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 Today's highlight in history:
On Dec. 13, 1862, Union forces suffered a major defeat to the Confederates at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
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 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: A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in Los Angeles for the $1 billion Getty Center, one of the largest arts centers in the United States. Michigan Wolverine Charles Woodson was named winner of the Heisman Trophy, the first primarily defensive player so honored.
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 Five years ago: Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Boston archbishop because of the priest sex abuse scandal. President Bush announced he would take the smallpox vaccine along with U.S. military forces, but was not recommending the potentially risky inoculation for most Americans. The U.N. Security Council condemned "acts of terror" against Israel in Kenya and deplored the claims of responsibility by the al-Qaida terror network.
One year ago: President 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. Lamar Hunt, the owner of football's Kansas City Chiefs who coined the term "Super Bowl," died in Dallas at age 74.
Today's birthdays: Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is 87. Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 82. Actor Christopher Plummer is 80. Actor Robert Prosky is 77. Country singer Buck White is 77. Music/film producer Lou Adler is 74. Movie producer Richard Zanuck is 73. Singer John Davidson is 66. Singer Ted Nugent is 59. Rock musician Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is 59. Country musician Ron Getman is 59. Actor Robert Lindsay is 58. Country singer-musician Randy Owen is 58. Actress Wendie Malick is 57. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 54. Country singer John Anderson is 53. Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is 53. Singer-actor Morris Day is 51. Actor Steve Buscemi is 50. Actor Johnny Whitaker is 48. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 40. Rock singer-musician Thomas Delonge is 32. Actress Chelsea Hertford is 26. Rock singer Amy Lee (Evanescence) is 26. Country singer Taylor Swift is 18.
Thought for today: "Good judgment comes from experience; and experience, well, that comes from bad judgment."
-- Anonymous
[Associated Press]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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