Today's Highlight in History:
On Decmeber [sic] 13th, 1862, Union forces suffered a major defeat to the Confederates at the Battle of Fredericksburg. [Just Another Blog™ steals most of "Today in History" from the website of a telebision station in the "Triad," which apparently is the cities of Greensboro, High Point & Winston-Salem, in the state of North Carolina. Yes, cracker central. Note the crummy English in the sentence. Not the way the AP phrased it. But the AP's "Highlight in History" today was Saddam Hussein's capture in his spider hole. Our other primary source, infoplease, doesn't mention Fredericksburg. And notice the photo the tee vee station ran w/ their "highlight." Which fucking country do you losers live in again? If you need a reminder, it starts w/ "United," not "Confederate." — Ed.]
On this date:In 1577, Sir Francis Drake of England set out with five ships on a nearly three-year journey that would take him around the world.
In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman sighted present-day New Zealand. [Laying the ground for commenter Herr Doktor Bimler to live there, hundreds of yrs. later — Ed.]
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 1862, Confederate forces dealt Union troops a major defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg. [Note the AP's better phrasing. — Ed.]
In 1918, President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.
In 1944, during World War II, the US 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 1988, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva, where it had reconvened after the United States refused to grant Arafat a visa to visit New York.
In 1989, South African President F.W. de Klerk met for the first time with imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, at de Klerk's office in Cape Town.
In 1994, an American Eagle commuter plane crashed short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15 of the 20people 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: A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in Los Angeles for the 1 billion-dollar Getty Center, one of the largest arts centers in the United States. Michigan Wolverine Charles Woodson was named winner of the Heisman Trophy, the first primarily defensive player so honored.
In 2000, Republican George W. Bush claimed the presidency 36 days after Election Day; Democrat Al Gore conceded defeat.
In 2001, the Pentagon released a captured videotape of Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaida leader said the deaths and destruction achieved by the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded his "most optimistic" expectations; five suspected Islamic militants killed nine people in an attack on India's parliament before being killed themselves; President George W. Bush served formal notice that the United States was pulling out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.
In 2003, ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, near his hometown of Tikrit.
Five years ago: Cardinal Bernard Law resigned as Boston archbishop because of the priest sex abuse scandal. President Bush announced he would take the smallpox vaccine along with US military forces, but was not recommending the potentially risky inoculation for most Americans. The U.N. Security Council condemned "acts of terror" against Israel in Kenya and deplored the claims of responsibility by the al-Qaida terror network.
In 2005, Crips gang co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams, whose supporters argued he had redeemed himself inside prison, was executed in California for killing four people in robberies.
One year ago: President Bush held high-level talks at the Pentagon, after which he said he would "not be rushed" into a decision on a strategy change for Iraq. Senator Tim Johnson (Democrat, South Dakota) underwent emergency surgery after suffering bleeding in his brain. Lamar Hunt, the owner of football's Kansas City Chiefs who coined the term "Super Bowl," died in Dallas at age 74.
Today's Birthdays:
Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz is 87. Actor-comedian Dick Van Dyke is 82. Actor Christopher Plummer is 80. Actor Robert Prosky is 77. Country singer Buck White is 77. Music/film producer Lou Adler is 74. Movie producer Richard Zanuck is 73. Singer John Davidson is 66. Singer Ted Nugent is 59. Rock musician Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is 59. [Double dose of right-wing libertarian guitarists. Maybe there is something to astrology. — Ed.] Actress Wendie Malick is 57.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is 54. Country singer John Anderson is 53. Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is 53.Singer-actor Morris Day is 51.
Actor Steve Buscemi is 50. Actor Johnny Whitaker is 48. Actor-comedian Jamie Foxx is 40.This Date's Birthdays:
Heinrich Heine, poet (1797)
Werner von Siemens, electrical engineer and inventor (1816)
Mary Todd Lincoln (1818)
Emily Carr, painter (1871)
Ella Baker, civil rights activist (1903)
Archie Moore, prizefighter (1913)
Ross Macdonald, novelist (1915)
Show Bidness Today:
In 1928, George Gershwin's musical work "An American in Paris" had its premiere, at Carnegie Hall in New York.
In 1974, former Beatle George Harrison visited the White House at the invitation of Jack Ford, the president's son. Harrison was the first rock musician to be invited to the White House. [Uh, what about The Turtles, who were there in 1969 at the invitation of one or both of The Nix's daughters, & got high on the roof or in a closet or something? And more Beatle stuff. — Ed.]
In 1985, singer Phil Collins made his TV acting debut in the US with an episode of "Miami Vice."
In 1988, singer Bruce Springsteen and model-actress Julianne Phillips divorced.
In 1992, an estimated 150,000 people showed up for a free Scorpions concert in Frankfurt, Germany. The concert was aimed at protesting violence by radical rightists.
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