An eight-ton truck with six-foot tires named Goliath crushes two cars outside Madison Square Garden in New York, Dec. 31, 1987 in a symbolic move to put an end to holiday drinking and driving. The monster truck is one of the featured vehicles in the U.S. Hot Rod Motocross and Mudbog Championships at the garden this weekend. (AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett)

Today is Sunday, Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2020. There are four days left in the year.

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Today’s Highlight in History

On Dec. 27, 2001, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced that Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners would be held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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Egyptian Vice President Hosni Mubarak, right, receives former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger prior to their meeting at the Tahira Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Dec. 30, 1980. Kissinger, who met President Sadat Monday, is on a five-nation Mideast tour for President-elect Ronald Reagan's incoming administration. (AP Photo/Ahmed Tayeb)

On this date

In 1822, scientist Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France.

In 1831, naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a round-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

In 1904, James Barrie’s play “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” opened at the Duke of York’s Theater in London.

In 1945, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were formally established.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, right, chats with wide receiver Randy Moss (81) during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007. The Patriots defeated the Giants 38-35 to become the first team to go 16-0 in the regular season and the first since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to go through a full schedule without a loss. Brady broke the single-season record with his 50th touchdown pass and Randy Moss broke the single-season record with his 23rd touchdown catch in the game. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

In 1949, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed an act recognizing Indonesia’s sovereignty after more than three centuries of Dutch rule.

In 1958, American physicist James Van Allen reported the discovery of a second radiation belt around Earth, in addition to one found earlier in the year.

In 1968, Apollo 8 and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific.

In 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin (hah-FEE’-zoo-lah ah-MEEN’), who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.

In 1985, Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; 19 victims were killed, plus four attackers who were slain by police and security personnel. American naturalist Dian Fossey, 53, who had studied gorillas in the wild in Rwanda, was found hacked to death.

Pope John Paul II talks with his would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca during a private meeting in Agca's prison cell in Rome, Dec. 27, 1983. (AP Photo/Arturo Mari)

In 1994, four Roman Catholic priests — three French and a Belgian — were shot to death in their rectory in Algiers, a day after French commandos killed four radicals who’d hijacked an Air France jet from Algiers to Marseille.

In 1995, Israeli jeeps sped out of the West Bank town of Ramallah, capping a seven-week pullout giving Yasser Arafat control over 90 percent of the West Bank’s 1 million Palestinian residents and one-third of its land.

In 2002, A defiant North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons; the U.N. nuclear watchdog said its inspectors were “staying put” for the time being.

Ten years ago: Iranian security forces fired on Tehran protesters, killing at least eight and launching a new wave of arrests.

Five years ago: North Korea blamed its recent internet outage on the United States and hurled racially charged insults at President Barack Obama over the hacking row involving the movie “The Interview.” Mehmet Ali Agca (MEH’-met AH’-lee AH’-juh), the Turkish gunman who shot and wounded John Paul II in 1981, laid white flowers on the saint’s tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica.

One year ago: LeBron James was selected as The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the third time, after reaching the NBA Finals for the eighth consecutive year. Richard Overton, the nation’s oldest living world War II veteran who was also believed to be the oldest living man in the U.S., died in Texas at the age of 112. President Donald Trump tweeted that the shooting death of a California police officer, allegedly by a man who was in the country illegally, showed the need for a border crackdown.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor John Amos is 80. Rock musician Mick Jones (Foreigner) is 75. Singer Tracy Nelson is 75. Actor Gerard Depardieu is 71. Jazz singer-musician T.S. Monk is 70. Singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff is 68. Rock musician David Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 67. Actress Tovah Feldshuh is 66. Journalist-turned-politician Arthur Kent is 66. Actress Maryam D’Abo is 59. Country musician Jeff Bryant is 57. Actor Ian Gomez is 55. Actress Theresa Randle is 55. Actress Eva LaRue is 53. Wrestler and actor Bill Goldberg is 53. Actress Tracey Cherelle Jones is 50. Bluegrass singer-musician Darrin Vincent (Dailey & Vincent) is 50. Rock musician Guthrie Govan is 48. Musician Matt Slocum is 47. Actor Wilson Cruz is 46. Singer Olu is 46. Actor Masi Oka is 45. Actor Aaron Stanford is 43. Actress Emilie de Ravin is 38. Actor Jay Ellis is 38. Christian rock musician James Mead (Kutless) is 37. Rock singer Hayley Williams (Paramore) is 31. Country singer Shay Mooney (Dan & Shay) is 28. Actor Timothee Chalamet is 24.

Thought for Today: “Man has an incurable habit of not fulfilling the prophecies of his fellow men.” — Alistair Cooke, Anglo-American journalist and broadcaster (1908-2004).

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DECEMBER 28

In 1612, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei observed the planet Neptune, but mistook it for a star. (Neptune wasn’t officially discovered until 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle.)

In 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down because of differences with President Andrew Jackson.

In 1846, Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

In 1972, Kim Il Sung, the premier of North Korea, was named the country’s president under a new constitution.

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DECEMBER 29

In 1170, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was slain in Canterbury Cathedral by knights loyal to King Henry II.

In 1812, during the War of 1812, the American frigate USS Constitution engaged and severely damaged the British frigate HMS Java off Brazil.

In 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.

In 1939, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara, was released by RKO Radio Pictures.

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DECEMBER 30

In 1813, British troops burned Buffalo, New York, during the War of 1812.

In 1853, the United States and Mexico signed a treaty under which the U.S. agreed to buy some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.

In 1860, 10 days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the state militia seized the United States Arsenal in Charleston.

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DECEMBER 31

On Dec. 31, 1986, 97 people were killed when fire broke out in the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Three hotel workers later pleaded guilty in connection with the blaze.)

In 1775, during the Revolutionary War, the British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec; Montgomery was killed.

In 1879, Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric incandescent light by illuminating some 40 bulbs at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

In 1904, New York’s Times Square saw its first New Year’s Eve celebration, with an estimated 200,000 people in attendance.

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JANUARY 2

On Jan. 2, 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts launched his successful bid for the presidency.

n 1788, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1900, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announced the “Open Door Policy” to facilitate trade with China.

In 1935, Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, New Jersey, on charges of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty, and executed.)

In 1942, the Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.

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Editor’s Note: The almanac for Jan. 1 was not released by the Associated Press as of presstime.

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