On this date in history:

In 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrated a hand-cranked phonograph that recorded sound on grooved metal cylinders. Edison shouted verses of Mary Had a Little Lamb into the machine, which played back his voice.

In 1890, the first Army-Navy football game was played. Navy won 24-0.

In 1929, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard Byrd and three crewmen became the first people to fly over the South Pole.

In 1935, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger published his famous thought experiment dubbed Schrödinger's cat, to illustrate a paradox of quantum mechanics.

In 1947, despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations voted for the partition of Palestine and the creation of the independent Jewish state of Israel.

In 1963, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson appointed the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John Kennedy.

In 1981, actor Natalie Wood drowned while on a boat trip to Santa Catalina Island, Calif.

In 1986, movie icon Cary Grant died of a stroke at the age of 82.

In 1989, Romanian Olympic gymnastic hero Nadia Comaneci fled to Hungary. She eventually reached the United States.

In 1990, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing all necessary means, including military force, against Iraq if it didn't withdraw from Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991.

In 1991, a dust storm in Coalinga, Calif., triggered a massive pileup by more than 250 vehicles on Interstate 5, killing 15 people and injuring more than 100.

In 1994, voters in Norway rejected a proposal to join the European Union.

In 2001, George Harrison, lead guitarist of the Beatles, died of cancer. He was 58.

In 2011, Dr. Conrad Murray was sentenced to four years in prison for an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the death of Michael Jackson. He was released on parole Oct. 28, 2013.

In 2012, the United Nations voted 138-9, with 31 abstentions, to give Palestinians non-member observer status.

In 2021, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey announced his resignation as CEO of the social media platform He was replaced by Parag Agrawal, who was ousted in October 2022 upon Elon Musk's purchase of the company.

In 2022, 46% of people in England and Wales described themselves as Christian in a census survey, the first time that figure represented less than half the populations of the two countries.

Copyright 2023 by United Press International