Today in History

Park Geun-hye elected President of South Korea, the nation’s first female chief executive.

Rioting begins in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the country’s economic crisis.

President Bill Clinton is impeached. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton was the second president in American history to be impeached.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang sign an agreement that committed Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 in return for terms guaranteeing a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. Hong Kong was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years.

Four bombs explode at South Africa’s only nuclear power station in Johannesburg.

Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United states after a House of Representatives vote.

Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, dies at 117 in Houston.

The North Atlantic Council names General Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of Western European defense forces.

Congress confirms Eleanor Roosevelt as U.S. delegate to the United Nations.

During the Battle of the Bulge, American troops begin pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in front of the advancing German Army.

US Marine Corps four-star general James L. Jones Jr.; Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (2003–2006); Commandant of the Marine Corps (1999–2003); National Security Advisor (2009–2010).

The British advance 40 miles into Burma in a drive to oust the Japanese from the colony.

Maurice White, singer, songwriter, musician, producer; founder of the band Earth, Wind & Fire; member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter, producer; best known for his protest songs of the 1960s.

Cicely Tyson, actress, best remembered for her role in The Autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman.

Edith Piaf, internationally famous French cabaret singer, best remembered for her songs “La Vie en rose” and “Non, je ne regrette rein.”

American socialist women denounce suffrage as a movement of the middle class.

Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist party and President of the Supreme Soviet from 1964 until 1982.

The French Parliament votes amnesty for everyone involved in the Dreyfus Affair.

Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest begins tearing up the railroads in Union generals Grant and Rosecrans rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies.

Mary Ashton Livermore, a temperance worker, women’s rights activist, lecturer, and writer. Founded her own suffrage paper, the Agitator, in 1869.

French troops recapture Toulon from the British.

Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain.

The French Wars of Religion between the Huguenots and the Catholics begins with the Battle of Dreux.

Henry II is crowned king of England.