On this date in history:

In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1909, Leo Baekeland patented the process for making Bakelite, giving birth to the modern plastics industry.

In 1925, five-time Olympic gold medalist and future movie Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in 150-yard free-style swimming.

In 1931, U.S. President Herbert Hoover refused to see a group of hunger marchers at the White House.

In 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, catapulting the United States into World War II. The attack killed 2,403 people, wounded hundreds, destroyed 188 planes and crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Dec. 7 a date which will live in infamy.

In 1972, Apollo 17 was launched on the last scheduled manned mission to the moon.

In 1983, the first execution by lethal injection took place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to officially visit the United States since 1973.

In 1988, an estimated 25,000 people died in a powerful earthquake in Armenia.

In 1991, President Mikhail Gorbachev fired the Gen. Vladimir Lobov, chief of staff of the Soviet Union's armed forces, and replaced him with Viktor Samsonov, an officer who defied the August coup attempt.

In 1992, the destruction of a 16th-century mosque by militant Hindus touched off five days of violence across India that left more than 1,100 people dead.

In 1993, U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed the United States had conducted 204 underground nuclear tests from 1963 to 1990 without informing the public.

In 2002, Azra Akin, a 21-year-old model from Turkey, won the Miss World competition two weeks after Muslim-Christian violence in Nigeria killed more than 200 people, forcing organizers to move the pageant to London.

In 2004, Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.

In 2007, the South Korean coast guard struggled to contain the largest oil spill in Korea following a collision between a barge and an oil tanker that spilled 10,000 tons of oil into coastal waters.

In 2012, Arizona Lottery officials said a 37-year-old suburban Phoenix man claimed his half of a record-breaking $587.5 million Powerball drawing but wished to remain anonymous (he was later identified as Matthew Good of Fountain Hills). It was announced earlier that Mark and Cindy Hall of Dearborn, Mo., won the other half of the big prize.

In 2013, Merrill Newman, 85-year-old Korean War veteran/tourist held in North Korea for more than a month, returned to the United States.

Copyright 2016 by United Press International