Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is 69 years old today.    
    

    
 With a career spanning over four decades, actor Washington
has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award,
two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and two
Silver Bears.

He was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement
Award in 2016, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, and in
2020 The New York Times named him the greatest actor of
the 21st century. In 2022, Washington received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom.

1989

1995

2002

2012

Denzel Washington holds his Oscar after winning
the award for best actor in a leading role for his
portrayal of Alonzo, a narcotics officer who has
crossed the dangerous line between cop and
criminal, in the movie "Training Day" (2001).

On December 28, 1975, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger
Staubach (above) threw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Drew
Pearson in the waning seconds to beat the Minnesota Vikings
in a playoff game, 17-14.

Afterward, Staubach calls the miraculous touchdown a "Hail
Mary," thus cementing the term for a  desperation pass in the
sports lexicon.

"It was a play you hit one in a hundred times if you’re lucky,”
Staubach told reporters after the game in Bloomington,
Minnesota. "I guess it’s a Hail Mary pass. You throw it up and
pray he catches it."

Said Dallas coach Tom Landry: "Our only hope was to throw
and hope for a miracle."

Wide receiver Drew Pearson catches the ball. 

Comedian Tom Smothers has died at the age of 86.

The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family,
said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died
Tuesday at home in Santa Rosa, California.   

In 2023, Smothers announced he had been diagnosed
with stage two lung cancer.

Tommy with brother Dick…The Smothers Brothers.

…‘’THIS ISN’T THE MEN’S ROOM”

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, returned safely
to Earth after an historic six-day journey.

On December 21, Apollo 8 was launched by a three-stage Saturn
5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank
Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders aboard.

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around the
moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so.

From left Astronauts Borman, Anders and Lovell
after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean and
being recovered by the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.            
           

                           

THE FIRST IMAGE TAKEN BY HUMANS OF THE
WHOLE EARTH on December 22.