The History Channel

• On Jan. 2, 1811, Sen. Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts becomes the first senator to be censured by the Senate. Pickering was accused of violating congressional law by publicly revealing secret foreign-policy documents communicated by the president to the Senate.

• On Dec. 29, 1890, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry kills 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. The Cavalry surrounded the Sioux near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side. The brutal massacre followed.

• On Dec. 30, 1922, in post-revolutionary Russia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established. Also known as the Soviet Union, it was the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism.

• On Jan. 3, 1938, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an adult victim of polio, founds the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which he later renamed the March of Dimes Foundation.

STRANGE BUT TRUE

By Samantha Weaver

• Everyone knows that musical artists have certain requirements that must be met for them to perform onstage. For instance, it’s been reported that the seven-time Grammy-award-winning hard-rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers need to have a meditation room backstage at all their performances.

• If you were an early settler in the United States, you could claim a piece of land simply by putting a fence around it.

• Considering the astonishing feats of upriver swimming accomplished by spawning salmon, it is perhaps unsurprising that the name of the fish comes from the Latin word “salir,” which means “to leap.”

• Those who study such things claim that the average American home collects approximately nine pounds of dust every year on the floors alone.

(c) 2008 King Features Synd. Inc.