From The Santa Fe New Mexican:

Dec. 8, 1923: Santa Fe’s municipal Christmas Tree was an uncertain sort of proposition for a number years, first in the hands of one organization and then another. Now the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks has made it a regular and permanent thing.

Dec. 8, 1948: The teacher education commission is aiming at restoring prewar standards of teaching qualifications in New Mexico, Mrs. Ellen M. Vaughan, state certification director, said today.

Dec. 8, 1998: As a boy, Manuel-Julian Rudolfo Montoya of Mora wrote stories about his father — his favorite hero next to Batman.

In his stories, his father helped him and the family. Montoya was 7 when his father died, but the child never forgot the things his father taught him — especially things about trust, honor and leadership.

It may be those things that helped the 21-year-old University of New Mexico senior became one of 32 American students named a Rhodes scholar Saturday.