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 Today's
highlight in history:
On Dec. 11, 1936, Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.
On this date:
In 1792, France's King Louis XVI went before the Convention to face charges of treason. (Louis was convicted, and executed the following month.)
In 1816, Indiana became the 19th state.
In 1882, Boston's Bijou Theatre, the first American playhouse to be lighted exclusively by electricity, gave its first performance (Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe").
In 1928, police in Buenos Aires announced they had thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert Hoover.
In 1937, Italy withdrew from the League of Nations.
In 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States; the U.S. responded in kind.
In 1946, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established.
In 1957, the movie "Peyton Place," based on the novel by Grace Metalious, had its world premiere in Camden, Maine, where most of it had been filmed.
In 1981, the U.N. Security Council chose Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru to be the fifth secretary-general of the world body.
In 1991, a jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., acquitted William Kennedy Smith of sexual battery, rejecting the allegations of Patricia Bowman.
Ten years ago: More than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth's greenhouse gases. Henry Cisneros, President Clinton's first housing secretary, was indicted on charges of conspiracy, obstructing justice and making false statements about payments to his former mistress. (Cisneros, who later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, was eventually pardoned by Clinton.) Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams became the first political ally of the IRA to meet a British leader in 76 years as he conferred with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.
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Five years ago: The United States let an intercepted shipment of North Korean missiles proceed to the Persian Gulf country of Yemen a day after the vessel was detained. A congressional report found that intelligence agencies that were supposed to protect Americans from the Sept. 11 hijackers failed to do so because they were poorly organized, poorly equipped and slow to pursue clues that might have prevented the attacks.
One year ago: In his farewell address, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized the Bush administration's leadership on the global stage, warning that America must not sacrifice its democratic ideals while waging war against terrorism. Iran hosted Holocaust deniers from around the world at a conference examining whether the Nazi genocide had taken place. After a two-day journey, space shuttle Discovery reached the international space station for a weeklong stay.
Today's birthdays: Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn is 89. Actor Jean-Louis Trintignant is 77. Actress Rita Moreno is 76. Former California state lawmaker Tom Hayden is 68. Pop singer David Gates (Bread) is 67. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is 66. Actress Donna Mills is 65. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is 64. Singer Brenda Lee is 63. Actress Lynda Day George is 63. Music producer Tony Brown is 61. Actress Teri Garr is 59. Movie director Susan Seidelman is 55. Actress Bess Armstrong is 54. Singer Jermaine Jackson is 53. Rock musician Mike Mesaros (The Smithereens) is 50. Rock musician Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) is 49. Rock musician Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones) is 46. Singer-musician Justin Currie (Del Amitri) is 43. Rock musician David Schools (Gov't Mule, Widespread Panic) is 43. Actor Gary Dourdan is 41. Actress-comedian Mo'Nique ("The Parkers") is 39. Rapper-actor Mos Def is 34. Actor Rider Strong is 28.
Thought for today: "There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it."
-- Denis Diderot, French philosopher (1713-1784)
[Associated Press]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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