From Historynet: Today in History December 12

1753                      George Washington, the adjutant of Virginia, delivers an ultimatum to the French forces at Fort Le Boeuf, south of Lake Erie, reiterating Britain's claim to the entire Ohio River valley.

1770                      The British soldiers responsible for the "Boston Massacre" are acquitted on murder charges.

1862                      The Union loses its first ship to a torpedo, USS Cairo, in the Yazoo River.

1863                      Orders are given in Richmond, Virginia, that no more supplies from the Union should be received by Federal prisoners.

1901                      Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi   receives the first transatlantic radio transmission in St. John's Newfoundland.

1927                      Communists forces seize Canton, China.

1930                      The Spanish Civil War begins as rebels take a border town.

1930                      The last Allied troops withdraw from the Saar region in Germany.

1931                      Under pressure from the Communists in Canton, Chiang Kai-shek resigns as president of the Nanking Government but remains the head of the Nationalist government that holds nominal rule over most of China.

1943                      The German Army launches Operation Winter Tempest, the relief of the Sixth Army trapped in Stalingrad.

1943                      The exiled Czech government signs a treaty with the Soviet Union for postwar cooperation.

1956                      The United Nations calls for immediate Soviet withdrawal from Hungary.

1964                      Kenya becomes a republic.

1964                      Three Buddhist leaders begin a hunger strike to protest the government in Saigon.

1967                      The United States ends the airlift of 6,500 men in Vietnam.

1979                      South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan, acting without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa, alleging that the chief of staff was involved in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.

1985                      Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff at Gander, Newfoundland; among the 256 dead are 236 members of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division.

1991                      The Russian Federation becomes independent from the USSR.

1995                      Willie Brown beats incumbent mayor Frank Jordon to become the first African-American mayor of San Francisco.

2000                      The US Supreme Court announces its decision in Bush v. Gore, effectively ending legal changes to the results of that year's Presidential election.