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| On this date in: | |
| 1783 | The British evacuated New York, their last military position in the United States, during the Revolutionary War. |
| 1835 | Industrialist Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. |
| 1881 | Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Roncalli near Bergamo, Italy. |
| 1914 | Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio was born in Martinez, Calif. |
| 1944 | Baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis died at age 78. |
| 1947 | Movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the "Hollywood 10," who were cited a day earlier and jailed for contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. |
| 1957 | President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a slight stroke. |
| 1963 | The body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. |
| 1973 | Greek President George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup. |
| 1974 | Former U.N. Secretary-General U Thant died at age 65. |
| 1987 | Chicago Mayor Harold Washington died after suffering a heart attack in his City Hall office. |
| 1999 | Six-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida. |
| 2001 | CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, becoming America's first combat casualty of the conflict in Afghanistan. |
| 2002 | President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head. |
| 2003 | The Senate gave final congressional approval to historic Medicare legislation combining a new prescription drug benefit with measures to control costs before the baby boom generation reaches retirement age. |
| 2003 | Yemen arrested Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, a top al-Qaida member suspected of masterminding the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen's coast. |
| 2006 | New York City police officers shot an unarmed man to death outside a bar in Queens in the early morning hours of his wedding day. |
| 2006 | Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire to end a five-month Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the firing of rockets by Palestinian militants into the Jewish state. |
Article of the day
Mousetrap opens in London
"The Mousetrap," a murder-mystery written by the novelist and playwright Agatha Christie, opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London. The crowd-pleasing whodunit would go on to become the longest continuously running play in history, with more than 10 million people to date attending its more than 20,000 performances in London's West End.
When "The Mousetrap" premiered in 1952, Winston Churchill was British prime minister, Joseph Stalin was Soviet ruler, and Dwight D. Eisenhower was president-elect. Christie, already a hugely successful English mystery novelist, originally wrote the drama for Queen Mary, wife of the late King George V. Initially called "Three Blind Mice," it debuted as a 30-minute radio play on the queen's 80th birthday in 1947. Christie later extended the play and renamed it "The Mousetrap"--a reference to the play-within-a-play performed in William Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
On November 25, 1952, 453 people took their seats in the Ambassadors Theatre for the London premiere of Christie's "Mousetrap." The drama is played out at "Monkswell Manor," whose hosts and guests are snowed in among radio reports of a murderer on the loose. Soon a detective shows up on skis with the terrifying news that the murderer, and probably the next victim, are likely both among their number. Soon the clues and false leads pile as high as the snow. At every curtain call, the individual who has been revealed as the murderer steps forward and tells the audience that they are "partners in crime" and should "keep the secret of the whodunit locked in their heart."
Richard Attenborough and his wife, Sheila Sim, were the first stars of "The Mousetrap." To date, more than 300 actors and actresses have appeared in the roles of the eight characters. David Raven, who played "Major Metcalf" for 4,575 performances, is in the "Guinness Book of World Records" as the world's most durable actor, while Nancy Seabrooke is noted as the world's most patient understudy for 6,240 performances, or 15 years, as the substitute for "Mrs. Boyle."
"The Mousetrap" is not considered Christie's best play, and a prominent stage director once declared that "'The Mousetrap'" should be abolished by an act of Parliament." Nevertheless, the show's popularity has not waned. Asked about its enduring appeal, Christie said, "It is the sort of play you can take anyone to. It is not really frightening. It is not really horrible. It is not really a farce, but it has a little bit of all these things, and perhaps that satisfies a lot of different people." In 1974, after almost 9,000 shows, the play was moved to St. Martin's Theatre, where it remains today. Agatha Christie, who wrote scores of best-selling mystery novels, died in 1976.
Today Birthdays| Christina Applegate turns 37 years old today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 AP Photo/Evan Agostini Actress Christina Applegate ("Samantha Who?" "Married ... With Children") turns 37 years old today.
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