Dec. 4 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1881, the Los Angeles Times published its first edition.
1 of 6 | On December 4, 1969, Chicago police killed two members of the Black Panthers — Mark Clark (L) and Fred Hampton — in what officials described as a gun fight. File Photos courtesy of Wikimedia; UPI
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson became the first sitting U.S. president to travel to Europe. He lead the U.S. delegation to a peace conference ending World War I.
In 1942, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered liquidation of the Works Projects Administration, created during the Great Depression to provide work for the unemployed. The WPA was originally called the Works Progress Administration.
In 1954, the first Burger King fast-food restaurant opened — in Miami.
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In 1969, Chicago police killed two members of the Black Panthers — Mark Clark and Fred Hampton — in what officials described as a gun fight. An investigation later determined police falsified their report and fired about 100 bullets compared to one from the two men. All charges against the police were dismissed.
In 1971, India joined East Pakistan in its war for independence from West Pakistan. East Pakistan became the republic of Bangladesh.
In 1991, American Terry Anderson was freed by his pro-Iranian captors after six years.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush ordered U.S. troops into Somalia.
In 1997, health officials in Europe voted to ban most forms of advertising of tobacco beginning in four to five years.
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In 2006, John Bolton resigned as U.S. envoy to the United Nations. He had been a harsh critic of U.N. bureaucracy.
In 2009, an Italian jury found U.S. exchange student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, guilty of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher. Knox and Sollecito were acquitted in 2011.
In 2012, Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, responding to a challenge to survive on food stamps, began a week of spending less than $5 a day on food — posting his grocery receipts on Facebook and Twitter. “This is hard,” said Booker, who became a U.S. senator in 2013.
In 2022, singer Gladys Knight, Irish rock band U2, Cuban-born composer Tania Leon, singer-songwriter Amy Grant, and actor and filmmaker George Clooney were honored at the annual Kennedy Center Honors.
File Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI