Today’s highlight

On Dec. 11, 1936, Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicated the throne so he could marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson; his brother, Prince Albert, became King George VI.

On this date

1816: Indiana became the 19th state.

1941: Germany and Italy declared war on the United States; the U.S. responded in kind.

1946: The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund was established.

1972: Apollo 17’s lunar module landed on the moon with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt aboard; they became the last two men to date to step onto the lunar surface.

1980: President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating a $1.6 billion environmental “superfund” to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.

1997: More than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth’s greenhouse gases.

1998: Majority Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pushed through three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, over Democratic objections.

2021: Anne Rice, author of best-selling gothic novels including “Interview With the Vampire,” died at age 80 due to complications from a stroke.