Today in History - History - December 23rd

1921Gangster Carlo Gambino enters the United States as an illegal immigrant on the SS Vincenzo Florio

1933Howie Morenz takes over NHL career goal lead at 251

19707,511th performance of Agatha Christie's play "The Mousetrap" (record)

1997Colorado Avalanche Jari Kurri is 8th NHLer to score 600 career goals

1913President Woodrow Wilson signs Federal Reserve Act into law

1888Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear

1793Thomas Jefferson warned of slave revolts in West Indies

1987Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for attempted assassination of Pres Gerald R Ford escapes from Alderson Prison

1776Thomas Paine writes "These are the times that try men's souls"

1862Union General Ben "Beast" Butler is proclaimed a "felon, outlaw & common enemy of mankind" by Jefferson Davis

1867Madame C. J. Walker, Louisiana, cosmetic mogul (Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company), (d. 1919)

245Zenobia, Palmyra, Syria, Queen of Palmyra, (d. 274)

1805Joseph Smith Jr, Sharon Vermont, founder (Mormon Church), (d. 1844)

1891Cy Denneny, Farran's Point Ontario, Canadian ice hockey hall of famer

1981Astronaut Chris Hadfield (22) weds high-school girlfriend Helene Walter

1997Woody Allen, 62 weds Soon-Yi Previn 27, adopted daughter of Mia Farrow

1847Prime Minister of Canada Mackenzie Bowell (24) weds Harriet Moore

1979Stevie Ray Vaughan (25) weds Lenora "Lenny" Bailey (div. 1988)

1951MLB centerfielder Mickey Mantle (20) weds author Merlyn Mantle (19) in Commerce, Oklahoma

2007"Dr. Izzie Stevens" actress Katherine Heigl (29) weds singer-songwriter Josh Kelley (27) at Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah