On this day — December 7

but is thwarted, and order restored.

Syrian opposition forces enter the Rif Dimashq Governorate, reaching within 20 km of the capital Damascus.

William Atchison kills two students at his former high school.

a domestic passenger flight from Chitral to Islamabad, operated by an ATR-42-500 crashes near Havelian, killing all 47 on board.

a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.

following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.

killing 98.

killing 20.

Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.

a British Aerospace 146-200A, crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and steers the plane into the ground.