Today is Saturday, Dec. 9, the 343rd day of 2023. There are 22 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

In 1965, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the first animated TV special featuring characters from the “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, premiered on CBS.

In 1854, Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” was published in England.

In 1911, an explosion inside the Cross Mountain coal mine near Briceville, Tennessee, killed 84 workers.

In 1917, British forces captured Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks.

In 1987, the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, began as riots broke out in Gaza and spread to the West Bank, triggering a strong Israeli response.

In 1990, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa (lek vah-WEN’-sah) won Poland’s presidential runoff by a landslide.

In 1992, Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple’s divorce became final in August 1996.)

In 2000, the U-S Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt in the Florida vote count on which Al Gore pinned his best hopes of winning the White House.

In 2006, a fire broke out at a Moscow drug treatment hospital, killing 46 women trapped by barred windows and a locked gate.

In 2011, the European Union said 26 of its 27 member countries were open to joining a new treaty tying their finances together to solve the euro crisis; Britain remained opposed.

In 2012, Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera, 43, and six others were killed in a plane crash in northern Mexico.

In 2013, scientists revealed that NASA’s Curiosity rover had uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars.

In 2014, U.S. Senate investigators concluded the United States had brutalized scores of terror suspects with interrogation tactics that turned secret CIA prisons into chambers of suffering and that it did nothing to make Americans safer after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

In 2020, commercial flights with Boeing 737 Max jetliners resumed for the first time since they were grounded worldwide nearly two years earlier following two deadly accidents; Brazil’s Gol Airlines became the first in the world to return the planes to its active fleet.

In 2021, a jury in Chicago convicted former “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett on charges he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself and then lied to Chicago police about it.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Dame Judi Dench is 89. Actor Beau Bridges is 82. Actor Michael Nouri is 78. Former Sen. Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., is 76. World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite is 74. Singer Joan Armatrading is 73. Actor Michael Dorn is 71. Actor John Malkovich is 70. Country singer Sylvia is 67. Singer Donny Osmond is 66. Rock musician Nick Seymour (Crowded House) is 65. Comedian Mario Cantone is 64. Actor David Anthony Higgins is 62. Actor Joe Lando is 62. Actor Felicity Huffman is 61. Empress Masako of Japan is 60. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is 57. Rock singer-musician Thomas Flowers (Oleander) is 56. Rock musician Brian Bell (Weezer) is 55. Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wallflowers) is 54. TV personality-businessperson Lori Greiner (TV: “Shark Tank”) is 54. Actor Allison Smith is 54. Songwriter and former “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi (dee-oh-GWAHR’-dee) is 53. Country singer David Kersh is 53. Actor Reiko (RAY’-koh) Aylesworth is 51. Rock musician Tre Cool (Green Day) is 51. Rapper Canibus is 49. Actor Kevin Daniels is 47. Actor-writer-director Mark Duplass is 47. Rock singer Imogen Heap is 46. Actor Jesse Metcalfe is 45. Actor Simon Helberg is 43. Actor Jolene Purdy is 40. Actor Joshua Sasse is 36. Actor Ashleigh Brewer is 33. Olympic gold and silver medal gymnast McKayla Maroney is 28. Olympic silver medal gymnast MyKayla Skinner is 27.