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History of the Day for:
December 12
- 1787: Pennsylvania became the second state of the American Union.
- 1792: Ludwig van Beethoven, 22, noted in his diary he had enough money for his first music lesson with Franz Joseph Haydn.
- 1800: Washington, D.C., was established as the capital of the United States.
- 1822: Mexico was officially recognized as an independent nation by the U.S.
- 1878: Joseph Pulitzer began publishing the St. Louis Dispatch.
- 1897: The comic strip "The Katzenjammer Kids" (Hans and Fritz) appeared for the first time in "The New York Journal."
- 1899: George F. Bryant of Boston patented the wooden golf tee.
- 1906: Oscar Straus became the first Jewish cabinet member when he was appointed Secretary of Commerce.
- 1913: Leonardo Da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa" was recovered in Florence, two years after it had been stolen from the Louvre in Paris.
- 1915: The first all-metal plane flew for the first time. Built by German Hugo Junkers, it was known as the "Tin Donkey."
- 1917: Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town outside Omaha, Neb.
- 1925: The first motel - The Motel Inn - opened in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
- 1936: Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek declared war on Japan.
- 1937: NBC and RCA sent the first mobile-TV vans onto the streets of New York.
- 1946: Tide detergent was introduced.
- 1953: Test pilot Chuck Yeager reached Mach 2.43 in his Bell X-1A rocket plane.
- 1955: The first prototype of the hovercraft was patented by British engineer Christoper Cockerell.
- 1957: Jerry Lee Lewis married his cousin Myra Gale Brown, 13, while he was still married to his first wife Jane Mitcham.
- 1964: Shooting started for the "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage."
- 1965: The Beatles played their last concert in Great Britain at the Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales.
- 1968: Arthur Ashe became the first black to be ranked No. 1 in tennis.
- 1975: Sara Jane Moore stated she had willfully tried to kill President Gerald Ford. She is now serving a life prison sentence.
- 1976: Quarterback Joe Namath played his last game with the New York Jets.
- 1985: Ian Stewart, the perennial Rolling Stones keyboardist, the Stones road manager, and legendary Sixth Stone, died of a massive heart attack in London at the age of 47.
- 1995: By only three votes, the Senate killed a constitutional amendment giving Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of desecration against Old Glory.