DECEMBER 13TH

Today is Saturday, Dec. 13, the 348th day of 2008.
There are 18 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Dec. 13, 1862, Union forces suffered a major defeat to the Confederates in the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg (Va.).

On this date:

• In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sighted present-day New Zealand.
• In 1769, Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, received its charter.
• In 1835, Phillips Brooks, the American Episcopal bishop who wrote the words to "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was born in Boston.
• In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.
• In 1928, George Gershwin's musical work "An American in Paris" had its premiere, at Carnegie Hall in New York.
• In 1944, during World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze attack that claimed more than 130 lives.
• In 1978, the Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation in July 1979.
• In 1981, authorities in Poland imposed martial law in a crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. (Martial law formally ended in 1983.)
• In 1994, an American Eagle commuter plane crashed short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15 of the 20 people on board.
• In 1996, the U.N. Security Council chose Kofi Annan of Ghana to become the world body's seventh secretary-general.

Ten years ago:

• With a grave impeachment threat looming, President Bill Clinton told a news conference in Jerusalem he would not resign, and insisted he did not commit perjury.
• Voters in Puerto Rico rejected U.S. statehood.

Five years ago:

• Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit.
• A summit to forge a European Union constitution collapsed in Brussels, Belgium.
• Oklahoma quarterback Jason White won the Heisman Trophy.
• Former Sen. William V. Roth Jr., R-Del., creator of Roth IRA accounts, died in Washington at age 82.

One year ago:

• Democratic presidential hopefuls meeting in Johnston, Iowa, called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations in an unusually cordial debate.
• Shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, approved a takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
• Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report was released, identifying 85 names to differing degrees in connection with the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Today's Birthdays:

• Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is 88.
• Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 83.
• Actor Christopher Plummer is 79.
• Actor Robert Prosky is 78. (Sadly, he passed 0n 2008-12-08)
  
• Country singer Buck White is 78.
• Music/film producer Lou Adler is 75.
• Movie producer Richard Zanuck is 74.
• Singer John Davidson is 67.
• Actress Kathy Garver (TV: "Family Affair") is 63.
• Singer Ted Nugent is 60.
• Rock musician Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is 60.
• Country musician Ron Getman is 60.
• Actor Robert Lindsay is 59.
• Country singer-musician Randy Owen is 59.
• Actress Wendie Malick is 58.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 55.
• Country singer John Anderson is 54.
• Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is 54.
• Singer-actor Morris Day is 52.
• Actor Steve Buscemi is 51.
• Actor Johnny Whitaker is 49.
• Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 41.
• TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos is 34.
• Rock singer-musician Thomas Delonge is 33.
• Actor James Kyson Lee is 33.
• Actress Chelsea Hertford is 27.
• Rock singer Amy Lee (Evanescence) is 27.
• Country singer Taylor Swift is 19.

Thought for Today:

"My theory is to enjoy life, but the practice is against it."
Charles Lamb, English essayist (1775-1834).

"Let's all be careful out there!"