On this day: DECEMBER 22nd

On this date in:
1775	A Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies.
1894	French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. He was eventually vindicated.
1912	Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson, was born Claudio Alta Taylor in Karnack, Texas.
1941	British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington, D.C., for a wartime conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1944	During the Battle of the Bulge, Germany demanded the surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium; Brigadier Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replied: "Nuts!"
1984	New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four black youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him.
1989	Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe's hard-line Communist rulers, was toppled from power in a popular uprising.
1989	Playwright Samuel Beckett died in Paris at age 83.
1990	Lech Walesa took the oath of office as Poland's first popularly elected president.
2000	Pop singer Madonna married film director Guy Ritchie in Scotland. (The couple announced in October 2008 that they were divorcing.)
2001	Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers.
2002	Rock musician Joe Strummer of The Clash died at age 50.
2005	New York transit workers ended their three-day strike without a new contract.
2005	Astronomers announced the discovery of two more rings encircling the planet Uranus.

Article of the day

First gorilla born in captivity

On this day in 1956, a baby gorilla named Colo enters the world at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, becoming the first-ever gorilla born in captivity. Weighing in at approximately 4 pounds, Colo, a western lowland gorilla whose name was a combination of Columbus and Ohio, was the daughter of Millie and Mac, two gorillas captured in French Cameroon, Africa, who were brought to the Columbus Zoo in 1951. Before Colo's birth, gorillas found at zoos were caught in the wild, often by brutal means. In order to capture a gorilla when it was young and therefore still small enough to handle, hunters frequently had to kill the gorilla's parents and other family members.

Gorillas are peaceful, intelligent animals, native to Africa, who live in small groups led by one adult male, known as a silverback. There are three subspecies of gorilla: western lowland, eastern lowland and mountain. The subspecies are similar and the majority of gorillas in captivity are western lowland. Gorillas are vegetarians whose only natural enemy is the humans who hunt them. On average, a gorilla lives to 35 years in the wild and 50 years in captivity.

At the time Colo was born, captive gorillas often never learned parenting skills from their own parents in the wild, so the Columbus Zoo built her a nursery and she was reared by zookeepers. In the years since Colo's arrival, zookeepers have developed habitats that simulate a gorilla's natural environment and many captive-born gorillas are now raised by their mothers. In situations where this doesn't work, zoos have created surrogacy programs, in which the infants are briefly cared for by humans and then handed over to other gorillas to raise.

Colo, who generated enormous public interest and is still alive today, went on to become a mother, grandmother, and in 1996, a great-grandmother to Timu, the first surviving infant gorilla conceived by artificial insemination. Timu gave birth to her first baby in 2003.

Today, there are approximately 750 gorillas in captivity around the world and an estimated 100,000 lowland gorillas (and far fewer mountain gorillas) remaining in the wild. Most zoos are active in captive breeding programs and have agreed not to buy gorillas born in the wild. Since Colo's birth, 30 gorillas have been born at the Columbus Zoo alone.

Today Birthdays

Ralph Fiennes turns 46 years old today.

AP Photo/Evan Agostini Actor Ralph Fiennes turns 46 years old today.

86 Jim Wright Former House speaker 72 Hector Elizondo Actor 70 Red Steagall Country singer 65 Paul Wolfowitz Former World Bank president 64 Steve Carlton Baseball Hall of Famer 63 Diane Sawyer Broadcast journalist ("Good Morning America") 62 Rick Nielsen Rock musician (Cheap Trick) 59 Robin Gibb Singer (The Bee Gees) 57 Jan Stephenson Golfer 55 BernNadette Stanis Actress 48 Luther Campbell Rapper (2 Live Crew) 48 Chuck Mead Country musician (BR549) 40 Lauralee Bell Actress ("The Young and the Restless") 40 Lori McKenna Country singer 40 Dina Meyer Actress 34 Heather Donahue Actress ("The Blair Witch Project") 28 Chris Carmack Actor

On this day: DECEMBER 21st

On this date in:
1620	Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.
1804	British statesman Benjamin Disraeli was born in London.
1879	Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was born Josef Dzhugashvili in Gori, Georgia.
1898	Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
1913	The first crossword puzzle was published, in the New York World.
1945	Gen. George S. Patton died in Germany of injuries suffered in a car accident.
1948	Ireland became an independent republic.
1958	Charles de Gaulle was elected the first president of France's Fifth Republic.
1968	Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.
1970	Elvis Presley met with President Richard M. Nixon in the Oval Office to discuss fighting drugs.
1971	The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general.
1978	Police in Des Plaines, Ill., arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys whom Gacy was later convicted of murdering.
1991	Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1995	The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
1996	After two years of denials, House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.
2006	Four Marines were charged with murder in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, and four Marine officers were accused of failures in investigating and reporting the deaths. (Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich has pleaded not guilty to voluntary manslaughter; one of the officers was acquitted and charges against the rest were dropped.)

