New Chronicles of Rebecca – originally checked out from Boise’s Carnegie Public Library in 1910! – was recently returned. With a
fine of two cents per day for 111 years, whoever checked out this
book would owe $803–thank goodness the Boise Public Libraries
are now fine free!

That’s what the Boise Public Library let its patrons know when a
book returned to its facility more than a century later.

The book in question – the "New Chronicles of Rebecca" by Kate Douglas
Wiggin is the sequel to Wiggin’s first fictional novel "Rebecca of Sunnybrook 
Farm." Both books were published in the early 20th century (1903 and1907) 
(and followed the life of Rebecca Rowena Randall, who  grows up in rural
Maine.

According to the book’s internal library slip, the book had been borrowed
a total of 15 times before it went missing from the Carnegie Public Library.

US President Joe Biden and former US Senator Elizabeth
Dole, Bob Dole’s widow, sit near her husband’s casket at
the US Capitol.

No public viewing will take place because of the Coved-19 pandemic, although invited guests were present.

Bob Dole’s funeral will be held on Friday at the Washington National Cathedral.

On December 9, 1979, a commission of scientists declared smallpox
has been eradicated. The disease, which carries around a 30 percent chance of death for those who contract it, is the only infectious
disease afflicting humans that has officially been eradicated.

Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Program read the news that smallpox had been globally eradicated.

John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock group that transformed
popular music in the 1960s, was shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New
York City. 

The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment
building when Mark David Chapman (below) shot him four times at
close range with a .38-caliber revolver. Lennon, bleeding profusely,
was rushed to the hospital but died en-route. Chapman had received
an autograph from Lennon earlier in the day (above) and voluntarily
remained at the scene of the shooting until he was arrested by
police.

For a week, hundreds of bereaved fans kept a vigil outside the
Dakota–Lennon’s apartment building–and demonstrations of
mourning were held around the world.

New York City police hold spectators behind barricades the
day after former Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed in
front his residence at the Dakota in New York. (AP)