MOMENTS IN TIME - Dec. 2, 2010

Dec 02, 20100

The History Channel

* On Dec. 11, 1872, dime-novel hero Buffalo Bill Cody makes his first stage appearance in a Chicago-based production of The Scouts of the Prairie. Cody remained on the Chicago stage for the next 11 years. Buffalo Bill Cody was the hero of more than 1,700 variant issues of dime novels.

* On Dec. 6, 1884, in Washington, D.C., workers place a 9-inch aluminum pyramid atop an obelisk of white marble, completing the construction of the Washington Monument. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that at 555 feet, the monument would remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.

* On Dec. 12, 1914, the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffers its worst percentage drop (24.39 percent) since it was first published in 1896. It was the first day of trading since the New York Stock Exchange reopened in November 1914 after being shut down due to the start of World War I earlier that year.

* On Dec. 9, 1921, an engineer at General Motors discovers that when he adds a compound called tetraethyl lead to gasoline, he eliminates the knocking that internal-combustion engines make when they run. In the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency required that carmakers phase out lead-compatible engines.

* On Dec. 7, 1941, in an early-morning sneak attack, Japanese warplanes bomb the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the United States enters World War II. Two hundred Japanese aircraft destroyed or damaged 18 U.S. ships and killed 2,400 Americans.

* On Dec. 10, 1967, soul legend Otis Redding dies in a plane crash near Madison, Wisc. He was 26. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” would be released in its “unfinished” form several weeks later. The whistled verse was a placeholder for additional lyrics that Redding had yet to write.

* On Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon is shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his apartment building in New York City. Later that evening, police took Chapman into custody peaceably after finding him reading a copy of “The Catcher in the Rye” at the site of the shooting.