On Dec. 9, 1608, poet John Milton was born in London.
In 1854 Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” was published in England.
In 1886 Clarence Birdseye, developer of frozen foods, was born in New York.
In 1907 Christmas seals went on sale for the first time, at the Wilmington, Del., post office; proceeds went to fight tuberculosis.
In 1929 actor and filmmaker John Cassavetes was born in New York.
In 1942 the Aram Khachaturian ballet “Gayane,” featuring the surging “Saber Dance,” was first performed by the Kirov Ballet.
In 1958 the anti-communist John Birch Society was formed in Indianapolis.
In 1975 President Gerald Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.
In 1979 Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the religious broadcaster, died in New York; he was 84.
In 1990 Solidarity founder Lech Walesa won Poland’s presidential runoff by a landslide.
In 1992 Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation.
In 1993 the Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos marked for elimination under an arms-control treaty.
In 1996 archeologist and anthropologist Mary Leakey died in Nairobi, Kenya; she was 83.
In 2002 United Airlines filed the biggest bankruptcy in aviation history after losing $4 billion in the previous two years.
In 2003 former Sen. Paul Simon died in Springfield; he was 75.
In 2004 Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was constitutional.
