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This Week in Boomer History: Tiny Tim ... Impeachment
By Steve Mencher, December 14, 2014 02:00 AM
Noteworthy events from our shared experience 
The U.S. House of Representatives impeaches President Bill Clinton on Dec. 19, 1998. The articles of impeachment accuse Clinton of lying to a grand jury about his relationships with Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky and hiding evidence in the Jones case. On Feb. 12, 1999, the Senate acquits Clinton of both charges.
The American Psychiatric Association board of directors votes 13-0 on Dec. 15, 1973, to remove homosexuality from its official catalog of psychiatric disorders. The APA membership backs the decision four months later.
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After federal grand juries in Florida indict Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering, the United States invades Panama on Dec. 20, 1989, to depose the former U.S. ally and bring him to this country to stand trial. He’s convicted, serves 17 years in U.S. prisons and today remains incarcerated in Panama.
After a four-month trial and four months of deliberations, Israeli judges find former Nazi officer Adolph Eichmann guilty of a central role in the murder of millions of Jews and others during the Holocaust; four days later, on Dec. 15, 1961, Eichmann receives a death sentence.
En route to New York from London, Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. Of the two Libyans charged with planting a bomb on the plane, Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi is found guilty in 2001; Lamin Khalifa Fhimah, found not guilty, is living in Libya today.
Otto Preminger’s Exodus — not the biblical story, but a film version of Leon Uris’ 1958 novel about events leading up to the founding of Israel — opens Dec. 15, 1960. The film’s stirring anthem helps composer Ernest Gold win the Oscar for Best Original Score and Grammys for Best Soundtrack Album and Song of the Year.
On Dec. 17, 1969, Tiny Tim (Herbert Khaury), 37, weds Miss Vicki (Victoria Mae Budinger), 17, on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The more than 40 million viewers set a record for the program, almost two years after Tiny Tim first displayed his ukelele and wavering falsetto for a national TV audience on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
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Images — President Clinton: Courtesy of William J. Clinton Presidential Library video screenshot; Eichmann: State of Israel/U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum via Wikipedia; Tiny Tim wedding: NBCU Photo Bank/ Getty Images
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