December 17, 1981 (Thursday)
- Brigadier General James L. Dozier, one of the highest ranking U.S. Army officers stationed in Italy was kidnapped from his apartment in Verona by the terrorist group the Red Brigades. Four men posing as plumbers, led by Antonio Savasta, took Dozier hostage and held him for ransom in an apartment in Padua. A special Italian counter-terrorist team rescued Dozier on January 28, 1981.
- The Confederation of Senegambia agreement signed at Dakar, Senegal, effective February 1982, with Gambia's President as the Senegambian Vice-President, and a legislature that had two-thirds of the seats for Senegalese deputies. The Confederation was dissolved on September 1, 1989)
- The Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board was established in the United States by order of President Reagan.
- Died: Mehmet Shehu, 68, Prime Minister of Albania since 1954. The previous day, Albania's leader Enver Hoxha bitterly denounced Shehu at a meeting of the Politburo of the Albanian Communist Party, after Shehu refused to resign in favor of Ramiz Alia. Albanian newspapers and radio announced that Shehu had committed suicide because of a "nervous crisis".
- Four veterans of the Vietnam War, Robert U. Muller, Michael Harbert, Tom Bird and John Terzano became the first Americans to visit Vietnam since the Communist victory there, arriving in Hanoi as guests of the Communist government.
- Died: Erich Dwinger, 83, German novelist
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Famous quotes containing the word december:
“Work—work—work,
In the dull December light,
And work—work—work,
When the weather is warm and bright—
While underneath the eaves
The brooding swallows cling
As if to show me their sunny backs
And twit me with the spring.”
—Thomas Hood (1799–1845)