December 1 ...

In 1824 the presidential election was turned over to the US House of Representatives when a deadlock developed between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay. (Adams ended up the winner.) In 1904 the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis closed after seven months and some 20 million visitors. In 1913 the first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh. In 1919 Lady Astor became the first female member of the British Parliament (she had been elected to that position on November 28). In 1934 Sergei M. Kirov, a collaborator of Josef Stalin, was assassinated in Leningrad, resulting in a massive purge. In 1935 comedian and film director Woody Allen was born in New York City. In 1940 comedian Richard Pryor was born in Peoria, IL. In 1942 nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect in the US. In 1943 President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin concluded their Tehran conference. In 1955 Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, AL city bus. Mrs. Parks was arrested, sparking a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks. In 1958 Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago killed 92 children and three nuns. In 1965 an airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland. In 1969 the US government held its first draft lottery since World War II. In 1973 David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, died in Tel Aviv at age 87. In 2000 Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 75 years of the PRI Party's domination.