Irish-Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi ushered in a new era of
global communications, sending the first radio transmission
across the Atlantic Ocean on this day in history, Dec. 12, 1901.

The message was the letter "s" in Morse code (dot-dot-dot). But
it proved after years of advances by Marconi that radio could
make the world a smaller place.

The wireless signal traveled 2,000 miles from a transmitting
station in Poldhu, Cornwall, in the far southwestern corner of
England, to a receiving station in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi
(25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937)

On December 12, 1967, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,
a groundbreaking movie about an interracial romantic
relationship starring Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy,
Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton, opened in theaters.

The film was the final role for Spencer Tracy. He was very
ill during production but insisted on continuing. Filming
of his role was completed just 17 days before his death
from a heart attack in June 1967. He was 67.

Hepburn never saw the completed film, saying it would be
too painful for her.    
    
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was nominated for 10 Academy
Awards, including Best Picture, and collected two Oscars,
including Best Actress for Hepburn, the second of her career.  

Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were last 2 individuals to walk on the moon as of today.

The U.S.-crewed spaceflight to the moon on Dec. 7, 1972, was
known as Apollo 17 — also known as the final flight of the
Apollo program.

This particular spaceflight included two historic astronauts:
Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.

These Apollo 17 astronauts would become — on this day in
history, Dec. 11, 1972 — the last humans to walk on the moon
thus far. 

ED DONAHUE
    
    
   

NOTE: Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 –
8 September 2022)

The series ran from December 11, 1980, to May 8, 1988,
during its first-run broadcast on CBS.

Magnum, P.I. consistently ranked in the top 20 U.S. television
programs in the Nielsen ratings during the first five years of
its original run, finishing as high as number three for the 1982–
83 season.

On its final approach to Madison, Wisconsin on December 10,
1967, the private plane carrying soul-music legend Otis Redding 
(26)crashed into the frigid waters of a small lake three miles short         
of the runway, killing seven of the eight men aboard, including
Redding. “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay”, which he had been
recording, would be released in its “unfinished” form several
weeks later, with Redding’s whistled verse a seemingly
indispensable part of the now-classic record and would soon
become history’s first posthumous #1 hit and the biggest pop
hit of Redding’s career.