Things to know today: Ye not buying Parler, Twitter account suspended; Iowa bumped as 1st voting state?

In 1697, London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was consecrated for use even though the building was still under construction.

In 1859, militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harpers Ferry the previous October.

In 1954, the U.S. Senate passed, 67-22, a resolution condemning Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., saying he had “acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”

In 1970, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors under its first director, William D. Ruckelshaus.

In 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.

In 2001, in one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in U.S. history, Enron filed for Chapter 11 protection.

In 2015, a couple loyal to the Islamic State group opened fire at a holiday banquet for public employees in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 21 others before dying in a shootout with police.

Five years ago: President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in a highly unusual move that was bound to antagonize China.

Five years ago: A fire that raced through an illegally converted warehouse in Oakland, California, during a dance party killed 36 people.

One year ago: Britain became the first country in the world to authorize a rigorously tested COVID-19 vaccine, giving the go-ahead for emergency use of the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. 

Major League Baseball plunged into its first work stoppage in a quarter-century when the sport’s collective bargaining agreement expired and owners immediately locked out players.(An agreement would end the lockout after 99 days; the start of the season was delayed by about a week.)

Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman, Led Zeppelin, Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy and ballerina Natalia Makarova received Kennedy Center Honors.

Jason Meade, the Ohio sheriff’s deputy who shot Casey Goodson Jr. in the back five times as the Black man entered his grandmother’s house, was charged with murder, as Goodson’s family also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. (Meade has pleaded not guilty.)