NOW YOU KNOW

• On Dec. 1, 1955,  Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus.  The incidentsparked a year-long boycott of the buses by blacks.
• On Dec.2, 1980,  four Americans churchwomen were raped and murdered outside San Salvador.  Five El Salvador national guardsmen were later convicted of murdering the nuns.
• On Dec. 3, 1810,  British forces captured Mauritius from the French, who had renamed the island nation off southeast Africa "Ile de France."
• On Dec. 5, 1782,  the eight president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y., the first chief executive to be born after Amercan independence.
• On Dec. 6, 1969,  a free concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Alameda County, Calif., was married by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a Hell's Angel.
• On Dec. 7, 1941,  Imperial Japanese warplanes attacked the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, as well as other American and British bases in the Pacific; the raids prompted the United States to enter World War 2.
• On Dec. 8, 1980,  rock star John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan.
• On Dec.9, 1960,  the Domino's Pizza chain had its beginnings as brothers Tom and James Monaghan started operating a pizzeria in Ypsilanti, Mich.
• On Dec.10, 1520,  Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict demanding that he recant, or face excommunication.
• On Dec. 13, 1978,  the Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation in July 1979.
• On Dec. 14, 1799,  George Washington died at age 67.
• On Dec. 15, 1960,  Teflon-coated skillets first went on sale, at Macy's flagship store in New York City.
• On Dec. 16, 1944,  the World War 2 Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise attack against Allied forces in Belgium (the Allies were eventually able to beat the German back).
• On Dec. 17, 1969,  the U.S. Air Force closed itsProject "Blue Book" by concluding there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
• On Dec. 20, 1860,  South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union as all 169 delegates to a special convention in Charleston voted in favor of separation.
• On Dec. 21, 1620,  Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.
• On Dec. 22, 1944,  during the World War 2 Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe rejected a German demand for surrender, writing "Nuts" in his official reply.
• On dec. 23, 1968,  82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
• On Dec. 27, 1968,  Apollo 8 and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific.
• On Dec. 28, 1945,  Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.
• On Dec. 29, 1890,  the Wounded Knee massacre took place in South Dakota as an estimated 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them.
• On Dec. 30, 2006,  Iraqis awoke to news that Saddam Hussein had been hanged; victims of his three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets to celebrate.
• On Dec. 31, 1970,  Paul McCartney filed a lawsuit in London's High Court against his fellow Beatles to officially dissolve their partnership.