1/5
Dec. 28 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1065, Westminster Abbey was consecrated.
In 1832, John Calhoun, at odds with U.S. President Andrew Jackson, became the first U.S. vice president to resign.
In 1846, Iowa was admitted into the United States as the 29th state.
In 1865, French film pioneers Auguste Lumiere and Louis Lumiere showed the first commercial motion pictures at a Paris cafe.
In 1869, a group of tailors in Philadelphia staged the first Labor Day ceremonies in the United States.
File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
In 1908, an earthquake in the Messina area of southern Italy killed at least 80,000 people. Some estimates put the death toll upwards of 200,000.
In 1950, advancing Chinese troops crossed the 38th Parallel, dividing line between North and South Korea, to help the communist North Koreans fight U.S.-led U.N. forces.
In 1981, the United States’ first test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, was born in a Norfolk, Va., hospital.
In 1985, warring Lebanese Muslim and Christian leaders signed a peace agreement backed by Syria.
In 1991, Time magazine named CNN founder Ted Turner man of the year.
In 2007, Nepal’s interim parliament voted to abolish its monarchy and became a federal democratic republic. King Gyanendra was formally deposed May 28, 2008.
In 2012, a 23-year-old woman who was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi died at a hospital in Singapore. The attack by six men on the woman and her boyfriend caused outrage and protests throughout India.
In 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning American parents from adopting Russian children.
In 2014, Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea, killing 155 passengers and seven crew. Searchers found the aircraft and bodies floating in the sea two days after it disappeared.
In 2015, Japan and South Korea reached a deal to settle the issue of “comfort women,” sex slave victims forced to serve in Japanese military brothels during World War II. Tokyo issued a formal apology and agreed to pay $8.3 million.
In 2019, a car bomb rocked Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, killing more than 80 people and injuring 125 others.
File Photo by Said Yusuf Warsame/EPA-EFE
