On Dec. 14, 1542, King James V died and his daughter, Mary...

December 14, 1985

On Dec. 14, 1542, King James V died and his daughter, Mary Stuart, ascended to the throne of Scotland, six days after she was born.

In 1799, George Washington died in his Mt. Vernon home in Virginia at age 67.

In 1819, Alabama became the 22d state of the Union.

In 1861, Prince Albert, husband of Britain`s Queen Victoria, died in Windsor Castle, a victim of typhoid fever.

In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole.

In 1916, Denmark voted to sell the Danish West Indies to the United States for $25 million. A treaty was signed in January, 1917.

In 1937, Japan established a puppet Chinese government in Peking.

In 1939, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for aggression against Finland.

In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the organization`s headquarters in New York.

In 1962, the U.S. space probe Mariner 2 approached Venus and transmitted information about the planet`s atmosphere and surface temperature.

In 1972, the Apollo 17 astronauts blasted off from the Moon after three days of exploration.

In 1973, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger urged Saudia Arabia`s King Faisal to end the Arab oil embargo against the United States.

In 1975, six South Moluccan terrorists surrendered to police after holding 23 people hostage for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen.

In 1977, Israeli and Egyptian negotiators met in Cairo to prepare a framework for a Middle East peace settlement.

In 1981, defiant workers mounted strikes throughout Poland to protest the imposition of martial law.