On this date in history:

In 1287, more than 50,000 people died in a flood caused by the collapse of the Zuider Zee dike in the Netherlands.

In 1799, George Washington, war for independence military leader and first president of the United States, died at his Mount Vernon home in Virginia.

In 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state in the United States.

In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole. The world would have to wait until March 7, 1912 before learning of Amundsen's triumphant feat.

In 1972, Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan re-entered the lunar lander -- the last man to walk on the moon.

In 1988, the United States announced the start of a substantive dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization for the first time.

In 1989, Andrei Sakharov, father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner for defending human rights, died at age 68.

In 1995, the signing of a peace treaty at a ceremony in Paris officially ended a four-year civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a myth and called for Israel to be moved to Europe or North America.

In 2006, the official British police investigation into the 1997 death of Princess Diana in a Paris car crash concluded that it was an accident and no conspiracy or foul play was involved.

In 2012, a gunman killed 27 people, including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then killed himself. Police said the black-clad attacker, Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother before going to the school.

In 2017, the Federal Communications Commission repealed Obama-era net neutrality rules, loosening regulations on Internet service providers.

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