By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 9, the 344th day of 2020. There are 22 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On Dec. 9, 2000, the U-S Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt in the Florida vote count on which Al Gore pinned his best hopes of winning the White House.

On this date:

In 1854, Alfred, Lord Tennysonís famous poem, ìThe Charge of the Light Brigade,î was published in England.

In 1911, an explosion inside the Cross Mountain coal mine near Briceville, Tennessee, killed 84 workers. (Five were rescued.)

In 1940, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.

In 1958, the anti-communist John Birch Society was formed in Indianapolis.

In 1962, the Petrified Forest in Arizona was designated a national park.

In 1965, the James Bond film ìThunderball,î starring Sean Connery, had its world premiere in Tokyo.

In 1987, the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, began as riots broke out in Gaza and spread to the West Bank, triggering a strong Israeli response.

In 1990, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa (lek vah-WENí-sah) won Polandís presidential runoff by a landslide.

In 1992, Britainís Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The coupleís divorce became final in Aug. 1996.)

In 2001, the United States disclosed the existence of a videotape in which Osama bin Laden said he was pleasantly surprised by the extent of damage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2013, scientists revealed that NASAís Curiosity rover had uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars.

In 2014, U.S. Senate investigators concluded the United States had brutalized scores of terror suspects with interrogation tactics that turned secret CIA prisons into chambers of suffering and did nothing to make Americans safer after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Ten years ago: In Britainís worst political violence in years, student protesters rained sticks and rocks on riot police, vandalized government buildings and attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, after lawmakers approved a controversial hike in university tuition fees. Actor Wesley Snipes began serving a three-year sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania for failure to file income tax returns. Floridaís Clemency Board pardoned Jim Morrison for indecent exposure and profanity charges stemming from a Doors concert in 1969. John du Pont, the chemical fortune heir who killed Olympic gold medal wrestler David Schultz in 1996, died in prison at age 72.

Five years ago: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel apologized for the 2014 police shooting of a Black teenager during a special City Council meeting that he called to discuss a police abuse scandal at the center of the biggest crisis of his administration, and promised ìcomplete and totalî reform to restore trust in the police.

One year ago: At a hearing by the House Judiciary Committee, Democrats outlined the impeachment case against President Donald Trump by saying his push to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden while withholding U.S. military aid ran counter to U.S. policy and benefited Russia as well as himself.

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