Today’s highlight

On Dec. 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan launched an air raid on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as well as targets in Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines and Wake Island; the United States declared war against Japan the next day.

On this date

1787: Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1796: Electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States.

1917: During World War I, the United States declared war on Austria-Hungary.

1963: During the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast.

1972: America’s last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

1982: Convicted murderer Charlie Brooks Jr. became the first U.S. prisoner to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, Texas.

1988: A major earthquake in the Soviet Union devastated northern Armenia; official estimates put the death toll at 25-thousand.

2001: Taliban forces abandoned their last bastion in Afghanistan, fleeing the southern city of Kandahar.

2004: Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president.