Article of the day

Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland

On this day in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard, as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground. A bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated in the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet. The disaster, which became the subject of Britain's largest criminal investigation, was believed to be an attack against the United States. One hundred eighty nine of the victims were American.

Islamic terrorists were accused of planting the bomb on the plane while it was at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Authorities suspected the attack was in retaliation for either the 1986 U.S. air strikes against Libya, in which leader Muammar al-Qaddafi's young daughter was killed along with dozens of other people, or a 1988 incident, in which the U.S. mistakenly shot down an Iran Air commercial flight over the Persian Gulf, killing 290 people.

Sixteen days before the explosion over Lockerbie, the U.S. embassy in Helsinki, Finland, received a call warning that a bomb would be placed on a Pan Am flight out of Frankfurt. There is controversy over how seriously the U.S. took the threat and whether travelers should have been alerted, but officials later said that the connection between the call and the bomb was coincidental.

In 1991, following a joint investigation by the British authorities and the F.B.I., Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were indicted for murder; however, Libya refused to hand over the suspects to the U.S. Finally, in 1999, in an effort to ease United Nations sanctions against his country, Qaddafi agreed to turn over the two men to Scotland for trial in the Netherlands using Scottish law and prosecutors. In early 2001, al-Megrahi was convicted and sentenced to life in prison and Fhimah was acquitted.

In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing, but didn't express remorse. The U.N. and U.S. lifted sanctions against Libya and Libya agreed to pay each victim's family approximately $8 million in restitution. In 2004, Libya's prime minister said that the deal was the "price for peace," implying that his country only took responsibility to get the sanctions lifted, a statement that infuriated the victims' families. Pan Am Airlines, which went bankrupt three years after the bombing, sued Libya and later received a $30 million settlement.

Today Birthdays

Jane Fonda turns 71 years old today.

AP Photo/Evan Agostini Actress Jane Fonda turns 71 years old today.

82 Freddie Hart Country singer 80 Ed Nelson Actor 73 Phil Donahue Talk show host 73 John Avildsen Director 70 Larry Bryggman Actor 66 Carla Thomas Singer 65 Albert Lee Rock musician 64 Michael Tilson Thomas Conductor 60 Samuel L. Jackson Actor 58 Jeffrey Katzenberg Movie producer 55 Betty Wright R&B singer 54 Chris Evert Tennis Hall of Famer 53 Jane Kaczmarek Actress ("Malcolm in the Middle") 52 Lee Roy Parnell Country singer 52 Jim Rose Entertainer (The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow) 51 Ray Romano Actor, comedian ("Everybody Loves Raymond") 46 Christy Forester Country singer (The Forester Sisters) 44 Murph Rock musician 43 Andy Dick Actor, comedian 43 Gabrielle Glaser Rock musician (Luscious Jackson) 42 Kiefer Sutherland Actor ("24") 42 Karri Turner Actress ("JAG") 40 Khrystyne Haje Actress 40 Brad Warren Country singer (The Warren Brothers 39 Julie Delpy Actress, director 38 Rhean Boyer Country musician 37 Glenn Fitzgerald Actor ("Dirty Sexy Money") 37 Brett Scallions Rock musician 34 Karrie Webb Golfer 32 Lukas Rossi Rock singer (Rock Star Supernova) 26 Luke Stricklin Country singer

On this day: DECEMBER 20th

On this date in:
1790	The first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, R.I.
1803	The Louisiana Purchase was completed as the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans.
1864	Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Ga., as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."
1879	Thomas Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, N.J.
1946	The Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life" had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, a day before its official premiere.
1963	The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays.
1968	Author John Steinbeck died at age 66.
1976	Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley died at age 74.
1860	South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union.
1994	Former Secretary of State Dean Rusk died at age 85.
1996	Astronomer Carl Sagan died at age 62.
1999	The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples.
2002	Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks.
2005	New York City transit workers began a three-day strike.

Article of the day

Elvis Presley is drafted

On this day in 1957, while spending the Christmas holidays at Graceland, his newly purchased Tennessee mansion, rock-and-roll star Elvis Presley receives his draft notice for the United States Army.

