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HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Kanakaloka: Santa Claus
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY —Krismas: Christmas
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — Every season of life has its virtues.
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Aren’t we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know, the birth of Santa.“ - Matt Groening

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December 17th, 1944: The U.S. Government decides that the approximately 120,000 Americans of  Japanese descent are really not a grave threat to the government, or freedom, and releases them — most never get back their lands, property, or good names. Strangely most of the Japanese in Hawaii are not affected.

Executive Order 9066 from President F.D. Roosevelt, ordered that that any local military  commander could exclude any person from sensitive locations, and authorized the internment. In  1944, shortly before they were released, the U.S.Supreme Court ruled that the lockup was  constitutional. Nonetheless, President Ronald Reagan officially apologized to the internees in  1988, and in 1990 the U.S.Government began to pay reparations to surviving internees. Many  refused, saying the amount was too small, and no price could be put on their freedoms.

On this same date three years earlier, rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel was relieved of his duty  as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, just ten days after the attack.

EVENTS ON THIS DAY

• 1790 Aztec calendar stone discovered in México City
• 1832 HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin sails in Strait Le Maire
• 1852 1st Hawaiian cavalry organized
• 1925 Colonel William “Billy” Mitchell court-martial for insubordination
• 1957 US successfully test-fires Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile
• 1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1975 Lynette Fromme is sentenced to life for attempt on President Ford’s life
• 2004 President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence-gathering in 50 years.
• 2005 President George W. Bush acknowledged he’d personally authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. following Sept. 11, calling it “crucial to our national security.”
• 2007 Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a measure making New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty in more than 40 years.

BORN ON THIS DAY

• 1873 Ford Madox Ford England, novelist/editor (The Inheritors)
• 1952 Mickey Jones Washington DC, rock bassist
• 1954 Bill Pullman actor (Sommersby, League of their Own, Independence Day)
• 1957 Bob Ojeda pitcher (New York Mets)
• 1974 Giovonni Ribisi actor (Cory-My 2 Dads, New Leave it To Beaver)
• 1975 Milla Jovovich Kiev Ukraine, actress (Return to Blue Lagoon, Chaplin)
• 1975 Napiera Danielle Groves Miss USA-Washington DC (1997, Miss Congeniality)
• 1975 Nick Farrell East York Ontario, boxer (Olympics-96)
• 1979 Jaimee Foxworth actor (Judy Winslow-Family Matters)

DIED ON THIS DAY

• 1830 Simon Bolivar President of Colombia, dies at 47 in Colombia
• 1957 Dorothy Leigh Sayers [Atherton Fleming] author (Whose body), dies at 64
• 1961 Marion Perkins sculptor (Man of Sorrow), dies at 53
• 1969 Arturo da Costa e Silva President of Brazil (1967-69), dies at 67
• 1972 Erwin Dressel composer, dies at 63
• 1973 Charles G Abbot US astronomer (Sun Constant), dies at 101
• 1982 Leonid B Kogan Russian violist, dies at 58
• 1982 Philipp Jarnach composer, dies at 90
• 1985 Otto Gotsche writer, dies
• 1986 Ron Kass record company president (MGM), dies at 52 of cancer
• 1992 Dana Andrews actor (Laura, Best Years of Our Lives), dies of pneumonia in Los Alamitos at 83