Today in History - History - December 4th

1914Walter Johnson accepts money from Federal League Chicago Whales Clark Griffith threatens to take Johnson to court

1927Duke Ellington opens at Cotton Club in Harlem

1961Museum of Modern Art hangs Matisse's Le Bateau upside down for 47 days

1963Aldo Moro forms Italian government (1963-1968)

1961Floyd Patterson KOs Tom McNeeley in 4 for heavyweight boxing title

1974Jean-Paul Sartre visits Red Army Faction leader Andreas Baader in prison

1942FDR orders dismantling of Works Progress Administration

1985President Reagan appoints Vice Adm John Poindexter as security adviser

1981Reagan Executive Order on Intelligence (No 12333) that allows CIA to engage in domestic counter-intelligence

1951Aaron Copland's/Robbins' "Pied Piper" premieres in NYC

1795Thomas Carlyle, Scotland, essayist/historian (French Revolution)

1969Jay-Z, Brooklyn, New York City, American rapper (Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint)

1892Francisco Franco [ y Bahamonde], Ferrol Galicia, Spanish General and Dictator (1936-75), (d. 1975)

1840Crazy Horse [Tashunka Witko], Fort Robinson Nebraska, Oglala Sioux chief (Battle of the Little Bighorn)

1973Tyra Banks, Inglewood, California, model/actress (Higher Learning, Fresh Prince of Bel Air)

1974Anke Huber, Ludwigshafen Germany, tennis star (1996 finalist Australian)

1976Actress Elizabeth Taylor (44) marries for the 7th time to politician John Warner (49)

1878Novelist Bram Stoker (31) weds Florence Balcombe (20) in Dublin, Ireland

1979Liza Minnelli's 3rd marriage (Mark Gero)

1973NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle (47) weds activist Carrie Cooke

1975Hannah Arendt, German/US political theorist and historian, dies at 69

1679Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (b. 1588)