With a suggestive style--one writer called him "Elvis the Pelvis"--a hit movie, Love Me Tender, and a string of gold records including "Heartbreak Hotel," "Blue Suede Shoes," "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel," Presley had become a national icon, and the world's first bona fide rock-and-roll star, by the end of 1956. As the Beatles' John Lennon once famously remarked: "Before Elvis, there was nothing." The following year, at the peak of his career, Presley received his draft notice for a two-year stint in the army. Fans sent tens of thousands of letters to the army asking for him to be spared, but Elvis would have none of it. He received one deferment--during which he finished working on his movie King Creole--before being sworn in as an army private in Memphis on March 24, 1958.

After six months of basic training--including an emergency leave to see his beloved mother, Gladys, before she died in August 1958--Presley sailed to Europe on the USS General Randall. For the next 18 months, he served in Company D, 32nd Tank Battalion, 3rd Armor Corps in Friedberg, Germany, where he attained the rank of sergeant. For the rest of his service, he shared an off-base residence with his father, grandmother and some Memphis friends. After working during the day, Presley returned home at night to host frequent parties and impromptu jam sessions. At one of these, an army buddy of Presley's introduced him to 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, whom Elvis would marry some years later. Meanwhile, Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, continued to release singles recorded before his departure, keeping the money rolling in and his most famous client fresh in the public's mind. Widely praised for not seeking to avoid the draft or serve domestically, Presley was seen as a model for all young Americans. After he got his polio shot from an army doctor on national TV, vaccine rates among the American population shot from 2 percent to 85 percent by the time of his discharge on March 2, 1960.

Today Birthdays

David Cook turns 26 years old today.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello Singer David Cook ("American Idol") turns 26 years old today.

91 Audrey Totter Actress 81 Charlie Callas Comedian, actor 77 Ike Skelton House Armed Services Committee chairman, D-Mo. 76 John Hillerman Actor ("Magnum P.I.") 75 Jean Carnahan Former U.S. senator, D-Mo. 69 Kathryn Joosten Actress 64 Bobby Colomby Rock musician (Blood, Sweat and Tears) 63 Peter Criss Rock musician (Kiss) 62 Uri Geller Illusionist 62 Sonny Perdue Governor of Georgia 62 Dick Wolf TV producer ("Law and Order" shows) 60 Alan Parsons Rock musician 56 Jenny Agutter Actress 54 Michael Badalucco Actor 52 Blanche Baker Actress 51 Billy Bragg Rock singer 51 Mike Watt Rock musician 44 Kris Tyler Country singer 42 Chris Robinson Rock singer (The Black Crowes) 38 Nicole deBoer Actress 27 Roy Williams Football player 26 David Wright Baseball player 18 JoJo Singer

On this day: DECEMBER 19th

On this date in:
1732	Benjamin Franklin began publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac."
1776	Thomas Paine published his first "American Crisis" essay, writing: "These are the times that try men's souls."
1777	Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter.
1843	Charles Dickens' Yuletide tale, "A Christmas Carol," was first published in England.
1907	A coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pa., killed 239 workers.
1946	War broke out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks against the French.
1972	Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.
1974	Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as vice president, replacing Gerald R. Ford, who became president when Richard M. Nixon resigned.
1986	The Soviet Union announced it had freed dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile and pardoned his wife, Yelena Bonner.
1996	The school board of Oakland, Calif., voted to recognize Black English, also known as "ebonics."
1997	"Titanic," the highest-grossing movie of all-time, opened in American theaters.
1998	Two days after his confession of marital infidelity, Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., told the House he wouldn't serve as its next speaker.
1998	President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. (He was later acquitted by the Senate.
2000	The U.N. Security Council voted to impose broad sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless they closed terrorist training camps and surrendered U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden.
2002	After a prosecutor cited new DNA evidence, a judge in New York threw out the convictions of five young men in a 1989 attack on a Central Park jogger who had been raped and left for dead.
2003	Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi agreed to halt his nation's drive to develop nuclear and chemical weapons.
2005	Afghanistan's first democratically elected parliament in more than three decades convened.

Article of the day

President Clinton impeached

After nearly 14 hours of debate, the House of Representatives approves two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton, the second president in American history to be impeached, vowed to finish his term.

In November 1995, Clinton began an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a 21-year-old unpaid intern. Over the course of a year and a half, the president and Lewinsky had nearly a dozen sexual encounters in the White House. In April 1996, Lewinsky was transferred to the Pentagon. That summer, she first confided in Pentagon co-worker Linda Tripp about her sexual relationship with the president. In 1997, with the relationship over, Tripp began secretly to record conversations with Lewinsky, in which Lewinsky gave Tripp details about the affair.

