December 14 ...

In 1799 George Washington died at the age 67. In 1819 Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state. In 1900 Professor Max Planck of Berlin University revealed his revolutionary Quantum Theory. In 1903 Orville Wright made the first attempt at powered flight. The engine stalled during take-off and the plane was damaged in the attempt. Three days later, after repairs were made, the modern aviation age was born when the plane stayed aloft for 12 seconds and flew 102 feet. In 1911 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole; he reached the destination 35 days ahead of Captain Robert F. Scott. In 1915 Jack Johnson became the first black world heavyweight champion. In 1939 the Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations. In 1945 Josef Kramer, known as "the beast of Belsen," and 10 others were executed in Hamelin for the crimes they committed at the Belsen and Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps. In 1946 the UN General Assembly voted to establish the United Nation's headquarters in New York City. In 1962 the US space probe Mariner 2 approached Venus. It transmitted information about the planet's atmosphere and surface temperature. In 1986 the experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world. The trip took nine days to complete. In 1988 the first transatlantic underwater fiber-optic cable went into service. In 1995 the presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia signed the Dayton Accords to end fighting in Bosnia. In 1999 Charles M. Schulz announced he was retiring the Peanuts comic strip. The last original Peanuts comic strip was published on February 13, 2000.