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• On Dec. 14, 1799, the first president of the United States, George Washington, died at his Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67.
• On this date:
• In 1819, Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.
• In 1861, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, died at Windsor Castle at age 42.
• In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (ROH'-ahl AH'-mun-suhn) and his team became the first men to reach the South Pole, beating out a British expedition led by Robert F. Scott.
• In 1918, "Il Trittico," a trio of one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini, premiered at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. (The third opera, "Gianni Schicchi (SKEE'-kee)," featured the aria "O Mio Babbino Caro," which was an immediate hit.)
• In 1936, the comedy "You Can't Take It With You" by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart opened on Broadway.
• In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish U.N. headquarters in New York.
• In 1961, a school bus was hit by a passenger train at a crossing near Greeley, Colo., killing 20 students.
• In 1962, the U.S. space probe Mariner 2 passed Venus at a distance of just over 21,000 miles, transmitting information about the planet, such as its hot surface temperatures and predominantly carbon dioxide atmosphere.
• In 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan concluded their third and final moonwalk and blasted off for their rendezvous with the command module.
• In 1975, six South Moluccan extremists surrendered after holding 23 hostages for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen (BY'-luhn).
• In 1981, Israel annexed the Golan Heights, which it had seized from Syria in 1967.
• In 1986, the experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world.
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• Ten years ago: A weary, disheveled Saddam Hussein was displayed on television screens worldwide, a day after his capture by American troops. A car bombing outside an Iraqi police station near Baghdad killed at least 17 people. Actress Jeanne Crain died in Santa Barbara, Calif., at age 78.

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