In December, lawyers for Paula Jones, who was suing the president on sexual harassment charges, subpoenaed Lewinsky. In January 1998, allegedly under the recommendation of the president, Lewinsky filed an affidavit in which she denied ever having had a sexual relationship with him. Five days later, Tripp contacted the office of Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel, to talk about Lewinsky and the tapes she made of their conversations. Tripp, wired by FBI agents working with Starr, met with Lewinsky again, and on January 16, Lewinsky was taken by FBI agents and U.S. attorneys to a hotel room where she was questioned and offered immunity if she cooperated with the prosecution. A few days later, the story broke, and Clinton publicly denied the allegations, saying, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."

In late July, lawyers for Lewinsky and Starr worked out a full-immunity agreement covering both Lewinsky and her parents, all of whom Starr had threatened with prosecution. On August 6, Lewinsky appeared before the grand jury to begin her testimony, and on August 17 President Clinton testified. Contrary to his testimony in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case, President Clinton acknowledged to prosecutors from the office of the independent counsel that he had had an extramarital affair with Ms. Lewinsky.

In four hours of closed-door testimony, conducted in the Map Room of the White House, Clinton spoke live via closed-circuit television to a grand jury in a nearby federal courthouse. He was the first sitting president ever to testify before a grand jury investigating his conduct. That evening, President Clinton also gave a four-minute televised address to the nation in which he admitted he had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky. In the brief speech, which was wrought with legalisms, the word "sex" was never spoken, and the word "regret" was used only in reference to his admission that he misled the public and his family.

Less than a month later, on September 9, Kenneth Starr submitted his report and 18 boxes of supporting documents to the House of Representatives. Released to the public two days later, the Starr Report outlined a case for impeaching Clinton on 11 grounds, including perjury, obstruction of justice, witness-tampering, and abuse of power, and also provided explicit details of the sexual relationship between the president and Ms. Lewinsky. On October 8, the House authorized a wide-ranging impeachment inquiry, and on December 11, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment. On December 19, the House impeached Clinton.

On January 7, 1999, in a congressional procedure not seen since the 1868 impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, the trial of President Clinton got underway in the Senate. As instructed in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (William Rehnquist at this time) was sworn in to preside, and the senators were sworn in as jurors.

Five weeks later, on February 12, the Senate voted on whether to remove Clinton from office. The president was acquitted on both articles of impeachment. The prosecution needed a two-thirds majority to convict but failed to achieve even a bare majority. Rejecting the first charge of perjury, 45 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted "not guilty," and on the charge of obstruction of justice the Senate was split 50-50. After the trial concluded, President Clinton said he was "profoundly sorry" for the burden his behavior imposed on Congress and the American people.

Today Birthdays

Cicely Tyson turns 75 years old today.

AP Photo/Evan Agostini Actress Cicely Tyson turns 75 years old today.

88 Little Jimmy Dickens Country singer 83 Robert Sherman Composer 67 Maurice White R&B musician (Earth, Wind and Fire) 64 Richard E. Leakey Palaeontologist 64 Alvin Lee Rock singer (Ten Years After) 64 Tim Reid Actor ("WKRP in Cincinnati") 63 Elaine Joyce Actress 63 John McEuen Country musician (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) 61 Janie Fricke Country singer 53 Rob Portman Former White House budget director 51 Kevin McHale Basketball Hall of Famer 48 Mike Lookinland Actor ("The Brady Bunch") 45 Jennifer Beals Actress 44 Scott Cohen Actor 42 Robert MacNaughton Actor 41 Criss Angel Magician 40 Kevin Shepard Rock musician 39 Kristy Swanson Actress 37 Amy Locane Actress 36 Rosa Blasi Actress 36 Alyssa Milano Actress ("Charmed," "Who's the Boss?") 36 Warren Sapp Football player 34 Jake Plummer Football player 28 Jake Gyllenhaal Actor 28 Marla Sokoloff Actress 23 Lady Sovereign Rapper

On this day: DECEMBER 18th

On this date in:
1737	Violin maker Antonio Stradivari died in Cremona, Italy.
1787	New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1865	Slavery ended in the United States as the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect.
1886	Baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb was born in Narrows, Ga.
1892	Peter Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.
1915	President Woodrow Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt.
1944	The Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans.
1956	Japan was admitted to the United Nations.
1958	The world's first communications satellite, SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment) was launched by the United States aboard an Atlas rocket.
1969	Britain's Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.
1972	The United States began the heaviest bombing of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
1987	Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street's biggest insider-trading scandal.
1997	Comedian and "Saturday Night Live" alum Chris Farley was found dead at age 33 of an accidental overdose of morphine and cocaine.
1998	The House of Representatives began debate on four articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton.
1999	Environmental activist Julia "Butterfly" Hill came down after spending two years living atop an ancient redwood in Humboldt County, Calif., to protest logging.
2003	A judge in Seattle sentenced confessed Green River killer Gary Ridgeway to 48 consecutive life terms.
2003	A jury in Chesapeake, Va., convicted teenager Lee Boyd Malvo of two counts of murder in the Washington-area sniper shootings. (He was later sentenced to life in prison without parole.)
2006	Robert Gates was sworn in as defense secretary.

