Today in History
On Dec. 21, 1891, the first basketball game is believed to have been played at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts; devised by James Naismith, "Basket Ball" involved the use of a soccer ball and two peach baskets, with nine players on each team.
In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman concluded their "March to the Sea" as they captured Savannah, Georgia.
In 1937, Walt Disney's first animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," had its world premiere in Los Angeles.
In 1976, the Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island, off Massachusetts, almost a week after running aground, spilling 7.5 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.
In 1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.
At Camp Pendleton, California, four Marines were charged with murder in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha (hah-DEE'-thuh); four Marine officers were accused of failures in investigating and reporting the deaths.
(Of the eight, six had charges dismissed, and one was acquitted of making false statements; Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich (WOO'-tur-ich), who had his unpremeditated murder charge reduced to voluntary manslaughter, ended up pleading guilty to negligent dereliction of duty.) Final results showed opponents of Iran's ultra-conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (ah-muh-DEE'-neh-zhahd), winning nationwide elections for local councils.
The U.S. Army announced charges against eight soldiers related to the death of a fellow GI, Pvt. Daniel Chen, who apparently shot himself in Afghanistan after being hazed.
(Of the eight, five received prison sentences and two received demotions; four of the eight faced dismissal from the service.) Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was selected the 2011 AP M