This day in history

[December 13, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Tuesday, Dec. 13, the 347th day of 2011. There are 18 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Dec. 13, 1981, authorities in Poland imposed martial law in a crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. (Martial law formally ended in 1983.)

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 1862, Union forces suffered a major defeat to the Confederates in the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg.

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.

In 1928, George Gershwin's "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 1961, American artist Grandma Moses died in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., at age 101.

In 1978, the Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation in July 1979.

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 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit.

Ten years ago: The Pentagon publicly released a captured videotape of Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaida leader said the deaths and destruction achieved by the September 11 attacks exceeded his "most optimistic" expectations. Five suspected Islamic militants killed nine people in an attack on India's parliament before being killed themselves. President George W. Bush served formal notice that the United States was withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.

Five years ago: President George W. Bush held high-level talks at the Pentagon, after which he said he would "not be rushed" into a decision on a strategy change for Iraq. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., underwent emergency surgery after suffering bleeding in his brain. (Johnson later resumed his Senate duties.) Lamar Hunt, 74, the owner of football's Kansas City Chiefs who coined the term "Super Bowl," died in Dallas.

One year ago: President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul hit its first major legal roadblock as a federal judge in Richmond, Va., declared that the law's central requirement that nearly all Americans carry insurance was unconstitutional. Veteran U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, 69, died in Washington after surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. A South Korean fishing boat sank near Antarctica, leaving 22 of the 42 crew members dead or missing.

Today's birthdays: Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is 91. Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 86. Actor Christopher Plummer is 82. Country singer Buck White is 81. Music/film producer Lou Adler is 78. Movie producer Richard Zanuck is 77. Singer John Davidson is 70. Actress Kathy Garver (TV: "Family Affair") is 66. Singer Ted Nugent is 63. Rock musician Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is 63. Country musician Ron Getman is 63. Actor Robert Lindsay is 62. Country singer-musician Randy Owen is 62. Actress Wendie Malick is 61. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is 61. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 58. Country singer John Anderson is 57. Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is 57. Singer-actor Morris Day is 55. Actor Steve Buscemi (boo-SEH'-mee) is 54. Actor Johnny Whitaker is 52. Rock musician John Munson (Semisonic; Twilight Hours) is 49. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 44. Actor Bart Johnson is 41. TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos is 37. Rock singer-musician Thomas Delonge is 36. Actor James Kyson Lee is 36. Actress Chelsea Hertford is 30. Rock singer Amy Lee (Evanescence) is 30. Country singer Taylor Swift is 22.

Thought for today: "An orator without judgment is a horse without a bridle." -- Theophrastus, Greek philosopher (c.371 BC -- c.287 BC)

[Associated Press]

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