Article of the day

Mayflower passengers come ashore at Plymouth Harbor

On December 18, 1620, passengers on the British ship Mayflower come ashore at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony.

The famous Mayflower story began in 1606, when a group of reform-minded Puritans in Nottinghamshire, England, founded their own church, separate from the state-sanctioned Church of England. Accused of treason, they were forced to leave the country and settle in the more tolerant Netherlands. After 12 years of struggling to adapt and make a decent living, the group sought financial backing from some London merchants to set up a colony in America. On September 6, 1620, 102 passengers--dubbed Pilgrims by William Bradford, a passenger who would become the first governor of Plymouth Colony--crowded on the Mayflower to begin the long, hard journey to a new life in the New World.

On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower anchored at what is now Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod. Before going ashore, 41 male passengers--heads of families, single men and three male servants--signed the famous Mayflower Compact, agreeing to submit to a government chosen by common consent and to obey all laws made for the good of the colony. Over the next month, several small scouting groups were sent ashore to collect firewood and scout out a good place to build a settlement. Around December 10, one of these groups found a harbor they liked on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. They returned to the Mayflower to tell the other passengers, but bad weather prevented them reaching the harbor until December 16. Two days later, the first group of Pilgrims went ashore.
After exploring the region, the settlers chose a cleared area previously occupied by members of a local Native American tribe, the Wampanoag. The tribe had abandoned the village several years earlier, after an outbreak of European disease. That winter of 1620-21 was brutal, as the Pilgrims struggled to build their settlement, find food and ward off sickness. By spring, 50 of the original 102 Mayflower passengers were dead. The remaining settlers made contact with returning members of the Wampanoag tribe and in March they signed a peace treaty with a tribal chief, Massasoit. Aided by the Wampanoag, especially the English-speaking Squanto, the Pilgrims were able to plant crops--especially corn and beans--that were vital to their survival. The Mayflower and its crew left Plymouth to return to England on April 5, 1621.

Over the next several decades, more and more settlers made the trek across the Atlantic to Plymouth, which gradually grew into a prosperous shipbuilding and fishing center. In 1691, Plymouth was incorporated into the new Massachusetts Bay Association, ending its history as an independent colony.

Today Birthdays

Keith Richards turns 65 years old today.

AP Photo/Evan Agostini Rock musician Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) turns 65 years old today.

90 Hal Kanter TV writer, producer 81 Ramsey Clark Former U.S. attorney general 76 Roger Smith Actor 75 Lonnie Brooks Blues musician 65 Alan Rudolph Writer, director 62 Steven Spielberg Director, producer 61 Rod Piazza Blues musician 58 Gillian Armstrong Director 58 Leonard Maltin Movie critic 55 Elliot Easton Rock musician (The Cars) 53 Ray Liotta Actor 52 Ron White Comedian 45 Brad Pitt Actor 40 Rachel Griffiths Actress 40 Alejandro Sanz Singer 38 Cowboy Troy Country singer, rapper ("Nashville Star") 38 DMX Rapper 37 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario Tennis Hall of Famer 36 DJ Lethal DJ (Limp Bizkit) 30 Katie Holmes Actress

On this day: DECEMBER 17th

On this date in:
1777	France recognized America's independence.
1830	South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar died in Colombia.
1933	In the first NFL championship game, the Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants 23-21 at Wrigley Field.
1944	The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast.
1957	The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
1969	The U.S. Air Force closed its Project "Blue Book" by concluding there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
1969	An estimated 50 million viewers watched singer Tiny Tim marry Miss Vicky on NBC's "Tonight Show."
1975	Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President Gerald R. Ford.
1986	Eugene Hasenfus, an American convicted by Nicaragua for his part in running guns to the Contras, was pardoned and released.
1992	President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement in separate ceremonies.
1996	Peruvian guerrillas took hundreds of people hostage at the Japanese embassy in Lima.
1996	Kofi Annan of Ghana became United Nations secretary-general.
2002	Congo's government, rebels and opposition parties signed a peace agreement to end four years of civil war.
2004	President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence-gathering in 50 years.
2005	President George W. Bush acknowledged he'd personally authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. following Sept. 11, calling it "crucial to our national security."
2007	Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a measure making New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty in more than 40 years.

Article of the day

First airplane flies

Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft. Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its inaugural flight.

