Moments in Time: Lech Walesa
The History Channel
On Dec. 9, 1990, Lech Walesa, founder of the Solidarity trade union, won a landslide election victory, becoming the first directly elected Polish leader.
On Dec. 10, 1690, a failed attack on Quebec and subsequent near-mutiny forced the Massachusetts Bay Colony to issue the first paper currency in the Western Hemisphere's history. It was initially unpopular for anything except paying taxes and was phased out, but reappeared in Massachusetts just a few years later.
On Dec. 11, 1946, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to establish the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), an organization designed to help provide relief and support to children living in countries that had been devastated by World War II.
On Dec. 12, 1970, "Tears of a Clown," penned by William "Smokey" Robinson, became the first No. 1 hit for Robinson and his band the Miracles after more than a decade of hits that had failed to reach that coveted position. Bob Dylan would later call Robinson America's "greatest living poet" in recognition of his skill as a composer and lyricist.
On Dec. 13, 2000, seven convicts (the "Texas Seven") overpowered civilian employees and prison guards in the maintenance shop where they worked at a maximum-security prison in South Texas and made off with clothing, guns and a pickup truck, triggering a six-week manhunt. The men left a note saying, "You haven't heard the last of us yet," which proved true the following year when six of them were recaptured (one committed suicide).
On Dec. 14, 1982, actor Woody Harrelson's father, Charles Harrelson, was convicted of murdering Judge John Wood outside his home in San Antonio, Texas, as he bent down to look at a flat tire on his car. Wood was the first federal judge assassinated in the 20th century, and the FBI's three-year investigation into his murder was one of the most extensive since John F. Kennedy's assassination.
On Dec. 15, 1974, the Oakland A's Jim "Catfish" Hunter was ruled a free agent by arbitrator Peter Seitz, becoming the first free agent in modern baseball history, after the team's owner, Charles O. Finley, failed to live up to the terms of his star pitcher's contract.
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