(FOX NEWS)

On December 4, 1991, Islamic militants in Lebanon released
kidnapped American journalist Terry Anderson after 2,454
days in captivity.

As chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press,
Anderson covered the long-running civil war in Lebanon,1975- 
1990. On March 16, 1985, he was kidnapped on a west Beirut 
street while leaving a tennis court.

American hostage Terry Anderson photographed by his
captors in Lebanon on Oct. 21, 1988.

Anderson being welcomed home to Lorain, Ohio on June
21, 1992.

Terry Anderson turned 76 on October 27th.

The movie “It’s A Wonderful  Life” is based on ‘The Greatest
Gift,’ a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern. He originally
started writing the story in 1939, but had no luck publishing
it at first.

After failing to find a publisher, Stern decided to print his story
as a 21-page Christmas card that he sent to 200 of his friends
in 1943.

An RKO Pictures producer saw the "card" and convinced the
studio to buy the rights to the story, which were eventually
sold to Frank Capra’s production company, Liberty Films.

Stern’s short story was also eventually published as a book in
1944—and Stern also sold the story to Good Housekeeping,
which published it in its January 1945 issue under the title
"The Man Who Was Never Born."

Philip Van Doren Stern
(September 10, 1900 – July 31, 1984)

On December 3, 1979, the last Pacer rolled off the assembly line
at the American Motors Corporation (AMC) factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin. When the car first came on the market in 1975, it was
a sensation, hailed as the car of the future. “When you buy any
other car,” ads said, “all you end up with is today’s car. When
you get a Pacer, you get a piece of tomorrow.” By 1979, however,
sales had faded considerably.

In a letter dated December 3, 1776, General George Washington
wrote to Congress from his headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey,
to report that he had transported much of the Continental Army’s
stores and baggage across the Delaware River to Pennsylvania.

His famous crossing of the Delaware would come less than one
month later.