On this day, Dec. 11…

1991: A jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., acquits William Kennedy Smith of sexual assault and battery, rejecting the allegations of Patricia Bowman, a woman Smith had met at a bar.

Also on this day:

1792: France’s King Louis XVI goes before the Convention to face charges of treason. (Louis would be convicted and executed the following month.)

France’s King Louis XVI goes before the Convention to face charges of treason. (Louis would be convicted and executed the following month.) 1910: Inventor Georges Claude publicly displays his first neon lamp, consisting of two 38-foot-long tubes, at the Paris Expo.

Inventor Georges Claude publicly displays his first neon lamp, consisting of two 38-foot-long tubes, at the Paris Expo. 1917: British Gen. Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem two days after his forces expel the Ottoman Turks.

British Gen. Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem two days after his forces expel the Ottoman Turks. 1936: Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicates the throne so he can marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson; his brother, Prince Albert, becomes King George VI.

Britain’s King Edward VIII abdicates the throne so he can marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson; his brother, Prince Albert, becomes King George VI. 1937: Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.

Italy withdraws from the League of Nations. 1941: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; the U.S. responds in kind.

Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; the U.S. responds in kind. 1961: A U.S. aircraft carrier transporting Army helicopters arrives in Saigon — the first direct American military support for South Vietnam’s battle against Communist guerrillas.

A U.S. aircraft carrier transporting Army helicopters arrives in Saigon — the first direct American military support for South Vietnam’s battle against Communist guerrillas. 1972: Apollo 17’s lunar module lands on the moon with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt aboard; they become the last two men to date to step onto the lunar surface.

Apollo 17’s lunar module lands on the moon with astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt aboard; they become the last two men to date to step onto the lunar surface. 1980: President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating a $1.6 billion environmental “superfund” to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.

President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating a $1.6 billion environmental “superfund” to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps. 1980: “Magnum P.I.,” starring Tom Selleck, premieres on CBS.

“Magnum P.I.,” starring Tom Selleck, premieres on CBS. 1997: More than 150 countries agree at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth’s greenhouse gases.

More than 150 countries agree at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth’s greenhouse gases. 2001: In the first criminal indictment stemming from 9/11, federal prosecutors charge Zacarias Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, with conspiring to murder thousands in the suicide hijackings. (Moussaoui would plead guilty to conspiracy in 2005 and is serving a life sentence in prison.)

2008: Former Nasdaq Chairman Bernie Madoff is arrested, accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that destroyed thousands of people’s life savings and wrecked charities. (Madoff is serving a 150-year federal prison sentence.)