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Saturday, December 13, 2008

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!"