* On Dec. 13, 1776, American Gen. Charles Lee leaves his army, riding in search of female sociability at Widow White’s Tavern, even though Gen. George Washington repeatedly urged Lee to reinforce Washington’s position on the Delaware River. British soldiers captured Lee at the tavern two days later.

* On Dec. 17, 1843, Charles Dickens’ classic story “A Christmas Carol” is published. Dickens’ father was thrown into debtors’ prison in 1824, and 12-year-old Charles was sent to work in a factory. Dickens wrote about the miserable treatment of children and the institution of the debtors’ jail in several novels.

* On Dec. 12, 1901, Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean. Detractors had told him the curvature of the earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or less.

* On Dec. 11, 1936, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne following his scandalous decision to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.

* On Dec. 16, 1960, two airplanes collide over New York City, killing 134 people on the planes and on the ground. Christmas presents carried by the plane’s passengers were strewn all over the streets, and multiple fires burned for nearly 72 hours.

* On Dec. 14, 1980, a CIA report claims that the Soviet Union delivered nearly $7 billion worth of military assistance to Third World nations in 1979, and made over $8 billion in arms sales the same year. Syria, Iraq and South Yemen were the primary recipients.

* On Dec. 15, 2001, Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after a team of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to fortify the tower without eliminating its famous lean. When completed in 1360, the tower was already leaning, having been built on marshy ground.

(c) 2017 King Features Synd., Inc.