Washington Monument completed
On December 6, 1884, in Washington, D.C., workers place a nine-inch aluminum pyramid inscribed with “Laus Deo,” meaning praise (be) to God, atop a tower of white marble, completing the construction of an impressive monument to the city’s namesake and the nation’s first president, George Washington.
As early as 1783, the infant U.S. Congress decided that a statue of George Washington, the great Revolutionary War general, should be placed near the site of the new Congressional building, wherever it might be. After then-President Washington asked him to lay out a new federal capital on the Potomac River in 1791, architect Pierre L’Enfant left a place for the statue at the western end of the sweeping National Mall (near the monument’s present location).
Eddie Murphy stars in “Beverly Hills Cop” Eddie Murphy stars as the wisecracking Detective Axel Foley in the action-comedy Beverly Hills Cop, released in theaters on December 5, 1984. The movie marked the first major starring role for Murphy, who went on to become one of the top-grossing actors in Hollywood. Murphy was born on April 3, 1961, in Brooklyn, New York, and rose to fame in the early 1980s […]
