On Dec. 31, 1879, Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric incandescent light in Menlo Park,
New Jersey.
Ten years ago
In central Indonesia, suspected Islamic militants set off a powerful bomb at a busy market frequented by Christians, killing seven people. Dick Clark, in his first television appearance since his stroke in 2004, helped ring in the new year in Times Square.
Five years ago
Tornadoes fueled by unusually warm air pummeled the South and Midwest, killing a total of eight people in Arkansas and Missouri. The body of federal defense consultant John Wheeler III, 66, was found in a Wilmington, Delaware, landfill; his death, ruled a homicide, remains under investigation.
One year ago
In one of his final acts as Maryland governor, Democrat Martin O’Malley announced that he would commute the sentences of four death-row inmates to life in prison without parole. A stampede at Shanghai’s glitzy riverfront during New Year celebrations resulted in 36 deaths. Actor Edward Herrmann, 71, died at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York.
— By The Associated Press
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