Orville and Wilbur Wright grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and developed an interest in aviation after learning of the glider flights of the German engineer Otto Lilienthal in the 1890s. Unlike their older brothers, Orville and Wilbur did not attend college, but they possessed extraordinary technical ability and a sophisticated approach to solving problems in mechanical design. They built printing presses and in 1892 opened a bicycle sales and repair shop. Soon, they were building their own bicycles, and this experience, combined with profits from their various businesses, allowed them to pursue actively their dream of building the world's first airplane.

After exhaustively researching other engineers' efforts to build a heavier-than-air, controlled aircraft, the Wright brothers wrote the U.S. Weather Bureau inquiring about a suitable place to conduct glider tests. They settled on Kitty Hawk, an isolated village on North Carolina's Outer Banks, which offered steady winds and sand dunes from which to glide and land softly. Their first glider, tested in 1900, performed poorly, but a new design, tested in 1901, was more successful. Later that year, they built a wind tunnel where they tested nearly 200 wings and airframes of different shapes and designs. The brothers' systematic experimentations paid off--they flew hundreds of successful flights in their 1902 glider at Kill Devils Hills near Kitty Hawk. Their biplane glider featured a steering system, based on a movable rudder, that solved the problem of controlled flight. They were now ready for powered flight.

In Dayton, they designed a 12-horsepower internal combustion engine with the assistance of machinist Charles Taylor and built a new aircraft to house it. They transported their aircraft in pieces to Kitty Hawk in the autumn of 1903, assembled it, made a few further tests, and on December 14 Orville made the first attempt at powered flight. The engine stalled during take-off and the plane was damaged, and they spent three days repairing it. Then at 10:35 a.m. on December 17, in front of five witnesses, the aircraft ran down a monorail track and into the air, staying aloft for 12 seconds and flying 120 feet. The modern aviation age was born. Three more tests were made that day, with Wilbur and Orville alternately flying the airplane. Wilbur flew the last flight, covering 852 feet in 59 seconds.

During the next few years, the Wright brothers further developed their airplanes but kept a low profile about their successes in order to secure patents and contracts for their flying machines. By 1905, their aircraft could perform complex maneuvers and remain aloft for up to 39 minutes at a time. In 1908, they traveled to France and made their first public flights, arousing widespread public excitement. In 1909, the U.S. Army's Signal Corps purchased a specially constructed plane, and the brothers founded the Wright Company to build and market their aircraft. Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever in 1912; Orville lived until 1948.

The historic Wright brothers' aircraft of 1903 is on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Today Birthdays

Chase Utley turns 30 years old today.

AP Photo/Jack Dempsey Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley turns 30 years old today.

79 William Safire Newspaper columnist 78 Bob Guccione Magazine publisher ("Penthouse") 78 Armin Mueller-Stahl Actor 73 George Lindsey Actor 72 Tommy Steele Singer, actor 71 Art Neville Rock musician, singer (The Neville Brothers) 64 Bernard Hill Actor 63 Christopher Cazenove Actor 63 Ernie Hudson Actor 62 Eugene Levy Actor ("American Pie" movies, "SCTV") 61 Wes Studi Actor 60 Jim Bonfanti Rock musician (The Raspberries) 59 Paul Rodgers Rock singer (Bad Company) 57 Wanda Hutchinson R&B singer (The Emotions) 55 Barry Livingston Actor ("My Three Sons") 55 Bill Pullman Actor 55 Sharon White Country singer 52 Peter Farrelly Director, producer 50 Mike Mills Rock musician (R.E.M.) 47 Sarah Dallin Singer (Bananarama) 46 Tim Chewning Country musician 42 Tracy Byrd Country singer 42 Duane Propes Country musician 38 DJ Homicide DJ (Sugar Ray) 38 Sean Patrick Thomas Actor 35 Eddie Fisher Rock musician (OneRepublic) 34 Sarah Paulson Actress 34 Giovanni Ribisi Actor 34 Marissa Ribisi Actress 33 Milla Jovovich Actress 33 Bree Sharp Rock singer 29 Jennifer Carpenter Actress 22 Vanessa Zima Actress

DECEMBER 16th

On this date in:
1653	Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1773	The Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea taxes.
1809	Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate.
1899	Playwright Noel Coward was born in London.
1916	Gregory Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was murdered by a group of noblemen.
1917	Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, England.
1944	The Battle of the Bulge during World War II began as German forces launched a surprise counterattack against Allied forces in Belgium.
1960	A United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City, killing 134 people.
1985	Reputed organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a New York City restaurant.
1990	Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti in the country's first democratic elections.
1991	The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism.
1998	President Bill Clinton ordered a sustained series of airstrikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of UN weapons inspectors.
2000	President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first African-American secretary of state.
2007	British forces formally handed over to Iraq responsibility for Basra, the last Iraqi region under their control.

