6 January Throughout The Interminable Span of Human Existence

Today in History

Today is Tuesday, the sixth day of 2009. There are 359 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: In 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail gave the first successful public demonstration of their telegraph, in Morristown, N.J. On this date: In 1540, England's King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. (The marriage lasted about six months.) Two hundred & fifty years ago, in 1759, George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married in New Kent County, Va. In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state. Ninety years ago, in 1919, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age 60. In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of "Four Freedoms": Freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of people to worship God in their own way; freedom from want; freedom from fear. In 1942, the Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper arrived in New York more than a month after leaving California and following a westward route. In 1945, George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce in Rye, N.Y. [Oh, man. A time machine, a gun, & a few bullets; then a much, much better world. — Ed.] In 1967, U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Deckhouse Five, an offensive in the Mekong River delta. In 1982, truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of 10 of the "Freeway Killer" slayings of young men and boys. Bonin was later convicted of four other killings; he was executed in 1996.) In 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit; four men, including Jeff Gillooly, ex-husband of Kerrigan's rival, Tonya Harding, were later sentenced to prison for their roles in the attack; Harding, who denied advance knowledge of the attack, received probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution. Ten years ago: The 106th Congress convened with Dennis Hastert taking over as the new House speaker. Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, would marry his longtime girlfriend, public relations executive Sophie Rhys-Jones, later in the year. Five years ago: Thirteen children and two adults were killed in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province by a time-bomb concealed in an apple cart on a street regularly used by U.S. military patrols. A design consisting of two reflecting pools and a paved stone field was chosen for the World Trade Center memorial in New York. Mijailo Mijailovic confessed to the fatal stabbing of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in September 2003. Hitting star Paul Molitor and reliever Dennis Eckersley were elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. One year ago: In a video posted on the Internet, Al-Qaida's American spokesman, Adam Gadahn, urged fighters to meet President Bush with bombs during his upcoming Mideast visit. Mikhail Saakashvili won a second term as Georgia's president. Today's Birthdays: Pollster Louis Harris is 88. Bluegrass performer Earl Scruggs is 85. Author E.L. Doctorow is 78. Actress Bonnie Franklin is 65. Musician Joey, the CowPolka King (Riders in the Sky) is 60. Rock singer-musician Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) is 58. Singer Jett Williams is 56. Rock musician Malcolm Young (AC-DC) is 56. Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson is 54. Golfer Nancy Lopez is 52. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kathy Sledge is 50. TV chef Nigella Lawson is 49. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eric Williams (BLACKstreet) is 49. Movie director John Singleton is 41. TV personality Julie Chen (CBS' "The Early Show") is 39.[Ms. Chen has the sex w/ her boss, CBS Pres. Les Moonves. Unless one or the other has wised up. — Ed.]  Thought for Today: "What this generation was bred to at television's knees was not wisdom, but cynicism." — Pauline Kael, American movie critic (1919-2001)