Schindler’s List, starring Liam Neeson in the true story of
a German businessman who saves the lives of more than
a thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust, opened in
theaters.

The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and took
home seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best
Director.

It was the first Best Director win for Spielberg, who had
been nominated in the category for three of his earlier
films: 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1981’s
Raiders of the Lost Ark and 1982’s E.T.: The Extra-
Terrestrial.

Director Steven Spielberg will be 79 December 18th.
 

On December 10, 1690, a failed attack on Quebec and
subsequent near-mutiny force the Massachusetts Bay
Colony to issue the first paper currency in the history
of the Western Hemisphere.

Sir William Phips
(February 2, 1651 – February 18, 1695)

The envoy of Sir William Phips (right) demanding the
surrender of Quebec, 1690.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is a animated television special.
It is the first TV special based on the comic strip Peanuts,
by Charles M. Schulz.

The special aired on this day in 1965 for the first time and
CBS executives, unhappy with the music, the pacing, lack 
of a  laugh track and Linus reading a Bible verse (from Luke)
almost refused to air it.        

       
However, contrary to their collective apprehension, A
Charlie Brown Christmas received high ratings and
acclaim from critics. It received an Emmy, a Peabody
Award, and became an annual presentation

   
    

Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz 
(November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000)

On November 30, 1876, Yale defeated Princeton, 2-0, in
Hoboken, New Jersey in the first collegiate football game
played on Thanksgiving.

The football was oval and made of leather, the Times noted,
"similar to those used in Rugby Union rules." The game
resembled rugby more than a present-day football game.

On November 26, 1948, the first “Land Camera”—better known
today as the instant Polaroid camera—went on sale at Jordan
Marsh department store in Boston for $89.75.

The invention of Edwin H. Land, who had enrolled at Harvard
to study physics in 1926, but dropped out to conduct his own
research, becomes an instant hit and sells out within minutes
that first day.

The camera, dubbed Model 95A, debuted the technology of
instant photography decades before modern digital photos.

Edwin Herbert Land (May 7, 1909 – March 1, 1991)       
        
        
       

Now, retro-style Polaroid cameras are made and sold
today, for people who love the nostalgic feel of instant-
yet-still-physical photography that pre-dates the internet
and cell phone era.