Article of the day

The Boston Tea Party

In Boston Harbor, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships and dump 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

The midnight raid, popularly known as the "Boston Tea Party," was in protest of the British Parliament's Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny.

When three tea ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor, the colonists demanded that the tea be returned to England. After Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused, Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the "tea party" with about 60 members of the Sons of Liberty, his underground resistance group. The British tea dumped in Boston Harbor on the night of December 16 was valued at some $18,000.

Parliament, outraged by the blatant destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, in 1774. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British.

Today Birthdays

Benjamin Bratt turns 45 years old today.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello Actor Benjamin Bratt turns 45 years old today.

72 Morris Dees Civil rights attorney 71 Joyce Bulifant Actress 70 Liv Ullmann Actress 67 Lesley Stahl Broadcast journalist ("60 Minutes") 66 Don Carcieri Governor of Rhode Island 65 Steven Bochco TV producer ("NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues") 64 Jim Gibbons Governor of Nevada 63 Tony Hicks Rock musician (The Hollies) 62 Benny Andersson Singer (ABBA) 61 Ben Cross Actor 57 Bill Bateman Rock musician (The Blasters) 49 Alison LaPlaca Actress 47 Sam Robards Actor 47 Jon Tenney Actor ("The Closer") 45 Jeff Carson Country singer, songwriter 37 Michael McCary R&B singer (Boyz II Men) 26 Chris Scruggs Country musician 21 Hallee Hirsh Actress ("JAG") 20 Anna Popplewell Actress ("The Chronicles of Narnia" films)

DECEMBER 15th

On this date in:
1791	The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, took effect following ratification by Virginia.
1890	Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, S.D., during a clash with Indian police.
1938	Ground was broken for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
1939	The movie "Gone With the Wind" had its world premiere in Atlanta.
1944	Bandleader Glenn Miller was killed when his U.S. Army plane disappeared over the English Channel.
1961	Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death by an Israeli court.
1965	Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered to within 10 feet of each other while in orbit.
1966	Movie producer Walt Disney died at age 65.
1978	President Jimmy Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year's Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.
1989	A popular uprising began in Romania; it led to the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
2003	The late Sen. Strom Thurmond's family acknowledged Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim that she was Thurmond's illegitimate mixed-race daughter.
2004	American telecommunications giants Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc. announced they would merge in a $35 billion deal.
2005	Millions of Iraqis turned out to choose a parliament in a mostly peaceful election.
2005	Former Sen. William Proxmire, the Wisconsin Democrat who had fought government waste with his "Golden Fleece" awards, died at age 90.

Article of the day

Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens

On this day in 2001, Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after a team of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to fortify the tower without eliminating its famous lean.

In the 12th century, construction began on the bell tower for the cathedral of Pisa, a busy trade center on the Arno River in western Italy, some 50 miles from Florence. While construction was still in progress, the tower's foundation began to sink into the soft, marshy ground, causing it to lean to one side. Its builders tried to compensate for the lean by making the top stories slightly taller on one side, but the extra masonry required only made the tower sink further. By the time it was completed in 1360, modern-day engineers say it was a miracle it didn't fall down completely.

Though the cathedral itself and the adjoining baptistery also leaned slightly, it was the Torre Pendente di Pisa, or Leaning Tower of Pisa, that became the city's most famous tourist attraction. By the 20th century, the 190-foot-high white marble tower leaned a dramatic 15 feet off the perpendicular. In the year before its closing in 1990, 1 million people visited the old tower, climbing its 293 weathered steps to the top and gazing out over the green Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) outside. Fearing it was about to collapse, officials appointed a group of 14 archeologists, architects and soil experts to figure out how to take some--but not all--of the famous tilt away.

Though an initial attempt in 1994 almost toppled the tower, engineers were eventually able to reduce the lean by between 16 and 17 inches by removing earth from underneath the foundations. When the tower reopened on December 15, 2001, engineers predicted it would take 300 years to return to its 1990 position. Though entrance to the tower is now limited to guided tours, hordes of tourists can still be found outside, striking the classic pose--standing next to the tower pretending to hold it up--as cameras flash.

Today Birthdays

Mark Warner turns 54 years old today.

AP Photo/Ron Edmonds Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner turns 54 years old today.

