Updated December 10, 2011, 1:28 pm
On Dec. 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States; the U.S. responded in kind.
On Dec. 11, 1882, Fiorello H. La Guardia, the former mayor of New York City for three consecutive terms, was born. Following his death on Sept. 20, 1947, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1816 Indiana became the 19th state. 1936 Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson. 1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, which responded in kind. 1946 UNICEF (the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) was established. 1972 Man landed on the moon for the last time during the Apollo 17 mission. 1981 The U.N. Security Council chose Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru to be its fifth secretary-general. 1994 Russian troops rolled into breakaway republic of Chechnya in a failed bid to restore Moscow’s control over the region. 1997 More than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to take steps to control greenhouse gas emissions. 1998 The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. 2000 Shortstop Alex Rodriguez agreed to a $252 million 10-year deal with the Texas Rangers, the most lucrative sports contract in history to date. 2002 A congressional report found that intelligence agencies before Sept. 11, 2001, were poorly organized, poorly equipped and slow to pursue clues that might have prevented that day’s terrorist attacks. 2008 Financial manager Bernard Madoff was arrested, accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that destroyed thousands of people’s life savings and wrecked charities. (Madoff later pleaded guilty and is serving150 years in federal prison.) 2009 Tiger Woods announced on his website that he was taking an indefinite leave from golf to try to save his marriage to Elin Nordegren. (The couple divorced in August 2010.) Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actress-comedian Mo’Nique turns 44 years old today.
AP Photo/Matt Sayles
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., turns 70 years old today.
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
1931 Rita Moreno, Actress, turns 80 1939 Tom Hayden, Activist, turns 72 1942 Donna Mills, Actress (“Knots Landing”), turns 69 1943 John Kerry, U.S. senator, D-Mass., turns 68 1944 Lynda Day George, Actress, turns 67 1944 Brenda Lee, Singer, turns 67 1947 Teri Garr, Actress, turns 64 1954 Jermaine Jackson, Singer (The Jackson 5), turns 57 1958 Nikki Sixx, Rock musician (Motley Crue), turns 53 1966 Gary Dourdan, Actor (“CSI”), turns 45 1973 Mos Def, Rapper, actor, turns 38 1996 Hailee Steinfeld, Actress, turns 15 Historic Birthdays
Fiorello H. La Guardia 12/11/1882 – 9/20/1947 New York City mayor. Go to obituary »
45 Leo X 12/11/1475 – 12/1/1521
Italian pope86 Sir David Brewster 12/11/1781 – 2/10/1868
Scottish physicist65 (Louis-)Hector Berlioz 12/11/1803 – 3/8/1869
French composer and conductor46 Alfred de Musset 12/11/1810 – 5/2/1857
French poet and playwright66 Robert H.H. Koch 12/11/1843 – 5/27/1910
German physician77 Annie Jump Cannon 12/11/1863 – 4/13/1941
American astronomer87 Max Born 12/11/1882 – 1/5/1970
German physicist and Nobel Prize winner68 Erskine (Hamilton) Childers 12/11/1905 – 11/17/1974
Irish statesman and fourth president (1973-74)62 Sir Kenneth MacMillan 12/11/1929 – 10/29/1992
Scottish-English choreographer
