WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010

Today is Wednesday, December 22, the 356th day of 2010. There are nine days left in the year.

1783 ― Washington resigns his military commission as U.S. Army's commander-in-chief

1882 ― First string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison

1894 ― French officer Alfred Dreyfus court-martialed for treason, triggers worldwide charges of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus later vindicated)

1919 ― U.S. deports 250 alien radicals, including anarchist Emma Goldman

1941 ― Tito establishes first Proletarian Brigade in Yugoslavia

1965 ― Director David Lean's ``Dr. Zhivago" premieres

1984 ― Madonna's ``Like a Virgin" single goes No. 1 for six weeks

1990 ― Iraq announces it will never give up Kuwait

1990 ― Lech Walesa sworn in as Poland's first popularly elected president

1994 ― Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi resigns