On Dec. 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket is brutally murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights of King Henry II of England, apparently on orders of the king. The Christian world was shocked, and in 1173 Becket was canonized a Catholic saint. On Dec. 26, 1606, William Shakespeare's play "King Lear" is performed at the court of King James I of England. Lear was one of Shakespeare's later works. On Dec. 30, 1853, the U.S. minister to Mexico and the president of Mexico sign the Gadsden Purchase in Mexico City. The treaty established the final boundaries of the southern United States. For ...