This day in history

[December 17, 2010]  (AP)  Today is Friday, Dec. 17, the 351st day of 2010. There are 14 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Dec. 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, conducted the first successful manned powered-airplane flights, near Kitty Hawk, N.C., using their experimental craft, the Wright Flyer.

On this date:

In 1777, France recognized American independence.

In 1830, South American patriot Simon Bolivar (see-MOHN' boh-LEE'-vahr) died in Colombia.

In 1925, Col. William "Billy" Mitchell was convicted at his court-martial in Washington, D.C. of insubordination for accusing senior military officials of incompetence and criminal negligence; he was suspended from active duty.

In 1939, the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by its crew, ending the World War II Battle of the River Plate off Uruguay.

In 1957, the United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.

In 1960, a London-bound Convair Samaritan operated by the U.S. Air Force crashed shortly after takeoff from Munich, West Germany, killing all 20 occupants of the plane, including 13 University of Maryland students, and 32 people on the ground.

In 1969, the U.S. Air Force closed its Project "Blue Book" by concluding there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings. An estimated 50 million TV viewers watched singer Tiny Tim marry his fiancee, Miss Vicky, on NBC's "Tonight Show."

In 1975, Lynette Fromme was sentenced in Sacramento, Calif. to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President Gerald R. Ford. (She was paroled in Aug. 2009.)

In 1979, in a case that aggravated racial tensions, Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, was fatally injured after leading police on a chase with his motorcycle in Miami. (Four white police officers accused of beating McDuffie were later acquitted, sparking riots.)

In 1980, the Peter Shaffer play "Amadeus" opened on Broadway, starring Tim Curry as Mozart and Ian McKellen as Antonio Salieri.

Ten years ago: President-elect George W. Bush named Stanford professor Condoleezza Rice his national security adviser and Alberto Gonzales to the White House counsel's job, the same day he was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

Five years ago: President George W. Bush, in his weekly radio address, acknowledged he'd personally authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. following 9/11, calling it "crucial to our national security." Protesters in Hong Kong tried to storm a convention center where World Trade Organization delegates were negotiating a global accord on farming, manufacturing and services. John Ruiz lost the WBA heavyweight title, dropping a disputed majority decision to Nikolay Valuev of Russia in Berlin. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jack Anderson died in Bethesda, Md. at age 83.

One year ago: World leaders starting flooding into Copenhagen, where a U.N. conference on global warming was already under way. Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chris Henry, 26, died a day after falling out of the back of a pickup truck in Charlotte, N.C. Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Jones died in Malibu, Calif. at age 90.

Today's birthdays: Actor Armin Mueller-Stahl is 80. Actor George Lindsey is 75. Singer-actor Tommy Steele is 74. Rock singer-musician Art Neville is 73. Actor Bernard Hill is 66. Actor Ernie Hudson is 65. Political commentator Chris Matthews is 65. Comedian-actor Eugene Levy is 64. Actress Marilyn Hassett is 63. Actor Wes Studi is 63. Pop musician Jim Bonfanti (The Raspberries) is 62. Actor Joel Brooks is 61. Rock singer Paul Rodgers is 61. Rhythm-and-blues singer Wanda Hutchinson (The Emotions) is 59. Actor Bill Pullman is 57. Actor Barry Livingston is 57. Country singer Sharon White is 57. Producer-director-writer Peter Farrelly is 54. Rock musician Mike Mills (R.E.M.) is 52. Pop singer Sarah Dallin (Bananarama) is 49. Country musician Tim Chewning is 48. Country singer Tracy Byrd is 44. Country musician Duane Propes is 44. DJ Homicide (Sugar Ray) is 40. Actor Sean Patrick Thomas is 40. Pop-rock musician Eddie Fisher (OneRepublic) is 37. Actress Sarah Paulson is 36. Actress Marissa Ribisi is 36. Actor Giovanni Ribisi is 36. Actress Milla Jovovich (YO'-vuh-vich) is 35. Singer Bree Sharp is 35. Actress Jennifer Carpenter is 31. Actress Shannon Woodward is 26. Actress Vanessa Zima is 24. Actor-singer Nat Wolff is 16.

Thought for today: "You have no idea how big the other fellow's troubles are." -- B.C. Forbes, Scottish journalist (1880-1954)

[Associated Press]

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