JANUARY 6TH

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 6, the sixth day of 2009.
There are 359 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Jan. 6, 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail gave the first successful public demonstration of their telegraph, in Morristown, N.J.

On this date:

• In 1540, England's King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. (The marriage lasted about six months.)
• In 1759, George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married in New Kent County, Va.
• In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state.
• In 1919, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age 60.
• In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of "Four Freedoms": Freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of people to worship God in their own way; freedom from want; freedom from fear.
• In 1942, the Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper arrived in New York more than a month after leaving California and following a westward route.
• In 1945, George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce in Rye, N.Y.
• In 1967, U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Deckhouse Five, an offensive in the Mekong River delta.
• In 1982, truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of 10 of the "Freeway Killer" slayings of young men and boys. (Bonin was later convicted of four other killings; he was executed in 1996.)
• In 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit; four men, including Jeff Gillooly, ex-husband of Kerrigan's rival, Tonya Harding, were later sentenced to prison for their roles in the attack; Harding, who denied advance knowledge of the attack, received probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution.

Ten years ago:

• The 106th Congress convened with Dennis Hastert taking over as the new House speaker.
• Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, would marry his longtime girlfriend, public relations executive Sophie Rhys-Jones, later in the year.

Five years ago:

• Thirteen children and two adults were killed in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province by a time-bomb concealed in an apple cart on a street regularly used by U.S. military patrols.
• A design consisting of two reflecting pools and a paved stone field was chosen for the World Trade Center memorial in New York.
• Mijailo Mijailovic confessed to the fatal stabbing of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in September 2003.
• Hitting star Paul Molitor and reliever Dennis Eckersley were elected to baseball's Hall of Fame.

One year ago:

• In a video posted on the Internet, Al-Qaida's American spokesman, Adam Gadahn, urged fighters to meet President Bush with bombs during his upcoming Mideast visit.
• Mikhail Saakashvili won a second term as Georgia's president.

Today's Birthdays:

• Pollster Louis Harris is 88.
• Bluegrass performer Earl Scruggs is 85.
• Author E.L. Doctorow is 78.
• Actress Bonnie Franklin is 65.
• Musician Joey, the CowPolka King (Riders in the Sky) is 60.
• Rock singer-musician Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) is 58.
• Singer Jett Williams is 56.
• Rock musician Malcolm Young (AC-DC) is 56.
• Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson is 54.
• Golfer Nancy Lopez is 52.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Kathy Sledge is 50.
• TV chef Nigella Lawson is 49.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Eric Williams (BLACKstreet) is 49.
• Movie director John Singleton is 41.
• TV personality Julie Chen (CBS' "The Early Show") is 39.
• Actor Danny Pintauro ("Who's the Boss?") is 33.
• Actress Rinko Kikuchi (Film: "Babel") is 28.
• Rock singer Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) is 23.

Thought for Today:

"What this generation was bred to at television's knees was not wisdom, but cynicism."
Pauline Kael, American movie critic (1919-2001).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 9-006

"Let's all be careful out there!"