the Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants 23-21 at Wrigley Field.

1992, President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in separate ceremonies.

2014, the United States and communist Cuba restored diplomatic relations after decades of mutual animosity, sweeping away one of the last vestiges of the Cold War.

Dec. 18:

1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect by Secretary of State William H. Seward.

1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” and sent it to the states for ratification. (It was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.)

2011, the last convoy of heavily armored U.S. troops left Iraq, crossing into Kuwait in darkness in the final moments of a nearly nine-year war.

2019, the U.S. House impeached President Donald Trump on two charges, sending his case to the Senate for trial; the articles of impeachment accused him of abusing the power of the presidency to investigate rival Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election and then obstructing Congress’ investigation. (It was the first of two Trump impeachment trials that would end in acquittal by the Senate.)

Dec. 19:

1777, during the American Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington led his army of more than 12,000 soldiers to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to camp for the winter.

1972, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, concluding the Apollo program of crewed lunar landings.

1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. (He was subsequently acquitted by the Senate.)

2011, North Korea announced the death two days earlier of leader Kim Jong Il; North Koreans marched by the thousands to mourn while state media proclaimed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as the nation’s new leader.

Dec. 20:

1803, the Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States.

1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.

2019, the United States Space Force was established when President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.

Dec. 21:

1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, for the first time.

1891, the first basketball game, devised by James Naismith, is believed to have been played at the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.

1991, eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics formally proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

– Associated Press