Moments in Time: Lord of the Rings
The History Channel
On Dec. 15, 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in his capacity as Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in the Pacific, ended the role of Shintoism as Japan's established religion. Shintoism included the belief that the emperor was divine.
On Dec. 16, 1998, President Bill Clinton announced his order of air strikes against Iraq, due to the country's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors. Key members of Congress did not support the decision, accusing Clinton of using the strikes to direct attention away from his impeachment proceedings.
On Dec. 17, 2003, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," the final film in the trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy novels, debuted in theaters. A tremendous hit, it won 11 Academy Awards, and the trilogy became one of the highest-grossing franchises in cinema history.
On Dec. 18, 1961, the Tokens' version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" became not just a No. 1 song, but a classic -- one of the most covered and most successful pop songs ever recorded. Sadly, a sequence of business arrangements that made millions of dollars for a handful of prominent U.S. music publishers yielded just a $1,000 personal check from folksinger Pete Seeger to Solomon Linda, a South African performer who composed the tune.
On Dec. 19, 1986, Michael Sergio, an actor and Mets fan who parachuted into Game Six of the 1986 World Series at New York's Shea Stadium, was fined $500 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service for touching down on the infield with a "Let's Go Mets" banner to the cheering support of more than 55,000 spectators.
On Dec. 20, 1880, a section of Broadway between Union Square and Madison Square was illuminated by Brush arc lamps, becoming one of the first electrically lighted streets in America and earning the nickname "The Great White Way."
On Dec. 21, 1913, the first modern crossword puzzle was published in the New York World, part of a set of what the paper called "mental exercises." Clues included "sunk in mud," "the fibre of the gomuti palm," and "such and nothing more."
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