80 Ernest Ashworth Country singer 75 Tim Conway Comedian ("The Carol Burnett Show") 69 Cindy Birdsong Singer (The Supremes) 68 Nick Buoniconti Football Hall of Famer 66 Dave Clark Rock musician, producer (The Dave Clark Five) 62 Carmine Appice Rock musician (Vanilla Fudge) 59 Don Johnson Actor ("Miami Vice") 56 Julie Taymor Director 54 Alex Cox Director ("Repo Man," "Sid and Nancy") 54 Justin Ross Actor 53 Paul Simonon Rock musician (The Clash) 48 Doug Phelps Country singer 47 Reginald Hudlin Movie producer 45 Helen Slater Actress 43 Molly Price Actress 38 Michael Shanks Actor ("Stargate SG-1," "Stargate: Atlantis") 36 Stuart Townsend Actor 31 Kito Trawick Crowd hyper (Ghostown DJs) 29 Adam Brody Actor ("The O.C.") 27 George O. Gore II Actor ("My Wife and Kids")

DECEMBER 14th

On this date in:
1799	George Washington, the first president of the United States, died at his Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67.
1819	Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.
1861	Prince Albert, husband of Britain's Queen Victoria, died in London.
1911	Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole.
1946	The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New York City.
1979	The album "London Calling" by the Clash was released.
1985	Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
1989	Nobel Peace laureate Andrei D. Sakharov died in Moscow at age 68.
1993	A Colorado judge struck down as unconstitutional the state's voter-approved ban on gay rights laws.
1997	Cuban President Fidel Castro declared Christmas 1997 an official holiday to ensure the success of Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit to the communist country.
1998	President Bill Clinton stood witness as hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.
1999	U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slaves and forced laborers.
1999	Charles M. Schulz announced he was retiring the "Peanuts" comic strip.
2000	The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.
2006	South Korea's Ban Ki-moon was sworn in as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations.

Article of the day

Amundsen reaches South Pole

Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first explorer to reach the South Pole, beating his British rival, Robert Falcon Scott.

Amundsen, born in Borge, near Oslo, in 1872, was one of the great figures in polar exploration. In 1897, he was first mate on a Belgian expedition that was the first ever to winter in the Antarctic. In 1903, he guided the 47-ton sloop Gjöa through the Northwest Passage and around the Canadian coast, the first navigator to accomplish the treacherous journey. Amundsen planned to be the first man to the North Pole, and he was about to embark in 1909 when he learned that the American Robert Peary had achieved the feat.

Amundsen completed his preparations and in June 1910 sailed instead for Antarctica, where the English explorer Robert F. Scott was also headed with the aim of reaching the South Pole. In early 1911, Amundsen sailed his ship into Antarctica's Bay of Whales and set up base camp 60 miles closer to the pole than Scott. In October, both explorers set off--Amundsen using sleigh dogs, and Scott employing Siberian motor sledges, Siberian ponies, and dogs. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen's expedition won the race to the Pole and returned safely to base camp in late January.

Scott's expedition was less fortunate. The motor sleds broke down, the ponies had to be shot, and the dog teams were sent back as Scott and four companions continued on foot. On January 18, 1912, they reached the pole only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by over a month. Weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad--two members perished--and a storm later trapped Scott and the other two survivors in their tent only 11 miles from their base camp. Scott's frozen body was found later that year.

After his historic Antarctic journey, Amundsen established a successful shipping business. He later made attempts to become the first explorer to fly over the North Pole. In 1925, in an airplane, he flew within 150 miles of the goal. In 1926, he passed over the North Pole in a dirigible just three days after American explorer Richard E. Byrd had apparently done so in an aircraft. In 1996, a diary that Byrd had kept on the flight was found that seemed to suggest that the he had turned back 150 miles short of its goal because of an oil leak, making Amundsen's dirigible expedition the first flight over the North Pole.

In 1928, Amundsen lost his life while trying to rescue a fellow explorer whose dirigible had crashed at sea near Spitsbergen, Norway.

Today Birthdays

Vanessa Hudgens turns 20 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg Actress Vanessa Hudgens ("High School Musical" movies) turns 20 years old today.

88 Clark Terry Jazz trumpeter 86 Don Hewitt TV producer ("60 Minutes") 70 Hal Williams Actor 62 Patty Duke Actress 62 Michael Ovitz Former Walt Disney Co. president 62 Stan Smith Tennis Hall of Famer 62 Joyce Vincent-Wilson Singer (Tony Orlando and Dawn) 60 Dee Wallace Actress 59 Cliff Williams Rock musician (AC/DC) 50 Mike Scott Rock singer, musician (The Waterboys) 50 Peter "Spider" Stacy Singer, musician (The Pogues) 45 Cynthia Gibb Actress 43 Craig Biggio Baseball player 39 Natascha McElhone Actress 33 KaDee Strickland Actress ("Private Practice") 33 Brian Dalyrimple R&B singer (Soul for Real) 32 Tammy Blanchard Actress 30 Patty Schnyder Tennis player 29 Sophie Monk Actress