On this day: December 20
POSTED: 10:21 PM PST Dec 19, 2012
UPDATED: 11:00 PM PST Dec 19, 2012
The Louisiana Purchase is completed, South Carolina secedes from the U.S., Edison demonstrates his incandescent light, Elvis gets drafted, and the U.S. invades Panama, all on this day.
Warner Bros. Pictures
1978: The adventure comedy film "Every Which Way but Loose," starring Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke, opens in theaters. The movie, in which Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe, a trucker and brawler roaming the West in search of a lost love while accompanied by his friend/manager Orville and his pet orangutan Clyde, was panned by critics but proved a huge hit at the box office. The movie earned more than $104 million to become Eastwood's most commercially successful film at the time and spawned a sequel, 1980's "Any Which Way You Can."
