A Day Late & A Dollar Short

Today is Friday, December 21st, the 355th day of 2007. There are 10 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On December 21st, 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. [Including Just Another Blog's™ alleged ancestor, Gov. Bradford. — Ed.]
On this date:
In 1804, British statesman Benjamin Disraeli was born in London.
In 1891, the first basketball game, invented at Springfield College in Massachusetts by James E. Naismith, was played.
In 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium.
In 1913, the first crossword puzzle was printed in the New York World.
In 1945, General George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.
In 1948, the state of Eire, or Ireland (formerly the Irish Free State), passed an act declaring itself a republic.
In 1967, the comedy-drama "The Graduate," starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, was released.
In 1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.
In 1971, the U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.
In 1976, the Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island almost a week after running aground, spilling 7 1/2 millions of gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.
In 1987, in New York, three white teen-agers from the Howard Beach section of Queens were convicted of manslaughter in the death of a black man who was chased onto a highway, where he was struck by a car; a fourth defendant was acquitted.
In 1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.
Ten years ago: President Clinton, accompanied by his wife and daughter, left for Bosnia to spread holiday cheer and to carry the news that he wanted U.S. troops to remain there indefinitely as the region recovered from its devastating war.
Five years ago: A military helicopter crash in Afghanistan killed seven German peacekeepers who were on board and two children on the ground; a US soldier was killed in combat. President Bush received a smallpox vaccination, fulfilling a promise he'd made when he ordered inoculations for about a-half million US troops.
One year ago: At Camp Pendleton, California, four Marines were charged with murder in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha; four Marine officers were accused of failures in investigating and reporting the deaths. (Charges were later dropped against two of the Marines accused of murder, and two of the officers accused of dereliction of duty.) Final results showed opponents of Iran's ultra-conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, winning nationwide elections for local councils.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Ed Nelson is 79. Talk show host Phil Donahue is 72. Movie director John Avildsen is 72. Actress Jane Fonda is 70. Singer Carla Thomas is 65. Musician Albert Lee is 64. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is 63. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 59. Movie producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is 57. Singer Betty Wright is 54. Tennis star Chris Evert is 53. Actress Jane Kaczmarek is 52. Country singer Lee Roy Parnell is 51. Entertainer Jim Rose is 51. Actor-comedian Ray Romano is 50. Country singer Christy Forester (The Forester Sisters) is 45. Rock musician Murph (Dinosaur Jr.) is 43. Actor-comedian Andy Dick is 42. Rock musician Gabrielle Glaser is 42. Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 41. Actress Karri Turner ("JAG") is 41. Actress Khrystyne Haje is 39. Actress Julie Delpy is 38. Singer-musician Brett Scallions is 36.

"Entertainment:"
In 1933, five-year-old Shirley Temple signed a movie contract with Fox. Her age was later changed to make her appear a year younger.
In 1937, the first feature-length animated cartoon in Technicolor, Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," had its world premiere in Los Angeles.
In 1964, the book "Ode to a High-Flying Bird" by Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts was published. It was a tribute to jazz great Charlie (Bird) Parker.
In 1968, Janis Joplin made her first appearance after leaving Big Brother and the Holding Company. She performed in Memphis at the second annual "Yuletide Thing" event sponsored by Stax-Volt Records.
Also in 1968, Crosby, Stills and Nash performed together for the first time. [P. U. — Ed.]
In 1970, Elvis Presley paid a visit to President Nixon at the White House.
In 1979, Chicago, The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt played the first of two concerts to raise campaign money for California governor Jerry Brown, Ronstadt's then-boyfriend.
In 1991, actress Jane Fonda married broadcasting executive Ted Turner on his ranch in Florida. It was her 54th birthday. They've since split up.
In 1992, bluesman Albert King died at a Tennessee hospital at the age of 69. He had fallen into a coma after suffering a heart attack.
In 1996, singer Tony Bennett was rushed to a hospital in Washington after his hernia erupted while visiting the White House for a holiday dinner. He had to have emergency surgery but recovered without problems; singer Lionel Richie married former dancer and fashion designer Diane Alexander in New York.
In 2005, Elton John and his longtime partner, David Furnish, held a civil union ceremony in Windsor, England, the first day that same-sex partnerships became legal in Britain.