December 29, Ghislaine Maxwell convicted
Today is Monday, December 29, the 363rd day of the year 2025. There are two days left in the year.
Today in history:
On December 29, 2021, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in New York of helping to entice teenage girls to be sexually abused by the late Jeffrey Epstein; the verdict capped a month-long trial involving accounts of sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14. (Maxwell would be sentenced to 20 years in prison.)
Also on this date:
In 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was killed in Canterbury Cathedral by knights loyal to King Henry II.
In 1890, the Wounded Knee Massacre took place in South Dakota. More than 250 Lakota were killed by American troops sent to disarm them.
In 1940, during World War II, the German Luftwaffe dropped incendiary bombs on London, sparking what was dubbed “the Second Great Fire of London.”
In 1978, during the Gator Bowl, Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes punched Clemson player Charlie Bauman, who had intercepted an Ohio State pass. (Hayes was fired the next day.)
In 1989, the dissident and playwright Vaclav Havel (VAHTS’-lahv HAH’-vel) became president of Czechoslovakia. In 1993, he became the first president of the newly independent Czech Republic after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
In 2024, Jimmy Carter, a Georgia peanut farmer who was elected president in the years after the Watergate scandal and served a tumultuous term starting in 1977, died at the age of 100. After his presidency, Carter worked tirelessly as a global humanitarian, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
Today’s birthdays:
- Actor Jon Voight is 87 years old.
- Actor Ted Danson is 78 years old.
- Actress Patricia Clarkson is 66 years old.
- Filmmaker Lilly Wachowski is 58 years old.
- Actress Jennifer Ehle is 56 years old.
- Actor Jude Law is 53 years old.
- Actor Mekhi Phifer (mih-KY’ FY’-fuhr) is 51 years old.
- Actor Diego Luna is 46 years old.
- Actress and producer Alison Brie is 43 years old.
- Actress Jane Levy is 36 years old.
- Actor Dylan Minnette is 29 years old.
