Today in History.....December 22

On this day in …

* 1775, a Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies

* 1807, Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe

* 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

* 1894, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. (Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.)

* 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with President Roosevelt

* 1944, during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replied "Nuts!" when the Germans demanded that the Americans surrender

* 1984, New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him

* 1989, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe's hard-line Communist rulers, was toppled from power in a popular uprising

* 1991, the body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, practitioners of that "religion of peace", was found dumped along a highway in Lebanon

* 1995, the Senate approved a wide-ranging Republican plan to overhaul the nation's welfare system, 52-47, but without enough votes to override President Clinton's promised veto

* 2000, President Clinton granted Christmastime clemency to 62 people, including former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, who'd been convicted of misuse of public funds

* 2001, Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami who converted to that "religion of peace", tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers