December 8, 1765 – Cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney is born in Westboro, Massachusetts. His invention that removes seeds from harvested cotton prompts yearly cotton production in the U. S. to jump from about 3,000 bales a year to 73,000 bales a year.
December 9, 1886 – American inventor and founder of the modern frozen food industry with a company that bears his name, Clarence Birdseye, is born in Brooklyn, New York.
December 11, 1915 – American singer (Strangers in the Night, My Way, The Summer Wind) and actor (From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls), Frank Sinatra, is born in Hoboken, New Jersey. He is variously nicknamed “Chairman of the Board” and “Ol’ Blue Eyes.”
December 14, 1896 – World War II General James “Jimmy” Doolittle is born in Alameda, California. In 1942, he led a squadron of B-25 bombers launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet to conduct the first American air raid of the war against Japan.