Friday,  Dec. 06, 2013 • Vol. 16--No. 143 • 38 of 39

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Today in History
The Associated Press


• Today is Friday, Dec. 6, the 340th day of 2013. There are 25 days left in the year.

• Today's Highlight in History:
• On Dec. 6, 1957, America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV3 rose only about four feet off a Cape Canaveral launch pad before crashing back down and exploding.

• On this date:
• In 1790, Congress moved to Philadelphia from New York.
• In 1884, Army engineers completed construction of the Washington Monument by setting an aluminum capstone atop the obelisk.
• In 1889, Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, died in New Orleans.
• In 1907, the worst mining disaster in U.S. history occurred as 362 men and boys died in a coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia.
• In 1917, some 2,000 people died when an explosives-laden French cargo ship collided with a Norwegian vessel at the harbor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, setting off a blast that devastated the city.
• In 1922, the Irish Free State came into being under terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
• In 1947, Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Harry S. Truman.
• In 1962, 37 coal miners were killed in an explosion at the Robena No. 3 Mine operated by U.S. Steel in Carmichaels, Pa.
• In 1969, a free concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Alameda County, Calif., was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a Hell's Angel.
• In 1973, House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew.
• In 1989, 14 women were shot to death at the University of Montreal's school of engineering by a man who then took his own life.

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