MOMENTS IN TIME - Dec. 2, 2010

The History Channel

* On Dec. 11, 1872, dime-novel hero Buffalo Bill Cody makes his first stage appearance in a Chicago-based production of The Scouts of the Prairie. Cody remained on the Chicago stage for the next 11 years. Buffalo Bill Cody was the hero of more than 1,700 variant issues of dime novels.

* On Dec. 6, 1884, in Washington, D.C., workers place a 9-inch aluminum pyramid atop an obelisk of white marble, completing the construction of the Washington Monument. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that at 555 feet, the monument would remain the ta...