This day in history

[December 11, 2008]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, Dec. 11, the 346th day of 2008. There are 20 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Dec. 11, 1936, Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated 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 renamed Bijou Theatre, the first American playhouse to be lighted exclusively by electricity, gave its first performance, of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe, Or The Peer and the Peri."

In 1928, police in Buenos Aires, Argentina, announced they had thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert Hoover.

In 1937, Italy announced it was withdrawing 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 1981, the U.N. Security Council chose Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru to be the fifth secretary-general of the world body.

In 1983, Pope John Paul II visited a Lutheran church in Rome, the first visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to a Protestant church in his own diocese.

In 1997, more than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth's greenhouse gases.

Ten years ago: Majority Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pushed through three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton over Democratic objections. The Mars Climate Orbiter blasted off on a nine-month journey to the red planet. (However, the probe disappeared in September 1999, apparently destroyed because scientists had failed to convert English measures to metric values).

Five years ago: U.S. health officials reported an early flu outbreak had hit all 50 states and was widespread in 24. A German court freed a Moroccan accused of supporting the Sept. 11 al-Qaida cell in Hamburg, saying there was new evidence he did not know about the plot. A new second home for the National Air and Space Museum opened in Chantilly, Va., some 28 miles west of the original's home in Washington, D.C.

One year ago: Two car bombs in Algeria, including one targeting the U.N. refugee agency's offices, killed 37 people, 17 of them U.N. employees; Al-Qaida's self-styled North African branch claimed responsibility. The Senate Intelligence Committee took closed-door testimony from CIA Director Michael Hayden on how videotapes of terror suspect interrogations were made, then destroyed.

Today's birthdays: Actor Jean-Louis Trintignant is 78. Actress Rita Moreno is 77. Former California state lawmaker Tom Hayden is 69. Pop singer David Gates (Bread) is 68. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is 67. Actress Donna Mills is 66. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is 65. Singer Brenda Lee is 64. Actress Lynda Day George is 64. Music producer Tony Brown is 62. Actress Teri Garr is 60. Movie director Susan Seidelman is 56. Actress Bess Armstrong is 55. Singer Jermaine Jackson is 54. Rock musician Mike Mesaros (The Smithereens) is 51. Rock musician Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) is 50. Rock musician Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones) is 47. Singer-musician Justin Currie (Del Amitri) is 44. Rock musician David Schools (Gov't Mule, Widespread Panic) is 44. Actor Gary Dourdan is 42. Actress-comedian Mo'Nique ("The Parkers") is 40. Rapper-actor Mos Def is 35. Actor Rider Strong is 29.

Thought for today: "A technical objection is the first refuge of a scoundrel. " -- Heywood Broun, American journalist (1888-1939)

[Associated Press]

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