Local

Dec. 3, 1989: Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Freeborn County distributed 9,000 red ribbons during its red ribbon campaign. MADD asked residents to join all Minnesotans and refrain from drinking and driving.

Dec. 3, 1989: Assistant Chief of Police Tom Mennin, was presented an American Automobile Association Pedestrian Safety Achievement Award by AAA Minnesota. Albert Lea received the award for going 10 years without a pedestrian fatality.

Dec. 3, 1979: The F.W. Woolworth Co. announced it would close its store at 140 S. Broadway on Jan. 28, 1980. Woolworth opened its doors in Albert Lea on Aug. 19, 1916.

Dec. 6, 1979: Minnesota state Sen. Tom Nelson and Albert Lea Mayor O.H. Hagen met with Vice President Walter Mondale at the White House. Mondale accepted a resolution from the Albert Lea City Council condemning the Iranian government for holding hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran.

 

National

2018: President Donald Trump made it clear he was closely watching those who turned on him in the Russia investigation; he tweeted that his former lawyer, who cut a deal with prosecutors, should go straight to prison, but Trump praised a key witness for having the “guts” not to testify against him.

2014: A Staten Island, New York, grand jury declined to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man stopped on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.

2009: President Barack Obama hosted a White House-sponsored jobs forum, where he said he had heard many exciting ideas and proposals and expressed hope some could be put into action quickly.

2002: Thousands of personnel files released under a court order showed that the Archdiocese of Boston went to great lengths to hide priests accused of abuse, including clergy who’d allegedly snorted cocaine and had sex with girls aspiring to be nuns.

1992: The first telephone text message was sent by British engineer Neil Papworth, who transmitted the greeting “Merry Christmas” from his work computer in Newbury, Berkshire, to Vodafone executive Richard Jarvis’ mobile phone.

1991: Radicals in Lebanon released American hostage Alann Steen, who had been held captive nearly five years.

1980: Bernadine Dohrn, a former leader of the radical Weather Underground, surrendered to authorities in Chicago after more than a decade as a fugitive.

1964: Police arrested some 800 students at the University of California at Berkeley, one day after the students stormed the administration building and staged a massive sit-in.