In 1799, George Washington died at Mount Vernon, his home in Virginia.

In 1819, Alabama was admitted as the 22nd U.S. state.

In 1911, explorer Roald Amundsen and his party became the first humans to reach the South Pole.

In 2001, after Hurricane Michelle devastated Cuba, a commercial shipment of food left the United States for the island nation for the first time since 1962.

In 2012, a 20-year-old gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before taking his own life.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: James Doolittle (1896-1993), military aviator; Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), politician; Shirley Jackson (19161965), author; Don Hewitt (1922-2009), TV producer; Lee Remick (1935-1991), actress; Patty Duke (19462016), actress; Bill Buckner (1949-2019), baseball player; Michael Moloney (1963- ), interior designer; Vanessa Hudgens (1988- ), actress.

TODAY’S FACT: Historians have estimated that physicians drained 5 to 7 pints of blood from President George Washington in the day prior to his death, in an attempt to cure him.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1988, after losing the first 17 games of the season, the Miami Heat defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 89-88 for the franchise’s first win.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “I think that it is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation.” -- Margaret Chase Smith, “Declaration of Conscience”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 3 points known as the South Pole: the ceremonial pole, the geographic pole and the magnetic pole.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (Dec. 7) and last quarter moon (Dec. 16).