Moments in Time – December 7, 2022

#MiddleburyCT

• On Dec. 23, 1672, Italian astronomer, mathematician and engineer Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovered Rhea (originally christened Sidera Lodoicea), the second largest of Saturn’s 62 moons. In 2010, a spacecraft named for Cassini would detect a thin oxygen atmosphere around it – the first such known outside planet Earth.
• On Dec. 24, 1945, a fire destroyed the home of George and Jennie Sodder and their nine children in Fayetteville, West Virginia. While their parents and four other siblings escaped, no sign of the remaining five children has ever been found, despite decades-long publicity and numerous investigations by both law enforcement and amateur sleuths.
• On Dec. 22, 1956, a baby western gorilla named Colo debuted on the world stage at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio, where she would spend her entire life, becoming the first-ever gorilla born in captivity. Upon her death in 2017, she was also the oldest known gorilla in the world.
• On Dec. 20, 1957, Elvis Presley received his Army draft notice while spending the holiday season at his newly purchased mansion, Graceland. Distraught fans sent thousands of letters to the Army asking for him to be spared, but Elvis himself had no hesitation about entering, though he did receive a deferment that allowed him to finish work on the movie “King Creole.”
• On Dec. 21, 2006, rebel monks at the centuries-old Esphigmenou Monastery in Thessaloniki, Greece, took up crowbars and fire extinguishers to repel church-appointed monks with sledgehammers attempting to break in. The rebels vehemently opposed efforts by the Orthodox church to improve relations with the Vatican.
• On Dec. 25, 2013, military defense forces discovered a professionally designed but incomplete 40-meter tunnel connecting Hong King to China that included rail tracks, hanging lamps, ventilators and a small transport cart. Authorities believed the tunnel, which cost an estimated $494,000, was created with the intention of smuggling goods into Hong Kong to avoid tariffs.

© 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.