This day in history

[December 13, 2008]  (AP)  Today is Saturday, Dec. 13, the 348th day of 2008. There are 18 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Dec. 13, 1862, Union forces suffered a major defeat to the Confederates in the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg (Va.).

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 Woodrow 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: With a grave impeachment threat looming, President Bill Clinton told a news conference in Jerusalem he would not resign, and insisted he did not commit perjury. Voters in Puerto Rico rejected U.S. statehood.

Five years ago: Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit. A summit to forge a European Union constitution collapsed in Brussels, Belgium. Oklahoma quarterback Jason White won the Heisman Trophy. Former Sen. William V. Roth Jr., R-Del., creator of Roth IRA accounts, died in Washington at age 82.

One year ago: Democratic presidential hopefuls meeting in Johnston, Iowa, called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations in an unusually cordial debate. Shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, approved a takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report was released, identifying 85 names to differing degrees in connection with the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Today's birthdays: Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is 88. Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 83. Actor Christopher Plummer is 79. Actor Robert Prosky is 78. Country singer Buck White is 78. Music/film producer Lou Adler is 75. Movie producer Richard Zanuck is 74. Singer John Davidson is 67. Actress Kathy Garver (TV: "Family Affair") is 63. Singer Ted Nugent is 60. Rock musician Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is 60. Country musician Ron Getman is 60. Actor Robert Lindsay is 59. Country singer-musician Randy Owen is 59. Actress Wendie Malick is 58. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 55. Country singer John Anderson is 54. Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is 54. Singer-actor Morris Day is 52. Actor Steve Buscemi is 51. Actor Johnny Whitaker is 49. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 41. TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos is 34. Rock singer-musician Thomas Delonge is 33. Actor James Kyson Lee is 33. Actress Chelsea Hertford is 27. Rock singer Amy Lee (Evanescence) is 27. Country singer Taylor Swift is 19.

Thought for today: "My theory is to enjoy life, but the practice is against it." -- Charles Lamb, English essayist (1775-1834)

[Associated Press]

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