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 Today's highlight in history:
On Nov. 12, 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. (The Allies ended up winning a major victory over the Japanese.)
On this date:
In 1815, American suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, N.Y.
In 1927, Josef Stalin became the undisputed ruler of the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
In 1948, former Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and several other World War II Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a war crimes tribunal.
In 1977, the city of New Orleans elected its first black mayor, Ernest "Dutch" Morial, the winner of a runoff.
In 1982, Yuri V. Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid I. Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee.
In 1987, the American Medical Association issued a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person had AIDS or was HIV-positive.
In 1990, Japanese Emperor Akihito formally assumed the Chrysanthemum Throne.
In 1996, a Saudi Boeing 747 jetliner collided shortly after takeoff from New Delhi, India, with a Kazak Ilyushin-76 cargo plane, killing 349 people.
In 2001, American Airlines Flight 587, en route from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Dominican Republic, crashed after takeoff, killing 265 people.
In 2004, a jury in Redwood City, Calif., convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. (Peterson, who maintains his innocence, was later sentenced to death.)
Ten years ago: Ramzi Yousef was convicted in New York of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Four U.S. businessmen and a Pakistani were killed by gunmen in Karachi, Pakistan, apparently in retaliation for the murder conviction of Aimal Khan Kasi in the shooting deaths of two CIA employees. Jury selection began in Sacramento, Calif., in the trial of accused Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski.
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 Five years ago: In an audiotaped message, a voice purported to be that of Osama bin Laden praised terrorist strikes in Bali and Moscow and threatened Western nations over any attack on Iraq. Former FBI Director William Webster resigned under pressure as head of a special accounting oversight board created by Congress to rebuild public confidence shaken by a cascade of business scandals.
One year ago: Hundreds of relatives and friends of the victims in the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, which claimed 265 lives, dedicated a much-awaited memorial in New York. Gerald R. Ford surpassed Ronald Reagan as the longest-lived U.S. president at 93 years and 121 days.
Today's birthdays: Rhythm-and-blues singer Ruby Nash Curtis (Ruby and the Romantics) is 68. Actor-playwright Wallace Shawn is 64. Singer Brian Hyland is 64. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jimmy Hayes (Persuasions) is 64. Rock musician Booker T. Jones (Booker T. & the MGs) is 63. Singer-songwriter Neil Young is 62. Rock musician Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (Blue Oyster Cult) is 60. Country singer Barbara Fairchild is 57. Actress-talk show host Megan Mullally is 49. Olympic gold medal gymnast Nadia Comaneci is 46. Rock musician David Ellefson is 43. Actor Sam Lloyd is 40. Figure skater Tonya Harding is 37. Actress Radha Mitchell is 34. Actress Lourdes Benedicto is 33. Actress Tamala Jones is 33. Actress Angela Watson is 33. Singer Tevin Campbell is 31. Actress Ashley Williams is 29. Actor Ryan Gosling is 27. Contemporary Christian musician Chris Huffman is 27. Actress Anne Hathaway is 25. Pop singer Omarion is 23. Actress Macey Cruthird ("Hope and Faith") is 15.
Thought for today: "Private opinion creates public opinion. ... That is why private opinion, and private behavior, and private conversation are so terrifyingly important."
-- Jan Struther, English poet (1901-1953).
[Associated Press]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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