In 1792, France's King Louis XVI went before the Convention to face charges of treason. (Louis was convicted, and executed the following month.) [Off w/ his head!! — Ed.]
In 1816, Indiana became the 19th state. [It's where HRH Prince Charles spent his first honeymoon. — Ed.]
In 1844, nitrous oxide was used for the first time in dentistry. [Like booze, but w/ none of the sloppiness. — Ed.]
In 1872, America's first black governor took office as Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback became acting governor of Louisiana.
In 1882, Boston's Bijou Theatre, the first American playhouse to be lighted exclusively by electricity, gave its first performance, of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe."
In 1928, police in Buenos Aires announced they had thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert Hoover. [Was Hoover there at the time? — Ed.]
In 1936, Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.
In 1937, Italy withdrew 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. [Eventually ruining Halloween for millions of American children. — Ed.]
In 1957, the movie "Peyton Place," based on the novel by Grace Metalious, had its world premiere in Camden, Maine, where most of it had been filmed.
In 1961, a U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon - the first direct American military support for South Vietnam's battle against Communist guerrillas.
In 1972, humans landed on the moon for the last time during the Apollo 17 mission.
In 1981, the U.N. Security Council chose Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru to be the fifth secretary-general of the world body. [Waitta minute, does the Security Council pick the Secretary-General? — Ed.]
In 1991, a jury in West Palm Beach, Florida, acquitted William Kennedy Smith of sexual battery, rejecting the allegations of Patricia Bowman.
In 1994, thousands of Russian troops rolled into the breakaway republic of Chechnya in a failed bid to restore Moscow's control over the region.
Ten years ago: More than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth's greenhouse gases. Henry Cisneros, President Clinton's first housing secretary, was indicted on charges of conspiracy, obstructing justice and making false statements about payments to his former mistress. (Cisneros, who later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, was eventually pardoned by President Clinton.) Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams became the first political ally of the IRA to meet a British leader in 76 years as he conferred with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.
In 1998, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. [That worked out pretty well, didn't it? Republican morons. — Ed.]
In 2000, shortstop Alex Rodriguez agreed to a $252 million 10-year deal with the Texas Rangers, the most lucrative sports contract in history.
Five years ago: The United States let an intercepted shipment of North Korean missiles proceed to the Persian Gulf country of Yemen a day after the vessel was detained. A congressional report found that intelligence agencies that were supposed to protect Americans from the September 11th hijackers failed to do so because they were poorly organized, poorly equipped and slow to pursue clues that might have prevented the attacks.
In 2004, doctors in Austria determined that Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko had been poisoned with dioxin, which caused severe disfigurement and partial paralysis of his face.
One year ago: In his farewell address, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized the Bush administration's leadership on the global stage, warning that America must not sacrifice its democratic ideals while waging war against terrorism. Iran hosted Holocaust deniers from around the world at a conference examining whether the Nazi genocide had taken place. After a two-day journey, space shuttle Discovery reached the international space station for a weeklong stay.
Today's Birthdays: Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn is 89. Actor Jean-Louis Trintignant is 77.
Actress Rita Moreno is 76. Former California state lawmaker Tom Hayden is 68. Pop singer David Gates (Bread) is 67. Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) is 66. Actress Donna Mills is 65. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) is 64. Singer Brenda Lee is 63. Actress Lynda Day George is 63. Music producer Tony Brown is 61. Actress Teri Garr is 59. Movie director Susan Seidelman is 55. Actress Bess Armstrong is 54. Singer Jermaine Jackson is 53. Rock musician Mike Mesaros (The Smithereens) is 50. Rock musician Nikki Sixx (Motley Crüe) is 49. Rock musician Darryl Jones (The Rolling Stones) is 46. [Hey, a Stone younger than we are! And about 20 yrs. younger that anyone else in the band. — Ed.] Actor Gary Dourdan is 41. Actress-comedian Mo'Nique ("The Parkers") is 39.Birthdays of the Less Lively: Louis-Hector Berlioz, composer (1803); Robert Koch, bacteriologist, discovered the microorganisms causing anthrax, wound infections, tuberculosis, conjunctivitis, cholera, and other diseases (1843) ; Annie Jump Cannon, astronomer (1863); Fiorello Henry LaGuardia, mayor of New York City (1882); Naguib Mahfouz, novelist (1911); Carlo Ponti, producer (1912?); Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, blues singer (1926). ["(You Ain't Nothing But a) Hound Dog." We saw her rock the house @ the San Gabriel Civic in the mid-'70s &, in our best Negro voice, shouted out "Good Gawd A-mighty!!" causing her to stop for a moment & look for the African-American in the audience. — Ed.]
This Date in the Business of Show:
In 1946, country singer Hank Williams made his first recordings.
In 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis secretly married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, in Hernando, Tennessee.
In 1964, singer Sam Cooke was shot and killed at a Los Angeles motel.
In 1972, Genesis performed its first U.S. concert at a university in Massachusetts. [Too bad they couldn't have nipped that in the bud. — Ed.]
Also in 1972, police in Knoxville, Tennessee, arrested singer James Brown for disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped after Brown threatened to sue the city.
In 1992, former talk show host Johnny Carson
received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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