December 4th

Interpol put the former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, on its most-wanted list.

The United States froze the financial assets of organizations allegedly linked to the terrorist group Hamas.

The first NATO troops landed in the Balkans to begin setting up a peace mission.

Rock musician and composer Frank Zappa died at age 52.

Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon, was released after nearly seven years in captivity.

China adopts its current constitution. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China replaced the Constitutions of 1954, 1975, and 1978.

The bodies of four American nuns slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. (Five national guardsmen were later convicted of murder.).

Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco's first woman mayor when she was named to replace George Moscone, who had been assassinated.

The Senate approved U.S. participation in the United Nations.

U.S. bombers struck the Italian mainland for the first time in World War II.

Cecil B. DeMille's first version of "The Ten Commandments" premieres.

President Woodrow Wilson set sail for France to attend the Versailles peace conference.

William Marcy "Boss" Tweed of New York's Tammany Hall escaped from jail and fled the country.

Britain outlaws "suttee" in India (widow burning herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre).

James Monroe of Virginia was elected (by electors) the fifth president of the United States.

Britain's Observer, oldest Sunday newspaper in the world, first published.

George Washington delivered his farewell address to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City.

38 colonists from Berkeley Parish, England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God. Considered by many the first Thanksgiving in the Americas.

Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent occupies Baghdad.