Benjamin Tillman (1847–1918) was the Democratic Governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894 and a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. A white supremacist who opposed civil rights for blacks, Tillman led a paramilitary group of Red Shirts during South Carolina's violent 1876 election. One of his legacies was South Carolina's 1895 constitution, which disenfranchised most of the black majority and ensured white rule for more than half a century. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, he frequently ridiculed blacks, and boasted of having helped to kill them during the 1876 campaign. He was known as "Pitchfork Ben" after he threatened to use a pitchfork to prod that "bag of beef", President Grover Cleveland. He was the primary sponsor of the Tillman Act (1907), the first federal campaign finance reform law, which banned corporate contributions in federal political campaigns. (Full article...)

Ridder Arena

• ... that Robert and Kathleen Ridder helped the Gophers get the first ice rink for women (pictured) in college hockey?
• ... that Panzer Aces, a book series about World War II widely read in the US, was described as portraying "an almost heroic version of the German soldier, guiltless of any war crimes"?
• ... that the live concerts of the rock band Sumika feature performances by non-musicians such as painters, sculptors, architects, potters, and poets?
• ... that Ahmadou Ahidjo was the first president of Cameroon following its independence?
• ... that Edgecliff, an estate completed in 1930, had the highest residential property tax in Cook County in 2014 and 2015?
• ... that Yang Kuo-shu, who earned the first PhD in psychology in Taiwan, founded indigenous Chinese psychology and studied such phenomena as yuanfen, guanxi, and face?
• ... that Adrien Agreste's superhero identity, Cat Noir, is a tribute to the comic book character Catwoman?
• ... that in 1794, a silver statue of the Virgin Mary from the chapel at Notre-Dame de la Garde was melted down at the mint of Marseille located on Rue du Tapis-Vert?

Asteroid 101955 Bennu

• In South American football, the Copa Libertadores concludes with River Plate defeating Boca Juniors in the final.
• The sample-return spacecraft OSIRIS-REx arrives at the asteroid 101955 Bennu (pictured).
• Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush dies at the age of 94.
• Magnus Carlsen defeats Fabiano Caruana to retain the World Chess Championship.
• NASA's InSight successfully lands on Mars.

December 11

Eugene Cernan on the lunar rover

• 1789 – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the oldest public universities in the United States and the only one to award degrees in the 18th century, received its charter.
• 1899 – Second Boer War: In the Battle of Magersfontein, Boers defeated the forces of the British Empire trying to relieve the Siege of Kimberley.
• 1972 – Apollo 17 (Lunar Roving Vehicle pictured), the last Apollo mission, landed on the Moon.
• 1981 – Salvadoran Civil War: About 900 civilians were killed by the Salvadoran armed forces in an anti-guerrilla campaign.
• 2008 – American stockbroker Bernard Madoff was arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $64.8 billion Ponzi scheme, the largest in history.

Averroes (d. 1198) · Subramania Bharati (b. 1882) · Big Mama Thornton (b. 1926)