TODAY IN CRIME: December 14

835 Chinese Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dynasty conspired with chancellor Li Xun and general Zheng Zhu to kill the powerful eunuchs of the imperial court undermining his rule. The eunuchs learned of the plot, however, counterattacked with their own soldiers, and slaughtered more than 1,000 soldiers and officials involved in the conspiracy.

1650 Authorities in Oxfordshire, England, hanged scullery maid Anne Greene for committing infanticide. Greene had tried to hide the remains of her stillborn baby, and the "Concealment of Birth of Bastards" Act of 1624 presumed that a woman who concealed the death of an illegitimate baby had killed it. The next day, she revived in the dissection room and, "being saved by the hand of God," received a pardon.

1918 Left-wing activist José Júlio da Costa penetrated a double police cordon and fatally shot Portuguese President Sidónio Pais as he entered the Lisboa-Rossio Railway Station in Lisbon. Presidential bodyguards killed four bystanders in the confusion as da Costa waited to be apprehended. He was imprisoned and tortured by the government but never stood trial and died forgotten in a psychiatric hospital 28 years later.

1964 In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination. The Heart of Atlanta Motel lost its argument that it had the right to refuse to rent rooms to African-Americans.

1971 Anticipating Bangladesh would win independence, at the end of the Bangladesh Liberation War the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators executed more than 200 intellectuals of what was then East Pakistan to cripple the new nation intellectually. The massacre brought the total of teachers, journalists, attorneys, doctors, engineers, poets, and writers killed over the nine-month period of the war to more than 1,000. Two days later, the Pakistan Army surrendered to the joint forces of the Indian army and Mukti bahini.

1975 Six terrorists from the Indonesian province of South Maluku surrendered to Dutch police after killing three people and holding 23 others hostage for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen. The terrorists were demanding the Dutch government recognize the Republic of South Maluku as an independent state.

1981 In a move seen by critics as a declaration of annexation, Israel's Knesset ratified the Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the occupied Golan Heights. Because the Golan Heights is officially Syrian territory occupied by the Israeli military, the law was not recognized internationally—the United Nations Security Council Resolution 497 declared it “null and void and without international legal effect.”

1993 The Colorado District Court found unconstitutional the state's voter-approved Amendment Two prohibiting state and local governments from giving protected status for sexual orientation and imposed a permanent injunction.

1995 The White House released classified documents that revealed the FBI had spied on John Lennon and his anti-war activities during the early '70s. President Nixon ordered the information-gathering in an attempt to deport the influential Beatle.

1999 U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund to compensate Nazi-era slave and forced laborers.

2000 Russian authorities announced American businessman and retired naval intelligence officer Edmond Pope would be released for humanitarian reasons. Pope had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after his conviction on espionage charges when newly elected Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned him.

2003 In the third close call during his four-year rule, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a powerful bomb blew up a bridge seconds after his highly guarded convoy crossed it in Rawalpindi, just outside the capital of Islamabad. Militants angry at Musharraf's support for the U.S. in its fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban set the bomb.

2008 Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at U. S. President George W. Bush during an Iraqi press conference at Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s palace in Baghdad. Palace guards grabbed the attacker, kicked him, and rushed him from the room. President Bush was not harmed. The Central Criminal Court of Iraq sentenced al-Zaidi to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign head of state during an official visit.

2012 Twenty-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother in their Newtown, Connecticut home, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, forced his way in, and killed 26 people with a Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle. The victims included 20 children between the ages of six and seven. Lanza shot himself in the head with a Glock 20SF handgun while still inside the school.