Moments in Time: Digital KISS
The History Channel
On Dec. 1, 1992, police in Lilly, Pennsylvania, were summoned to a video store after a concerned passerby reported seeing a gunman inside, only to come face-to-face with a promotional cardboard cutout of a gun-toting Denzel Washington from the thriller "Ricochet." The no-doubt amused cops chose to use the experience as a training day.
On Dec. 2, 2023, KISS completed their final "End of the Road" tour at New York City's Madison Square Garden with a performance featuring the band's digital avatars. After the actual musicians left the stage, their virtual versions launched into a performance of "God Gave Rock and Roll to You."
On Dec. 3, 1847, escaped slave-turned-abolitionist Frederick Douglass, assisted by philanthropist Gerrit Smith, published his first antislavery newspaper, The North Star. The title referred to the bright star Polaris that helped guide fleeing slaves to the North, and freedom. The paper later merged with Smith's under the new name Frederick Douglass' Paper.
On Dec. 4, 1942, a group of Polish Christians in Warsaw, led by Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz, put their own lives at risk by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews. As their fates were not clear, it is also uncertain whether their mission was ultimately successful.
On Dec. 5, 1873, Bridget Landregan was found dead in the Boston suburb of Dorchester, the first victim of Warren Avenue Baptist Church sexton Thomas Piper, aka the Boston Belfry Murderer. His second victim, Mary Sullivan, was killed the following year, and his third and fourth victims in 1875 and 1876. Piper was finally arrested and confessed to all four crimes, and was hanged in 1876.
On Dec. 6, 1921, the Irish Free State (later renamed Eire and now known as the Republic of Ireland), comprising four-fifths of Ireland, was declared, ending a five-year struggle for independence from Britain.
On Dec. 7, 1909, the U.S. Patent Office granted chemist LEO Baekeland a patent for "a method of making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde," the first synthetic plastic. Dubbed Bakelite after its inventor, it would be marketed as "the material of 1,000 uses."
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