On Dec. 11, 1803, composer Hector Berlioz was born in La Cote-Saint-Andre, France.
In 1816 Indiana became the 19th state.
In 1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States; the U.S. responded in kind.
In 1946 the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established.
In 1961 a U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon — the first direct American military support for South Vietnam’s battle against communist guerrillas.
In 1980 President Jimmy Carter signed into law a $1.6 billion environmental “superfund” to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.
In 1991 a jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., acquitted William Kennedy Smith of sexual assault and battery, rejecting the allegations of Patricia Bowman.
In 1996 a China-organized committee of 400 Hong Kong notables elected shipping tycoon Tung Chee-hwa the first postcolonial leader of Hong Kong.
In 1997 more than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control Earth’s greenhouse gases.
In 1999 President Bill Clinton told CBS Radio his 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military wasn’t working, and he pledged to work with the Pentagon to find a way to fix it.
In 2001 federal prosecutors charged Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, with conspiring to murder thousands in the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings.
In 2003 U.S. health officials reported an early flu outbreak had hit all 50 states and was widespread in 24.
In 2005 Paramount Pictures announced it was buying independent film studio DreamWorks SKG Inc.
